Monday, February 22, 2010
FFA Week - Monday (Also known as Let the Adventures Begin)
FFA week. Chris is taking an ag class this year so he can be in FFA. Great. This is FFA week. OK. Today is Vehicle Day. Uh oh. Muddy truck or any tractor. OK. Let's take the 4 wheel drive. Did you know that it takes up the better part of a city street? And did you know that when the stack falls off and you have to bring it in the truck that's following you, it's hard to see due to the exhaust coming out right in front of the windshild? No? Well it is. And lastly, did you know that when your dog has been picked up by Animal Control and you let her ride in the tractor with you to school, she gets a bit nervous. She begins hiding when you enter town so that the bad doggie police won't see her? Well she does. And to think, it's only 9 am and we've survived the better part of Vehicle Day. Whew, that was close.
Friday, February 19, 2010
What a day, what a week...
The boys ended up working Tuesday - Friday mornings this week for Mike Martin in Curryville. Monday we crammed in a week's worth of history and finished up Grammar for the week. They would get up each morning at 6 am, check the maternity ward of cows/heifers, grab some breakfast and be on their way by 6:30 or 6:45. Once at Mike's they had to feed grain, feed hay, tie calves, brush calves, blow calves and then turn them out and start over with the next bunch of calves. They would then drag back home about 12:30 or so and be READY for lunch. Chris had ag class each day so he'd head out for that after lunch. THUD. Thursday night when I got home I noticed it was hitting them hard. They were so tired because that didn't end their day. They still had to feed hay, do evening chores and keep up with their Bible study.
Chris had earned the right to go to the Farm Show in Kansas City with FFA this year. We had it down on the calendar that it was on Saturday. I was wrong. It was Friday. So Friday he went to KC with FFA and saw all the new toys and shiny equipment. Mike went with Jesse and I stayed home and did my best to do their work for the morning. Should I mention here that we are now doing around the clock checks on the maternity wards (yes, there are 2 of them - one for cows, one for heifers). I got home from work and told the boys to go on to bed about 9 pm. They were asleep in front of the Olympics anyway. I went out and checked cows a couple of times. Mike got home, checked them again and then we headed to bed....at 1:40 am. I took the 5 am check. It's normally 4 am but I wanted to stay up and fix the guys breakfast and get some stuff done. So, I pretty much slept from 2 to 5 am. I decided against doing my walking video today due to the number of times I've been out checking on cows and calves and the number of times I went up and down the stairs trying to catch up on laundry.
Tonight I had visions of dropping into bed at 9:30. And yet, here it is 11:21. Hmmm....you guessed it, someone decided tonight was the night to calve. And what a whopper of a calf it was. Chris checked her at 8:30 and she had her water bag out. We decided to give her 2 hours and see if she had it. I woke them back up at 10:15 and we began heading out. She barely had the feet out, so we ran her in the barn. The very same place we had kept her out of earlier tonight when she wanted in. Guess we should have listened to her. I came back up and got the Oxytocin (think Pitocin for women), the chains for the puller (forceps concept) and a bucket of warm water with disinfectant in it. The boys got her lassoed and tied off to a corner post in the pen. Chris worked hard at getting the chains double looped around the calf's legs. His feet were big. Our puller is several years old and has been used hard. It's in need of some repair and we probably should see to that tomorrow. It survived the pull and I was so impressed with the knowledge and patience the guys showed in pulling. It was their first solo pull where I just stood and held the rope. We have a nice steer prospect out of the deal that certainly wouldn't have survived had we waited for Mike to get home from work.
So now I'm sitting here typing. Should be sleeping because I'll be up at 4 checking again. But maybe, just maybe, I can go back to bed then and get some extra sleep. Ahhh, the joys of calving season.
Chris had earned the right to go to the Farm Show in Kansas City with FFA this year. We had it down on the calendar that it was on Saturday. I was wrong. It was Friday. So Friday he went to KC with FFA and saw all the new toys and shiny equipment. Mike went with Jesse and I stayed home and did my best to do their work for the morning. Should I mention here that we are now doing around the clock checks on the maternity wards (yes, there are 2 of them - one for cows, one for heifers). I got home from work and told the boys to go on to bed about 9 pm. They were asleep in front of the Olympics anyway. I went out and checked cows a couple of times. Mike got home, checked them again and then we headed to bed....at 1:40 am. I took the 5 am check. It's normally 4 am but I wanted to stay up and fix the guys breakfast and get some stuff done. So, I pretty much slept from 2 to 5 am. I decided against doing my walking video today due to the number of times I've been out checking on cows and calves and the number of times I went up and down the stairs trying to catch up on laundry.
Tonight I had visions of dropping into bed at 9:30. And yet, here it is 11:21. Hmmm....you guessed it, someone decided tonight was the night to calve. And what a whopper of a calf it was. Chris checked her at 8:30 and she had her water bag out. We decided to give her 2 hours and see if she had it. I woke them back up at 10:15 and we began heading out. She barely had the feet out, so we ran her in the barn. The very same place we had kept her out of earlier tonight when she wanted in. Guess we should have listened to her. I came back up and got the Oxytocin (think Pitocin for women), the chains for the puller (forceps concept) and a bucket of warm water with disinfectant in it. The boys got her lassoed and tied off to a corner post in the pen. Chris worked hard at getting the chains double looped around the calf's legs. His feet were big. Our puller is several years old and has been used hard. It's in need of some repair and we probably should see to that tomorrow. It survived the pull and I was so impressed with the knowledge and patience the guys showed in pulling. It was their first solo pull where I just stood and held the rope. We have a nice steer prospect out of the deal that certainly wouldn't have survived had we waited for Mike to get home from work.
So now I'm sitting here typing. Should be sleeping because I'll be up at 4 checking again. But maybe, just maybe, I can go back to bed then and get some extra sleep. Ahhh, the joys of calving season.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Snow....
I love snow. It's so beautiful and calming. And, if it's cold enough to snow, the ground should be frozen! Even better in my opinion. As I type this at 4:30 am, it's a balmy 9 degrees outside. Yet another night to be thankful for our ground source heat pump. I have a goal for myself for this month. Beginning today, I'm going to walk a minimum of 1 mile a day. I got a video to walk along with so that when it's too cold or muddy or whatever outside, I can walk in the man cave. Feel free to check up on me. I'm a notorious slacker.
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