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
Sunday, December 23, 2012
The Last Day of the World Or the First Day of Winter
Take your pick!
Im going with the world continuing and winter blasting its way in....
Im going with the world continuing and winter blasting its way in....
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Twelve/Twelve/Twelve
Yo y'all
I don't say Moo y'all
people expect that...
but I like to be edgy
I didn't know what the day might bring...my first two letters are 24 which is 12 to the 2 so I was careful to watch my back for any one who might be jellie....
but apparently no one else checked their iPhone to see what the date was like I did.
Stupid cows.
So I decided it would be my little secret and I would have a nice salad to celebrate
Enjoy your 12-12-12!
I don't say Moo y'all
people expect that...
but I like to be edgy
I didn't know what the day might bring...my first two letters are 24 which is 12 to the 2 so I was careful to watch my back for any one who might be jellie....
but apparently no one else checked their iPhone to see what the date was like I did.
Stupid cows.
So I decided it would be my little secret and I would have a nice salad to celebrate
Enjoy your 12-12-12!
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Harvest
Its that time of the year again.
Crops large and small are being harvested.
Nature giving up its bounty for the long winter ahead..
Ever hear of Pokeberry? It has a fascinating history.
A few details about this versatile plant:
Native Americans used its vigrant purple juice to decorate
their horses.
The Constitution of the United States was written using ink
made from pokeberries.
poke salad ('poke salat') has been a staple of the South
where it is cooked and rinsed at least twice to remove the
harmful component.
I dry the berries and use them to fight off winter colds and flu.
Once dried, the berries can be kept and used whenever the
immune system needs a little "poke" to rev it up.
The root can also be dug up and cleaned and preseved in
Everclear and used as a tincture or made into a cough syrup.
There are plenty of websites to explain the details. Susun Weed's
site being among the best of the best.
A pretty little berry with an amaxing past and an important present.
Crops large and small are being harvested.
Ever hear of Pokeberry? It has a fascinating history.
A few details about this versatile plant:
Native Americans used its vigrant purple juice to decorate
their horses.
The Constitution of the United States was written using ink
made from pokeberries.
poke salad ('poke salat') has been a staple of the South
where it is cooked and rinsed at least twice to remove the
harmful component.
Once dried, the berries can be kept and used whenever the
immune system needs a little "poke" to rev it up.
The root can also be dug up and cleaned and preseved in
Everclear and used as a tincture or made into a cough syrup.
There are plenty of websites to explain the details. Susun Weed's
site being among the best of the best.
A pretty little berry with an amaxing past and an important present.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Gorillas In the Mist
Made ya look!
That should be GIIRRLLS in the mist!
I woke up to a gray and foggy day. Perfect day to stay inside and drink hot tea and read a good book but alas, calves still get hungry when it is morning, no matter what kind of morning it is outside my window.
the cows standing at a distance around the tree like little black polka dots with their backdrop of white.
Eerily peaceful....
A beauty all its own
That should be GIIRRLLS in the mist!
I woke up to a gray and foggy day. Perfect day to stay inside and drink hot tea and read a good book but alas, calves still get hungry when it is morning, no matter what kind of morning it is outside my window.
Eerily peaceful....
A beauty all its own
Saturday, October 20, 2012
What's On Your Bucket List?
Here is mine!
At least this was my Friday bucket list.........
when a calf reaches the age of 4 weeks and as long as she/he is drinking milk and water well and eating grain, they get to move to a group pen where they are feed in troughs and can run around and frolic with their friends. That means that they no longer live in an individual pen with a water bucket and grain bucket. So once they move on to bigger and better things, those buckets have to be cleaned for the next occupant. I clean them with a commercial acid/chlorine cleanser in 160 degree water. But the last step is a good old fashioned one....
I sit them out in the sun to dry and let natures sanitizer in the sky do its work.
After a few hours, the clean dry buckets are stacked in the grain room to await new arrivals.
I love the little bright bubbles of color against the fading autumn grass...
Life, like the seasons, moving on...
At least this was my Friday bucket list.........
when a calf reaches the age of 4 weeks and as long as she/he is drinking milk and water well and eating grain, they get to move to a group pen where they are feed in troughs and can run around and frolic with their friends. That means that they no longer live in an individual pen with a water bucket and grain bucket. So once they move on to bigger and better things, those buckets have to be cleaned for the next occupant. I clean them with a commercial acid/chlorine cleanser in 160 degree water. But the last step is a good old fashioned one....
I sit them out in the sun to dry and let natures sanitizer in the sky do its work.
After a few hours, the clean dry buckets are stacked in the grain room to await new arrivals.
I love the little bright bubbles of color against the fading autumn grass...
Life, like the seasons, moving on...
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Last Chance
The calender may tell us its fall based on the tilting of the earth, the rotation of the sun and other scientific facts but when you live where the wild things are, they tell you in a language all their own.
The wildflowers of summer have spent themselves, outdone themselves really with one last punch of riotous color.
All the overblown fullness of summer is still there but just barely lingering
the big masses have dwindled to the last few, the late bloomers you might say.
gracing old equipment with a soft beauty
Summer hanging on,
fall moving in with the vivid colors and bright berries that are its trademark
The wildflowers of summer have spent themselves, outdone themselves really with one last punch of riotous color.
All the overblown fullness of summer is still there but just barely lingering
the big masses have dwindled to the last few, the late bloomers you might say.
Summer hanging on,
fall moving in with the vivid colors and bright berries that are its trademark
When you go outside, what signs of fall do you see?
Monday, October 8, 2012
A Matter of Honor
Sometimes even when you try to have a system, things go awry.
This is never more true than when you are dealing with living creatures who have their own way of viewing the world and could care less about yours.
#27 is a prime example of this. She was due to have her calf soon and was out grazing with all the other "soon to be mommies" when she got the bright idea to walk through the electric fence, have her baby and hide it and then go back with the herd for food that night.
Most mothers will stay with their babies and that is how we find the baby. But #27 must not have gotten that particular memo and being hungry she just headed back to the normal routine. We all looked for the baby but since she had been out free when she had it and it was rapidly getting dark we had no success.
There was a pounding rainstorm that night and all I could think about was that little baby laying out somewhere all alone while its mother was back fenced in with the herd for the night. The next morning I started looking again. The road gave testimony to what a gully washer the storm had been, leaving the roads dotted with small lakes
Funny how the familiar fields and pastures can seem so vast when you are searching for something not obvious.
So loose and on her own for a walk about, #27 headed to the tree line.
Good! That's where the baby was!
No.
That may be where she had left the baby but there was no baby there now and #27 seemed as mystified as I was as to its whereabouts, looking at me as if to say "I left it right here...."
I decided to go do other things and come back and check in a bit and as I turned around to leave I saw a flash of white laying between the rows in the nearby peanut crop.
A night out on your own can do that to a body, danger is everywhere!
when the mother and child reunion was complete #27 looked at me as if to say "Its all good, you can go now."
before too long everyone was sorted out and back in place.
All that remained was to enter this new little one (a heifer as it turns out and not a bull) into the official record book. All of our calves are given a name and not just a number for the last two years. It makes it more personal and is working out really well.
Lately we have been having a run of "Knights of the Round Table" character names. We have a "Hope" a "Valor" and so this calf now has a name in the same vein of thought....
She is named "Honor"
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