Calves and a Head's Up


Here's the "Calves" part:

The two Jersey calves are doing great. Then Melissa brought home twins. They're half Jersey, one quarter Swedish Red, and one quarter Holstein. After working with them, I think they're 100% Holstein---pushy and stubborn!

But also cute...






And here are the Jerseys, now old enough to spend time outside cavorting....





And here's the Farmer who, on her way in for lunch, stopped to prune an apple tree. Not sure using a four-wheeler as a ladder is OSHA-approved, but it works.


And here's the "Head's Up" part. Blogger will no longer be supporting the platform on which this blog is built, and my Web Goddess is having issues getting the blog to migrate to the new platform. Don't get me started on the chaos Blogger is causing, but as of May 1, if the migration doesn't go smoothly, you'll have to go to my website, www.risingmoonfarm.com, and use the link there for Farm Tales. I'm so sorry... this migration is a great way to lose all my links and all my readers, but nothing I can do. So cross your fingers, and hope to see everyone in a week when I post again....

Really, everyone needs to cross their fingers....and toes....

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There Be Calves Here

I love the line from Star Trek IV: The Journey Home, when Scotty beams two humpbacks into the Enterprise's cargo bay and is overcome with joy: "Captain, there be whales here!"

As an experienced writer, I will steal this line and make it my own. "Captain, there be calves here!"

First, some early spring images:

The living footstools under our kitchen counter:




The tray our neighbors gave Melissa:





The neighbor's pasture burn, to the south of our driveway, done to stimulate the native grasses growing there. Amazing how they set two lines of fire which then burned toward each other. Magic.




The Farmer's handknit socks, both of them. (I'd knit one, but that apparently wasn't enough---she wanted another one.)





And then it was time to prepare for the arrive of two calves. First Melissa used our Farmall 706 to scrap up the manure and composted hay around the barn:






Then she borrowed the neighbor's little Farmall 300 and manure spreader (that's the thing groaning under a load of composted manure):





I don't have a photo of the manure being flung all about the pasture from the back of the manure spreader. I'm thinking everyone can live without that image.

I forgot to take a 'before' picture, but here's the scrapped up yard. We'll seed it and hope the chickens don't eat all the seeds:







Then our friend Emily, visiting from Madison, mucked out the inside of the barn (Poor Emily---bad timing to visit the weekend the barn needed mucking!) Another visiting friend--Mary---and I put down down lime and fresh straw and made two pens.

Then Mary and Melissa drove off in the pickup, and came back two hours later with these guys:











Got finger?





Ahh, life is good. A full tummy and warm sunshine. It doesn't get much better than this.