No Snow, No Bull......

Well, we finally got some snow around here.  Just in the last two weeks, we got around 2 feet or so (depending on where you're standing) of snow.   All the businesses and the ski hills around are very glad; me and my Farmer, not so much.   I believe the cows were also enjoying the no snow months.  They were able to wonder the whole pasture and graze a little, which normally does not happen around here in the winter.  And how you ask, do I know the cows were enjoying it?  Well, because day 2 of the snow storms, (we received about 10-15 inches in those 2 days) the cows decided to misbehave.  Yep, that's right.  They decided they wanted in a different pasture.  The one where the heifers were.  (Refresher course: Heifers are females that have not had calves yet. Cows are females that have had calves)   It would be OK for the cows to be in the same pasture as the heifers, except for our bulls were also in the pasture with the cows.  This is the problem.  Our heifers are still open (not been with a bull yet), and we do not want the bulls with the heifers just yet.  Reasons: #1 They are too young to get bred yet.  # 2 These bulls are not the bulls we want to breed them with.   So yes, they were able to push the fence down and co-mingle.  So now we had to get them separated.  again.  and the faster the better, before the bulls introduced themselves to the heifers.  (I'm assuming they had not met before I got there, but you know what they say about assuming....) Step #. 1 Get them in the corral.  As I was rushing around opening and closing gates, I was reminded how much nicer it was (just 2 days earlier) to not deal with snow.  Some gates were only pushing a couple of inches of snow to close, others had to be shoveled out to open, and then others were frozen to the ground and forget using them!  Step #2. Get them separated.  Our cows are very use to our corral.  In fact, they think they know how it works.  Once they are inside, they know which gate takes them back out to the pasture.  Next problem.  The gate they are use to exiting from is frozen to the ground with 2 feet of snow behind it so that escape route is out! My Farmer thinks this is no big deal, cuz they can just go out the other gate.  NOT!  So around and around the corral my Farmer and I (so did you start to sing a song from grade school too, or was that just me?) ran trying to get the cows to go out the other gate.  You talk about a work out!  Especially when you are wearing your "not a fashion statement" boots, in 2 feet fresh snow, with frozen cow shit under the snow.   But eventually we did win, cows finally went out the other gate, heifers got put back in their pen and the bulls stayed in the corral locked away from everything.  (Yep, they totally got the short end of the deal.)  As I said, the no snow was nice while it lasted.  But just like that, we are back to reality, we live in snow country, we get snow, so we'll deal with it.  Come this summer, when it is time to irrigate, we will be thankful that it snowed.  As for now, we're still livin' the life, the farm life that is...........and counting down the days till spring.

New Adjustments

First off, I once again have to apologize to my followers for not keeping up with my postings.  Winters are suppose to be a slow time around the farm and I thought I would have time to do a lot of blogging, but of course, once again, I was wrong.  After the holidays, my mom had a bad fall and so we took the step and moved her in with us.  We made my office into a room for her and put my office in the basement.  So this last couple of weeks, I am adjusting to a new schedule.  I am spending more time in the house and less time helping my Farmer.  The up side is my house is staying cleaner (because I'm there more but mostly cuz mom tells me it needs cleaned), and I'm spending more time with her.  She is teaching me how to crochet her famous afghans that she has been making for years, which is pretty cool.  The down side is I haven't been helping my Farmer as much.  (just between you and me, this is still out to jury whether it is a down side or not) (ha).   Once mom is a little more settled in, I will start my ritual of walking over every evening again, and drive the tractor for him when he feeds the cattle.   So far the winter has been very mild, and he's been able to feed the cattle by himself.  Without much snow, he just lets the tractor go by itself thru the field.  This probably isn't the safest thing, but he gets it done.  And with the lack of snow fall, we haven't had to plow our snowplow route.  With taking care of mom and everything, it's been nice not having to plow, but I know next month when it comes to paying some bills, I will be missing that income.  Also because of the lack of snow this year, my Farmer has been getting a lot done around the place.  A normal winter, we figure that it usually takes 3 times as long to do anything, and you really don't get anything done.  But this winter, he is finding out what it's like when you don't have tons of snow to deal with and I think he's liking it.  He even did a little work on my house, which was awesome, and maybe I'll post some pictures of it some day.  But for now, I'm still adjusting and rearranging things around the house, and my Farmer is happy about all the things he's getting done around the farm.  And I think we will keep plugging along with smiles on our faces.........here on the farm.........where we're livin' life......the farm life that is.