Window On The Prairie

Circle Of Life

Suzanne — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:38:56 +0000

A pair of robins have built a nest atop a head-gate in one of the farm buildings. The parents were quite angry with me for being so near their nest and screamed at me from a nearby tree as I took a few quick pics of it last evening.

Which is a curious thing when you think about it:

The robins, in spite of being afraid of me, were willing to risk their lives to protect their babies.

-Babies that may be nothing more than a collection of cells at this point, unseen by their parents, but recognized by them to be their babies.

-Not fully formed, but fully deserving of their parent’s protection, care, and love.

oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

A Steer’s Trip To The Barber

Suzanne — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:28:37 +0000

Remember “A Cow’s Trip To The Beauty Parlor“?

Well, now we have a steer that will shortly, a’hem, be taking a trip to the barber for a shave and a haircut, so to speak….

Or maybe he won’t. Lucky didn’t get his name because he’s had an unfortunate life.

You see, when we have calves, we wait until they are a year old before selling them at auction. We always keep back 10-12 heifers (girls) to be used as replacements for any cows that have to be culled that year. Meanwhile, the bull calves are castrated, at which point they are referred to as steers, and then all of them are sold at the auction. So a couple springs ago, Harland picked out the heifers to keep, and then turned them out to grass to be bred by the bull that summer. When fall came, everyone was rounded up, and the vet was called to preg check the cows and heifers to see that everyone had been bred and how far along they were.

So the vet is sticking his arm up the backside of each of the cows and heifers one by one, and all is going along fine until he gets to one particular heifer and stops-

“Um, this is not a heifer. This is a steer.”

Somehow, when the heifers were held back from the sale the previous spring, we held back one of the steers as well. He should have gone to the sale,but it was too late now. Geez, how embarrassing.

A steer is a pretty worthless animal to a cow/calf operation like ours. Because he’s been castrated, he can’t sire any calves, and since he’s not a cow, he can’t get pregnant. So we decided to butcher him.

Last summer, he went out to pasture to grow a little larger. It was our intention to butcher him last fall, but with the drought last summer, and then the busy fall harvest, and then our snowy winter, we just didn’t get around to it. So now, he’s grown pretty large, bigger than is typical for butchering. Steers are usually butchered at 15-18 months old and about 800 -1000 pounds. Lucky is now over 24 months old and about 1200 pounds.

A couple weeks ago we started him on 4 gallons of grain per day to add marbling to him, so he’s gaining more weight every day.

“Mmmm…so tasty. Why didn’t you feed this to me before?”

What he doesn’t know is that achieving marbling only takes about 40 days. After that, …he’ll be going for that “shave and haircut”.

But who knows, he’s led a charmed life so far. Maybe the truck will break down and we won’t be able to haul him to the “barber”. Maybe a giant comet will hit northeast Kansas bringing on another ice age and we’ll be too busy shoveling snow to take him on his last trip.

With Lucky, anything is possible.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

What Are We Up To

Suzanne — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:54:19 +0000

Volunteer work

We had a great weekend here.

Saturday morning, Harland came back from feeding the outdoor lions (barn cats) and said that the last heifer had finally had her calf. We’re now officially done with calving. We’ve been so distracted with gardening, planting crops, and other spring stuff, we didn’t even notice she was close and so were taken by surprise. From the looks of how lively the calf was, she must have had him the day before. So Harland headed back up to the barn to eartag the calf before turning them out to pasture as I watched from our front yard in my bathrobe. Ah, the joy of living in the country and having the luxury of stepping outside in one’s bathrobe in the early morning sunshine.

Anyway, I watched as Harland began to eartag the calf and the cow kept rushing him trying to clean his clock and Harland kept swinging at her with the eartagger to keep her back. Like some strange version of a bullfighter in Spain. Finally he got the tag inserted and left Nervous Nellie alone with her baby. As he walked back to the house he remarked that we’ll never have to worry about coyotes doing anything to that cow’s calf.

So Harland left for the day, while I got a load of laundry going and then headed up to Falls City, NE to go antiquing at a place I’ve never been before: Norma’s Antique Mall located at an old JC Penney store. Seven thousand square feet of antique booths. BLISS! So I lingered there for a couple hours and saw lots of things I wanted but talked myself out of. I came away with a little white tablecloth with a crocheted edge and cutwork. I’ll put it on the end-table in the living room.

Then I had a cheeseburger and fries at Runza (the best around).

Then I stopped by a couple greenhouses looking for cucumbers and came home with 5 plants. And I bought a lavender plant too. I don’t have much luck with lavender, it keeps dying on me or not making it through the winter. But the variety I bought is supposed to be more winter hardy so I’ll give it a whirl.

When I got home in the mid-afternoon, I ran out and planted the cucumbers and tomato plants and then filled up water towers for all of them to protect them from cool nights and the wind. Then I ran in to shower and change. Harland came home and showered and changed too. Then we headed to church. The rest of the evening is a blur. Supper was in there somewhere but I don’t remember what happened the rest of the evening. Old age is creeping in.

Sunday morning, we both headed out to do some volunteer work and were back home by the early afternoon.

Volunteer work

We took a quick Sunday nap, and then I did some housework. Later Harland made supper while I made a cherry pie. We kept a eye on the skies as they were darkening and clouds were rolling in. Harland hurried out to feed the steer we’re fattening up for our freezer, thinking he would be back before the storm broke. But the rain began to pour down a few minutes after he left.

Lovely lovely rain pouring down in buckets. Rain falling on our green grass, our plum trees with tiny plums, our vegetable garden with potatoes, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and tiny sweet corn just coming up. It rained on our field corn also just coming up, and the soybean fields Harland just planted last week. It rained on the wheat just starting to head out. I stood at the window watching the rainwater run down the driveway and puddles form in the vegetable garden while the smell of baking cherry pie filled the house. We got over an inch from this storm.

When Harland came back he was soaking wet, so he changed and we then watched a little tv, had a slice of warm cherry pie with whipped cream, and then showers and bed.

I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t taken any pictures, so you’ll have to take my word for it that all of the above happened as I have no proof that it did, except for the volunteering bit. :)

Hope all of you had a great weekend as well.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Tomato Carnage

Suzanne — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:24:38 +0000

I came home recently to find this on our kitchen floor:

“HOLY CRAP!!!!!”

I texted a pic of the carnage to Harland. And he replied,

“!!!!”

I called 911 and a couple of police detectives came to our house to process the scene of the Tomatocide.

They’ve narrowed down their suspects and already have a “~~person~~ feline of interest”.

Means: The suspect can jump on top of the microwave, open the cabinet door where the tomatoes are kept, and push one of the out onto the floor. The suspect is also has a history of murder:

Motive: The suspect is hungry all the time because the humans won’t feed her the requested 10 pounds of food per day. It’s thought that the suspect, tired of asking the humans for a bit of tomato to eat, took matters into her own ~~hands~~ feet, and obtained a tomato on her own.

Opportunity: The suspect lives at the residence. Also, both the humans were at work, enabling the suspect to commit the alleged crime without witnesses.

The suspect is not talking, and no arrest has been made as yet.

Further Tomatocides are being avoided by firmly closing the tomato cabinet door.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Parting Shots

Suzanne — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:54:08 +0000

Here are a few leftover images from the Spring cattle move. When we had the calves penned up waiting for their vaccinations, I couldn’t resist getting a few parting shots of them.

We won’t get this close to them again until fall when they come back from the summer pasture.

There was plenty of room in their pen, but instinct tells them to herd up tight when they are faced with a new situation.

I’ve never noticed that their upper eyelashes turn downward, instead of up like ours.

Check out standard calf underbite. They lose this as they get older, but it adds to their cuteness while it lasts.

Notice also how sweat has beaded up on his nose. It was 80+ degrees that day.

Happy Wednesday!

xoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxox

Window On The Prairie

Circle Of Life

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