Christmas Ornament

I have started on this year’s ornament.

Here is a sneak preview.

Looks like some felt, pom poms, embroidery floss, batting and a disassembled ponytail holder.  I did splurge for the grey and teal felt, but everything else I had on hand.  We'll see what happens. 
 

Weaning Has Begun

J has begun weaning the spring calves.  He stated with the first calf heifers that are on the rented pasture.  The new pens he had built worked fine.  Much better that the falling down ones we had been babying along for years. 

The only problem came in trying to back back out of the field. 

A gully had washed out in front of the gate which caused the back wheels to drop and then the back of the trailer was stuck. 

Plus the ground was slick and we couldn't pull forward either.  

J had to walk home and bring back the tractor to pull the trailer out.  Then he had to steal a couple of dipper loads of gravel from the gullies on the gravel road to fill in the gully in front of the gate.   He finally got backed out and to the house with the load of calves. 

They have been weaned now for a few days.  The sign must have been right for that anyway, because they really weren't too much trouble. 
 

Garden Produce?

I can't believe it is almost Thanksgiving and I am still getting lettuce out of the garden.

I cleared everything off over a month ago and have been dumping mulched leaves as I get them up.  But I left the lettuce to see what it would do.  

I enjoyed a nice salad with a variety of lettuce types.  There may be a couple of more servings out there. 
 

Yet Another Flood

I think we have had more flooding here in the last 20 months than we have in the last 20 years.  Another 4 inches at once caused the creek to flood and washed out a section of fence. 

J has worked on this section several times this year.  He replaced the woven wire with 16 foot cattle panels so they would be more likely to come off in sections instead of a longer run of wire.  

We ended up having to go pick up rocks to tamp into the post holes to help hold them in tighter.  

Wonder how long it will last this time. 
 

Good Goat Day

We sold our kids last Saturday.  The market lines up a buyer for us then tells us when to have them there.   I think the same person has been buying them for the last several years. 

So the day before, J and I walked 3-4 miles getting them all gathered up.  

They had split up into 6 different groups all over the farm.  

That really makes it hard for the dogs to keep up with. 

At least the goats are easy to handle.  Once you get them going in a direction they pretty much stay the course. 

Gathering was successful, and they all spent the night in the field behind the house. 

V and M came the next morning to help with the sorting.  

It wasn't near as much walking to get them to the barn as it was the day before. 

It's a lot of goats when you get them all together.  

Once in the barn, we sorted out the nannies.  M was a big help here, snatching up two at a time.  Once the nannies were out, we kept out 16 doelings, 1 because she was tiny, 7 as our replacements, and 8 for someone in the Sheep and Goat Club that came to the tour here last year, liked how we did things and wanted to start a herd of their own.  That left 84 kids to take to the market, our largest group ever.  We finally made it to 100 kids at weaning.  

We picked up a billy goat on Friday and turned him out Saturday after the kids left.  

Should be starting all over in about 5 months. 
 

Coupon Saturday #50

I know you have been dying to see some more couponing in action, but it has pretty much been just more of the same; 

Buying a bunch of stuff I don't need (shampoo, Rolaids, Dulcolax, candles, Welch's) in order to get what I want cheaper.  $2.08 plus tax.  That is until....

Ibotta finally came up with a great deal.   They teamed up with Walmart and all of this was FREE!  With Ibotta you have to buy the item first then you get a rebate for the value of the coupon back into your account.  Sometimes there are bonus and cents off any item things too.  Plus, I had a friend that joined and did the deal and I got and extra $10 for that, so SCORE!

Shortly after, another bonus showed up for $5 off 8 deals and there were a couple of free coupons still, which made all of this free too.  It's been a good month on Ibotta.   I think the turkey dinner deal is still going,  Anyone want to join? HERE Just use my code;   jirbpcj 

 

This Week's Catch Up

It was back to farming full force when we got back from vacation.  Saturday V and M came to help work the fall calving cows.  

Well, M helped, V walked around and looked for a place to build a house I think.  

It took some quick footwork to get all those little calves corralled.  

The cows got off easy, one shot and pour on dewormer.  The heifer calves got one shot and an ear tag.  The bulls however, had to become steers.  

I think a few of them suspected something and were a little rambunctious. 

But there was nothing M couldn't handle.  

Mountain oysters anyone? 

The weather has been unseasonably warm which has allowed me to get some good riding time in on Otoelene. 

I was headed down the driveway when I saw a bird soaring over the pine trees.  I usually assume all big soaring birds are vultures, but I looked closer 

and saw it was a bald eagle.  It was very close and circled for a long time.  It was nice to have a horse that doesn't mind standing still for me to take pictures.  

Then there are always cows somewhere to check. 

And you never know when a buck will pop up. 

I think we missed the peak fall colors while on our trip, but there are a few yellows and reds left amongst the browns. 

The leaves stayed on the burning bushes longer than usual this year.  They made for a showy entrance to the yard for a couple of weeks.  It's hard to beat a fall ride on a good horse. 

The Ride Home

We had to be down at the ferry by 8 am, so not a lot of time to do anything else.  We didn't even get breakfast because that was not until 9:30. 

E helped us get all our things to the boat.  Plus, she was sending a couple of boxes of her stuff she wasn't using and didn't want to haul back next month. 

The water was calm and peaceful.  

The only wavys were the ones created by our boat. 

It was beautiful with lots to see.  The other people on the ferry were just looking at their phones or talking.  

I was taking pictures of wildlife, like this Blue Heron,

and this Great Egret, 

and the dolphins, 

and some other birds, 

and some other birds, 

and this pelican, but you get the idea.                                                                            

I guess if you are making the 45 minute trip over and over you get use to it, but I enjoyed every minute.  

I saw a sign at the park camping area that describe something called Salt Pruning. 

Salt pruning is the process by which saline mists generated by seawater are driven ashore by winds and thus over time alter the shape of trees or shrubs. The process degrades foliage and branches on the windward side of the plant that faces the body of saline water, more than it does the foliage on the landward side.

I had never heard this term before and found it very interesting.  I think this is a pretty good example of Salt Pruning.  (and the boat wreck added some additional interest) 

From there we headed north, had lunch in Columbia with J's brother and sister-in-law, and made it back around 7.  The farm and house were in great shape due to our spectacular farm sitters.  Looking forward to our next great adventure where ever that will be...

up next, Back to our regularly scheduled program.