The Week

This week was fairly fairly cold. Which is fine. Except when you're calving! The calves are wet when they're born so they can freeze so quickly. Their ears are first to freeze and then their feet. We were checking cows almost hourly just to make sure we didn't miss one. If they're born on the hay, they're a little bit better than being born on snow/ice. Once they're born they have to be carried into the shop into a heater for 3-6 hours or so. At one point (at like 11pm, OF COURSE) there was 2 calves in one heater, one in another heater, one that had been in the heater already but wasn't fully dry so he was barricaded by the boiler, and then 2 more in half of the chicken coop! Too many calves. The cows all seemed to wait until the evening to calve.  Between 6pm and midnight there was about 7 calves born! Crazy. We spent the week hauling calves in, and then out, cleaning stalls, pens and shelters, feeding them and then napping when we could! Or Jed at least. He's the master of napping.

Sneaking in a nap...he can sleep ANYWHERE

This little fella nearly froze his ears off so he
got a pair of homemade earmuffs for the time being!

I also got to bottle feed him to give him some energy to nurse

 I checked in on the chicks every chance I could, or whenever I wanted...They're in a box, in their coop in the shop. So they are well protected from wind and cold etc. However, the shop isn't fully insulated and the coop isn't fully done. We threw a space heater in there and moved the other light we had so they could keep warm.
They've grown up so fast...ok, maybe not grown UP, but grown.  I fed them a mashed up boiled egg which they went nuts over! No, that's not cannibalism because no one died for the egg, just so you know!
We also managed to sneak up to Miles City to get Jed's taxes done...it's always 'good' for us to get out, stock up on groceries where it's a little bit cheaper and eat some delicious Mexican food, of course!

Eggs Benedict for supper!

Made rolls one night

Drifted...we don't have that much snow out there :)

Gave the chicks an attachment! 

Trying to tame them

Calves of 2014

So many calves! And everyone is as cute as the last one. I love watching them take their first steps and then getting better at walking and before you know it they're kicking their heels up. SO adorable! We've been bringing them into the heater to dry/warm up, taking them back out, weighing and tagging them and then sending them out to be free! I pet them as much as I can. I want one to be my friend. Just 1/150. That's not asking too much is it?

Felfie! (farmer selfie ha!)

Weekly Updates!

I've decided that I am going to try my very best to keep up with this blog. So far I haven't been that good. I've decided to do a weekly "This Week" post.  Even if no one reads my blog, I at least will be able to look back and remember our life a bit. I am always taking photos, but they don't always get posted anywhere. I am telling myself now that if I try and make it a 'thing' to post a weekly update of our little life, maybe hopefully I can be posting some photos! I also am hoping that this can be a way to help improve my photography skills and record what happens around here!

We have been super busy with calving lately. It was really really cold out so the cows had to be checked hourly or every few hours. A new calf can freeze it's ears Super quick when it's -30 out!
I've been trying to spend a little bit of time with my chicks so that they can be tame and I don't have to worry about them biting me.  So far they are skittish, run into the corner when I try to feed/water them, some have discovered the little 'roost' I made for them, and one has discovered that he can fly up to the edge of the box! I had to put the lid/sides of the box up so she can't do it. Bad chick.

Jed was home for most of the week last week as it was too cold to work, and plus Bob needed help with the calves. (I don't really count as help because I can't lift a 85-95lb calf and walk with it!)
He went to work today which means I can clean the house without him walking through and dirtying it again! I may need to get over this whole "I can't clean the house when Jed is around" thing!
Keep watch for weekly posts!

Midnight cow checking in a snowstorm! 

Spring in January

January was absolutely beautiful! Most days I could wear a hoodie outside and still be comfortably warm...sometimes it was just a t-shirt! 

Never too many sunset pictures

moving the heifer calves

In the open areas, there was no snow. On the north side of a hill or just random places (lets face it, I'm not the one to figure out which part of a hill has no snow and why!) there was still a bunch of snow. Snow that had drifted or just been protected. 

I had been talking to my mom back in the fall about hyacinths and how she was force growing them and then I wanted to. On our way back from Nebraska, we stopped and I got some bulbs. When we get home there was a bag of hyacinth bulbs in the mail! My sister sent me some mail because she knew I love mailday! So far, this is the only one that has bloomed. It was only a couple inches tall, so that was sort of weird. I think the manure dirt stunted the growth. As usual, I have no luck with dirt!