Raging Winter

I figured there isn't a better time to publish a post about what life is like in the winter than when a blizzard is raging outside. I love winter, but then I don't have to work outside in it as my husband often reminds me.

To him winter means more work trying to keeping animals warm enough and comfortable with a warm barn, dry bedding and dry udders. Our barn is pretty open to take advantage of the breezes in warmer weather, so we put boards on it in the colder months to keep the cows warmer. We always strive to provide dry bedding, but it is especially important in the winter or you start getting sick cows. In the warmer months you don't have to worry about drying off the udders as much, but in the winter if you don't get every teat dry enough they could freeze and become unmilkable. Newborn calves also need extra care to keep them alive.

Machinery being what it is requires more work to keep it working in the winter. Forgetting to plug in a tractor can mean more work either changing tractors around or doing the work by hand. And it is just plain harder walking to all the places outside where work needs to be done with 30 pounds more clothes, ice all the way except for when it is broken up by snow drifts.

It sure is a good thing winter can be absolutely beautiful. The snow makes everything quiet and white and it just gives one a cozy feeling doesn't it?

The things of Fall

You know its Fall here when the combines are rolling and the cows are putting on their winter coats. This year we are trying storing our corn in bags so we don't have to pay the storage fees and because we plant a conventional corn (not genetically altered) and when you store your crop, you don't necessarily get your crop back.

Here are some pictures from putting the corn in a bag.

The setup.

Watching it flow from the gravity wagon into the auger.

Helping it flow correctly into the bagger.

This last week they mowed the corn stalks in the field they just finished combining, raked them, hired them baled and today they are bringing them home. (The farm we plant the corn we combine on is about an hour away by tractor.) Next week they will work on discing the field so hopefully next year's crop yields more. Discing breaks up the soil so the plants have an easier time growing up out of it and spreading their roots through it.

Naming Calves

It is one of my jobs to name the heifer calves born on the farm. We need to do this because we register our cows so there is a record of their blood lines, which makes them worth more.

The first calves I named were also the first ones I saw born. They were twin heifers, named Speedy and Pokey because one was fast and one was slow. Original, I know. Then there came a calf who liked to jump over the top of the pen we had her in inside the machine shed. I named her jumpstart. And the process evolved from there. Pretty soon I discovered that it might be easier if I came up with "lines" of cow names. We had a cow named Vail, which just screams to be made into a line of ski resorts. Snowmas, Aspen, Hogadon all come from that line. A cow named Jade wanted to become a line of precious stones. Her offspring include Ruby, Pearl and Sapphire. You get the idea.

For a little while now I have been running short on different lines and even names within lines. For example, we now have a line of vegetables. I just named a calf Radish the other day. And the line of different bears is going to have to change soon. There really aren't very many of those. Another calf I named the other day is Adda for Adams like Grizzly Adams because her mom's name is Grizzly. See how far I'm having to stretch that one?

Here are a few pictures of some of our newly named calves.

This is Rhubarb. Her mom is an unregistered cow. Her sisters are Keylime and Coconut. She has one niece named Peach. She is part of the "pies" line.

The calf standing in the center of this picture is Nola. Her mom is Nadine. She doesn't have any sisters, but she has a great-grandma, grandma, aunts and cousins on the farm: Nellie, Niomi, Nicole and Nora. The calf standing to the side is Radish, whom I mentioned earlier. Her mom is an unregistered cow and she has a sister, Beet.

This is Spritz. Her mom is Sprinkle, her grandma is Teardrop, and her great-grandma is an unregistered cow. She has other family here including Pint, Ounce, Rain and Stormy.

And this is Rome. Her mom is Jumpstrt and her sister is Paris.