Lunch break today was spent researching the effects of mega doses of Vitamin A on premature calves with retinal blindness.
Why you ask?
more on that later................
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Lunch break
Lunch break today was spent researching the effects of mega doses of Vitamin A on premature calves with retinal blindness.
Why you ask?
more on that later................
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Cool People
Do you have any cool people in your life?
I certainly hope you do!
AND............
I hope they provide you with all the fun that I have with my fav "cool" people!
love you guys!
I certainly hope you do!
AND............
I hope they provide you with all the fun that I have with my fav "cool" people!
End of Day
Around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the farm shifts in to high gear in preparation for the 6 o'clock milking.
Hay gets put out, the silage wagon goes to work putting out corn silage. The grain wagon follows with a mixed ration formulated for dairy cows.
The babies get fed at this time too so there is lots of mooing and bleating and tractors with smokestacks sending up gray plumes in the air. The vacuum pumps that generate suction in the milking parlor are fired up and add their own percussion to the orchestra of sounds. The hot steam hisses through the pipe lines over head and everywhere there is activity and noise and purpose.
By 6 o'clock, the babies are bedded down for the night, curled up content and quiet. The young stock and the pregnant cows are full and laying down out in the pastures. The milk herd has come in to the barn and the steaming pipes are quiet. The only sound is the rhythmic vacuum pump pulling milk up in to the pipes and down in to the stainless steel tank in the next room.
Bottles are dried and hung upside down. Sinks are clean. Time to go home.
And the view?
Spectacular.
We are just at the time of year where the full moon is up in the western sky while the sun blazes one last blast of glorious light across the sky causing the metal building to glows like neon as the moon hangs above in the night sky.
Hay gets put out, the silage wagon goes to work putting out corn silage. The grain wagon follows with a mixed ration formulated for dairy cows.
The babies get fed at this time too so there is lots of mooing and bleating and tractors with smokestacks sending up gray plumes in the air. The vacuum pumps that generate suction in the milking parlor are fired up and add their own percussion to the orchestra of sounds. The hot steam hisses through the pipe lines over head and everywhere there is activity and noise and purpose.
By 6 o'clock, the babies are bedded down for the night, curled up content and quiet. The young stock and the pregnant cows are full and laying down out in the pastures. The milk herd has come in to the barn and the steaming pipes are quiet. The only sound is the rhythmic vacuum pump pulling milk up in to the pipes and down in to the stainless steel tank in the next room.
Bottles are dried and hung upside down. Sinks are clean. Time to go home.
And the view?
Spectacular.
We are just at the time of year where the full moon is up in the western sky while the sun blazes one last blast of glorious light across the sky causing the metal building to glows like neon as the moon hangs above in the night sky.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Happily Ever After
And they lived happily ever after...
Don't all fairy tales have that as the ending line?
Well this one does!
It seems like it was only yesterday....
A tiny, tiny wee one was born on the farm.
She was only the size of her mothers head. We guessed her weight to be about 25 pounds. Less than half of a normal newborn weight.
She immediately moved in to our hearts and also our den, where she lived in a playpen.
She grew and she thrived.....
and grew
and thrived
Don't all fairy tales have that as the ending line?
Well this one does!
It seems like it was only yesterday....
A tiny, tiny wee one was born on the farm.
She was only the size of her mothers head. We guessed her weight to be about 25 pounds. Less than half of a normal newborn weight.
She immediately moved in to our hearts and also our den, where she lived in a playpen.
She grew and she thrived.....
and grew
and thrived
and thrived and grew
some more!
The only problem was that even though Aurora grew, she was still so small compared to the big cows in the dairy herd. It became obvious that Aurora would not have a very good time trying to be just an average ordinary milk cow. In her mind she wasn't even sure she was a cow. After living indoors and being raised alongside dogs she was pretty sure she was a person, or at the very least a really big dog!
Some days I would let her out of her pen and she would follow me around while I did my chores. She loved to rub her head on your leg which could throw you right over if you didn't brace yourself!
If you lifted your arm and wiggled your fingers she would reach her head up for you to give her kisses!
So it was obvious that Princess Aurora was destined for greater things than being a "working girl."
But what?
That is when Auroras fairy Godmother entered the picture.....
she is kind and gentle and loving and she had been buying calves from us here and there. She fell in love with Aurora too and wanted her as a show cow. So it was decided that Aurora is going to go live with her fairy Godmother on her beautiful farm.
She will get clipped and polished and is going to have a pink shiny halter
(instead of a crown)
When she is not a fashion model at the county fair and dairy exhibitions, she will live in a green pasture with her new friends who are miniature Jerseys.
See?
It really is a fairy tale!
So the day finally came and Princess Aurora was ready to be whisked away in her fairy Godmothers chariot......
Some people call them Featherlite trailers but we know it is really a chariot that belongs to the fairy Godmother...
I opened the door of the trailer and she walked right up the ramp and in to her new life.
and out of mine............
Sometimes love is letting someone go on to better things........
Soar high special girl!
Share your love and affection with all you meet and you will live
happily
ever
after
Read more of Auroras story here:
http://writingsfromblackberryhill.blogspot.com/2012/10/an-aurora-sighting.html
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