Frost Warning

It never seems like spring ever comes and stays. It gets warm, everything comes up and blooms, then it freezes and kills every thing back. I thought this year that I would try to cover the hostas and apple trees. Maybe we will be able to save a few apples.

Humming Bird

I always enjoy when the humming birds arrive back at our house. One will usually fly up to the kitchen window to announce their return so I can put out the feeder.Sometimes there will be as many as six fighting for position.

Thunder

Counting down to the show/sale for Thunder. It is still touch and go as to whether or not V will be able to show him. He still seems as if he could blow up at any second.

Working Cattle

J and I worked the fall calves today.Ralgro implant,

dewormed, and vaccinated.

These are waiting their turn. It took about an hour to work 37 calves and 8 bred heifers.

Cattle Guard

Sometimes the goats get a little too curious about how things in the yard might taste. Unfortunately, the cattle guard does not stop them. What usually does is the electric wire we have to stretch out over the cattle guard.

Flowers

A few flowers blooming in the yard this spring.These purple tulips are in E's garden. I planted some in one of my flower beds at the same time about 3 years ago but they are almost gone. E's are still doing quite well.

I don't know what these small bell shaped flowers are. I dug them up from an old log cabin site.

The red buds are in full bloom now. It has always been one of my favorite spring trees. I got this one from the Arbor Day Foundation.

Sunday Morning

J came in the house Sunday morning before church to announce we had to pull a calf. Fortunately, it was only the third one this year.

The calf and cow were fine but the part you don't see is us using the calf jack. It's hard to work a 6' long pole and ratchet system hooked to chains around the calf's legs while a 1200 pound cow is swinging back and forth and take a picture.
current calf count 113

Lipizzans

The 4-H club went to a close by farm that breeds and sells Lipizzans today. It was a little disappointing however that they didn't give a ridding demonstration.

Beef Expo

We attended the Virginia Beef Expo on Friday. It was a long day, left at 5:30 am and got back at 10:30 pm.

Got to see some Scottish Highlandanders.
J went to see about buying some tarentaise cattle but didn't like any well enough to bid.

Linda, thought you might like this limousin heifer. She really was about 8 inches taller in the rear than in the front. She truly looked like 2 different animals put together.

Soccer

E's soccer team's record remains unblemished 0-7. They had to forfeit a make-up game yesterday because the coach didn't tell anyone they had a game. We had one scheduled tonight and the coach didn't show up.

Birds

The blue birds always come first around the end of Feb. but then the tree swallows show up and run the blue birds off. We still have lots of blue birds, just usually not in the nesting boxes. Emily's soccer team is still holding on to the record, 0-5 with no goals scored. She is becoming very discouraged especially when some of our gollies seem to be trying to dodge the ball as it comes toward them.

Spring?

We went from 70 degrees on Friday to in the 30's today, plus we have the added bonus of snow. I hope it doesn't hurt the fruit trees that are now blooming. We didn't have any fruit last year due to the 3 days of hard freezes at this same time.

Yard Ornaments II

I found this cone shaped piece of metal in the barn when we bought this farm. I've had it in several locations but I think I like it on top of the well best. The problem is it keeps blowing off when the wind is bad (which has been a lot lately). I am thinking of trying denture adhesive.My purple leaf plum is blooming nicely this year. It was indiscriminately pruned by the goats the year after I planted it. It is still somewhat asymmetrical.

Cows

Just to prove we do have cattle in addition to the goats.
The red spotted cow was one of the first heifers we ever kept that we raised. That was 13 years ago.
J checking the cattle.

The Current spring calf count 106.

Farm Stuff

J was afraid that the blog was turning out to be too much Home and Garden, so I've had to put some farm pictures in. Since the goats were out from the front yard they were easy targets for the camera. I can't help that a litte bit of "garden" got in there.

Yard Ornaments

Thought I might post a series on my yard ornaments. This one I created from old metal rims from a pile of junked equipment that was on a farm we bought 2 years ago. I considered hanging a bird feeder in the center but decided it would probably only turn into an Oreo feeder, so instead opted for the eggplant gazing ball.

Birthday

V had a birthday this week. (14th to save you from having to count the candles) We didn't have her cake until the day after her birthday due to E having a soccer game on the day of her birthday. E's soccer team is 0-3 with really no hope of even ever scoring. They are usually only playing with 8 players vs. the full 11 on the other teams. The games have not been pretty to watch.

Flowers and Sky

We had to dehorn a few steers today so I thought I would put up some nicer pictures. The sky was so blue and more flowers are blooming now.

Christmas

Since I didn't start this blog until Feb. I never got to post any Christmas pictures. V and E's present to me was to wear pretty dresses and stand close to each other.

It took a few tries but they finally got it.

Exploring

We forced V and E to play outside yesterday. There were complaints about too wet, too cold, too rainy, but I made them go anyway. They went exploring down by a small creek on a still wild section of the farm. It looks like they had a good time and Oreo was there to keep them safe.

Oreo

Posing with rabbits.

Thrift Store

I found this table at a thrift store recently but I thought it would make a better yard ornament than table.
I needed to cut 2 of the legs off but have to know should I turn it like a butterfly,

or have it look like a heart.

I may have to send it to school with V to work on in Ag.