Perspective: Farm vs City

Just to very briefly set up this conversation.  I was (don't remember where) in Des Moines, in a public place.  It was near 80 degrees, the first days of April.
As I generally do, I smiled a man standing near me & said "Wonderful weather isn't it!"
Man: "Yes, wierd that its so warm"
Me: "Really is odd but, I'll enjoy it while we have it!" : )
Man: "I sure wish it would cool down, so the grass will stop growing"
      silence as I tried to figure out what to say
Me: "Really? (with a smile still)"
Man:   "Yes, I've had to mow my lawn twice already"
Me:  "Well, most of us farmers and ranchers are loving the early grass to feed our animals"  "But I can understand how it would be frustrating in the city"  "But, yards are great places to put gardens too"
Man: now very confused "Why would I do that"
Me: "oh, its a good way to grow some of your own food"
Man: starting to walk away "thats what stores are for"
Me:  "yes they have food there too.  Enjoy the weather"



Perspective really is a funny thing.

I love meeting new people & learning about their personal culture to expand my perspective.

Or, just to confirm the perspective I DO have.
    Know your Farmer (Rancher); Know your FOOD!!

I'm writing another perspective post to share next week.
I hope YOU enjoy the weather you DO have. 
PS, there is ALWAYS something good to find in each & every thing, meeting, place, thought.

~Shanen, Mama to the Momma Cows @ the ECC

Showing

THIS is why we show. We raise good cattle. They make great beef, & they have even better dispositions. The show-ring thing drives me nutz.
I get really frustrated that a heifer who is rude, or even downright mean or NOT broke can do well in the ring. Disposition IS a culling factor in our herd. More on that subject later.

I also get frustrated with the families that show cattle & the children just walk in, in time to lead the calf in the ring. The child doesn’t WORK with their calf. Then there’s the type that show & get really upset when they don’t win. They are rude & mean when the judge doesn’t pick them.

And another thing that frustrates me is the politics! A judge who has no consistency & just picks the stick that’s leading them, or breeding them. THAT really gets me going.

BUT my Honey loves to show. He grew up showing & loving cattle. Our girls are really doing well with their cattle. But to me, the main thing is that they WORK with their cattle. Each day, they get up before dawn, catch, wash, blow, brush & feed their calves. Then, several times each day, they’re out checking & walking their heifers. Each night, they again work with their heifers to make sure they are fed.

Their calves are calm, tame & broke before they ever step in a showring. Don’t get me wrong, there have been days when Freedom wants to play or Sophie wants to just stand still & not walk. But our heifers would never be mean to a child.

We love to go to shows. I love how the girls get so excited & intense watching the classes & the judge. I actually enjoy the preparation too. I like getting up early on show day, washing & getting the heifers all ready. I LOVE talking with all of the other exhibitors & breeders. The comraderie is awesome.

The thing that I really love about showing is truly the smiles!! I love the smiles on our girls’ faces when they go in the ring. I love how intense A.Cowgirl gets. Each child that smiles and enjoys themselves is really the ONLY reason to go to a show.

 

Smile!! & Eat Happy Beef

~GreenRanchingMom - Mama to the Momma Cows @ the ECC

Wow! We were featured in the latest issue of the AMAA Voice

Thanks to Jennifer Bremer for writing this article & everyone at the American Maine Anjou Association for thinking of us.  With everyone's support our beef business continues to grow & the success of our Ranch is due to all of you who support us!!

I have updated our website recently & will continue to add more pictures.

THANKS for all your support & encouragement!!!

Junior Nationals

Right now we're up in a little northern Iowa town for the Maine Anjou National Junior Heifer Show.  The girls brought 3 heifers. We are lucky enough to borrow my parents (new to them) camper & stay at the fairgrounds.  So wonderful to have a place to nap Wyatt & cook (if we want) & get cleaned up during the day.

Well, the weekend up here was great!  We had tons of fun relazing & camping & playing & napping.  Then Sunday came.  Check-in welcome party, more work, a little more play. 
Sunday Night & Monday............well, they just weren't fun.  I ran (5 hours) home to haul my piggies for 5 hrs & then came back up.

Today (Tuesday) we had a Fitting Contest.  A.Cowgirl was in it with 2 other girls from Iowa.  They had so much fun!! I had TONS of fun watching the 3 dads!! 

 Poor guys just couldn't take it as the girls were doing their best job (but it wasn't "right").  They were cringing, shaking their heads & trying not to let the yells under their breath get too loud.  The girls were smiling & working & having fun!!

So far its been a great week!  I'll try to keep you (kim) posted as the week goes along

Choices & Perspective

Last night Honey came home & talked about a family he met at the co-op.  They were a couple in their 50's-60's with their 20 something son. 
They were traveling in a covered wagon. 
From Arkansas to Nebraska. 
They left home in November.
They stopped in to buy some corn & hay for their 3 horses.
They did stop for a while in Illinois this winter & work.
The horses were in good shape (not skinny).
The people were clean, nice & happy.

Of course after they left there was quite a bit of "shop talk".
WHY would you do that? 
Just BUY a truck.
CRAZY?

I was really impressed that Honey had quite a few questions in return for the guys.
Why NOT?
What if they just WANTED to?
It would be neat to REALLY see the country like that?
What IF they couldn't afford a Truck?
The wagon WAS really nice.  It had a completely enclosed (clear plastic) front that they had some Amish make for them.
Don't you think it would be really nice to just live that simply?  No bills & debts?

Hmmm, wow, we have come a LONG way in the past 2 years in our way of thinking!  Today, we ran the truck to get some new tires before Honey had to go to work.  We traveled only 10 miles west, and we saw them setting out for the day (8 or 9 miles west of where they were at noon yesterday).    Indeed 2 big paint horses pulling a covered wagon & leading a third paint horse.

I know that we get LOTS of questions about why we have chosen our way of life & finishing cattle.  I am constantly defending my choice to harvest our calves younger & at 1000# instead of the 1300# (FAT) cattle.
It is wonderful that Grass-Fed & Pastured Beef is becoming more widely known!  (Even our Banker yesterday knew about grass-fed beef!)

If I had to make choices again about downsizing & completely changing our operation 2 years ago ...... Would I do it the same?  YES!!!  I might change some details, but the BIG picture would stay the same.  We'd still be in debt, but, we'd still be cattle ranchers.
We'd still have to have off farm jobs.
We'd still be moving towards more grass & less corn.
We'd still be working towards raising ALL of our own feeds (but we'd still buy our outside feeds from our neighbors)
We'd still have our wonderful Maine-Anjou cows!

And yes, Freedom would still get loose on a regular basis, no matter how many new knots we tie on her *locked* gate.  (She was in the front yard again this morning)


I'm off to work on our website & get some prices up, so drop me a note ebersolecattleco(at)yahoo(dot)com if you're interested in learning more about our fall GRASS-FED beef & setting up a payment plan to reserve your beef!

I hope you have a great day!  The sun is shining & we're off to go play in the barn.
GreenRanchMom

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).

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.....

A. Cowgirl's FIRST Cattle Show

A couple of weekends ago we took A.Cowgirl & Sibs to a cattle show. This was a little small town deal, & perfect for A.Cowgirl & Freedom's (her heifer) first outing. She had tons of fun. She asks her daddy every night "do we get to get up @ 5 and go wash Freedom?". So, she did some of everything at the show. Like here she is blowing the hair. She did this for about an hour.

She loves this heifer & the heifer is good to her too. It is a bonus that this heifer is actually REALLY good looking.

A little bit too spread out, but you get the general picture. By the way, we raise Maine Anjou cattle. Freedom is a purebred and is the ORIGINAL coloring of the breed. This breed has been crossbred so much that many of the calves are black (& that's ok). But so many people forget this, and asked (about a million times) if she was a Shorthorn. No, she's not a Shorthorn, just a great Red & White Maine.

I like the red ones, and they are even better if they have a little chrome (white). Guess that's just the horsey girl in me wanting some chrome.

This picture is so cute. The arena was really deep for A.Cowgirl (above her ankles) and Freedom got away from her at the end. The judge picked out the lineup (placing) and A.Cowgirl had NO CLUE that she had won the class. Here is her face right before I told her that she did great AND she WON. You can see Daddy was right there in the ring with her to rescue her when she had some problems & support her mentally.

When they went back in for the Champion Drive. A.Cowgirl was happier and even stopped her from getting away again. She also won again. She was "crowned" Grand Champion New Calf Crop.

SOOOO PROUD OF HER!!!

Did I mention this calf is out of my 'pet' cow Lacey? Well, she is, so I have a pretty soft spot for Freedom too.

I did it again

I have been a blogging perfectionist. SORRY!!

I had gotten so used to actually using pictures & posting 3x a week, that if I couldn't do it "perfectly" I didn't blog.

WELL, I'm done. Being a perfectionist that is.

I WILL figure out how to mobile blog.

I will blog without pictures.

AND, you'll probably get to see all of our springtime bussiness sometime during the winter.



So.....Right now everyone is STILL asleep (honey is @ his town job, bless his heart).

Yesterday, we went with 2 extra guys & moved cows from the hill top, to the center pasture. This means "over the hill and through the creek to center pasture we went" (sing it with the song people, think "grandmothers house we go")

I know, its funnier in MY head!

With the guys that we had helping and Honey we went through 2 CASES of beer. I know this might not seem like a ton for some, but our case had been in our fridge for 2 months! (we keep some for when other guys come to work cows) OH WELL, they had fun & didn't mind a girl driving the truck. (btw, I don't drink beer. I'm a whiskey girl)

Well, I'll try to post short snippets more often.

But, I do LOVE to TWEET. Click the above right hand corner and FOLLOW ME! We can tweet together.

One day this week, my tweet was the same as Pioneer Woman's. We both had Cow Poo in the wrong place!! (Mine was on the Playset, hers on the porch)

TTYL

Fences, and the holes an Old Pony can find.

Hi All, sorry I haven't had any more fun or funny stories lately. I've been busy keeping track of the horses and colts.

Earlier this week, I was in the house working on the books and Beau calls from in town, and says we have horses @ the neighbors. That was unusual and very alarming, since our closest neighbors are over 1& 1/2 miles away. So, here we go. I throw Wyatt (turns 1 year old next month) in the truck, grab some grain and hop in the truck.

Sure enough, I get close and see my pony (yes, he was mine in 5th grade so he is 23 and been getting out for many years) in the middle of the road. I turn the truck around and put some grain on the tailgate. Kenneth (my pony's name) was a little leery of eating, because he's done this before and knows he's in trouble. But the 3 others he brought with him gobble it up. I finally get the halter on Kenneth and hop in the truck with the leadrope thru the driver's window. Off we go... slowly. He walked and trotted all the way home grudgingly. The others thought it was fun! They were playing and winnying to the others that were still in the pasture. They were even happier when they were put in the pen with the colts and the alfalfa hay! Kenneth was happy then, also because that is what he does best, taking care of his babies. You see, he was going to go in with the colts anyway because he teaches them how to eat and that humans are great for tasty food and scratching.

The other horses are now back in the pasture, pouting because they don't have the fresh hay. Oh well, if I could only find the hole in the fence before they do again.

If any of you live nearby and want to get in on the fun of cattle work, we will be hauling the cows home this weekend. So, call me and we can set it up.

We will also be making our final beef calf selections. So, if you want to purchase beef shares, call or e-mail me so that I can get the specifics that you would like. We will then sort for GrassFed Beef or CornFed Beef.

The colts have already started eating better with Kenneth and are becoming more sociable. We have some great fillies and colts that are for sale! We will also be driving the Mares back to pasture this weekend a sight you will love to see!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Shanen

Dogs and their love

Today, I was just neighborly(sp). I helped our 80 something neighbor take his calves to town to be vaccinated and castrated. Sounds simple, RIGHT! Wrong. First, the truck was in the barn (remember, we don't have ANY rock) and it has been raining for 3 days. After I got the truck out, I had to hook up to the trailer, try to go to town and get diesel, and then I could help Don.

Helping was the fun part, the mud wasn't. Don fell in the calf pen & I just about had a HEART ATTACK!!! His wife just laughed and said he does it all the time. We easily got the calves in the small pen, trailer backed up and then it was time to load.

Forgot to mention that when I was unsticking the truck, I put the dog on the flatbed (of the truck) and left him there...... Chili, (Beau's Dog). The calves didn't want to move, so I called the dog..... Just for his presence, It usually helps.... It didn't. So, Chili got to help. Poor dog was sooooo excited he just bout flipped out cause he got to help. Calves were on the trailer in 2 seconds with NO hassles. Chili got LOTS of prais and we headed into town.

Showed up at the vets office a little early and waited. Unloaded calves and started working. The guys were all inside so it's lil ole me by myself. Chili couldn't stand it!! He was on the truck whinin barkin the ENTIRE time I tried to move a calf. They didn't want to go in the barn ('cause Don was standin directly in front of 'em) and Chili wanted them to go, so I let him help. You'd of thought I hung the moon.

SHHH, don't tell Chili he only got to help move like 20 head. He LOVED IT.. Remember, this dog 'bout died when Beau left the ranch. Chili has been in heaven today. But he hasn't figured out yet that he ain't sleepin in the bed tonight. He was covered in slop and mud. I love that dog, and he loves cow-workin.

It was a GREAT Day.

And, while I was workin calves, the girls were at home for an entire hour after school and didn't kill each other. Squeak was in the truck with us and taking his nap.

Night!

Our Current Ranch

So... This summer we worked on building our current ranch. We bought a 160 ac Ranch with a small house that had not been lived in in 2 years. So, a remodeling we went. We decided to build a new barn and fix up the house a little. Because the barn makes the money, not the house. We put some new windows in the house, new appliances and ripped out the carpet downstairs to expose beautiful hardwood floors.

Across the road, we built the BARN. This barn is everything my 12 year old self ever dreamed of. We built a 98 x 104 barn. It is set up for both cattle and horses. We put large runs out the east side and an arena to the north with some working and holding pens. The inside will have an open area in the center for riding horses with pens on each side.

Our Ranch Plan is pretty complex, but here are the basics.

1- Our goal is to raise Maine-Anjou females to sell to other breeers. Byproducts of this goal will be Show Quality Calves, Beef and Bulls. We want everything to be Organic. The cattle should have great dispositions, and be happy and easily handle-able.

2 - Beef Sales. We will raise both Grass-Fed and Corn Fed Beef. Our animals will ALWAYS be treated with the utmost respect and kindness as long as we have them. We want to sell Beef Shares and Sides and Quarters of Beef. Our animals will always have access to exercise and grass.

3 - Horses. We raise working quarter horses. We want to keep our colts until they are 2 - 4 to train for roping and working cattle.

4 - Dogs. We have working dogs. Our male is a blue heeler and my female is a registered mini-Australian Sheperd. We will raise Mini Aussies an Toy Aussies. Our dogs are GREAT with the kids and must always be great with the kids.

5 - Garden. This next year I want to start a great garden. Eventually I would like to offer a vegetable CSA. I would like fruit trees to be in this garden

6 - FAMILY. Most of all our main goal is for this Ranch to grow our family. The kids are most important to us, and the main reason we downsized to this ranch.


I know this kind of turned out like a list, but it is what I needed to explain to y'all what we're doin, and what we're about. Hope you like our blog and you can also read along at http://www.localharvest.org/blog/24259/
This is where you can look at purchasing options for our Beef CSA