Beating and Welcoming the Cold

Today winter finally showed up.  Yesterday the high temperature was a pleasant 67*.  Today the high was maybe 30* with an even lower windchill.  I spent my day inside doing paper work and updating records.  I also thought it would be a good day to cook ham and beans on the wood stove.    We had been planning to work the cows and calves in the fall herd some time this week, and normally I enjoy working cattle (ok, maybe enjoy is too strong of a word…but I really don’t mind it too much), I was dreading having to do it with multiple layers and a ski mask on.   Yesterday morning our Girl Friday (aka ranch hand Kate) took some nice square bales and attempted to get the herd in the corral so we could work them before the cold got here.  Well, all but one came in (there’s one in every crowd).  Later that afternoon, just for kicks, Jonesy and Girl Friday tried it again….this time they all decided that the hay looked like a pretty good afternoon snack!  *Happy Dance!*After all the cows and calves were in the corral, they needed to be sorted into seperate pens.  Cows in one and calves in another.  This is done because they get two different types of vaccinations and it’s easer to send one group at a time through and not get the syringes mixed up.  Also the squeeze chute needs to be adjusted depending on the size of the animal that is going through.We only had a couple of hours of daylight.  I took this picture of the sun going down when there were still several more cows to be worked.

Thankfully we did finish before dark.  We are also thankful for good friends and neighbors who stopped what they were doing to give us a hand.  But most of all, I’m thankful that we weren’t out doing it today!  BBBUUURRRR!!!!

With the drop in temps, we expect more people to call for firewood.  Girl Friday spent several hours splitting some of it.  

 

 

 

Our old farm truck has a dump bed on it which makes it handy for delivering.  Plus it’s cool!

 

 

 

 

We managed to beat the cold yesterday, so today I’ve decided that wood stove cooking, coffee drinking, blanket snuggling, and blog reading is a great way to welcome the cold.  Hope ya’ll are warm and toasty!

Thanks for reading.

Be Blessed,

-Lori