~Gophers Beware~

Spring is such a lovely time of the year, even if it is filled to overflowing with activity!


One of the fun parts about Spring here on the farm is going gopher hunting.... We have one hill in our pasture that is full of gopher families now. They make a big mess of the pasture, (making holes and mounds everywhere) so we use them to improve our aim (and to save on buying cat food!)


I'm not sure that I've actually killed a gopher before, but it sure is fun to try! Either my gun is off, or it's me, I'm not sure... The guys are all pretty good though, and my mom grew up hunting gophers (and at one time, got paid for the tails she pulled off the dead gophers!) so she's got an eye for it! You never would have guessed that my sweet mama would do such a thing, would you? :)

Early this morning, my dad came in from checking cows to get Andrew & I to help get a cow in. She was having difficulties and my dad could tell the calf was backwards. Thankfully, she didn't give us much of a rodeo and we soon had her in the barn and pulled the calf. It was alive and is now happily back out in the pasture with his mother. It's always so nice when things turn out well! Here are a few pictures that I took of the contented cows and calves while on checking duty this afternoon...

....and another picture of some more cows.... In case you haven't noticed yet, I like animals! Oh, by the way, two of my cows had live calves today, so I feel very blessed.

This picture shows a little bit of the water that's all over everywhere this year. We are very grateful for the moisture, as we have hopes now of having a good crop this Fall.


Meet our boss cow, X2... (With the white face.) She used to find great delight in showing the herd the best places for jumping over the fence, but that stopped once we put an electric wire up around the top of the fence! We can still count on her to be the first one up to the pasture every Spring though--a black and white streak, blazing the trail all the 5 miles North to green grass.

Well, it's bedtime, so I'd best post this and get some sleep! I hope you enjoyed the pictures from this sunny day.