Keeping Busy...

It's been a busy few weeks here!  What have we been up to?

Well...the kids are off school now, so we've all been adjusting to new schedules.

This week, Jim round baled some hay from an old alfalfa field that he's taking out, and he spent most of the next two days hauling and spreading pazutski before it's replanted with short season corn.

We've enjoyed some beautiful weather...and have had some really hot, humid days as well.  The grass and the garden are growing like weeds! Speaking of weeds...they're growing too!

I found something to kill the potato beetles that were decimating my plants! It's a spray containing Spinosad, and it works tremendously!  I sprayed late afternoon...it even rained in the evening...and by the next morning, dead potato beetles covered the ground!  For those of you who use organic gardening methods, you're in luck...this qualifies!  Now the plants look healthy and are beginning to blossom...

This year, finally, my tomato plants also look healthy.  I've had trouble with early blight every single year, and found a solution (too late) last summer. Once again...it's a spray that is used in organic gardening called Liquid Copper. I began spraying as soon as I planted the seedlings, and so far, so good...

These volunteer sunflowers are surrounding a huge rock that is in the center of my garden.  I'm hoping that some of them are the beautiful burgundy sunflowers that I grew last year from seeds that I received from my blogger friend Kim!

We were at a family picnic last Saturday, and came home to a torn washline. It had been full of towels, but the kids had brought them in for me!

I finally got around to repairing one of the lines yesterday.  It's really simple to fix.  You put in a large eye bolt, thread the wire through these little thingamajigs, tighten everything up, and it's good as new!  Hopefully it will last a bunch of years before it tears again...

The other line will have to wait until next week, when Tractor Supply gets in more of the wire that I like.

These girls are growing, and enjoying spending time in the sunshine...

They're not the youngest any more, as we've had four new calves this week. We're juggling cows around when we milk, trying to get several dried up, and it can make milking time a little hectic.  Hopefully by the middle of next week the extra cows will be "on vacation" at the other farm and we'll be back to our normal barn full, with no extras.

Here's another baby...one of Jolyn's kitties.  He was watching me from behind the gate when I was out in the barn this evening.  He's getting more tame every day.  Wouldn't you like to have him come live with you?

Coming up next week, we'll be looking at combining barley and baling straw. (Update:  barley is coming off today!) We're hoping for good weather!

How's your summer been going?

Our Confused Cat...

Poor Minnie...

On Easter Sunday, she gave birth to two beautiful orange and white kitties...

Unfortunately, they died an early, tragic death.

Minnie was almost inconsolable.  After a week or so, she seemed to get over her grief.

Then...another cat who had a litter of five kitties, brought her litter out of hiding.  She hid them underneath the pallet of barn dri bags that sits outside the cow stable.

Guess who thinks that this litter belongs to her?!

She's in her glory!

Signs of Spring...

I've been overwhelmed today...in a good way...with all the signs of spring around me.

Here are a few that I noticed just this morning...

Spring not only brings beauty...but of course brings on more outside work.  It was time to get out the mower again, and to begin cleaning up all the twigs that winter left behind.  It was fun to get at it again...

And the most sure sign of all?

Minnie had her babies on Easter Sunday...underneath the barn cleaner elevator, of all places..

It's kind of hard to see them, but she's curled up around two almost identical looking kitties.  Contact me in about eight weeks, and we'll be glad to set you up with a new pet!  (There are two more litters hidden somewhere in the barn that we haven't found yet, so there are plenty to go around!)

Are you seeing spring?

Here a Cat...There a Cat...

Remember this song?

Old MacDonald had a farm...E I E I O...and on that farm he had a cat...E I E I O...

Well, we feel like Old MacDonald, for sure!

Our favorites are the tuxedos.  Their personalities are very different from the others...they're very calm, friendly, affectionate, and smart!

Here's James...

I'm the hold out that won't allow a house cat.  But...if I were to give in, he would be the lucky one...

Then there's Gato...

He's full grown, but still loves to play like a youngster!  He takes on the roll of teacher and protector to the litters of kitties that are born,  teaching them to hunt and climb ladders.  He also followed  me around like a puppy this spring when I checked the meadow fence.

Here's Peanut's new litter.  She just moved them out of the straw mow, to a place where they have a little more room to explore...

And here's Fritz...

He hides in the flower bed by the house, preferring to keep to himself.  He's clearly a good hunter, because he's huge and healthy.

Last but not least, these are Jolyn's babies.  They're fully weaned, healthy, playful and tame, and are looking for good forever homes!

What would a farm be, without kitties?!

Babies...

It's always fun to see new babies.  Look what was born while we were at Church this morning...

This big bull calf was content to lay in the grass on this beautiful day.  Mom was always close by, but when she went inside to eat, I got a few pictures...

She soon saw what I was up to, and became concerned...

Both mom and calf are doing fine.  He drank two quarts of colostrum, and is settled in for the night.

And now for some other babies...

Who could ever deny the cuteness factor of kitties...

Jolyn (mom) was quite relaxed until she saw the dog following me...thus the "I'm ready to protect my babies" look on her face...

Wouldn't you just love to take one home with you?!

Random Five Friday

Here is a smattering of what has been happening here this week...

1.  I hate bats.  I really, really hate bats.  Yesterday morning when I came in from the barn, Eric had left a note taped to the window, pointing out a bat that he had trapped between the screen and the glass.  First one of the summer, inside the house.  Did I mention that I hate bats?!

But...I was nice to it, although it took everything in me.

2.  We have two adorable kitties right now, that are spoiled rotten.  This one, Lulu, has a really persistent meow, and she's taken to climbing up either my mop or the rain spout, and hanging on the screen, begging to be left inside...

Did I mention that she's spoiled rotten?!

3.  We caught three ground hogs beside the soy bean field.  Yesterday, the end of the field was replanted...the critters ate almost half an acre!!

4.  Jim's been thinking ahead...we have at least three more hay cuttings to go, and we need more room for round bales, so he started stacking a few of them.  We've been seeing quite a lot of this...

5.  A garden update...I've been picking green beans, a few cucumbers, zucchini, digging some new potatoes, pulling red beets, and a second planting of radishes is doing well.  The weeds are growing... "like weeds!"... as we've had several inches of rain in the past week, and the heat and humidity are rising.

Happy Friday!

Linking up with Random Five Friday

Inside or Out...

Yesterday, someone asked me to explain about the adult cows...whether they are kept inside the barn all the time, or if they spend any time outside.  So...I'll try to explain how we manage this...from little on up...

When a heifer calf is born, within the first few days of her life, she is typically put into one of our individual calf pens/hutches.  These hutches allow each calf to have her own space...we can easily tell if she's eating or not, and she has a shelter from bad weather (and the sun), and she can also run out back in the summer time.    It's a much healthier place for her to be than inside the barn, sharing germs with her friends.  This picture was taken this summer right after the hutches were repaired.  Now, the backs have been put on to keep the calves warmer...

After she grows too big for the hutches, the heifer moves inside the barn to the box pens, where she shares space with a few friends.  Here, she gradually gets used to the feed that the older animals eat, and learns to drink from an "on demand" water bowl.  As we need room, and as the heifers grow, they eventually end up in "the outside pen".  This pen allows them to move inside and outside of the barn as they chose.  They have food and shelter inside, and room to run outside, and here they get used to an electric fence for the first time.  This is the outside part of the "outside pen" yesterday in the snow...

When the heifers are about 15 months old, they are bred and taken to "the other farm", where they will spend the rest of the time until they freshen.  Over there, they can go inside and out of the barn as they please, and have a large meadow to graze on in the summer time.

Now, on to the adult milking cows...

At night...beginning in late spring when the temperatures are consistently in the mid forties, and until early fall, the cows spend the night outside, unless the weather is really bad.  They love to go out in the meadow to graze, and lay down to sleep.  Then we bring them into the barn before morning milking....it makes the morning a little earlier, but the cows are happier and they (and the barn) stay much cleaner when they're outside!  When the temperatures are colder like now, and all winter long, they will spend the night inside in their stalls.

During the day...when the meadow grass has begun to grow vigorously in the spring, the cows spend a good part of the day outside grazing and moving around as they please.  You should hear them in the spring...after morning milking and when the air is warm, they bawl, hoping that we will let them out!  When we do, for the first time, they run and kick up their heels!  Here's an old post, showing their excitement the first time they are left out in the spring.

On the hot, humid, summer days, they go out for the morning, and come back in by noon.  Then we turn on all the fans because they don't handle heat very well.

This week for the first, we have started keeping the cows off the meadow.  They had been grazing the rye grass fields, but have chewed it down enough...and there's no new regrowth in the meadow, so they just go out into the barnyard for exercise while we clean up the barn...

They really want to go out into the meadow, but they aren't allowed.  They would just make tracks in it and destroy the grass.

Usually one of us puts fresh bedding in the stalls, while the other watches for heats.  This is what we watch for...the cow that is allowing the other cow to jump her, is in heat.  This particular cow is only fresh 45 days, so we won't breed her yet, but will keep track of her heat, and watch her in another 21 days...

Don't you wish you could do this?

Here they come back into their stalls, freshly bed up with sawdust...

Hopefully that wasn't too confusing!  In a nutshell...we put the cows out any time that the weather allows, and when they won't damage the meadow with their sharp hooves!

On another note...

I had some help watching the cows this morning, while Jim cleaned up the barn...

When I put her down, her brother attacked...

...and she played for a while until she got tired of it...

"Make him stop!   He started it!"

Never a dull moment!

Weekend Frost...

Ok, it feels really strange to be posting about our weekend frost, when the temps are currently in the high 60's.  Oh well...it really did happen.

I took these pictures the middle of last week, of what was still growing around here.

When I dug my potatoes a while back, there were a few sunburned ones that I left lay in the garden.  They rooted and began growing again, so I left them, just to see what would happen...

Serrano peppers galore...(anyone have any good uses for these in excess?)...

A few lonely tomatoes...

And my favorite...ripening raspberries...

Then on early Saturday morning we had a frost.  The tips of the leaves were just a little wilted, but on Sunday morning we had another frost, this one much harder.

The potatoes bit the dust, so I dug them this morning, and found only a few bite sized ones, barely an inch in diameter.  We'll see how they taste...

I think the peppers are finished...

...as are the tomatoes.  But then again, they never really got started for me...I can't grow tomatoes!!

The raspberries are fine...and I'm so glad.  I'm just learning about them, and this is the first year they've produced.  They survived being dug out by the dogs (!) early in the summer, and have been growing like weeds, producing large, juicy berries.

Last but not least, the frost certainly didn't affect these cuties.  Peanut's kitties are alive and well in the fodder mow.  Here are the boys...

...and the girls...

Anyone need a good barn cat (or two) to keep the mice at bay?  They're really sweet...honest!

Labor Day Weekend Begins...

It's  Labor Day weekend already...just in time for laboring.  :)

The kids started school this week, but have a long four day weekend.  It's a nice way to ease slowly into the new school year.

Yesterday, Jim mowed one field of 5th cutting of hay at some of our rental ground, planning to round bale it and wrap it today.  It made eight large round bales...

We used a different baler this time....one that has knives in it that put cuts in the bale.  When it's time to feed it to the cows, it should fall apart easier.  We'll see if we like it.

This is the last bale coming out of the baler...

Here, Jim just brought the first bale home to add to Ag Bag Row.  It's still on the wrapper at this point, and he's finishing wrapping it as I type.  I hear the bale spinning outside the window...

While the humans labored...(the kids were painting the calf hutches and some newly repaired barn doors) someone else took a snooze in the shade...

What a hard life!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!


Linking to FARMGIRL FRIDAY today...