Cruisin' the Cattle~Chloe's Story

Chloe, the wanna-be cattle dog.....well, in her world she IS the biggest, smartest, quickest cattle dog around.

After all, when she barks, the cows listen and sometimes even back away, just to humor her, I'm sure.

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What Blogger down time told me about myself

Yesterday, at around noon as I was creating a few blog posts, my server, Blogger went down.  No warning, it just stopped.  I thought to myself, I'm glad I just put together the next couple of days worth of posts because there's no telling when Blogger would be back up again.

Well, fast forward, 24 hours later to today.  Finally at around 11 a.m., it came back up.

Within the 24 hour period of down time, I could not view my account or read and comment on any of the other Blogger blogs I frequent.

What this told me about myself is that I am most definitely obsessed with blogging.  I almost didn't know what to do with myself......but then I remembered......Twitter........pathetic isn't it?!

With all this free time I had this morning, I drove with Dominic to the Hidden Pond to see the progress on the work being done there.  Many truck loads full of clean dirt is being brought in to form a nice, level pad adjacent to the pond. 

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Remember Barina the Dairy Calf?

You first met Barina at 10 days old when we brought her on her very first outing to Marin County Farm Day, in March.  Now the little dairy calf is about a month and a half old so Paige and I thought we should give Barina her first halter training lesson.

I'm planning on taking Barina to a couple of upcoming outings, mainly so kids that don't have access to farm animals can come and see a dairy calf up close. Halter training her will benefit both of us.....Barina will feel safe and secure when on a lead rope and I'll {hopefully} have full control of her.

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Ranch Life Happenings

Just a quick update on some ranch happenings this weekend~

Joey's been getting so much attention and is loving it.  We try to keep on a routine schedule by giving him a good grooming every day before he receives his mid-day snack and pain medication he's taking for founder.  I know he's feeling better because he's becoming impatient while we're grooming him and this is a typical behavior for Joey.....he wants his low-carb feed......ASAP!

Joey's walking a little better also.  He's on the road to recovery.

Next door to Joey's barn, live a few dairy cows that we visited while we were there.  They seemed to be enjoying the sunny, spring-like day we were having and didn't bother to rise when we showed up.

Paige is a climber.  She has very little fear and tells me she needs to climb something...anything on a daily basis.  There's plenty of things around the farm we can find to climb on.  She was happy to get her climbing time in.

She was having so much fun with our visit to Joey and to the barns, she didn't want to leave so she stayed with daddy and got some 'driving time' in also. 

Gotta take advantage of this dry weather when we can.  I hear we're in for an entire week of wet weather coming up....ugh.

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A Kid and a Calf

There is almost nothing I enjoy more than watching my kids interact with animals.  Especially farm animals.   With dairy calves, just the kindness of them with a child is so pleasurable to watch.

A baby with a baby. 

Remember Brittney?  Well on our 'Secret Tunnel ranch walk' the other day, Paige insisted that we visit her at the calf barn.  It wasn't necessary to insist at all because I'm always up for a visit to the calf barn.

We love Brittney.  She's so interactive with us.  Even though Paige fed the calves a little snack of alfalfa, which is in the feeder underneath her, Brittney still took the time to give Paige some love.......and licks.

She gave me some also.

Brittney has the perfect temperament as a prospect to enter in the county fair.......if only my kids were old enough.  Hmmm, maybe I can talk my nephew, Gavin, into choosing Brittney as his heifer entry this upcoming fair season.  We'll see.

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Freestalls & Taco Thursday

What are freestall barns you ask? They're our dairy cow's own, personal sand beds.  Just as we I like to lay on a sandy beach, cows like to lay in the sand, under shade, in the comfort of their barn. Our freestall barns have a roof overhead and are open all around for great ventilation and fresh air.    Our cows are able to walk around and choose their own bed at their own free will (hence the name 'freestall').  During the day, the 'girls' are outside where they are fed throughout the summer.....at the outdoor manger. 

The barns are cleaned daily and more sand is brought in every 4 weeks or so.  The girls poop in the isle of the barn (usually not the sand) and the barn is scraped out with a tractor.  Cows are very leisure animals.  They like to rest up to 14 hours a day with up to 3-8 of those hours sleeping.

I wanted to snap a photo of our freestall barn while the cows were outside, to show you all.

But I turn around and what did I find?  Most of them wanted back into the barn....they LOVE their barn!  So I opened the gates and they all came walking in.

If it's hot outside, we leave the barn gates open all day long and the cows can come and go as they please.

This is where one of their outdoor feeding mangers is.  There were still a few stragglers that preferred to be outside.  This is the area that the dry cows (cows that are not milking) hang out as well. 

I'm not sure why most of them wanted in today, it certainly wasn't hot out, only 73 degrees and pretty breezy- as it always is.

We wear ponytails or hats quite often to keep hair from flying about, but not today..

 It's TACO Thursday!

I found this Taco Salad recipe on Eating Well and it looked SO good, I wanted to share with you.

                      photo by Eating Well

Ingredients

1/2 cup prepared salsa
1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 teaspoon canola oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound 93%-lean ground turkey
2 large plum tomatoes, diced
1 14-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
8 cups shredded romaine lettuce
1/2 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese


Preparation

1.Combine salsa and sour cream in a large bowl.

2.Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 2 minutes. Add turkey and cook, stirring often and crumbling with a wooden spoon, until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, beans, cumin and chili powder; cook, stirring, until the tomatoes begin to break down, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in cilantro and 1/4 cup of the salsa mixture.

3.Add lettuce to the remaining salsa mixture in the bowl; toss to coat. To serve, divide the lettuce among 4 plates, top with the turkey mixture and sprinkle with cheese.

Nutrition

Per serving: 361 calories; 16 g fat (6 g sat, 1 g mono); 86 mg cholesterol; 25 g carbohydrates; 33 g protein; 10 g fiber; 583 mg sodium; 718 mg potassium.



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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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Our Biggest Delivery of the Year~

As I was headed down our driveway the other day, just before cresting the hill to drive down the hill, I see a very large load traveling up in the opposite direction.  I stop to wait (it's a one lane drive).  The silage trucks are coming.  This means silage delivery will begin the next morning.  Approximately 1600 TONS of silage to be exact.  It will take about 2 1/2 days or so for the delivery to be complete with 13 trucks, working non-stop in the daylight hours traveling to and from the silage fields.  Many truckloads.

This delivery of silage occurs every May when the silage fields are ready to be cut.  Silage is a mixture of fermented oats, rye grass and some other grasses and it is mixed in with grain by the tractor load to feed 250 cows and 200 heifers.  Read more about what we feed our cows HERE.

The silage is dumped onto the conveyor belt (the green platform you see) which then gets pushed into the plastic bags one truck load at a time. It takes about 3-4 minutes to unload one truck load.

The purpose of keeping silage in bags is to prevent air from getting in and causing it to spoil.  The same as storing your own food in an airtight container.  When all is finished, we end up with seven bags that vary in length from 100 feet to 250 feet long.

This is what it looks like close up.

Here is Bryce standing in an opening to one of the bags that is currently being used.

Every year the silage trucks pick away at the road (our driveway) leading up to our house.  But this year with all the late, wet weather we've had, has left the ground extremely soft for May and is by far the worst year for wear and tear on our driveway.  Not sure yet, what's going to happen with the driveway.  Yikes!

Happy Tuesday!

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I have a Tweet for you!

Okay, more like a HoooHooo.  Yes, I'm talking owls here.  Barn Owls to be exact.  Look at the two cuties we have in our commodities barn this spring.  There's a box up in the rafters of the barn and every year we have a new batch of babies born there.

Dominic gave me a lift up in the bucket of the tractor so I could snap these photos.  They didn't know WHAT to think of me...........

I tried to capture a photo of the mama, but she flew off before I could snap one.....maybe later.

This is the barn I'm speaking of.......

I was able to capture a photo of mama owl today at lunch time.......

Before she flew away.............

This photo is of a crew of three from a couple of years ago.......

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An Afternoon at the Birthing Barn & Banana Layer Cake

The kids and I were at the birthing barn while Dominic was feeding the calves the other day.  It's fun to visit the barn, the kids love feeding the calves their alfalfa and letting the calves suck their fingers.  I never know what kind of photos I might be able to get.  Here I snapped a photo of a baby calf and her mamma, that I wanted to share with you.  The calf is having a little snack from her mom.

Speaking of milk......

Check out this Eating Well recipe for Banana Cream Layer Cake.  Doesn't it look delicious?  It's hard to believe this cake has only 300 calories and 3 grams of saturated fat per slice!  The cake is made with buttermilk and the fluffy cream is made low fat by combining nonfat milk with whipping cream.

Photo from Eating Well

Cake Ingredients
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas, (about 3), plus 2 whole bananas, divided
1/2 cup nonfat buttermilk, (see Tip)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour, (see Ingredient Note)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Bavarian Cream
3/4 cup low-fat milk
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup whipping cream


Preparation

1.To prepare cake: Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat two 9-inch round cake pans with cooking spray and line the bottoms with wax paper or parchment paper.

2.Whisk eggs, 1 cup sugar and oil in a large bowl. Stir in mashed bananas, buttermilk and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Stir whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Add to the banana mixture and fold in just until blended. Divide the batter between the pans.

3.Bake the cake until the tops spring back when touched lightly, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely.

4.To prepare Bavarian cream: Place milk in a small saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over the milk and let stand for 1 minute to soften. Stir in 2 tablespoons sugar and heat over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the gelatin. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and transfer to a medium bowl. Refrigerate, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has thickened to the consistency of raw egg whites, 40 to 45 minutes.

5.Beat whipping cream until soft peaks form. Whisk one-third of the whipped cream into the milk mixture. Fold in the remaining whipped cream. Refrigerate until set and thickened to the consistency of whipped cream again, about 1 hour.

6.To assemble cake: Shortly before serving, place 1 cake layer on a serving plate and spread half the Bavarian cream over it. Peel and slice the remaining bananas; arrange half the slices evenly over the cream. Top with the second cake layer. Spread the remaining cream over the cake and arrange the remaining banana slices decoratively over the top.

Tips & Notes

Make Ahead Tip: Prepare through Step 3. Wrap the cooled layers in plastic and store at room temperature for up to 1 day.

Tip: No buttermilk? You can use buttermilk powder prepared according to package directions. Or make “sour milk”: mix 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar to 1 cup milk.

Ingredient Note: Whole-wheat pastry flour is milled from soft wheat. It contains less gluten than regular whole-wheat flour and helps ensure a tender result in delicate baked goods while providing the nutritional benefits of whole grains. Available in large supermarkets and in natural-foods stores. Store in the freezer.

Nutrition

Per serving: 300 calories; 11 g fat (3 g sat, 5 g mono); 47 mg cholesterol; 47 g carbohydrates; 5 g protein; 3 g fiber; 229 mg sodium; 204 mg potassium.

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Where the Green Grass Grows

Where the green grass grows. I don't know if Tim McGraw had this in mind when he came up with his lyrics......but I think it's fitting :)

 
 
"Mommy, why does grass grow in the back of the ranch truck?" 

Life is all about family,
doing the very best you can,
to Live Honestly,
and to Love Deeply.......

Happy Thursday!

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