Farm Visits-Even for Farm Kids!

This past week I have been meaning to get my kids over to a neighboring farm just 3.5 miles away.  Time was of essence because this farm had just received 300 chicks in the mail!  Their little fuzziness only lasts about a week before they start losing their "cute" factor and get feathers.

See, even farm kids need to experience farm visits to broaden their mindset of what all farming entails!  My kids are not used to fowl of any kind so this was a great learning adventure!

~The natural~

~The awkward but brave~

~The nonchaulant~

~The neither one of us thinks this is a good idea~

I am just happy that our neighbors can share what they do, even if it is completely different from what our farm does.... These chickens may appear on a dinner table near you as they are for consumption for a private label in a Food-COOP.!!!!

Checking those cows!

Family time is sometimes spent checking cows that are out to summer pasture.  It is a favorite pastime!  The scenery is a highlight!

Country Cool in the Pool!

Summertime is here!!!!  I love summer, being outside and working in the yard.  Not that I have a perfect yard, I have a very large yard that sometimes gets invaded by farm equipment!  

Back to sweet, sweet summer!  This summer I put our usual baby wading pool up on our cement slab.  It was banished in a few days by the H-O-R-S-E basketball players, our two college boys for summer help and my husband.  In consolation Orrin suggested we use a stock tank in the pasture across the way. He filled a 18 ft tank! I did have to empty it again, using the whirlpool method (walking around and around and AROUND), making the dirt and rocks and algae go down the drain in the middle of the tank.

  We love it!  We follow cow paths over there or ride a 4-wheeler.

Our country pool!

Everyone having fun!

A good-sized float even fits comfortably.  We even play in the dirt around the tank.  It has a nice cement edge, similar to a sidewalk around the whole edge so we don't track in a ton of mud!  The concrete was poured by my husband and his brother in 1995 see...

Delayed post :(

Sorry I haven't checked in for awhile....busy times on the farm .  Our Miss Germany came back for seventeen days over her Easter break.  She went to prom and visited all her friends, as well as  went on a few 4-wheeler rides around the farm.

She went back today and we miss her.  My kids were so sweet and happy to see her.  I think she is already planning her next visit :). 

Here is our family on Easter Sunday

We also have caught just a little rain and I snapped a picture with our wheat and our cattle.  Although the rain wasn't enough to break our drought, it left a reminder of God's faithfulness in its wake.

Oh and we also hosted a 5K at our house, the second annual 5K in the Boonies.  I will post more about that later!

Milk replacement recipe

This is how I have made milk for our bottle calves.  It suits our setup in the kitchen, others might have a different process that works for them.

I use a two liter pitcher so it doesn't get too heavy to pour, especially when the kids help.  I put very hot water about a third of the way up.  Then I trek to the mud room where in the closet we keep a fifty pound bag of milk replacer(similar to baby formula-but just for calves).

With using a two liter pitcher I can only make two bottles at a time.  In goes four 1cup scoops of powdered milk replacer.

This gets a little messy....

Back to the sink to add more hot water and whisk briskly until mixture is smooth then fill to the top of the pitcher.  This will make two bottles. I pour this into the two bottles equally.

Fill the bottles up to the top with lukewarm water, this makes the hot water used to mix the powder at a more acceptable temperature for the calves to drink.  

Now repeat the process for the next two bottles....last thing is to cap the bottles with nipples and wipe down any moisture on the outside of the bottles~baby calves can be very energetic nursers and pull the bottle out of your hand!

Bottle Babies

We had FIVE bottle babies when this picture was taken just a few days ago.  Since then we have moved down to four but for a good reason.  Gorgeous is a heifer (female calf) and has a twin sister who is with their momma cow.  Since momma cows who have twins sometimes prefer one over the other and it harder for her to care for two at a time we pull one.  That is we pick one to be separated and possibly transferred to another cow.  Gorgeous is a registered calf so worth more on a cow as they usually do better that way.  She was bottle fed about two weeks and has taken to a new momma that loves on her!  Success!!!!

Luke and Betsy were bought from some friends/neighbors for Crash and Scooters 4-H calves BEFORE we ended up with three bottle calves from our own herd.  They are Angus calves while our own herd is mainly Gelbvieh and some Angus.

Black Betty is from our herd and is a twin to a bull calf so she is sterile.  She is what we call a Free Martin, don't ask me why! She will not be kept for breeding but be sold and will end up at a finishing yard to get ready for slaughter.  Or we may keep her and feed her and have her butchered for our family to eat.

Norman is my special needs calf.  I am not quite sure what is wrong with him . It takes about thirty minutes to feed just him because he does not suck, just swallows and gags.  He is a messy eater and I usually wear gloves because I have to wipe mucus off his nose and out of his mouth.  He is more lethargic and I wonder if he has a joint problem or arthritis.  Sometimes I have Orrin tube him(put milk directly into his stomach by putting a tube down his throat) to make sure he is getting enough, since I can only get him to take half a bottle in thirty minutes when the other calves take mere minutes for a full bottle.  Poor Norman, I just don't know if I can pull him through.

Anyway with that many little ones to feed, this is what my sink look like.

See that long tube, we also call that a drencher or tuber. The bottle that does not have a flat bottom goes with it.

Werkin calves Part 2

So here is a calf cradle.  It is actually one my parents had and we bought for our calves.  Since these were a little older we did not throw them.

That's Tall Paul our hired man who is also Orrin's Father's first cousin...true family farm ;)

The calves are pushed one at a time into the cradle until their neck is secured by the head gate(same we use on bigger cattle only....bigger). Then Paul releases the catch and it swings the calf up horizontal.  Then we can band or brand while the calf is immobilized and somewhat still.

See the bars we can release to access the side of the calf.  Pretty handy if I do say so myself.  My job was a pusher.  Getting a calf out of the squeeze pen(a pen that can smaller as more calves leave so there is not room to run and hurt is or the calves.  Down side of a pusher is you will be the dirtiest one with calf poop all down the front of your legs and bruises from the kicks and your feet will hurt from being stepped on.  I love it.

As always we have extra help from Crash and Scooter, even Cuddle and Wally were trying to get in the way as much as possible, that's how farm kids learn though.

Thank you Lord for letting me grow up on a farm and blessing my kids the same way.