Cows and their babies...

We enjoyed a lovely Spring day out of doors, mainly working on our greenhouse (pictures coming soon)! We're also, as you know, busy with calving now, and had 7 calves yesterday and 6 today. Our guys saved one of my calves yesterday by getting it (and her mother) in the barn and feeding it some colostrum, as the baby was very weak. Then they got the mother in the head gate later and let the baby drink. They got her in again this morning, but tonight, the calf was drinking on its own, so I think they're out of the woods now. :) The following are some pictures that I took while on the back of the 4-wheeler, while Jacob and I were checking for new calves this evening.... Dad, bringing another bale of alfalfa in: Now he's cutting all the strings off of the bale and winding up the twine: Here is a picture Jacob asked me to take of his to-be-butchered steer:

A mother and her relatively new baby:

That little black speck is the last calf born today: (I think we're going to have some major fence fixing to do once all that snow melts away!)

Mamas and babies, enjoying life!

I also snapped a picture of Andrew milking Sally...

...and his hopeful audience!

The wild geese were flying over in bunches and bunches today. I aimed my camera towards a group, but it was so bright out that I couldn't really see what I was getting a picture of, so here is the result:

Spring is so wonderful, isn't it?

This is why we do things naturally as much as possible!

(Actually, there are more reasons than the one below, that actually being one of the smaller ones!) Don't get me wrong, I do believe there is a time and a place for Doctors' interventions, (if you cut off your finger, it's awfully nice to have someone who knows how to do some fancy sewing to put it back on!) but I believe that the runs to the Dr.'s office are far less needed than most people believe! But anyway, here's the tidbit that got me to talking on this subject: Suffering from a bad case of the flu, a man phoned his doctor for to get an appointment. When he was told the scheduled date of the appointment, he became outraged and bellowed, "Three weeks? The doctor can't see me for three weeks? I could well be dead by then!" Calmly, the receptionist replied, "If so, would you have your wife call to cancel the appointment?"

(from the Good Clean Funnies List)

On another subject completely, calving is getting going in full swing now. Yesterday, Dad tagged 9 calves, and this morning there were for sure 2 new ones before I left... We're praising God for warmer weather!

The critters are comin' out...

It most certainly felt like Spring today! On my way to my CNA work, I saw a bald eagle circling a tree by the side of our gravel road. Then on the way home again tonight, I nearly ran over a black weasel; 2 bunny rabbits ran across the road in front of me; and I passed a little lake in a field that had all these white things in it, which, I soon realized when some of them took to their wings, were snow geese. Last night, I almost ran over a mouse that was sitting in the middle of the dirt road, and we've already seen a few robins, meadowlarks, and gophers! It must indeed be Spring. Hooray!

I imagine pretty soon, we'll have some of these too: :)

Visit my brother Andrew's blog...

...to see the blog statistics he put together for his blogger-versary and also to get a lot of links to free computer-related programs.... And then, if you scroll down to his next post, you can see a really cute video he put together of our first 3 calves of the year, plus he made a video of his grain cleaner running! VISIT ANDREW'S BLOG HERE~ I just got home from working in town again and am glad to be inside tonight as it is very windy outside! It's snowing a bit again too.... As a song (written by a friend of mine) says: "(Chorus) ...It's April fools in Dakota! This morning who'd have known, With all the prairie singing 'cause the Meadowlark is home. That sunny song of Spring can turn to snowflakes on the run. Now those clouds are rollin' in, Windchill's minus 1. I heard a robin yesterday, I wonder where he's gone? I hope he'll find some shelter While the Winter has it's fun! Six weeks ago was balmy, Valentine's day was clear. If Springtime's a prairie's lover I wish he weren't so insincere! (Chorus) Only 40 fence posts left 'til we reach that sheltered draw. I can smell the woodsmoke burnin', Mama keep it fired up hot! There's 10 endangered species On the ends of my 2 feet. It's cold and I ain't funnin', No, I guess the fool is me! (Chorus) It's April fools in Dakota, that's for sure! Stay warm, fellow Dakotans. ~ PS. So sorry about this blog smashery---where blogger smashes all the sentences and paragraphs into one large lump! I wish I knew what I was doing wrong....

Two years ago today:

I started this blog! :) It has been so much fun to share with others here about our life on a ND farm, and also to go back and read through the posts from time to time to refresh my memory of all that has happened in our very busy lives. The greatest blogging blessing though has been the great people I've met all over the country and, yes, the world even and the encouragement and ideas I've gotten from them and, hopefully, have been able to share with them also... I praise and thank the Lord for His bringing you into my life!!! And now, I feel like celebrating! Last year, I did a giveaway on my 1st blogiversary and I've decided to do another one this year.... I looked around my room today for something I could give away and actually found several things, so I've decided to give the winner a choice of what he/she'd like. So here it is, choice #1: The book, "Stepping Heavenward". When I read this book several years ago (not this exact copy, as this is a new book :) ), I found it a little hard to get into at first, but it got a lot better as it went along. I especially liked the part where the one young woman was so upset because she wasn't exactly sure if she was saved or not, and then the heroine points out to her that, even if she wasn't before, she could repent and ask the Lord into her heart right now! .... Choice #2: A new copy of the relatively new DVD, "No Greater Love". A dear friend shared this with me about a year ago, as you may recall, and it has a great message about the permanency of marriage.... Choice #3: This is a new VHS copy of an OLD musical film, ("Seven brides for seven brothers") but it's such a very fun, good movie that, if you haven't watched it yet, I just know you'll enjoy it. :) And choice #4: Your choice of a packet of flower seeds, either: a special water-saving mix ordered from Bountiful Gardens; a decorative sunflower mix; Zinnias; or Love-in-a-mist from my garden. *You have until Saturday, the 9th of April at 5:00PM (or so) to leave me a comment, letting me know you'd like to be entered in the drawing. You don't need to have your own blog to be able to enter, just leave a comment "Anonymously", but sign your name at the end please, or I won't know who you are! * If you'd like to tell me while you're leaving your comment, it would really be fun to hear about how you found my blog in the first place! And now, on to the 3rd year! May God be with you and I and bless us, everyone, ~Cora Beth

PS!

Oh, I can't believe I forgot to write that "IT" did work, kind of..... I mean, we had to help "IT" along a little bit, meaning we had to get the cow in the calving pen, lock her head in the head-gate and then push the calf underneath her until the calf got the idea and started sucking away. We thought we'd have to repeat this process for a few chores, but thankfully, when Dad checked on them before feeding cows this evening, the calf was nursing on its own and the cow was just standing there, so I think we can safely say that "IT" did work! PPS. I don't know why Blogger is smashing all my paragraphs together? Am I doing something wrong, or is "It" just having one of those blooper moments? ;)

April Fools Day.

Do any of you remember when our family would write about our biggest bloopers of the year in our holiday letter(s)? By bloopers, I mean the kinds of things that are embarrassing at the time, but seem funny when we look back on them a few days/weeks/months later. Well, I think (hope!) I have my big blooper out of the way for this year.... :) Want to hear about it? (If not, just skip down a couple paragraphs and read about the rest of the days' events.) I intended well, really I did. But, well, you see.... One of the cow/calf pairs in the milk barn currently belongs to my brother, Jacob. Dad brought up the fact this morning that Jacob hadn't tagged his calf yet. So, my brother drew a big black 4 on a new orange tag and got it loaded in the tagger, all ready to go. He asked me if I'd help him catch the calf, but I declined, as I didn't think we could do it with just the 2 of us, as there are 2 other mothers and their babies in the same pen and I didn't think it would be safe. (I admit, I am a chicken when it comes to tagging calves with their mommies right there!) Later in the day, Dad was heading for town to buy some cattle supplies and he asked if any of us needed ear tags. I wasn't sure how many white tags I had, so went out to the barn to count. After finding that I needed several more tags, I peeked in the barn and saw a great opportunity awaiting me! The black calf without a tag was lying in a corner while it's mother, Orange 4 was standing in the doorway, just about to go outside. I opened the little barn gate, ducked under it and quickly shooshed Orange 4 outside, promptly closing the door behind her, leaving myself and the untagged calf alone together. Of course, by this time, the spunky little fella (he's a couple days old already) was up and running! I went and got the tagger (and tag) and ran the calf around the pen for a while until he made a bad move (for him) and I was able to grab him and through him to the ground so I could sit on him and have my hands free for tagging. The job was quickly accomplished and I let the poor little guy free. I felt, well, proud of myself as I walked over to the barn door and opened it so the calf could be reunited with his mother. That pride quickly tumbled though as I happened to look over at Orange 4 and saw a little untagged black calf at her side, nursing! OH NO! I tagged the wrong calf!!! I had thought the other 2 calves were tagged already, so you can imagine my embarrassment when I realized I should have made sure first whose calf I was sitting on before I tagged it. Yes, I felt pretty foolish! After evening chores, Dad, Jacob and I caught Orange 4's calf and tagged it orange 4, then we caught the other calf (whose mother is pretty protective) and changed its tag # to 14, and when we got in the house, Dad updated the calf record book! :) So, there's my story. I guess we all do foolish things sometimes, but somehow it struck us all funny that such a thing should happen on April Fools day! The newborn calf update today is: 3 new calves. Andrew spent the day cleaning grain and, after fixing a few problems, got things running smoothly. He and my dad were really impressed with how clean the wheat was when it was through the machines! They said they think the wheat is actually cleaner than the wheat that we ordered from our food-coop was, and that was food grade.... The reason for the big improvement in cleaning quality? Andrew was able to use his big drums (the drums he was sandblasting a couple weeks ago)! I made ice cream today and tried a new flavor: Banana. It tasted more like bubble gum ice cream than banana to some of us, and it was suggested that, if I make it again, I add chocolate chips to it. *Store suggestion in memory* This morning, I started 3 trays (and a pot) of seeds for our garden, planting everything from hot peppers, to Stevia plants. :) It felt very much like Spring today, with the snow melting and the geese flying overhead. Oh yes, I also did a partial water change in my aquarium, which is one of those things that should get done more than it does, but it doesn't..... We cleaned the house too, and made a chicken dish for supper, with fresh pumpkin bars for dessert, and Mom did a session for a client and got caught up on e-mails too.... It was a busy day, but a good one, and now, hooray!, it's time for rest! So, good night! PS. If you did anything embarrassing/foolish today and don't mind sharing it, I've always got two open ears. :)

Will it work? That is the question!

We're trying to spike one of the twin calves onto a cow that had a dead calf today. Will it work? We're sure hoping so! Andrew and I pinned the twin calf to the ground while Dad rubbed the dead calf over the top of the live one, hopefully getting the live one to smell like the mothers' calf. We also sprinkled "Oh-No-Mo" on the calf, which has helped in times past with getting a mother to accept another cows' baby. When we put the calf in the barn with the cow, the mama mooed at it and sniffed it, so we're hopeful that they'll take a liking to each other! I'll let you know what the morning brings... I babysat for most of the day and was happy to find out that Amelia (3) is a good dishwasher. :) She actually got the dishes clean, although it took a good deal longer than it would have taken me to do it, but that allowed time for me to wash off the table, stove and counter. Of course, by the time dishes were done, there were 2 little boys who also had their hands in the dishwater, splashing bubbles around to their hearts content. :) Mom and Jacob went to Bismarck today, after placing the Azure order and packing a lunch. They drove my van as they needed to get the 3 bookcases Mom found/bought (for her office library) on BisManOnline inside a vehicle, and they thought my van would work best for that purpose. While in town, they also stopped at the animal store and bought me some more fish, now bringing my grand total to 18. Andrew's going to, hopefully, start grain cleaning with his rig tomorrow at our neighbors' place. If you think of him, please pray that all goes well as he gets the bugs worked out and as he gets everything set again the way it's supposed to be. I think Dad's going to go over and help him start up..... Let the BUSY season begin! We separated milk/cream again tonight, so ice cream is on the menu tomorrow night. Want to come join us for a sampling? :)

The short shift...

It is sometimes nice to work the short shift at the nursing home, as I get home at 10:00 rather than 11:00 and am then just in time to join my family for prayers and to say good night. Actually, everyone was busy yet tonight when I got in the house, (Dad: reading "Weeds and why they grow"; Mom: typing an e-mail to a client; Andrew: working on his computer; and Jacob: working/playing on his computer) so I went through Azures' sales catalog and wrote down some items I know we'll order, as we need to place that order in the morning if we're going to get our healthy food/supplies this month.....

My dad hauled some large square straw-bales home today to use in making a windbreak for the cows and their calves. I hear tell that my cow and the twins' mother are both rather on the protective side when it comes to letting you tag their babies! Thankfully, everyone was kept safe and the calves are now sporting shiny new ear tags. One of Jacobs' cows also had a calf today, so he's happy tonight. Spring is such a wonderful, wonderful t-i-m-e, of the year!

I'd best get to bed now though, as I want to get up on time to help with chores, then need to change quick and head over to our neighbors' at 9:00 to babysit their 3 little ones for the day. I love babysitting, and Spring, and babysitting in the Spring.... :)

My baby didn't make it through the night. :(