Life on the farm can sure be hectic!!! The other week, our cow was trying to deliver her baby calf and it just wasn't coming, so Gary had to call the vet. Here the poor thing was turned wrong and we lost a very nice calf. Then Gary had put some cattle out on alfalfa and had a block out for them to lick that is suppose to keep them from bloating, well that sure didn't work so well. You see if you put cattle out to graze and the pasture is to rich for them it can cause bloating and even death and usually death. Unfortunately for us, we lost 3 beef cattle to it. On Saturday we lost the baby calf and a beef cow and then on Sunday we lost 2 more beef cattle. Sunday we never did make it to Church, Gary and Ethan spent most of the day outside with the cattle, keeping them walking to help them get the gases out of their stomachs. Hopefully, that doesn't set us back to much with our orders for beef. It was a very long and stressful weekend. Not to mention the money we lost from their loss! I on the other hand, spent the weekend with my sister and brother in law. I had a great time, playing cards and visiting with them.

I got home from running errands, just in time to help with the cattle drive. We had to take them down the road to a new pasture. It went smoothly. Much better than the last couple of cattle drives. The first of those, we got the vehicles across the road, put up the electric fencing, (which the cattle do not realize that it's not plugged into the charger! lol) and got them herded across the road and into the new pasture, all except one lone calf. Who obviously, has a ornery streak in him!!! I learned that day that it is hard to get a calf to go where it's suppose to go, even with 5 people working together at it! We were all running around trying to get it to go with all the other cattle. Then I see Ethan running after it again, and the next thing I saw, (could have been on Funniest Home Video's!) He took a flying leap and caught the calf Jacob and Ethan put the calf on the Kabota and over to the pasture it went! That was a tiring chase! The second cattle drive went very good, got all the cattle across the road and into the pasture without any problems. So Leah and I left to do other projects. Ethan and Gary were busy getting more fencing done around the pasture and Ethan turned around and here all the cattle had gone through the electric fencing, which the guys hadn't had a chance to turn it on yet. The cattle seem to have a 6th sense about knowing if the electric fences are on or not! They were all over the road, heading north, heading south, and heading right into the neighbors corn!! Gary said he could hear them ripping off ears of corn and chewing them!! Not good! Well, I am not sure how the two of them got them all back into the pasture, but they did. Hope the next cattle drive goes better than these did!

Today, Gary and Jacob butchered a few turkeys and a few chickens. Actually, these chickens had the chance to be laying hens, but no, they had grander plans, to see the world, or the farm anyway. We really got tired of putting them back in their pens and then next thing you know those 8 or so would be back out running around, in the garden, up on my front porch, you name it, nothing was off limits to them!! So it was time to fight back and I guess you could say we had the last laugh!

Tomorrow, Gary will be trying out our new meat grinder, it should work a lot better than the tiny little hand grinder we have been using. We have been offering ground turkey and with the demand getting bigger for ground turkey, this will be a very helpful piece of equipment.

Well, those are a few stories for you to enjoy at our expense!! Being a farmer / rancher!! There is so much that is out of your control, weather, animals with there own agenda, long hours, to name a few, but you know, there isn't any other place I would rather be!! I am blessed to be able to be with my hubby every day, and spend time with our sons on the farm. To also help my mother out, who doesn't drive anymore.

On a more somber note, I had to run Gary to the E.R. around 2:30am. a few weeks ago, he wasn't feeling good and I was praying that it wasn't his heart. Praise God he hadn't had a heart attack. They didn't really find anything, so we came home around 9:30am. Gary will be going in for a stress test next Monday. I pray that all goes well on Monday.

Sorry, once again to get so far behind in my blogs, I am working at trying to do them on a regular basis! Hope you all had a wonderful labor day. Gary got in around 2pm and then was in the house till about 5:00pm. and now went back outside to do a few more chores. I was just thinking the other day when he says hes going out to do the chores, is that suppose to be a shorter amount of work than if he says he's going out to work on the farm? Because, sometimes, chores seems to be the same thing as just working on the farm!

Here is a very easy and yummy recipe to share with you. A meat and potato dish, it dosn't get any better than meat and potatoes!! Its a good dish to fill the guys up with, especially if it's cold outside!!

Sausage and Potatoes

1 lb. sausage links (or you could use our turkey links too, the turkey sage, preferably)
1 onion
6-8 medium potatoes
2 Tbsp. flour
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
pepper to taste
1 cup milk
Cut sausage in 1/2-inch pieces. Chop onion. Fry meat and onion. Add water to cover. Cook 10 minutes. Quarter potatoes. Add to meat plus seasoning. Cover and cook until potatoes are done. Make a paste of flour and milk. ( I usually double the flour and milk, we like lots of gravy!) ( I even use corn starch, if I don't want to use flour, it works great.
Add to mixture and cook until thickened. Enjoy!


Blessings,
Rebecca