TT w/Linky: Only When You're Running Late

Never fails.  Running late, kids finally loaded in the car and I spy with my little eye...........

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Wake Up Call

Saturday morning, no school lunches to prepare, no rushing to get the kids up and ready, just a leisure, peaceful morning at home....maybe even sleep in a little.

No.

Not so fortunate.

Twelve five month old calves have been recently {the day before} relocated to the little pasture directly beyond our front yard......ONE of them VERY vocal at 6 a.m.  A little less startling than an alarm clock but very loud just the same.

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TT w/Linky: Hunker Down

We are hunkering down for the week.  As much as I've been enjoying our warm winter with temperatures reaching into the mid 70's, much needed rain is here at last and heading our way the entire week.

The five month old calves currently pastured in our 'front yard' will be completely thankful for the buckets of rain we're receiving when, in a few weeks, they'll reap the rewards in the form of even more lush, green pasture grass.

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Parent Lesson #506

My kids, age four and six, 22 months apart, are not twins but sometimes I think I can imagine what it feels like to have twins.  They do most everything together, from playing Legos, riding bikes, helping me bake or cook, watering the garden, you name it. 

My youngest, Paige is a total animal lover and handler.  Bryce, the six year old, loves animals as well but doesn't get as up close and personal with them as his sister does. 

Until just recently. 

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Road Block to the Calf Barn

If you've been following along with me for a while, you then know my story on bulls and how they seem to always seek me out, well, once again I had a road block to my destination.

On route to the calf barn, where the kids were 'helping daddy', the path takes you through a paddock area between the milking parlor and freestall barns to the left and a dry lot area, where a string of cows gather on the right.  Charlie, the bull, stands between me and my kids. 

I'm terrified of most bulls, but most especially of Holstein bulls.  They just seem to be more aggressive and protective.

My game plan:  {photos are not zoomed in}

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Brittney's Digs

I visited my furry little pal, Brittney the other day.  She is now about 8 months old and has moved to an area of the farm that we call "The Woods".  This is an area of the property that sits behind Stafford lake.  There's a hay/feeding barn nestled amongst the trees where alfalfa is stored and where we feed the older calves.  They remain on this part of the property until 14 months of age or so.

It's very peaceful in this area.  The only sounds and sights are those of birds chirping, a slight rustle of tree branches in the breeze and an occasional sighting of the resident barn owl that has her nest in the rafters of the barn.

As I called Brittney's name, she looked up and I snapped the picture.  She's the calf with the mainly white face.

Happy as can be, eating her breakfast and enjoying the scenery.

Update:

I want to thank all that voted for Rocky Road ice cream in the Flavor Face Off challenge, I truly appreciate it!  Rocky Road was beat out my MSU's Fudge Dribble.  Difficult to compete with the entire student body of MSU!!  Congratulations Fudge Dribble.

The good news is, you don't have to listen to me try and prompt you into another round of voting! 

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The Hidden Pond

As a mom, I love spending time with my kids together and one on one.  But there's something extra special about one on one time.....maybe it's the fact that there is no competition for 'talk' time between the two kids with one on one time that I love so much? 

We love exploring.  Paige, my youngest, will begin Kindergarten in the fall and I've been feeling more and more melancholy about my baby's new chapter she's about to begin in her life.  So I've been cherishing our one on one time more than usual lately.

On this particular day, when Dominic was clearing some brush from ranch property behind Stafford Lake, you may remember Paige and I tagged along.  

We drove over in the truck to watch and explore.   

Just to the left and up a hill from where Dominic was clearing brush, sits our dam.  You would never know it's there by just driving by.....it's sort of hidden.  A hidden pond makes for some good exploring.

This pond provides water to the dairy calves that live over on this part of the ranch.  The water is filtered to a water trough just to the right and down the hill in the photo above.
Paige had a ball leading Chloe around to see what they could find.

And wild flowers are always high on the satisfaction list.

We'll plan many more trips over in the summer time.  We have some big plans for this pond!  The wild flowers will be gone but will bring a picnic lunch, some fishing poles and Bryce will be able to join us.

I love to hear from you! Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment, you can click on the “Post a Comment” link below to do {this only works if viewing through a reader}.
Have a peaceful day.



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Calves and Ranch Life

Just yesterday, Dominic tells me part of a Bay tree had fallen in the calf pasture on the ranch property behind Stafford Lake and it needed to be cleared away. 

After picking up some hay for Joey from town, Paige and I drove out to meet Dominic.

One would think after eight years of living on this ranch, I would know my way around the place.  But the bridge that I normally drive over to get across the creek, was washed out....gone.

"Mommy are you lost?"

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Brittney the calf and the Ferorious Beast

The area in front of our house this time of year contains 15 or so calves....well, right now there are eight because the other seven jumped the fence into the heifer pasture, but that's a whole other story. 

It's fun to have Brittney near our house {she's on the right with the mostly white face}.  These girls have a pasture full of belly high green grass, but they still smash the fence down  to get to the grass on the other side. 

Just like a girl to keep all options open at all times, right?! {or maybe just never satisfied}

Well, my little ferocious beast, Chloe will keep them in line.

This little fluff ball of a dog, loves to have a herd she can call her own so near the house to keep in line.

She has stepped up to the plate and taken on the responsibility that any good 'cow dog' would.

We're going to the Dairy Princess Ball tonight, what are you up to this weekend?

I love to hear from you! Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment, you can click on the “Post a Comment” link below to do so. Have a peaceful day.



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Crazy Calves

We have a fenced in hillside between our house and Great Grandma and Grandpa's house and during the spring time, we put a hand full of 5-8 month old calves in it so the grass can be eaten down.  This is the first time these calves have been out on pasture.  At this age, they can leave the safety of their barn, they're big enough that predators, such as coyotes will leave them be. 

I missed the opportunity to snap photos when Dominic trailered them up, I was at gymnastics with Paige.  So I thought I'd hop the fence and get a little closer to them to snap some cute photos.  They should all recognize me by now.  My cute Brittney is in this bunch, she'll come over to me for sure.

Ha!  Scaredy calves not only high-tailed it away from as fast they could, including Miss Brittney, who was the front runner! {you can see her in the above photo - she's the mostly white calf}

one of them even jumped the fence! Oh, Dominic is not going to be happy about this.  The calf is fine, she jumped into the heifer pasture to hang with the big girls.

And then they were gone.....over the hill.

Hmmm.......should I tell Dominic what happened in person or let him read it on this post??  Regardless of how he finds out, he'll ask me one question.......Did you get her back?

I love to hear from you! Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment. You can click on the “Post a Comment” link below to do so. Have a peaceful day.

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What Farm Kids Do For Play

Gosh, we have really lucked out with the weather we've been having here in northern California.  Spending time outside is a definite must.  Today we headed down to the calf barn to see what we could find.

The thing about kids is, they can easily find things to entertain themselves that don't involve toys.  Actually, I think they may prefer it that way.

After checking in on Emma & Brittney, I wanted to sit in the warm sun for a little bit to warm my bones.  So I found the nice stack of alfalfa near the calf barn and planted my behind down while the kids took turns riding the gate.

No toys required. 

They could have easily played this game for an hour, or maybe two.

Later, when I asked both Bryce and Paige what they were thinking about as they were going for a ride on the gate, they answered:

Bryce: "I was thinking about how much fun I was having!"

Paige: "I was thinking, I needed to trim my toenails." 

Well, with this gorgeous, sunny weather, I can't say that a thought similar to Paige's hadn't crossed my mind as well, but mine was in the form of painting toenails.

How was your Saturday?  Did you do anything fun?

Getting ready for the big games tomorrow?!

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Halter Progress for Little Emma & Miss Brittney

Some halter training progress is happening for little Emma and Miss Brittney.  Being only two weeks old, Emma is learning to be handled by humans.  All calves are super friendly when they're small and will follow you just about anywhere if they think they may get some milk or food out of you.  When you first put a halter on any of them, all they want to do is pull back.  Just like any animal; horse, puppy, learning what is wanted from them while on a halter or leash takes practice and training. 

Now, it's not necessary for our calves, heifers and cows to be halter trained at all but I wanted to begin this halter training program with the kids so they can feel more a part of the dairy and learn to handle the calves and when they're older, the heifers and cows. 

To show a heifer or large animal at the county fair, a child must be 8 or 9 years old.  Bryce and Paige have a few more years to go before they get to that point and if they choose to go that route,  giving them some experience with the calves they've picked out themselves, will give them a sense of accomplishment and some good hands on experience.....I hope.

Along with practicing to lead on a halter, comes lots of  'hand's on' pet time.  Just today, we found Brittney LOVES to be scratched behind the ears.

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Meet Dairy Calves Emma and Brittney

Nothing like a nice warm afternoon at the calf barn.  Is it really January?!  Because it was 68 degrees here yesterday.  I'll take it.

Yesterday was the day we chose two calves to begin halter training and because with two kids, you can't just pick one calf.  So, meet the two week old calf that Paige named Emma.  She's a little young to halter train but for her first lesson she did great!

We only had one calf halter on hand here on the farm, but I remembered my blogging and Twitter friend, Ryan Goodman posted a link on Twitter to a site that gave instructions on how to make your own rope halter. So we did. 

You've already met this calf the other day on my visit to the calf barn.  Bryce named this calf Brittney {after Brittney of The Chipmunk's, if you have kids, you know who Brittney is}.  Brittney is about three months old and very friendly but didn't like the halter too much. 

I'll keep you posted on Emma's and Brittney's progress!

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Calf Tongues

Today while the kids were in school I took a leisurely walk down to the calf barn.  Sometimes it's nice to experience all the calf and cow sounds on my own, without two loud kids at my heels.  Don't get me wrong, I love when the kids come down with me, which is most of the time. 

While the bulls tend to gravitate towards me when I'm around, I tend to gravitate towards the calf barn.  How can anyone resist these cute little things?!

This little gal came right up to me.  She's around 4 months old and very friendly.  All she wanted to do was suck my fingers so of course I allowed her to.  Their tongues feel like rough sandpaper on one's fingers. 

I remembered to follow my own tips for visiting the calf barn.....don't let them suck my ring finger. 

While all the calves are friendly, none are halter broke.  My next project is to halter train a calf so we can have one as a pet here on the dairy farm.  This is something I have never done before.  Dominic used to when he was younger and showed dairy cows in the county fairs, but hasn't done it for a long time.  Not sure which one we'll pick yet, but I'll be sure to keep you posted.

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'The Woods' Behind the Lake & MORE Baby Barn Owls

Yet another work morning with Dominic, the kids and I drove across the street with him to the heifer barn out behind Stafford Lake.  This is the barn on the other half of our ranch that sits across the street behind Stafford Lake.  At this barn and pasture are the heifers, or big calves that are rotated out of the calf barn on the main part of  the ranch.  Once the calves reach the age of five months or so, they are moved to this area that we call 'The Woods'.

This is the barn they walk into to eat their alfalfa and grain.  They also have many acres on which to graze upon.

This is why we call this area 'The Woods'.  It's beautiful, heavily wooded in areas and very peaceful.  This photo is taken just outside the backside of the barn.  I love coming here....it's very peaceful.

This is also a perfect picnic area.

The heifers enjoy it also.  We typically have up to 80 heifers on this acreage of the ranch, all varying between the ages of 5 months to 14 months.  At 14 months they are ready for breeding and will be moved back across the street to the main part of the ranch.

Our two assistants are helping with the feeding in the morning. 

And yet another set of baby Barn Owls is found!   I spotted three babies in this nest.  When we walked in, both the mother and father flew out of the barn and into the trees to the back side of the barn to wait for our departure.

I'll keep you posted on these guys as well!  The babies in the first nest that I posted about, just below our house, are all doing well with the two older owls flying and the two younger owls still confined to their nest.

Happy Wednesday!

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Nothing like a good hand sucking in the morning

I am SO loving that school is out for the summer.  Our mornings are so relaxed and we have time to hang out with Dominic on the ranch.

This morning Dominic was replacing the straw bedding for the calves in the calf barn so Bryce, Paige and I tagged along.

Paige LOVES the calves.  So much so, she lets them suck her fingers.....or entire hand.  The calves enjoy it also.  They'll suck on you for as long as you let them, figuring milk has got to come out at some point!

"It tickles!"

On cold mornings, this makes for a good hand warmer.

Still no milk.

The result and what every kid enjoys (except for Bryce, he didn't want anything to do with this) bubbles and gooo.  Now, go find Daddy so you can wipe your hand on his sweatshirt.

Happy Friday!  Cheers!

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