Bullies...

Yesterday we moved some heifer calves around, which can sometimes be quite a circus! Thankfully they cooperated pretty well.

However...picture some "middle schoolers" that are used to relative freedom, and try putting them into a room with kids they've never met before.  A pecking order is going to be established pretty quickly!

I know it's not a great quality picture, with the evening sun blazing in the west windows, but I don't think it's too hard to figure out who the newbies are!  The two calves standing sideways blocking the feed trough have been together alone in the pen for a while now, and they are not about to let the new kids get first pickings!  They stood that way for a very long time...

Fortunately it doesn't usually take too long for them to tolerate each other.

Bullies!

The Polar Vortex Has Arrived...

The dreaded polar vortex arrived this week.  Oh how I dislike that term! Early yesterday morning the winds picked up and the temperature dropped. Brrrrr...  Cold weather has it's benefits, but I'm such a fair weather fan that I have a hard time seeing them.  Instead, I think of the headaches that come in the barn.

The box pens in the barn are full of young heifers, so we have a couple of them still at the hutches.  They have shelter, but no running water over winter.  Thus, we have to carry water for them several times a day.  Our trusty green wagon gets a lot of use these days...

Drink fast girls, before it freezes again...

My negligence in gathering eggs last evening resulted in this...

Jim had ordered a truckload of sawdust, but postponed the delivery yesterday because of the strong winds.  The barn doors are quite heavy, and if the winds catch them, there could be some pretty serious damage...both to the doors and to whoever might be in the vicinity.  The barn hill catches the brunt of the brutal north and west winds...

The winds died down over night, so the sawdust was delivered this morning...

All the animals keep the inside of the barn much warmer...although we often drain the water lines on the west side of the barn when it's really cold and windy.  Yesterday (and again this morning) we used a hose to fill a big water tub for the outside pen heifers.

In the calf pens, this young heifer and Jolyn enjoyed some playful moments this morning while I was feeding a newborn...

...and when I turned my back, Phoebe crawled into the pen and curled up in a feed tub.  It's not a good place for a dog to be, but I must say that once again, she was being resourceful!  She found a warm place and made the best of it...near her people...

And of course there's always the dilemma of the glasses steaming up, going from warm to cold and back again.  I wish I could just take them off, but...

Hopefully you're keeping warm where you are!

Waiting For Breakfast...

There are so many creatures around here depending on us for their breakfasts...

These two heifers in the corner hutch saw me coming.  They're anticipating hay, grain and silage...

The chickens get excited when I fill their water tub, knowing that something else is coming soon...

Murphy saw me toss some stale bagels into the chicken pen yesterday, and she's been keeping vigil...thinking that somehow, sometime, she'll get one. Shy of digging under the fence...which she tried...grrrrr...she's going to be waiting a long time...

The puppies have been staying in the warm barn overnight, and they can hardly contain themselves when they see someone in the morning. Anticipation of freedom and breakfast and attention has them so excited...

How do you anticipate your breakfast?

Friday...

To wrap up this week, I'm joining Friday's Hunt, hosted by Teresa at Eden Hills, and also joining Random Five Friday, which after a long hiatus, has been resurrected by Nancy at A Rural Journal.  It's a nice way to do a wrap up of the week.

1.  Starts with "N"...kind of.  Her name is Snickers, but often I call her Nicky for short.  She's our ten year old Yellow Lab, and mother to Murphy, who got her mug shot on here last week.  She's a rather shy, sweet dog who is beginning to show her age.  Both in her actions, and by the white hair on her face.  Even though she's aging, she can still be just as naughty when she puts her mind to it!  She digs a mean hole, and tears strawbales and hay bales apart to make a soft nest to sleep in...

2.  Week's Favorite...Three years ago, my neighbor gave me a tiny start of an old fashioned, dark purple lilac.  This morning I saw this...

...flower buds!  For the first time, and I'm quite excited to see them bloom.  I hope next week's forecasted freezing temps don't hurt them!

3. Vintage...I'm fortunate to have some vintage things to decorate with on my porch.  We have two old milk cans, one from my parents' farm, and one from Jim's parents farm (where we now live).  I enjoy being able to use them year round...

4. To finish out my Random Five...the hutch halves are thrilled to be able to get outside of their hutches and see what's going on in the world.  They are so curious and content...

5.  I found some used railroad ties on craigslist.  They turned out to be only a few miles away, and had been used by the Strasburg Rairoad.  (Thomas the Tank Engine rolled over these ties many times, I'm sure!)  We've used them to make a defining line between my shrubs and my garden.  It will help to keep the weeds from the garden from creeping up under the shrubs, and I like the lines.  I have some ideas about how I want it to look, and it's slowly coming together...

Click on the links to see more posts for both Friday's Hunt and Random Five Friday...

Friday's Hunt #2...

It's time for another post linking to Friday's Hunt, with Teresa at Eden Hills!

This week's prompts are...

1. The letter "B"

I've got a wagon full of buckets that fit into that category!  Water buckets...milk buckets...

...buckets full of breakfast...

...empty buckets...

I'll add another "B", and that's bummer.  Remember our little calf with the broken leg?  We're so disappointed.  We did everything we could for her, but she unfortunately didn't make it.  These things happen, but it's never easy.

2. "Week's Favorite"

I couldn't post just one of my favorite Tom cat, Dust Bunny!  He has a super personality, and is the largest, softest cat that we have.  He feels just like a stuffed animal!

3.  "Outside"

It's dreary outside again...but the chickens don't seem to mind.  They're still giving me 10 - 12 eggs per day! They love being outside, and they come running to the fence anticipating a treat.  Every time...

Happy Saturday to you!

Feeding Time...

Feeding time happens every morning and every afternoon like clockwork for these babies.

Either Daniel or I usually feed the calves in the mornings, and Jenna often feeds them in the evenings and on weekends.

This is our newest heifer calf.  She's finally weaned from a bottle to a bucket. (hooray!)  Last night she practically climbed out through her hutch door after her milk...

The calf with the red bucket is the oldest one in the hutches.  She's finished with her milk and is looking for something else to eat.  She also gets calf starter (a feed made especially for young calves made of a combination of grains, minerals and molasses, which encourages them to try it.  Who wouldn't like something sweet?!) and dry hay to munch on...

Murphy usually hangs out with me when I feed.  She's looking a little sheepish here, because she just got scolded for jumping up on me like a puppy rather than the almost seven year old that she is...

This cute little guy was only here for part of a week before he went to market.  He was so sweet...wagging his little tail as he drank from his bottle. Yesterday morning when I fed him, he sucked so hard that the nipple came right off the bottle.  I'm sure it made a cat happy to clean up the mess...

And last but not least...

Peanut patiently waits on top of the lime bags for me to finish up and give her some leftover milk...

...and yes...the barn windows are all dusty again.

Already!

What's Growing...Or Not...

There are a lot of things growing here this time of year...

My garden is much smaller this summer, and I'm trying something that I've wanted to for a while  now.  Last fall's leaves were piled thickly on the garden, and I just left them lay without rototilling them in this spring.  They're helping to keep moisture in the soil, and weeds at bay...or at least that's the idea.  Our Amish neighbor brought me a couple of wagon loads of horse manure which was spread on top of the leaves a few weeks ago. I'm hoping the extra layer will not only fertilize my garden, but will also help with weed control.  I've heard this referred to as lasagna gardening.  I'll probably add some grass clippings this summer and more leaves in the fall.  While I'm not following the instructions to a T, I'm using the basic concept.  Tilling the soil dries it out and turns over weed seeds.  It's also more work.  We'll see how it works this summer!

We'll be eating fresh zucchini in just a few days!  Beware, kids!

Jim put in a grape arbor this spring.  The large vine in the foreground is one that we transplanted from a neighbor who didn't want it any more...

I'd say it's quite happy here...

The perennials that I transplanted from my big bed to my small one are finally taking off.

This cone flower is one of my favorites...

The number of round bales is growing too.  Jim baled spring seeded alfalfa on Saturday, adding to the row.  The NS on the bales stands for "new seeding"...

These little twins were born last night in the outside pen.  There's a bull and a heifer, so they'll both go to market later this week.  (when one of the twins is a bull and one a heifer, the heifer is often sterile)...

And as for what's not growing...

My big, old perennial bed is well on it's way into a distant memory.  It's been sprayed, mowed off, and in a week or so a skid loader will pull out the old root balls, level off some fill dirt, and we'll seed grass up to the edge of the shrubs.  I'm eager to have it finished!

It was sad to make the decision to get rid of the big perennial bed, but now that it's gone, I don't miss it!  All that work...and I'm also enjoying the smaller vegetable garden.  I'm finding that I have the energy (both physically and mentally) to take care of my smaller beds much better, now that the work load has diminished!  Hind sight is always 20/20, right?

We could still use some more rain!  Last night we were at the very edge of a thunderstorm that dumped almost an inch of rain just a mile or so south of us.  We got about .10", which settled the dust, but we could sure use more!

...and the Farmers Were Happy...

What a gorgeous day today...

...and what a lot got done!

The mercury hit 70 degrees this afternoon...the sky was blue...the farmers were happy...the birds were singing...the breeze was warm...the farmers were happy...the kids were outside on the dirt bikes on the last day of Easter break...

the towels flapped in the breeze and dried on the wash line for the first time this year...

...the watering trough in the meadow was bleached, scrubbed and prepared for the cows  (the other guy decided to hide when he saw the camera!)...

...a couple of "middle school" calves got their ear tags and were moved to the corner hutch...

...Jim seeded his alfalfa...

...the pansies smiled at me...

...and did I mention the farmers were happy today?!

SPRING is here!

Baby It's Cold Outside...

Brrr...

We've been spoiled this winter with mild weather.  It's the second week of January, and this is the first bitter cold that we've experienced...and it brings back memories of last winter.  Thankfully, it's not to continue for too many days!

Our barn sits on a rise, and has absolutely no protection from the west winds. When the wind blows, it gets really cold on the side of the barn where the heifer pens are.  There's no good way to insulate the water lines over there, so we have to be proactive to keep them open.

Yesterday afternoon the temperatures began dropping and the wind picked up.  We drained water lines on the west side of the barn after evening milking, and headed into the warm house.  We could hear the wind blowing when we went to bed, and we hoped that we wouldn't find trouble this morning when we got up...

This was the temperature at 7:00 this morning...

My main job right now in the barn consists of keeping those water lines open and/or making water available to the heifers.  I run a hose from the main water line in the cow stable to a tub in the outside pen several times a day. There's a tub at the end of the entry way, on the other side of that gate, and the heifers learned quickly where it is...

Jolyn hangs out with me, and often sits on my shoulder while the hose is running...

If water bowls have frozen, I fill calf bottles with steaming hot water...

...and pour the hot water over the water bowl valves to open them up...

The cows' body heat keeps the actual cow stable pretty warm.  It was 60 degrees out there last night at bedtime!  The outside pen water line will probably remain drained for a while yet.  The box pen water lines will stay drained over night, and be opened each morning for a while.  Even the youngest heifers learn quickly that they need to drink when the bowls are open and running!

Meanwhile at the calf hutches...

The youngest calves are kept warm and dry with fresh bedding and they each wear their insulated coats.  I had to bribe this little one to stand still by letting her suck on my fingers.  That was a cold choice...and it's also why she looks a bit goofy.  (The hutch is also a lot bigger than it looks here...)

This was what remained in their water buckets from over night...

We're just thankful that even though it reached the single digits overnight with a windchill in the minus teens, the wind has remained calm today, and that makes all the difference!

Stay warm, wherever you are!  There are only 72 days 'til spring...but who's counting?!