Drought

Our area has been in a drought for some time now. J is estimating 2 years. The spring that feeds this trough that the horses use and another one at the barn the show calves drink from, has pretty much dried up for now.J has borrowed a 250 gallon water tank that fits in the back of the pick-up truck to start hauling water to fill the 500+ gallon tire troughs up.

Working Cattle

We had to work cattle today. We kept waiting for a good day that corresponded with one of my days off but it never worked out so we did it today in 20 degree weather.We vaccinated and dewormed the cows,

vaccinated,

implanted,

and castrated the calves.
With V and E's help, we worked 46 cows/heifers, and 35 calves in 3 hours.

Snow Day 2

Today's automated call cancelling school came at 6:10 am. I don't think the weather station was even calling for snow until after it started snowing last night.

At least the girls, plus friend J, were able to enjoy the sleds they got for Christmas last year and never got to use.

The wind is supposed to pick up to >20 mph. I'm glad J has gotten a lot of wood.

I guess it's time to do away with the pumpkins and start on Christmas.

Career Day

Our local Elementary School had a career day today. I took Emma as a visual aid. Despite to day being poorly run (4 min. each for groups of 2-6 from 9am to 12 pm), Emma did wonderful.I forgot to take her in yesterday for a bath so I sprayed her with doggy cologne, brushed her well and took hand sanitiser for any of the kids that petted her to use. Of course all 100+ students petted, hugged, and rolled on the floor with her. The nurse sharing the same room requested she not be in with the dog next year because her plastic baby doll wasn't getting the same attention.

Snow Day

The day started out with a 6 am call from the new school alert system to tell us that school would be 2 hours late. Nothing like waking up early to be told you don't have to get up early.

By 8:30 they decided to cancel school. Of coarse this was the time that it stopped snowing.

Show Calves

We've got the girls' show calves now.

We bought V's from a neighbor and picked him up today. He weighs 700 pounds.J picked E's out of our herd. He has been feeding him separate from the ones going out west.

They each have a Hereford heifer to show also. The 5th one at the feed trough is a heifer we are feeding for a beef. As you can see we had a little rain. It had been extremely dry lately so we're not complaining about the mud.

Pergola part 2

More progress on the pergola! I finished the structure today.

Now I need to finish the pathway. I'm thinking about some type of stepping stone path with pea gravel filling in, retained by the plastic landscape edging.