As a mother of three, I have come to dread weaning calves. It's my least favorite chore of the year. Bawling babies, and mooing mamas all bagged up just makes me groan with remembrance of my own nursing years. I have an obnoxious amount of sympathy for all parties involved.
But the non-stop bawling for days is what can drive a mama to sheer madness.
Nevertheless, the deed is done, and all parties have settled down. The calves were locked up in Alcatraz for 5 days on the other side of the mountain from their mamas, and they are now hoarse, and content to eat grass again. We put our old Mammy cow in with them, and they stick close to her while she shows them the ropes.
We spent the last week burning up the highway to feed and check the calves. The kids enjoy the change of pace from their regular school routine, but doing schoolwork in the truck makes for some interesting handwriting with all of the bumps in the road.
We've also been sorting off the grass fed steers that we'll be taking to butcher as custom beef for customers, and some steers to feed grain to for the next 45 days before butchering. We still have to sort off calves to sell, and bring the best two home to start feeding for next year's 4-H projects.
The money from all of our butcher beef will come in handy with Christmas and 5 birthdays around the corner.
I know that this is a terrible picture, but we woke up to a dusting of snow early this morning. That means that winter is breathing down our necks, and we have so much left to get done before the big winter storms start to bear down on us. With temps in the low teens every morning, we have to put in the tank heaters, stack hay in the barn for winter, get several loads of cinders to keep the mud down around the pens, and the list goes on and on. We got a truckload of hay pellets this weekend put up in the barn for the horses, but the list of junk that needs to be done is growing by the minute.
I'm slightly stressed. Can you tell? I guess I'll head off to have a bite of homemade dessert before bed.
After all, everyone knows that stressed spelled backwards= desserts!
Comfort foods are my weakness,
Nell
Posts
I've been to our friends farm when they got several loads of calves in, and it is so load. lol, I didn't know that stressed spelled backwards said that! I'll have to remember that
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh when you said the calves got hoarse! I think they do! We don't hear the calves, most are gone. But the mama's ! We will be weaning the feeder heifers next week. Then our replacements. It is busy. We also had snow! It is breathing down our necks. Trying to stay out in front of it and get everything done! Then - it can let loose! :)
ReplyDelete