October 28, 2016

Today is a very good day.  I am finally starting to feel better from this 3 week illness I have had.  One thing about being on a farm and having an illness, the animals still need to be fed.  Today I was running a little late and one of my border collies, Phoenix, came and stared in the window and cocked his head as if he were saying, "Hey, mom!  Did you forget to feed these noisy calves?  You're late!"  I have to laugh.  Such a sweet and gentle reminder.

Yesterday was the first day that the older group of calves did not get a single bottle.  It was also the first day the youngest calf got into the weaning program, losing one of his three bottles.  The calves were not happy and any time they saw me, they all came to the fence and bawled.  It has been quite a task to try to get the youngest one out of the fence for feeding and keep the others in.  Thank goodness he is the skinniest one so when I open the gate for him (if I can keep it steady), he is the only one that will fit through.  I have trouble putting him back in without the others getting out, as I have to lure him in with a bottle (it's empty), and if the others see it, they all want it.

We also had Lauren and Themis from the NRCS back out yesterday so they could see what winter forage was coming up and advise me where to place the cow waterer in the pasture.  They are full of good knowledge and advice.  I would highly recommend that if you are a new farmer and don't know what plants are in your pasture or need some advice in designing where everything in the pasture should go, that you call your local NRCS.   While they were here, one of our black angus steer got quite friendly.  Cattle are so curious.  Ours reminds me of an old neighbor, Willie, who used to come over every time someone drove up in our driveway to see what was going on.  Best security we've  ever had, even if it did get a little annoying sometimes.

As work on the calf barn continues slowly, we have had to make a few temporary adjustments.  We bought a gate to stand up at one end and used a board on the other side as sort of a creeper barrier (thanks Linda for the idea) to allow the calves in and keep the older ones out so they don't push the younger calves off of their feed buckets.  As you can see by the picture on the right, one of the calves graciously agreed to model how it works.  So far, so good.

As we are planning for the finished calf barn to have three stalls, a kitchen area and hay storage, I have been watching out for a sink with big drainboards to put in the barn.  Thankfully our neighbors (thanks John and Karen!) were pulling one out from one of their buildings, so that worked out well.  Currently it is just sitting in the barn until we get the opportunity to run water out there.  We are trying to figure out what we are going to use in that area to level it and provide a better flooring, and are considering sand and stepping stones.  Stay tuned.

October 17, 2016

Days 3 and 4 of merging the calves/weaning the older ones went without incident, and today is day 5.  However, watching the smallest calf be lonely on this side of the fence made me worry.  I also was worried the he was not learning as much from the older calves as he needed to.  So today, I decided to get brave and add him in with the rest in the pasture.







Sure enough, shortly after I added him in, he went to join two other calves at the mineral bucket.




Another sight while I was out there surprised me a bit.  One of our older steer, Meatloaf, who hasn't shown himself to be the most nurturing in the past, was actually grooming the calves.  They seemed to be really liking it and/or were extremely comfortable.  While this was happening, the youngest calf was going closer and closer to the group.  As I had seen the cattle sniffing each other in the past, I was afraid that the older steer would recognize the baby as a newcomer right away and come to see what was going on.  That did not happen.  Of course, unlike other animals, the steer do not seem to mind pooping in their sleeping area.  As they all sleep in it (one can only clean it out so much), I guess they should all have smelled pretty similar.

On the calf barn, we are slowly progressing.  It seems that lately we have either been sick or not had the right materials (no matter how often we go to Lowes.)  This weekend we got the last outside post put up, then started with the back wall.  This time, we ran out of wood screws and had to stop.  I love the way my husband took a small amount out of the 4 x 4s and wedged in the header for the door.  Of course, we also toe-nailed that in.

As far as wedding progress, we got the dirt pile flattened out so we can grow grass there, as well as put down a new coat of rocks for the driveway.



Harvest news:  We harvested and put in the freezer 9 1/2 gallons of bell peppers, as well as 5 1/2 bushels of sweet potatoes.  Some of those sweet potatoes were huge.

October 14, 2016

Day Two of merging the herd/Day One of weaning.

Yesterday, I left the calves in the fence with the older steer until it was time for their next bottle which was about 6:00.  At that time, my husband got home and we made bottles and took them to the fence.  We had no trouble whatsoever of getting the calves to come to the gate and out to get their bottles.  We took them to the pen (their usual feeding place) where their bottle holder is and fed them all their bottles.  The calves were left in for the rest of the night, partially because we felt bad for the poor young calf that followed them back and forth along the fence all day.  I ended up putting a bucket of water alongside the fence where the water tank was so the youngest calf could go drink when his friends were.

This morning I decided it would be day one of weaning.  Prior to this time I had been giving all the calves two bottles in the morning, and one in the evening.  This week I planned to give them one bottle in the morning and one in the evening, except for the youngest who will continue to get all of his.  My husband has to leave for work, therefore the morning feeding is on me.  So I fixed all the bottles, which I carry in a square 5 gallon bucket, and took them all to the pen.  The feeding frenzy was on.  After they finished the bottles, I gathered the empties in a hurry while they were still in frenzy mode, and led them all to the pasture.  I let all the calves in the pasture except for the youngest.  I then went inside to observe through the window how the Black Angus were going to handle today.  One thing I learned is that cows seems to sniff each others behinds just like dogs do.  At first, the Black Angus were anxious again, though not as much as yesterday.  There were a few scary moments like when one of the steer rared up like he was going to land on a calf, but the calf quickly got out of the way.  It was so interesting to watch as one of our border collies (Phoenix), seemed to run over to the fence and give the Black Angus a talking to every time they did some scary move toward the calves.  The big Black Angus appeared to pay attention.  Then Phoenix would trot back about 20 feet away and sit on his haunches like he was watching television.  Our other border collie (his brother) Hercules, just kind of laid back and observed the whole thing.  He was definitely not in the alert status that Phoenix was.

There was more disturbance when I came out with the youngest calf's second bottle, when all the other calves complained loudly and went over to the gate (smart little things).  When I finished and went inside, things calmed down again.  It was so funny how one of the calves went over and pushed on the gate, then mooed to the Black Angus steer, got out of the way, and the two Black Angus came over and pushed on the gate.  I am sure if they wanted to push the gate open, it would have been no trouble to break through that chain.  Thankfully, they lost interest after a few minutes.

October 13, 2016

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!  I was one scared cow mama today.  You see I have two Black Angus steer that are about 13 months old.  AND I have five Brown Swiss bottle calves that range in age from 8 weeks to 5 weeks.  I could not find anything online that speaks to this situation of turning the calves out (with all males), so I decided I was just going to have to go with my gut.  In order to wean some calves and not the others, I knew I would need to separate them somehow, so I decided to get them used to the  big pasture (instead of our front yard).  For the last two weeks, I have been feeding the calves some grain in buckets right next to the fence between the yard and the pasture, and feeding the Black Angus just on the other side of the fence at the same time.  I figured they could start getting used to each other this way.  Then last night, after feeding them all from their buckets, my husband and I opened the gate and invited the small calves (except for the youngest) into the pasture with the big steer to see how they would do.  With my husband and I out there, there was just a lot of sniffing, but the calves got scared and mooed at the gate to get out of there, so we took them out.

This morning, I fed the Brown Swiss calves their two bottles and decided to try them in the fence

again (except for the little one who gets run away from his bottle and needed feeding).  So I got them all in the pasture.  The Black Angus came up and did their sniffing and things calmed down.  I then led the calves down the fence and introduced them to the water tank, so they would know where to get water.  Figuring they needed some time without me to get acquainted, I went inside and watched anxiously from the window.  It was so funny how the two Black Angus seemed to spend a little anxious time around the calves then came back together and I swear they looked like they were whispering in each other's ears.  Then, they took a run at the little calves and one of them jumped up in the air and bucked.  I WAS SO SCARED FOR THE CALVES THAT I WAS READY TO GO RESCUE THEM!!  However, after a few minutes of this "territorial threat display" (any Avatar fans out there?) they seemed to calm down and just start eating grass.  Then the calves calmed down and started eating grass also.  I'm sure it was only minutes, but it seemed like it was going in slow motion to me.

Now that I have that situation solved for now, I have one calf inside the fence that seems to not know what to do with himself with all his buddies on the other side of the fence.  To be fair though, this calf spent a lot of time by himself even when the calves were in the front yard with him, mostly because he still naps a lot and the other calves go out to forage.  I will watch him and just keep going with my gut.  I will invite the other calves back in for feeding tonight, so stay tuned.  I usually don't have any problems getting them to come when I yell, "C'mon calves" and hold up a bottle.  Stay tuned. . .

October 12, 2016

We are continuing to work on the calf barn, but have not progressed a lot due to illnesses and a hurricane (working only on weekends).  However, we are making progress.  The next part of the progress was to put in the posts necessary to finishing both ends of the calf barn, as well as where we want to put in stall walls.  The overall plan for the calf barn is to have three stalls, one kitchen/storage area, and a larger area for storing hay.  We took about 4 hours to put in some posts this past weekend (our viruses are making us get tired out pretty easily), and a short time the previous weekend putting in cement to dry.  I felt that I needed to show details on this step, as it doesn't seem to be in the progress pictures of the Mulligan's Run barn that this is patterned after.  I did get a helpful email from the owner, however, to give me a direction to go in.  We used the 12" auger on our tractor to dig some holes that are 12" deep.  We then mixed concrete and poured it into the holes (seven holes in all).  Despite having it blocked off, the Black Angus steer that we have in that pasture managed to get into it as it was getting close to being cured and put their hooves in.  As we were keeping a check on it, we managed to step in with our muck boots on and re-flatten it while it was still malleable.  They did not mess them up again, thank goodness.

Once the concrete dried (we waited until the next weekend), We then worked on the posts to be fitted to the top by first putting the 4 x 4 up on the outside of the carport with it's base on the outside of the concrete, leveling it in one direction, and drawing a line at the carport roofline.  Since our roof is corrugated, we then made a second line 1/2" down, and cut on that line.  Once that was done, we put the post up where it was to go, leveled it, and drew a line where we wanted to notch it out about 2" so it would fit snugly on the metal carport supports.  My husband used a circular saw, cut the line, and then cut a line about every 1/8" so he could then hit it with a hammer and get the rest out with a chisel.  Once we got that fitted and leveled, we drew a line straight down in the middle of the metal support and the middle of the 4 x 4 post, as well as drew around the bottom of the 4 x 4 onto the concrete (so we could line them up again), and took down the post.  We then position the post base in the square we had drawn, and using a spike, tapped it where the of the post base was to mark it.

We removed the base and used a hammer drill to make the 1/2" hole for the redhead sleeve in the concrete.  We used a piece of tube and our air compressor to blow the extra dust out of the hole so we would get a good fit. We put down the post base and hammered in the redhead, then tightened it with a socket and driver to secure it in the concrete.  We then put the post in and drilled two holes through the top and into the metal carport supports so we could use a carriage bolt to secure the two pieces together.  We put the post bases so that the sides went to the sides and not towards the front of the barn where we would be putting wood.  We also secured them to the posts with joist hangers.  Then we repeated this procedure with the other outside posts.

In addition to working on the calf barn, the hurricane came in and took out a day with rain, while giving us needed rest, and filling our pond so nicely with water just in time for our daughter's wedding.  The water rushing through the spillway did manage to kill some of our young fish, however.

For the wedding progress, we have sent out invitations, we have added a web page for her Lord of the Rings wedding (see tabs), we have made progress on costumes, planted flowers, secured a sound system (we are using the Ion Tailgater PA system - I think our neighbors will all hear the wedding.)  Life is good, but busy.