Trade In

Look what came up the driveway this morning.

It's J's new tractor!
With a cab, heat and air, and radio. Now he can listen to talk radio all day.
Nice view from the cab. It also has a small side seat so I can ride with him.
We were worried that it might not fit in the barn, but it made it with 2 inches to spare.
The only sad part was seeing the Ford leave on the trade in. It was J's first tractor, he bought it new 12 years ago. Other that rolling off the hill and flipping a few years ago, it's been a good one.

Prolapse

WARNING Graphic pictures to follow. Continue at your own risk. (but not as bad as the last time I warned you).

When J was feeding the group of cows up the road, he saw a problem with this one. She is the mother of the first steer V showed and won Reserve Light Weight Steer with.
You can sort of see the concern.
She had a vaginal prolapse.
I gave her a lidocaine epidural so she would stop straining.
Then cleaned her off and replaced the prolapse. The problem is that when the epidural wears off she'll start straining again and reprolapse.
That's why the BIG needle. I don't have one so I had to go borrow it from a Vet I work with that also has a large animal practice.
You can see the needle gets shoved up under the skin on one side, then umbilical tape is threaded in the eye and pulled back down.
The same procedure is repeated on the other side.
Have to make sure to not tie the string too tight.
Now everything is back in place.
I just have some cleaning up to do.
And the patient has to check out the work.
I guess it passed her inspection because she when right to eating.

Bob's Back

E actually went outside and made a snowman Wednesday. We had about 4 inches of very wet snow.

All of her snowmen have been named Bob.
He got a little melty before E took his picture today.

New Addition

Last week one of our first calf Hereford heifers was looking close to calving. Because of the frigid temperatures we have been having J started putting her in the barn at night. This way if she had any problems we would already have her up.

Monday when V was doing her science fair collecting, I noticed she looked extremely close, and sure enough she had a calf that night.
She had a very pretty heifer with no problem.
Hey, that sun is sure bright.
Wasn't there something back there?
Mom put an end to the photo shoot.

Tragedy

My popcorn pan that I have been using for 8 years,

HAS A HOLE IN THE BOTTOM.
I know you can't see the hole, but it is there. Water bubbled up through it when I washed it and oil leaked out the next time I used it.

It is a Stir 'n Pop.
There is a stirry thing attached to the lid. This was always to cumbersome to use so I just took it off. Popcorn is one of the major 3 food groups; Popcorn, Pepsi, and Peanut butter. I went to 5 different stores looking for another pan but nothing even came close. I have even searched Ebay to no avail. We had microwave popcorn tonight, what a disappointment.

Heat

J has really had to work hard to keep the house warm.

The outdoor stove takes about a truck load of wood a week with the cold we have been having.
This wild cherry won't fit through the stove door in it's current size.
J had to split several logs.
This one required all three wedges in the end.
Along with some additional prying and grunting. I really appreciate all he does to keep the house at 70 degrees. I am also thankful that the stove is outside and all of that wood doesn't get tracked in.

Cattle Drive

It was time today for the annual cattle drive from the farm we rent across the road back to our farm.

E blocked the road going out toward the main road. (Snow day from school so the girls were able to help)The cattle have to come through the corner of the yard of the people we rent from.
Once they are on the gravel road it is just a matter of walking them down to our gate.
V was on the other end stopping traffic (one car came up) and turning the cattle in. Hopefully, this will mean a little less work for J doing his feeding.

Science Fair

V is doing her 3rd science fair project that is based on manure. It seems this is something we have here in abundance.

The farrier came today so I thought this would be an opportune time to collect the samples.
Unfortunately, the horses weren't too forth coming in providing the samples.
We eventually succeeded and V got to work. The project is to see if parasites from horses that have only been dewormed with an ivermectin dewormer for several years would develop a resistance to the dewormer. V did a pre deworming egg count, then dewormed with 2 different products then did a 2nd egg count 2 weeks later. Non of the horses had any parasite eggs after the deworming, so no resistance.

Projects

It has been so cold and snowy this last week that I haven't done much outside. J on the other hand, has been miserable feeding in his cabless tractor. I may have some news on that subject next week.

Meanwhile, here are some indoor activities. I went to another auction yesterday. They spent 2 hours selling the junk stuff before starting on the nice estate items. I didn't get to stay for the good stuff but did bid $2 on a box of glass wear. Nobody else bid so I guess I have some more donations for Goodwill. I do like the cookie jar, and I think E might like the ice cream glasses.
I retrieved the rocker out of the garage and recovered it with some fabric I already had.
It looks nice with my newly recovered Duncan Phyfe sofa.
I also had this goose neck rocker (from an auction 15 years ago) recovered for the bedroom.
Lastly, E has been wanting a purple comforter. I never could find one but I finally found some nice purple fabric that matched her curtains so I bought a plain white down comforter and made a duvet cover for it. Now she wants a purple chair to go with everything else. Guess I still have another project to look forward to.

Crazy Heifer

Yesterday we got the biggest part of the herd up to wean the rest of the calves and deworm/delice the cows.

The cows weren't too much trouble to get up.
With the applicator gun we don't even have to get the cows in the barn to shoot on the dewormer.
The only problem was a crazy heifer from the neighbor's that had jumped in with our cows. The owner is from out of state and just buys a truck load of calves to turn out. Every year something of his always gets over on us.
This one was so wild Emma couldn't even calm her down. We got her in the barn but the only place that would hold her she couldn't tear up was the head gate. We left her in the head gate until we finished working the cattle then loaded her on the trailer. She spent the night there until the owner picked her up to haul her back to the market.