Monday, January 4, 2010

From Rebecca's kitchen window.

Hi Everyone,

Living on a farm you are constantly reminded how life revolves. With the birth of a new baby calf in the still of winter morning, to the death of her mother from complications.:( I think it helps me to remember how precious life is. To see the will of this little calf born in the cold of winter to survive is amazing. We usually don't have calves in the winter months but sometimes mother nature has other plans!

Gary has now moved the turkeys and chickens inside so they are easier to care for and I bet with this cold 18 degree weather they are happy! The chickens are already laying more eggs since we moved them. That is a good thing!

The sheep and the beef cattle are out in the pastures eating what we call stockpile grass. That is grass that has grown since the end of September and saved for winter grazing. This saves on the cost of baling and the labor of handling the hay. It also saves on petroluem required to do those job.

We put some pregnant beef cows in the barn to have their calves. They have sinced calved with healthy calves.
When they went to put them in the barn it is never as easy as it should be. Gary had to go get alot of things at Lowe's (which was a really boring trip for me, I think I read every magazine there!! lol). He needed to pick up parts (which are not easy finding in a large store) to keep the water line from freezing. We also had to set a propane tank at the barn so we could heat the well and pump room. Which is still a work in progress. Then they had a guy deliver hay and didn't notice there was a power line in his way and snap there went the power from the barn. So now another chore added to Gary, Ethan and Jacob's day! Nothing is ever easy as Gary says!!
Today he welcomes getting some meat and egg orders ready for our Perrysburg delivery. That gives him a chance to get out of the cold, although he does head into the freezer to get the meat, but I guess it's still better than being outside! I got everyone's orders ready and answered phone messages and checked email messages. I guess it was a good thing I took 4 years of typing! I guess that year of short hand won't really come in handy though!!

I will be back with more adventures out my kitchen window! Not sure Gary or the boys would think of them as adventures!

Blessings,

Rebecca