Traffic Jam

When life happens, it's all at once.  I feel like it has been much too long since I've sat at my computer and posted an update for you all.  Blogging is a passion of mine but sometimes when we hit traffic jams in the fast lane of life, the things that we love get placed on hold. I'm sure you all can relate.

I took a drive out, to the other side of the property and encountered these lovely ladies at the bridge....

My dear Mom has just completed double knee replacement surgery at her young age of 84.  She came through it wonderfully.....I only hope I'm as strong as she is when I reach her age.  After three weeks of spending time in hospital and rehabilitation facility, with daily visits from her immediate family, she is back in her cozy home with my Dad and continuing with her physical therapy sessions.  

Over the summer, we made a decision on what schools our kids would be moving to.  Bryce began middle school and we moved Paige to another elementary school.  We cannot be happier with our decision.  Both the kids are extremely happy and are now excelling socially and academically.  They both love their new friends, schools, teachers and schedules.  We couldn't have asked for more than that.

With all of the new changes in our lives, we made time for some family fun time as well.  Bryce has been wanting to try a long standing pizzeria, Old Chicago Pizza, in nearby Petaluma.  After an hour wait time to be seated, we dug in to the deep dish style pizza.  So good.

And to work off all the carbs we just ingested, we bowled a couple of games at the close by bowling alley.

After a few gutter balls and a couple of strikes and spares, we called it a night.

I hope you all have been well this past month!!

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Babes Showing Babies ~ Marin County Fair

We've been having a heat wave in Northern California the past week or so and smack dab in the middle of it was Dairy Show Day at the Marin County Fair.  

The Marin County Fair is a five day fair but the large animals are hauled in on 'show day' and then hauled back home the same afternoon.  This makes for a long day that begins at 5:30 a.m. with the kids {Bryce} washing his heifer before leaving the ranch and hauling her to the fair at 7 a.m.

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Hot Mamas

In northern California, our weather can be unpredictable at times.  We've just gone from rainy and 55 degrees to sunny and 89 degrees in a matter of days.  My body  has a difficult time acclimating to such a dramatic change in temperature and I know the cows like to ease into the warm weather as well.  We had some hot mamas on the ranch this weekend.

We're back down to foggy and 50 on Monday morning and to give these ladies some leisure time, they were turned out into the yard along the driveway leading up to our house.  

School drop off can be a little tricky as we weave our way through the mamas that have clustered along the driveway.

Cows enjoy the cool weather.  They also produce more milk when it's cool and are happier overall.

With access to all this tall green, lush grass, there's always a rebel or two that go for my mother-in-law's plants instead.  Oh dear.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment. I love to hear from you! Have a fantastic day
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Things that happen in the Heifer pasture

Spring is on the way and the heifers are ecstatic about it.  Why?  Play time is one reason, as you can see in the above photo.  These two girls were so excited to be let out on pasture, the just couldn't contain themselves.

During the rainy days the heifers live in their freestall barns and after a few days of dry weather, they're let back out on their pasture to graze on the grass that's been growing for them.

A couple of reasons they're not out on pasture during rainy days are; it keep the grass from being torn up by them running around on it and keeps the seed in tact.  Another reason is, pasture grass, during the rainy season, has very little nutrients to it and is mainly composed of water, but once that sun hits it and it begins to grow, it's full of nutrients.

{all of those nutrients which are great for cows, are also the reason Joey, is not allowed on pasture right now}

Here's a short video I took of the two girls playing from the above photo:

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The Grass is Always Greener

Every now and again, we receive a phone call from either the Park Rangers working at Stafford Lake or the good folks at Indian Valley Golf Course telling us there's a cow out near hole 9.  Imagine a golfer's surprise when he encounters a bovine, face to face, in the middle of his/her game.  We know it's most likely not one of our well behaved dairy cows or heifers, but one of these buggers that have once again found some way to gain access to the lovely, trimmed green grass at the park or at the golf course. 

Now, it's not that they don't have acres and acres of green grass of their own to graze upon, as you can see in the photos below.  These mama beef cows just never seem satisfied with what they have.

They are also fed a nice hearty breakfast of hay every day, but nooo, they want more, better, greener, lusher {is that a word?} grass.

So how do these beef cows get through the fence?  Sometimes a fence goes down due to winter weather.  Sometimes the other side of the fence is too much of a temptation and mama beef cow jumps it. Or sometimes the fence is cut  by an unknown party.  What ever the case, we always find the mama beef cow.

So if you're ever golfing at Indian Valley and come across a cow patty, you'll know why.



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Happy Veteren's Day & Shavings Delivered for the Farm Cows

Happy Veteran's Day.  A celebration to honor America's veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.  From the bottom of my heart, I sincerely give thanks to all the Veterans' of war of the United States of America.

As we were driving out the driveway, headed out to our adventurous day we stopped to watch the shavings get dumped on the pavement.  Shavings for a dairy farm equals cushy, clean bedding for the birthing barn.  We just had a entire truckload delivered and it'll take Dominic a few hours to scoop it up tractor load, by tractor load and spread it in the birthing barn for the cows and newborn calves.

Happy Veteran's Day!

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What do Farmers, Facebook, Twitter and Blogging have in common?

If you answered, 'Agvocating' and being proactive, you are correct because over 1,200 farmers, nationwide use social media as a tool to 'agvocate' thanks in large part to the AgChat Foundation.

As most of you know, over the past two days I have been in Chicago attending the 1st annual AgChat Social Media Training Conference. The conference was held at the offices of Dairy Management Incorporated {DMI} in Rosemont, Ill. The offices of DMI take up two floors within an office building and the attendees rotated between three presentation rooms for our breakout sessions amongst the two floors.

Let me just say, what an amazing experience with a fantastic group of 80+ Farmers. There were farmers and agribusiness attendees from across the U.S. and North America. Some of the attendees included farmers from the following industries; dairy farmers, pig farmers, row crop growers, beef cattle ranchers, goat and sheep farmers, cotton growers {and many more that I can’t think of right now}. I had the pleasure of meeting many of the attendees in person for the first time, and many of them I had already befriended on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, so it was great to finally meet them in person. Meeting face to face and getting to know someone’s personality, I believe, gives us a deeper connection with one another. I would now, feel completely comfortable calling them on the phone if I had a question for them, regarding their farm. This conference was such a great networking opportunity for all of us.

Collage Cow and the DMI office.

Within the 24 hour packed schedule, we covered topics such as using social media to its fullest potential, how to better utilize social media tools to connect with a wider audience that extends beyond the Ag world and different ideas on how to tell our farm story. I came away with quite a few new ideas that I hope to implement in the near future. Stay tuned!

We enjoyed getting to know each other at dinner on Monday night.
Sitting at my table from left: Mary Ellen, Mike- "Farmer Haley", Colby and Liz.

On the other side of the table: Lori Anne, oh my I've drawn a blank!{update: Jan}, Kathy and again Liz.

I stayed at the Sheraton Gateway Suites Chicago O'Hare. After dinner I walked back over to my hotel and should have hit the sheets considering I had been up since 3 a.m. to catch a flight to Chicago, but instead I ended up on-line trying to implement some of the things I learned.

A 1 a.m. bedtime makes for a groggy 6 a.m. wake up call.
Back to the conference on the second day. For many more informative meetings.

Michele Payne-Knoper, one of the AgChat Foundation founders, giving her closing speech. You can read more about Michele at Cause Matters, her blog.

Some of the AgChat board members and trainers; Jeff Fowle {center} is a Cattle Rancher and you can find out more about him on his blog,  Common Sense Agriculture or on hisTwitter account, where he is followed by over 22,000 followers and Ray Prock {right}, is a Dairy Farmer, you can find at his blog, Ray-Lin Dairy or on his Twitter account, where he is followed by over 10,000 followers.
Both Jeff and Ray are from California.

I found myself leaving the conference wishing it hadn't yet ended. I made so many great connections and learned many new ideas. I feel proud to be a part of such a dedicated Team of Farmers {which are definitely not limited to the conference attendees}, dedicated to getting the correct and true Ag story out there to the public by telling their own personal Ag story.


Again I would like to thank my sponsors, Dairy Management Inc. and Dairy Farmers of America for covering my costs to attend this event.

Happy Wednesday!

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It's a Bull, It's a Bull, It's a Bull!!

So, remember yesterday when I was talking about freestall barns and snapped a few photos of ours to show you?  Well, in the far alleyway of the barn, there happened to be a few cows hanging out so I walked over, through (under) a freestall to see what they were up to and maybe snap a few more photos. 

Cows in general are very curious animals, they normally just stand back and watch me when I'm around.  But yesterday, while I was standing in the center of the alleyway, a "cow" started walking towards me in a , I felt, strange manner.  She had her head down low, almost like she was going run towards me at any moment.  At second glance I noticed........

It's a BULL, It's a BULL, It's a BULL!!!   

OH DEAR!  OH DEAR!  OH DEAR!

I high-tailed it SO quickly back under one of the freestalls, but not before I snapped a quick photo....he was really close!

If you've read my previous posts, you know how terrified I am of bulls.  Especiallly the Holstein bulls (we have two).  I don't know what it is but these two bulls always seem to find me.  There's over 200 cows around and two bulls and they always find me!  I'm usually pretty good at remembering to ask Dominic where the bulls are before I venture out on my own through the ranch, but I forgot to do so yesterday.

He probably looks pretty tame to you in this photo, but trust me, with all the snorting and head movements and all, I was shakin' in my work boots. 

I don't know if he was showing off, or playing in the sand or what, but he was making a big mess.

Keeping his eye on me the entire time.

He's giving me the 'stink' eye.

Or maybe he just didn't want his photo taken?  What do you think?

Happy Friday!  Cheers!

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The Wife of a Dairyman ~ Day to day happenings

I just got word from Hubby that he will be late for dinner tonight. The starter for the vacuum pump (on the milking machine) went out and the coils needed to be replaced. Milking began half an hour late today. Hubby, Dominic doesn't 'milk' but he needs to wait until all the cows have been milked to collect a few five gallon buckets of milk to feed the baby calves. Currently we have around 40 calves that Dominic feeds in the a.m. and p.m. Our Vet, Nathan, was also out for his bi-monthly scheduled visit. Forty cows were preg-checked. This is done by a rectal...yes, rectal examination. Apparently the Vet can feel the uterus, ovaries, embryo and anything else that needs to be felt for a preg-check, through the rectum. SOOO glad this in NOT the way things are done for humans! Pin It