Photo Update

Morgan and Jakes litter of puppies- going on 3 weeks old- some mobile creatures now.
Travis of Hollifield resting in the shade- what a bull he is!! Were gonna fix those horns though!

Sally and Abby calf (Left, left)......... Big Momma and Chloe (right cow and center calf)

Hay mowed at Wolfe Farm- Andrew mowed on saturday, hot sun + wind = dry hayHay raked by your truly on Sunday afternoon, baling by Andrew Sunday night

We have more ahy down, Matt mowed hay Sunday while we were busy.... Happy Fathers Day to Dads everywhere!

Another Calf

Yesterday Big Momma gave birth to a red heifer "Chloey" (Above). She had no difficulty and let me carry it to the barn. We are now at 5 head of cattle: 1 Bull- Travis, 2 Cows- Sally, Big Momma, 2 Calves- Abby, Chloe.

Above is Sally and her calf Abby, in the pature this morning.
This is an older picture of our bull Travis of Hollifield.

My brother got new tires on his Jeep and had to try them out. After a long day of fence building ( Thanks guys) he got to try them out on trails. Fun, fun.

Yesterday Andrew, Cayla and I baled hay and hauled it to the barn. The new sqaure baler worked great.

New life on the farm

The garden is doing well so far, Jay has been a big help, LOL. So far we have 4 kinds of tomatos, potatos, bell peppers, banana peppers, bush beans cuccumber, cantelope and corn, and a rash of herbs which will be in our new raised bed. (Later Post)

Morgan and Jake just had their final litter of puppies before the fix. (Yes they're getting fixed.) She gave birth to: 8 total= 6 live, 2 still born......... 4 male, 2 female.......... 4 black, 2 white with black. Everyone is fine and dandy and eating well. Taking requests on pups.

Sally finally had her calf!!!!! Yesterday Morning!!! Easy birth she pushed for a few minutes calf emerged, and fell right out. she immediately began cleaning it, etc... The normal mom stuff I guess. Its a heifer (female) and appears to be a red/dun color. The first calving I have witnessed!

With the weather cool and rainy we decided to pin them up in the barn for a day or so. Sally is not happy about being in the barn, as you may know she has been our trouble cow.... she is plain nuts! Below she is playing guard, no human contact allowed on her watch.

The dates dont line up, I know, but these pictures were all taken yesterday June 3.

Make Hay While The Sun Shines

The old sang "Make hay while the sun shines" is hold true this week. Wow how the seasons have changed, the hot sun is out and its hay season again. Andrew (neighbor) and I have been mowing hay this week preparing to bale. Above is Matt's tractor (neighbor and Andrews brother), that we have been using to mow the hay. Below is a close up picture of raked hay rows in the above pictured field. Make sense? Anyway, we have had frost 2 days this week so far, lost a few seedlings to it, but thankfully nothing else. We're gonna shoot for firewood hauling and fence building after all the fields have had the first cut of hay mowed off of them.We did get a chance to plant our new apple trees. They are doing well. No calf or calves yet! Is the Vet right? are we crazy? Both? We'll keep you updated. I was recently looking at Mother Earth News online and read an article about Athens, and it made me think Isnt Athens County such a beautiful place to live? Link to the article: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/2006-08-01/Great-Places-Athens-Ohio.aspx

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Belated Mothers Day to all! sorry its late. Above are my 2 most favorite people, helping out, putting up temporary cow fence. Yes, on Mothers Day, LOL. What a great day it was for Mom: Breakfast in bed, Opening gifts from Jay, church, Home for lunch, then outside for the afternoon. We worked in the garden and moved cow fence.The cows are now a fresh piece of ground. If you know our farm its the field by the pine trees, which has never been grazed since we have had the farm. The cows are loving the cool shade of the pines. Sally, the cow that is due to calve anytime is getting closer. Her teets are beginning to swell with milk.

Grass fed beef. This type of beef is said to be superior to grain fed beef. The following is a quote from Consumer Reports: "Grass-fed steak can also have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, which may help reduce heart-disease risk. Grass-fed ground beef usually has more conjugated linoleic acid, which might improve the immune system and help fight cancer, atherosclerosis, and type 2 diabetes, lab and animal studies show." here is a link to the article:

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/food/news/2008/03/grass-fed-beef-3-08/overview/grass-fed-beef-ov.htm?EXTKEY=SP72FD0&CMP=KNC-CROYPIFOOD&HBX_OU=51&HBX_PK=pi.

These are pictures of our cattle grazing one of the lush green pastures on our farm.

Calving Article

Not much time to post, this will be short. As you may know one of our cows is due to calve within the next month according to the vet. Here is a link to an interesting article from the Smoky Mountian Heritage Farm : Dexter Cow Labor and Delivery (WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES OF BIRTH PROCESS). This article shows one of their Dexter cows in the birthing process. Miracles of farm life.

http://www.smokymountainfarm.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=74

Surgery Successful

As always, were busy. Jays surgery was a success! All went well, we went into Children's in Columbus at about 6am, and were out and on the way home about 10:30am. He had the eye cyst removed, an eye muscle cut to correct for the cyst, and a couple of skin repairs (ear tags removed). He is healing well, the surgery doesn't seem to have slowed him down, hes playing like normal. We are so thankful.

On another note: We thought we had a cow calving this week(one on the left). The cow began stringing mucous, this continued for 2 days before calling the vet for a house call. The vet had no explanation for the mucous, but confirmed the pregnancy, and called it 7 months along with strong pulse and fetus movement, cervix still closed, so no abortion. For info: a cows gestation is approx 283 days, roughly 9 months. This means that she was bred to our red bull, Travis, who is pictured- center.

We have also been cutting more firewood preparing for next winter. We prepared the backside of the garage for building our new lean to shed, which will be 20 ft wide and 12 ft deep.

Moving Bubba

The story of our lives: we have been really busy. Recently with the cold snap our lives have revolved around getting chores done, hauling firewood and staying warm. Last week the newest member of our Dexter Cattle herd was delivered, a 15 month old- born Oct 2007, black, dexter heifer, we named Autumn; we will have pictures of her on soon.

This week we borrowed a trailer to move Bubba our Angus Beef steer, to the neighbors farm where he finish growing out until butcher time. The story with Bubba: he was abandonded by his mom, and adopted by one of our dexter cows("Sassy Sally") that had a calf die. They are very attached to one another, he has been impossible to wean, he now towers over her by about 6-8 inches and is 9 months old and still trying suck off mom. We have to wean him, because his mom "Sassy Sally" is carrying a calf to be born this spring, the calf needs the nutrients to grow. He was tough to catch, we ran him into the barn, and then he entered the trailer easily, and unloaded at the Sayres easily. Pulling the full size stock trailer with a Toyota 4 cylinder truck in the snow is another story, LOL. Pictures following of: Farmer Jay and his new farvorite boots (can you tell he is mine?) and moving Bubba following.