Nebraska Bound

Not us, just our cattle.

The calves we weaned 45 days ago were ready for the trip to the feedlot.  

Once again, Joe had everything lined up to work like clockwork.  

But there was still a lot of pushing, tugging and shoving to get 77 head loaded on 4 trailers  for the short trip to the farm across the river where they have cattle scales and a loading area large enough for a tractor trailer.  

At the neighbor's barn, they were sorted in to groups of 10ish, 

                                         

run onto the scales, 

and weighed.  

The tractor trailer got backed in 

and bedded for the cattle. 

52,515 pound were loaded into 7 different compartments for the 22 hour trip. 

I hope they all had their mooving buddy. 

This was the list the trucker gave us of the number in each group for each compartment. 

If you look closely, you can see the trucker straddled over the entrance.  He was making sure the cattle kept going to the right spot and then he could jump down and close off whatever compartment they just filled.  

 Now we just need them to put up a cattle cam in the feedlot so Joe can keep up with them for the next 8 months.

As a bonus, the fog lifted and I was able to get a picture of our house from a spot I don't get to see too often.  

There it is, those two white dots.  

Zucchini

In case anyone has zucchinis and tomatoes in abundance, here is a good way to eat them.  

Slice zucchini, toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Lay out on cookie sheet.  Top with tomato slice and parmesan cheese.  

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes.  And you have a tray full of bite size goodness.   

More rain yesterday evening created some fog on the mountains.  

Things are very green for this time of year seeing as we have been in an extreme drought.  
 

The Channels

Joe wanted to do something different than usual on Sunday.  So, instead of walking around here, we drove and hour and a half to walk around somewhere else.  I had seen something about The Channels in Saltville and thought it sounded interesting. 

It was purchased by the Virginia Department of Forestry in 2008, so it is a relatively new attraction.  There are only 10 parking spots, violators will be ticketed and towed.  There were 12 parked cars and another waiting when we arrived and another pulled in right after us.  Joe was pretty put out.  He thought that no one would bother to drive 30 minutes up a very winding road in the middle of no where to go on a hike.  I had already read that you needed to get there early to get a spot so I was not surprised by the number of cars there.  And since we were already there, I didn't mind waiting to see if a spot opened up.  It turned out we only had to wait about 30 minutes.  Then off we went.  The trail was 3 1/2 miles up hill the whole way.  

I enjoyed spotting wildflowers like these fire pinks, 

Mountain laurel, 

rhododendron, 

galax, 

goat's beard, 

blue eyed grass, 

And wild azalea.                                                                                                                                             

Finally, at the top there was a lookout tower.  Unfortunately, it was closed to the public.  

But there was a rock outcropping that had a beautiful view.  

I had eaten my lunch in the parking lot while we waited, but Joe packed his up the mountain and ate here.  

Then it was just a few hundred yards to The Channels.  

It doesn't look like much from the top.  

But it is amazing from the bottom.  

Joe said it would be a good spot for a Gunsmoke episode.   He said he could just hear Chester getting lost and calling out, "Mr. Dillon, Mr. Dillion."

I, on the other hand, thought about True Grit when Joe said he would take my picture.  I took off  my hat and my sunglasses immediately flew off and down into a hole.  I just thought about the snake pit.  Luckily, there was a stick near by that I was able to use to fish my glasses closer so I could reach them.  And there was no snake. 

We explored all of the nooks and crannies for about half an hour.  It was fascinating.  

Then it was 3 1/2 miles back down the mountain.  

It was a very enjoyable 4 hour hike.  We had no idea this was nearly in our backyard.  

 

Treacherous

Well, with temperatures staying from 0-20 and wind chills in the negative numbers, the 3 inches of packed snow and sleet has turned into solid ice.  

It may look pretty but it is treacherous.  Yesterday, Joe fell 5 times trying to get around to feed and bust water tanks.  Thankfully, he was not hurt.  It took me 3 times as long to feed the dogs last night.  The goats are preferring to hunker down under an old barn 1/2 a mile from the house.  

And when you have to walk with baby steps, everything takes longer.  

 

Hit And Miss

This morning I went out with Joe to move the 10 cows out of the horse field. 

Unfortunately, they were at the top of the hill.  But the morning view was a nice bonus.  

We drove them down the hill, 

and into the next field.  That was a hit. 

But Joe had noticed a goat not acting right and wanted to catch her so we could deworm her.   Not acting right did not include not being able to run fast.  That was a miss.