Crazy Crazy day when my Farmers away

Talk about a crazy day yesterday.  In the past I have tried to stay away from just jabbering about my day.  I try to focus on my Farmer and crazy stuff that happens.  But yesterday was at wow day and it just feels like I need to blog about it. 
The day started out on a complete high.  My Farmer left early in the morning, before the sun was up, so I was in charge of the chores.  And no that is not why it started out on a high....well maybe a little, but not it.  haha   I checked the heifers first, nothing going on, so I went out challenging people.  I love challenging people to join me on project 10 kids.  If you haven't been invited to join project 10.....well consider this your invite.  Check it out.  Anyways, I got 3 people to accept my challenge, so I was excited.  Next I went and picked my mom up for her doctors appointment.  No biggy, just a routine check up then we would have a nice lunch.  WRONG.  We ended up being sent over to the ER to have a whole bunch of tests run.  Our appointment was at 11 and I believe we left there around 4.  About the time the doctors were trying to decide whether to keep her or let her go, I received a text for our wonderful helper friends, who happened to drive by and check on the cows.  Crap, I had forgotten I was on cow checking duty.  Well the text said a cow was calving.  That's OK, it'll be fine. The next text said it was prolapsing.  WHAT!  Stress level just went from elevated to extreme high.  Crap, now what do I do.  My Farmer is out of town, my mom is in the ER and I need to be both places.  Our friends are very helpful so I knew they could handle anything, but she was smart enough to send  me a picture.  Love technology.  Stress level down a bit.  No calf, no prolapse.  She was able to get the cow up, and everything went back in. (if you don't know what that means, that can be another blog....hehe) Whew!  They released mom right about then, so we hurried home to check things.  First thing I notice as I come around the corner, are buzzards.  Not a good thing.  Sure sign something is dead.  The cow they had been watching was doing ok, but as I looked further out in a different part of the field,  I could see a cow, a small brown bump, a bunch of birds, and a coyote.  Crap!  So I park the car, mom says she is fine, I leave her there and I hop on the atv to go check things out......fast.  What I find is the cow had twins, one was alive the other dead.  So now I am sad.  I am in charge, and it is not fun to have an animal die on your watch.  Totally a downer.  I know I have to separate the dead animal from the alive one, so the birds and coyote will leave the alive on alone.   Totally not a fun job, but I got it done.  Then I remember mom in the car, so I drive back and check on her.  She is fine she says, doesn't want to go home yet, so I leave her and go back out to the cow and calf to make sure he gets up and eats.  Cant do either.  Very stubborn and he will not stand.  I think he had already eaten but not sure.  Back to mom, I finally take her back to my house.  Thankfully, now my Farmer is home.  We feed, he gets the calf up, and off momma and baby go.  We are still not sure if the baby had eaten, and he was shaking, so we gave him a bottle and put him in the warm calf house.  By the time I hit my pillow, I was so ready for the day to be done.  My Farmer promised me he would not leave me again until calving slows down.  Haha.....we'll see.   But you know, thats Livin' the life.....The FARM life that is..  :)    
Thank you for letting me vent to ya all..........

Farming can be "Slicker then Sh**!"

You know the saying...."slicker then shit".  Well I learned the other day what is slicker then shit.  "Ice" covered with shit.  Yep that's me.  I was helping my Farmer in the corral putting in a head catch, preparing for calving season.  I knew it was slick so I was being very careful, but then just like that I went down.  And luckily, my Farmer just got a new "smart phone" and has figured out how to use the camera on it.  This picture is now his screen saver.  Nice huh.  I actually landed very gracefully.  As you can see, I didn't even get my pink hat dirty.  (Very flattering picture of me....but my Farmer keeps asking me if I have posted it yet.) (He thought it was way funnier that it was in my opinion)

And the calving has begun.  This year we decided to calve the heifers before the cows.  It has been going very smoothly.   We have them seperated from the cows, in a pen close to the road so we can keep a close eye on them.  So far, they have all calved on their own with no problems.  Of course,  thats how it works since we have the head catch in and all ready to help those that need it.  But we are not complaining.

And that is sooo  Livin' the life.......the FARM life that it.......

And you do WHAT in the winter??

The #1 question this time of year is....."What do you guys do during the winter?"  As I think about it, what do we do.  We always start out with a list of things to do, mostly mechanic, maintenance, that sort of stuff,  but as spring comes along, there is very few items checked off.   So I sat down to figure out what my Farmer really does with his time in the winter and why he gets less done in the winter verses the summer.  I know why I don't get as much done.......cuz I don't like the cold, but this isn't about me it's about him...hehe.

His day starts as the sun comes up, in the summer time that's about 6, in the winter its 9. ( Now remember, this is my Farmers schedule, not mine......i DO NOT get up early.)  The day ends as the sun is setting low in the sky, summer days around 8, winter days around 5 (or earlier).  At this point, my Farmers work day has gone from a 14 hour day in the summer to, approximately 8 hours in the winter.   His main chore in the winter is tending to the cattle.   Between morning and night, this usually takes about 3 hours a day.  Except every 4th day it takes an extra hour or so to load up the wagons with hay.  So that takes us down to 5 hours of daylight, except every fourth day its 4 hours left.  Then there's lunch.  Since he doesn't always get much of a lunch break in the summer, he makes sure he takes at least an hour for lunch in the winter.  I think something about hibernation comes into play.  So now let's say we are down to 3 to 4 hours of the work day left, let's say 3 cuz hibernation happens more often then not theses days.  Then there's the "honey do" stuff.  Keeping me, I mean the house, stocked with firewood.  A very important job and we will give it a half hour.   Now I have never timed him, but I am sure it takes him at least 1\2 hour every day just to put on and take off his winter gear.  I know it takes me twice that long.....because he tells me!   Evidently he has timed me.  So by my calculation, he has 2 hours left in the day to do mechanicing.  Oh wait, I didn't take into account his daily "meetings" or "conference calls" with his Farmer Friends.  Ok, so that takes the rest of the daylight hours that were left!  No wonder by the time spring comes there isn't anything on the "to do list" marked off!  Oh well, there's always next winter.

Now after doing this, I realize that that leaves way more down time, or in the house time, or together time.   No wonder we feel lucky when we both survive the winter.  But ya know, that's livin' the life......the Farm Life that it.