Replanting

My mother use to have a beautiful border of peonies when I was growing up.  I always looked forward to taking them to my teachers at the end of the year when I was in elementary school.

 But a few years ago she planted a poplar tree in front of the peonies.  Peonies don't like the shade so consequently, they have not been doing well. Plus, I had planted other flowers around them that where invading their territory.

 So today, I decided to move then to a sunny, flower free spot.  Mama chose here, in front of the barbecue  pit.

 J did a lot of the digging while I did the sorting and planting.  Two sack fulls of goat manure were added for good measure.

 I'm not sure if we got them all dug up but there was a tub full of tubers.

Mama says she is really looking forward to spring to see if they will bloom like they use to.

Happy Thanksgiving

Leftovers

The end is near.  For the pears that is. 

 There are a few left dangling on the trees.

 But most are starting to rot on the ground.

 I did pick up a 5 gallon bucket for C if she wants them.  J doesn't like the pears once they hit the ground and I am done making pear sauce.

 I threw a few over to the horses.

 Despite the face, she did like them.  I think she is licking her lips because the pears were so juicy.

 I took 3 bucket full to the goats.

They devoured them.   I cut some up for the steers because I wanted to make sure they didn't choke, but they never came to the fence to try them while I was out there.  With all of that I am still only halfway to getting them all picked up.

Another Auction

J and I spent the day at a farm auction.  120 acres in 3 tracts with a nice 1 story house.  The land was very level with beautiful mountain views.  We briefly entertained the idea of bidding on it until the opening bid was our final amount. 

 The 105 acres w/o the house was 5300 an acre and the house and 15 acres went for 240,000.

 There was some farm equipment and miscellaneous items.  We did manage to buy some corral panels for the new barn.

There was a very large crowd, more of a fair atmosphere than auction.  Everyone enjoyed visiting and the weather was beautiful.  J did lament that he should have been home cutting wood instead.

Christmas is Coming

What do you get when you blow up a few of these,

 wrap them with this,

 that was soaked in this,

 then sprinkled with this?

 CHRISTMAS

 They turned out so pretty I just might have to make another batch.

I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but some things take longer than a month to get ready.

Fall Cows and Calves

Work, work, work.  I had to work this weekend but was off today so what did I do -work.  It was a beautiful day and J had planned to work the fall cows and calves. 

 He already had them up in the small lot.

 We dewormed the cows with an ivermectin pour on and gave them all their prebreeding vaccine.

 It was just the two of us today but the cattle all worked well.

 The calves got a 7 way and the bulls castrated and implanted with ralgro.

Now we can turn the bull in in a few days.  With everything working smoothly we were done with 40 head by lunch.

Kit Cat

Short Ride

After the great ride in the South Carolina Sandhills riding around in the arena here is a little tame.  So, election day after J voted and before I did, we hauled the horses a few miles up the rode to the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail for a short ride.  We rode about 1 1/4 hours up the trail, turned around and came back. 

 We didn't think about it being hunting season until a truck full of hunters passed us where we parked.

 Luckily, J's vest was reversible so he had on his blaze orange.

 With the leaves off the trees we did get some long views.

 There was also a nice waterfall.

All in all, a very pleasant short ride.

Weaning

Time for the round up and weaning.

First we had to get the cattle out of the front field through the horse pasture and into the barn lot.

It always looks like more when they are in a tighter spot.

The cows weren't too happy about being separated.

We only weaned the steers to start with.  Then J dewormed them before turning them back out into another field.

Sound like we will be hearing a little complaining for a few days. 

Mount Rogers 2011

J wanted to hike Mt. Rogers for his birthday celebration this year.  We don't always make the horses do all the work. 

 Last minute invitations rounded up M and L for the hike.  We parked in a different location hoping the hike would be shorter than the previous 15 miles that we have done in the past.

 J started out with the little purple bag.

 We saw a small band of the "wild" ponies.

 The views were spectacular.

 E even posed nicely for a picture.

 Quote from L, "I want to go back on the fire trail, I don't want to have to navigate all of these rocks."  Sorry L, no fire trail.

 There was a shifting of back packs after lunch.

 J's quote, "I'm fresh as fruit in season." (Originally from nephew Matt).  E's not looking all that fresh.

 L and M turned around before reaching the summit.  E still doesn't look too fresh.

A little fresh fruit perked her up on the way back.  Even with our 40 min. detour to the top we were still able to catch up with L and M before they reached the car.  Total mileage about 8 miles.