The case of the revolving cows

Ok, so everyone has their own way of doing things.(foreshadowing!) Friday morning dawns sunny and ...could it be? above freezing woohoo!! In Minniesoda that means that it shorts weather already. Not quite yet for me, but you get the idea. It's been the longest winter. We loaded the cows that were in the little paddock into the trailer w/o any trouble, removed halters, vaccinated the baby and were off to the other side of the driveway to release them into the large pasture with the horses and 3 more cows. ...dun, dun, dun..... get a few chores done, turn around and we have a few cows in the front yard. Herd them back in, do some more chores and general spring clean up around the place ....and now we have cows out of the pasture and along side the road. Yea, this is fun well at least I think that's what the cows thought, I DID not! Guess what? its the same set of cows that were out a minute ago (the ones we got in December). Bob, the bull, is doing his best to impress the girls with his jurassic park bellow which echoes all the way down the valley, hence his other name, Jurassic Bob. I set off across the pasture just to keep an eye on them, make sure they don't cross the road-the neighbors dog was doing a great job of intimidating them into staying on our side of the road. (Note, this is basically a private road as there are only 12 houses in a 3 mile stretch of road, not much traffic). Cows see me coming and decide oh, lets go back into the pasture, fortunately hubbie had seen me set off and was in place to open the pasture gate. TADA!!! they are back in...and out, and in and back out. Remember the foreshadowing part? Well that's where I would have checked to be sure the electric fence was working before moving the cows. Ok, so now we are 'heating' the fence after the animals have left, come back, left... Fence doesn't seem to be hot, so back to the drawing board, rewire the first section of fence as we knew it wasn't getting any power, still nothing ( a few choice expletives later) I can only guess that for some reason with the ground being frozen and not using the electric fencer all winter that maybe something is wrong with the ground rod. Dump a bunch of water on it and tada, fence working. Back into the house for a well deserved break and some food. Hehehe we observe one of the new cows testing the fence, yea, it's working (my thought not the cows). Phew I can finally relax...surprise 2/5 newbies are back out, wait now there's 3..4 of them out, head back out the house and at this point the cows know the routine and head in the direction of the gate 1/2 way there and the 5th newbie decides to join the parade, get to the gate and watch all of the cows step through the fence obviously not getting shocked grrrrrrr. Hours later and the warmth of the sun seems to have solved whatever the fence problem is/was as now they are all in and appear to realize what the fence means.

Next day and all is good, everyone still in place. Bob, is the only one that seems to associate with the newbies they are all on the north side of the creek and the well trained cows (ones we have had) are all on the south side.

Sunny and Gracie the oldest and youngest horses are diligently babysitting Stuie the calf any chance they can. Momma cow seems to have resigned herself to their constant presence by her calf.

Hope and warmth are in the air as it might be that spring will indeed come to Minnie-soda this year.

It also appears that Stuie will be sold as a registered bull, perhaps we should change his name now...

Baby time

Well as promised here is a picture of our latest addition, Stu. I will admit we have a morbid sense of humor in that we will name the males animals as food items. We hope Stu will be sold as a bull as he has great bloodlines.

Babies!!

Yea, the first baby of the season. A bull calf, born last night at 7:30 mom & baby are both doing well. Stu, the calf, is figuring out that legs will allow you to do lots of things like run and jump. It's always so amazing to me how the nursing instinct goes into action so quickly. He was up and nursing w/in a 1/2 hour. Pictures to come later today.

Bubby's insight of the day

Bubby the quarter horse is also very excited about the continuing cold weather

Big Bad Bob

well big bad Bob, the bull is at it again. Trying to incite an equine riot. It is very funny to watch this 900+ bull trying to get the horses to play with him. Bob fortunately has never realized that he is a BIG! boy. He remains incredibuly docile and easy to work with. His head is now approximately 20" across, it almost does not fit in a feed bucket. We are still waiting on a calf due any time. In fact yesterday we tried to move 'momma' to the pregnancy paddock and of course we got everyone moved.....except for her. grrrrrr. The pregnancy paddock is also where the new girls we got in December are at. Bob was thrilled with the idea of meeting them in person. He got very vocal and adamant about getting close to them. I also am aware that a) he is a big animal b) he is a bull, so it was a little bit intimidating to go head to head with him to get him moved. LOL, to confirm that he doesn't realize his size, he tried to squeeze under the pole fence like he did as a calf. He seemed quite confused that he couldn't get through. The scary thing is that given a little bit more effort I'm sure he could have easily bent the pole rail and got in.

I am very ready for some warmer weather, however I am very gratefull that at least the sun has been out teasing me with it's promise of warmer weather.

All of us two leggers are doing well. My jewelry is being very well received and I am quite proud of the new chain maille pieces I have completed. I haven't seen any maille pieces in any of the local artsy shops. I hope my pieces can be displayed at a couple of these stores.(dreamriverdesigns.blogspot.com).

Well think that's it for today.

The great goose debate

For those of you not having had the pleasure of the company of geese I hope that you have at least seen the two geese in the Disney movie "the Aristocats". Geese of which we have five apparently must discuss Every move no matter how small in great detail. Example, the barn doors have been open for a few weeks now and it has taken about that long for the debate to conclude that "I don't think we will get eaten' I image the whole long process to have gone something like this, do you think we should go outside? Well, I don't know. WhY? The chickens are going outside. I just don't think its wise to go out there? Well, how about we just peek out the door a little bit and see? WHAT!! I'm not sticking my head out the door, you do it. ME!! how about we all stick our heads our together and on and on. Once it was established that they could successfully make it out the door, it was incremental how far away they would get. They looked just like the ducks in the shooting gallery. Single file three steps to the right, ok now 4 steps to the left and on and on. At least the make me laugh.

Other events making me laugh was watching our ferocious bull chase the horses. I was concerned at first until I realized that this was a mutual play time and who was chasing who switched around. Our quarter horse would get into a face off with the bull and each would bluff like they were going to move, the horse won that one every time. It was also incredibly funny watching all 800 pounds or so of bull, sproinging off the ground with all four feet in the air and bucking and rearing. They all played like this for some time and it finally ended after 5-6 laps around the hay feeder!!

Currently there is a bald eagle in a tree about 50' from the house. A few days ago we had three fly over the house so close that you could hear their wings flap. How cool is that?!!

Chickens are laying 12- 14 eggs a day now. Geese are also getting in the spring mode, as it is now a definitive that we have at least one male and female. I had checked them when we first got them, but it's not always the easiest to sex geese.

Corduroy Cows

Corduroy cows, standing out on the back porch last night enjoying the 'crispness' of the night I heard what sounded like someone walking in corduroy pants, turns out it was one of the cows and the noise what from the crunchy snow under foot.

blizzard is doing well out in the barn with his 'chicks' No further trouble with his foot. It's been nice to have him back in the barn, although it has taken us all about a week to quit tip-toeing around so as not to wake him and his crowing.

I welcome your comments on the jewelry.(dreamriverdesigns.blogspot.com) Some pieces are already sold, I also welcome your thoughts and prayers that this endeavor will bring in some sort of income for us. It's been tough with both of us laid off.

208,000 miles later the toyota has finally died, that too has been another blow for us. It did however provide a very reliable ride for a long time.

Well, that's all for now. The family is feeling neglected as I seem to spend the majority of my time working or deep in thought of the next design.