Making Breakfast

Dude - "Mom"
Momma - Yes?
Dude - You Makin Breakfast?
Momma - Yes
Dude - Fore MEEE!!!
Momma - No, for PJ
Dude (with confused sour face) - PJ tant tome in the house to eat...?  I eat it.
Momma - Little Man I'm making you some oatmeal, but this is for PJ
Dude - Otay
moments later
J.ustaCowgirl - It smells good, whatcha cookin for breakfast Mom?
Momma - PJ's food, want some?
J.ustaCowgirl - Ummmm, no.  But its wierd, it really does smell good, but looks nasty.

So, you guessed it, my house is filled with yummy smelling food.  Its just not people food.  PJ is somewhere over 26 years old.  He's the rope horse that tought tons of guys around here to rope.  He taught me the right way to rate a steer.  He was the babysitter for A.Cowgirl & J.ustaCowgirl while we bred literally thousands of cows.  He has severe arthritis & now his teeth are getting pretty thin.

So, I cook a hot breakfast for him. I don't cook a hot breakfast for my family every day, but I do for PJ.  He also gets a hot lunch & supper too.  We're taking Beet Pulp (very high energy) and Equine Senior and cooking it in the crock pot to heat it up & serving it warm to him. 3 to 5 times a day.  The water is also warm from the automatic waterer in the run that he shares with the show calves.  This has made a huge difference in his energy level & hopefully will make it easier for him to get through another winter.

While I'm on this subject I need to talk about animal "comfort".  We have a barn & stalls.  It also has runs that open to the east with hay bale feeders in them.  PJ is really old and its pretty hard for him to get around.  But, he HATES being in a stall.  But he really should be in a stall to feed him & give him some of his own space.  But then, he wouldn't be able to play (or bite at) with 7-up.  He wouldn't be able to have his own choice to go in or out, eat hay or not eat hay.  Its a daily mental battle to put him in a stall or let him be.  Granted, he has his own pen to eat in (the calves & 7-up are locked out). But he should really be in a stall for his best interest.  Right??

No. I don't think so.  He is happier out with 7-up and the calves.  He is happier standing outside.  Does his comfort count for something? I think so.  I will make sure that he's fed well (better than well) and happy.  So remember that when you drive by a pasture & there are cattle & horses out in the snow.  They might like to be there.  (But I do love the option of having my entire herd under a roof).

So, if you stop by the house & it smells really yummy, don't get excited, its just horse food.  But you're welcome to try it, I have.

This is my soapbox....be prepared for me to be stepping on it frequently

I haven't been posting much about my opinions lately.

This is my SoapBox

I will be stepping up onto my soapbox HERE on my blog.  In more ways than one.

As usual, I try to think before I speak, but it IS my blog & I will say what I want.  I do have several posts in draft for me to tone down. : )

Hang on to your saddlehorn, we're going for a run.

GreenRanchingMom

Animal Rights people should visit my ranch

Yup, That's what I said, and I MEAN IT!! Anyone who thinks that most ranchers/farmers are mean to thier animals, needs to come to our Ranch!!

After the day I've had I'll chew em up and spit em out again!

To put it lightly, today was a rough one. But, I haven't cried, yet. (uh oh, the eyes are getting wattery)

Honey usually does AM chores, and this morning was no different. He was done before 7, and decided to run out back to check those cows on the 4-wheeler. (Yes, we have one of those nasty things). I was getting kids fed and ready for school. (Squeak included, since its monday).

J reported that Daddy was back, and he was grabbing a bale of hay with the tractor. He stops in the house, tells me Scooter's down in the pond, and we need beet pulp (high energy) and HOT water. I load everyone, grab some stuff, and take the Dodge out to the big pond. S%$T! The tractor was on a hill and ran low on Diesel, so he had to shut it of before it ran out (shoulda loaded the tank yesterday and filled it then). We pushed and shoved, and moved her so she was level.
It is now 8am, so, we head for the house, load J's snacks (cause she's the snack girl ALL week), load the diesel tank, and head for town. Honey calls the Co-Op and lets them know he's not gonna be in (THANK GOD!!).

We drop the girls of 1 min early, and I let J's teacher know that I won't be volunteering today. I then look at my clothes...Oh well! (note to self, make sure you have other boots handy when Honey needs you, DO NOT WEAR OSTRICH in pond MUD, everything else will wash). Drop Squeak at his school, and go to get diesel.

We formulate a plan to feed hay, get some energy into her and then make a cow sled to get her to the barn. So, we pull her up out of the mud. While we were in the house, we grabbed Honey's pump (from his Steer Jock Days) and 4 gallons of Hot water, Colostrum (energy), and 2 gallons of Fruit Punch (all the High Fructose Corn Syrup). We pumped her with 2 gallons of H2O and the other stuff.

Then we head back to the barn to make the sled. A piece of plywood, two 2x8's later we have a fancy dancy cow sled (I hope I never have to use it again!). We use the tractor and slide her onto the sled and strap her down. The sled works great to glently glid her to the barn (she was about 40 acres west of the barn). Now what? Well, we get the heater and throw a tarp over her to heat 'er up.

Breakfast time (it is 11:30). When we get back outside, we decide that she isn't warm enough, and we head to town for some LP. Yup the little tank that goes under your grill. We have a torpedo heater that works with LP, and we didn't think we had enough.

Shure enough, we fire up the torpedo heater, and she finally stops shivering.

We decide that while we keep an eye on her, we'll set the next water-er. Yeah!! It is pretty tricky working in a very tight area! This water-er goes in the middle of one of our pipe pens, so we can water two pens, thus the not much room.

Then, we have the fun part of ponies and colts "helping". In other words, their noses were in the way, the ENTIRE TIME! Leroy, what a pest. That pony is going to have a ton of fun with the kids this summer!!

After we checked on Scooter, we then decided to sort off heifers/steers for the auction this week. All the steers went, and heifers stayed. We checked nuts, and decided to just send the spring (2008) calves. Wow! We only have 8 left to send!!! YEAH!! That means I'm doing a better job of selling beef! (send me a note if you want any GREAT beef that should be harvested in late June) We get to keep 11 spring heifers. We decided to wait on the fall calves, because their nuts haven't fallen off yet.

The girls got home and Scooter was still hanging in there, so we picked up Squeak. Got home. Scooter was gone. We chored, and fed kids, and here I am. Still TRYING not to cry.

You see when a cow has a NAME (not just a number) it is a bad thing when we loose her. Scooter was a great old registered Angus cow that we bought in our first group of Sweeney cows in 2000. She has raised at least 4 cows that are in our herd right now. She was a pet. AND She was ON The LIST. That means, she got to die on the Ranch (not get culled to the sale barn).

And she did. We did everything to care for her! THIS is why I DARE any animal Rights person to stop by our ranch. If they think for one minute that we don't take care of cows. THEY ARE WRONG!! When we stopped in town earlier, more than one guy mentioned that the cost of a bullet was cheap, and she probably wouldn't live anyway. TUFF! We tried, and tried some more to save her. But sometimes a 16 year old cow just dies, no matter what you do. That's why most people cull them before they're 8. But Scooter, she was on The List.

And now, I'm going to go cry, and go to sleep.

I promise, the next blog WILL be funny!

ps, sorry for any typos or wierd phrases. I didn't even re-read this before I posted. (couldn't see thru the tears anymore)