Wonderful Week

Well, we're back from State Fair! We had tons of fun and the calves showed pretty well too!

A.Cowgirl & Freedom (her heifer) did pretty well. She was outshown and should have done better. But, its really hard to walk your heifer fast with her head held above your head. And the girl that out showed her is one of the best in the country. I think that she has won the Maine-Anjou Jr National Showmanship Award for several years in a row. So, for A.Cowgirl's first big show, we were VERY proud of her. That's why we let A.Cowgirl show HER heifer.

Freedom was named Reserve Grand Champion Winter Heifer, so we're happy with how the heifer looked.

The bull we took was a little sore on his front right show day. But Honey showed him thru it & held his head so it wasn't too bad. He would take a light step every 5th or 10th step. The bull looked great and was named Grand Champion Winter Bull.

All in all, it was a good week, we had some friends stop by on Friday & enjoyed petting & playing with Freedom & Ultimate (the bull).

Off to Fair!

Well, we're off to fair. The hired man is all set up, the cows are all checked.

But.... I stillhave a huge list of to do things!

See you in a week, I should have tons of pictures!!

I'll be tweeting!!

Whew!!! Nothing died & THEY're HOME

Whew, well, you might have guessed, but my family has been gone ALL week. Yup All of them. Honey had planned on taking A.Cowgirl & J. to his hometown County Fair in Illinois to show Freedom & the Steer. I needed to stay home to do chores & take care of the calves that we're going to show @ State Fair & trying to sell for show calves. Late in the day on Sunday, Honey's brother called & said that they wanted to have Squeak come too. They would watch him during the day & Grandma would have him at nite. Because 3 kids & fitting 2 calves would be WAYYYY to much for Daddy to handle by himself. o.k.? Can I do this??

Can I really stay home.....by.....myself????

Well......I did it!! I got lots done outside & wasn't in the house more than 10 min at a time while the sun was up.

And....NOTHING DIED. You see, most every time that Honey is gone, something died. 8 years ago, he was showing in Denver & I lost 5 (yup 5 out of 8) calves & his dog was hit on the road.
So, nothing dying was a HUGE accomplishment.

And, If you read my tweets you know that A.Cowgirl did really well & the steer won Reserve Grand over all on Wednesday. This was a huge show. There were 297 calves shown each day.

So, I met them in DesMoines @ my parent's house to trade trucks (honey took theirs, cause I had to haul pigs). That little steer I tweeted (he bloated really bad) about was doing ok, just a little bit of bloat (don't worry, I took some pictures, so I'll blog about bloating later).

So, we get home about dark, and all of us are doing chores (WOW!! its great to have my ranchhands er...kids... back). And we hear a goat crying. At one point it screams, & I ask "who's killing my goat??" Meaning that the dogs were chasing it or had one of the cows stepped on a goat? Nobody sees the goats. We had seen LadyBell & Checkers on the other side of the road with 7-up when we got home.

We get the air let off of the bloated calf (again) and I went to the south end of the barn to carry buckets the J had so graciously filed, and still hear a goat crying. I looked under the wagons (remember its getting dark). HMMM, I carry 2 buckets to the cows (the OLD babies in the barn). Lacey (my pet cow who is blind) starts walking out and trips on the poured water pad, & steps in the hole. A goat SCREEEEEAAAAMMMMS. YIKES!!! I holler for honey & go running to the hole. I stick my hand in the hole (really dark & can't see) & I feel ......HORNS. I grab his little horn & PULLLLLLL. Billy Goat is stuck in the hole. HONEYYYY! He's so fat I have to re-grab and use my legs to pull him out. Billy is usually VERY anti-social & after I pulled him out, I checked legs & stomach & he seemed fine. But he just stood there looking around & trying to figure out if he was ok. He let me pet him again & seemed ok.

WOW!! He got lucky! How did he fall in feet first?? Did a cow kick him? They usually drink out of the calf tank, WHY did he have to go in the cow pen? Wow, he was lucky that he didn't go head first or he'd be drowned. I guess we're lucky he has horns, so he didn't get hurt too bad when Lacey stepped on him. She just squished him farther down in the hole. Its a 6 ft tube that sits below an automatic waterer.


So, they made it home & we're all laying in bed snuggling & talking 90 miles a minute.

AND...........Nobody died while Honey was gone. THANK GOD!!!

Not much of anything .....oh yeah the dog story....

Well, my house is quiet. TOO quiet. So, I'm going to blog.

The tanning process is stalled in the Salting Stage. So, its really icky looking and won't work great for pictures yet.

So, I'll tell you how I almost killed Honey's dog yesterday. You know, his sidekick, the dog who worships him & about died when he quit working for Summit Farms, & got an inside (can't take your protective dog to work everyday) job.

I didn't really mean to kill him. I PROMISE!!!! That's why they call them ACCIDENTS.

So, a little prologue.....

Rough morning, Insurance adjustor came & we didn't quite settle our claim.

Honey has been gone overnight so Chilli (HIS dog) is REALLY clingy. AND Rosie is also REALLY clingy! She is pregnant & ready to pop. She won't leave my side. Both times she has had pups, the first one was born on or under my feet.

I went outside to chore & left Rosie on the porch. Praying she wouldn't climb under the dresser or behind the deep freeze to have her pups.

While I was choring, Chilli rolled in something REALLY nasty smelling (something dead for at least a week). So I hopped in the Farm truck to go haul hay home from the field & told Chilli to "stay there & watch the house". Meaning that he was free to go roll in the dead stuff again cause I didn't want a stinky dog in the cab of the truck.


I got to the pasture and backed up to a couple of bales of hay & loaded them on the bed with our HydraBed ( http://www.triple-c-inc.com/Hydra%20Bed.html ). I start to pull away and hear an AWFUL sound. Hmm, sounds like the Hydraulics are whining. I turn around in the seat to check how the bale is sitting exactly & OH MY GOD!!!!!!! I see Chilli's little face SQUISHED between the bale & the Headache Rack! Oh my God, Oh My God, Oh My God!

It felt like it took FOREVER to get those bales unloaded & off of him!!!!!! The whole time his face is squished & his body is squished & I know he is suffocating, & being crushed. Oh my God, Oh My God, Oh My God! Oh my God, Oh My God, Oh My God!

He had jumped on the flatbed & I didn't see him. He likes to lay down right behind the cab. AND HE DIDN'T JUMP OFF (in his defence he is trained to never get off the truck unless he is told to). OH MY GOD I JUST KILLED HONEY's DOG!!!!

The bales were finally off of him, I jumped out of the cab & petted him. He had jumped up and was panting really fast, but appeared fine. Felt legs & abdomen, no apparent injuries. I asked him to get off the truck. He jumped off fine, walked around ok, jumped in the cab ok. Still panting REALLY fast, with a VERY elevated heart rate.

VET, must get to the vet, to listen to his lungs and see if he has popped one, or hurt his diaphram.

I flew into town, & Dr Miller was @ lunch. So, we waited. Yes, with the dead stinky panting dog in the front seat. OH MY GOD, I almost killed Honey's Dog. Please let his lungs be good!!!

I waited @ Casey's & got a fountain DrPepper (I NEEEDED one!) , a couple of pieces of pizza, and a box of Nutty Bars. (TOTAL nervous eating) & some water for Chilli.

Hopped back in the truck and again checked his abdomen for any issues, I couldn't feel anything abnormal.

I offered him a pizza crust & he did not hesitate. {Animals won't usually eat if there are internal issues} He ate 2 pieces of pizza and a nutty bar while we were waiting.

Dr Miller listened to his lungs for quite a while & both sides sounded good. No issues with his diaphram & his intestines had good functioning sounds, & nothing felt abnormal.

WHEW, I didn't kill the dog. Well, at least today.

Chilli is still doing good today & acting normal. No puppies yet either.

Just another day on the Ranch.....

Gol darn gone & done it......again

I know, I was just really into the groove of blogging this spring. Then summer hit, and I quit. Well, I didn't really quit blogging, I just ran out of time in the day to blog on a regular basis.
So......In a nutshell in the last month we have
Hauled Pigs
Fed Calves, tied up calves, washed calves, and worked with the show calves on a daily basis.
Rode horses and ponies
Played with the goats
Harvested 2 more chickens
Harvested 2 beef
Made LOTS of hay 55 hauled home, 78 in one field & still more in another field
NOT registered for school today


Things that are on my list to do.....

There are tons, but the one that I really want to blog about is tanning hides.
I saved the hide from the last beef that was harvested. It's been salted, and now needs to be processed or tanned. We didn't save the brain, so I think that I'm going to use Alum to tan the hide.

Well, I'm off to bed, so I can be out and about at 5am.
Night Y'all