Feeling silly

I found myself feeling silly recently.  You see, on the morning we worked the cattle, I had asked Elizabeth to send some Reiki.  Three years ago, I had gotten knocked down by a large calf that day and I was sore for weeks afterwards.  Since then I have always felt better when folks are praying, and/or sending positive energy, to us on cattle working day.

When Elizabeth wrote back asking what, "Cattle working day" means, I felt silly.  Of course, people who have never done something cannot grasp the magnitude of tasks involved in it.  All I can say to you, Eli, is that it's like our free clinic day with hundreds of things to attend to, only a lot more dangerous in that the "Clients" all weigh between 500 to 1,200 pounds. 

I decided to do a detailed post on the subject for all of my readers who have never had the "Joy" of cattle working day.  Perhaps people avoid sharing the details of this day because some parts are rather gory, but these are the facts of life for ranchers.

The first thing to do is to tie up the dogs.  Some people have taken countless hours training their dogs to work well with cattle, but nobody here has had that much time.  Past experience with these 2 has taught us that they are MOST useful when they are tied up and not running around chasing cattle in all kinds of directions.  Of course, every time that I went to the house for something, these 2 would beg mercilessly to be let off, but I knew better.

 Well, in our main herd there were 161 large animals.  Some of these were bulls or slaughter animals but most of them were mamas.  We had 120 calves out of these, revealing our high death loss this Spring in all of the mud and slop. 

We ran all of the animals (except the ones in with Sally which we did at the end) into the corralling.  This means that about 300 animals were in an area the size of a large restaurant.  This means that they are in close and anxious as they do NOT like being cooped up. 

Jerome, the children, and I started sorting off the cows while Robert fed them out in the pasture.  The trick was to keep the calves in the corral while letting everyone else out.  Have I mentioned that these animals are large with the bulls (male breeding animals) being VERY large.  Which brings me to an important point for those who seriously know NOTHING about ranching.

Bulls are the daddies of the group and I believe that we have 7 of them.  These animals are bought from breeders who specialize in breeding up the animals to their maximum potential.   Bulls can cost anywhere for $1,000 to $30,000+. Cows are the breeding mothers.  Calves are the babies that were born this Spring to the cows.  Now, bulls that have been castrated (having had their testicles removed) are called Steers and they are kept for butchering whenever we get enough orders. 

So, being we were going to work the calves, everyone else had to be sorted off.  Usually the older animals know that they are to leave and, seeing as they were hungry, they headed for the open gate.  However, being the calves are used to walking beside mama all their life, they headed there too.  Our job was to encourage all of the older animals to leave while convincing the calves that they were to stay whether they liked it or not.  Did I mention that the calves are the most jumpy of them all--ready to kick at any provocation. 

I don't have any picture of the corral when all of the animals were inside of it because I was too busy staying alive just then to take pictures.  One has to have eyes on the back of your head, or loving family members, to keep body and soul together.  Once, Cora almost got it so I yelled at her to turn around and she saved herself from an unpleasant encounter with a small group of swirling hooves. 

In this picture, we finally had all of the cows, bulls, and steers removed from the pen and were ready to begin.  It was 10:30 AM and not very warm outside. 

 Cora is our bookkeeper so she got ready to take the records.  We need to know the ear tag number of each calf; it's sex; it's color; if it has horns; and anything unusual about it that needs to be remembered for the future when the calves will either be mamas or steers for the freezer.

 Robert's cousin, Jerome, loves to work cattle so he's become a permanent part of our crew.  He gave 2 shots on his side of the shoot while I gave 1 and a goodly dose of Eucalyptus oil down the spine of each calf.  These are shots that are approved under organic standards and are NOT implants or hormones.  We eat this beef and raise it under the very highest standards.

Now, I can hear someone asking, "But how do you give a shot?"  Well, there are 2 main types of shots--subcutaneous (which means under the skin usually in the neck) or in the muscle which is usually done in the rump.



  This is a look down the alley way through the shoot as we wait for another calf.

Here Robert went back to fetch the next, "Victim."  As you can see, we have a small corral within the big corral.  We put about 20 calves in there at a time so that we don't have to go running so far all the time.

Andrew's job is to catch the calf at just the right moment.  The calf comes running, or is being pushed by Robert, into the chute with a high degree of agitation.  Andrew slams the chute shut on the calf's neck and the action begins.

As soon as Andrew has the calf caught, he puts his hand over the calf's eyes.  This calms the calf down almost instantly.  Then Jerome gave one injection from his side; I gave my one injection; Jerome had picked up his other syringe while I was giving mine and he gave his second injection; and then I dropped between 10 to 30 drops of eucalyptus oil on the calf's spine depending on how chipper he was looking.  If they came in dragging a bit, they got more, and one even got some in his nose which really gets the healing energy flowing to the bloodstream fast.

The heifer calves (the females) were finished at this point unless they had horns.  Very few of our calves have horns but about 5 of them did.  Are you ready now?  You're not eating are you?

Well, there is a handy little device that you put over the horn of the calf to de-horn the animal.  It takes a lot of muscles, so this is Robert's job.  When the man squeezes down on the horn, while squeezing the de-horner together, it cuts into the calf's head and cuts the horn off.  Of course, there is blood so you need to put the worst smelling blood stop powder on the spot where the blood vessel was attached to the horn.  This is AWFUL smelling stuff and I did it once just to quit being such a coward.  After that, either Jerome or Andrew took the bottle from me when I went over there while Robert washed the hair and blood off of the de-horner. 

Now, for what I did behind the shoot.  When the calf is a bull calf, it must be banded to keep it from breeding.  We have always banded our bull calves in the Fall of the year so that they grow to their greatest potential as full males.  However, the day of reckoning comes when the banding must be done.

Well, Robert puts his hand through the bander and reaches down around the scrotum.  He slips the large band over the scrotum making certain that both of the testicles are down in the scrotum at the time.  Jacob held the tail up tight so that there is no pain while Robert checked that there were no hairs inside the band--OUCH. 

When Robert tightened the bander, it squeezed the band tightly around the scrotum.  There was usually a little flinch then but there is not much pain involved.  You can use this same tool to band fully grown bulls, so it's not as hard on an animal to be cut with a knife and have the testicles dug out with blood everywhere like we did when I was a girl.  We all prefer this much better.

Next Jacob handed Robert the tool to cut the band off with and that was done.  I went behind Robert at the back of the shoot to make sure that none of the animals in the holding pen were coming up behind him.  I caught them at it every so often so Robert was thankful to have someone watching his backside.

Some of the calves that were born up in the pasture also needed to have ear tags put into their ears so that we can match them to their mothers and determine who is the owner before we sell them.  This was either Cora or Jacob's job.

Lastly, Andrew opened the shoot and out jumped the calf.  This was one of Jacob's with the orange tag.  He moved too fast so that I couldn't get the Orange tag but I still thought that this was a cool picture.  As you can see, all 4 feet are off the ground as he exited the chute, so it is a bit of a rodeo.  YEEHAW!



Three calves were pretty little so we knew that we'd have to do something different.  The first one we took out of the chute but he proved to be more of a handful than we had thought.  The other 2 babies, we held in the chute and did their shots quickly and then pushed them out the front--no leaping with them.

Jerome, Andrew, and Jacob have worked together so many years that they just know what to do and the feeling of camaraderie is the only grand part of the day.

Some of the bigger bull calves, feel it quite a bit as that band begins cutting off the blood supply to the scrotum.  For as long as I can remember, one of my jobs was to walk amongst the herd and see that nobody was reacting to any of the meds in combination with the banding.  Of course, now that I'm a BodyTalker, I gave everyone cortices while they were in the shoot.  Some of these more miserable steers also got short BodyTalk sessions too.  Our animals really have got it good.  :)

Well, after we finished working on the main herd, we turned all of the calves out with their mothers.  Next, we brought in the group of about 30 animals who are in with our milk cow in the small pasture here by the farm.  These are young breeding stock for next year and several cows who had too young babies to make it up to the pasture this Spring.  This was the only time that I was really nervous.

I have no idea what got into them but they were snorting and bellering and even our calm, sweet Sally started pawing the dirt.  I decided to crawl into the trough and I started doing some relaxing breathing for them all.  I started the calming Reiki too and stayed real still hoping that nobody would notice me there. 

Finally they calmed down; we sorted them off; worked the few calves in the bunch; and turned everyone out of the corral.  It was a long day and I was very stiff and sore but we had only 2 minor accidents between us 6.

Just as things quieted down, I gazed up into the Heavens to praise my God who gave us such a lovely day at the end of November in North Dakota to work our calves.  I decided to take this picture as a tribute to Him who preserved one lovely day for us.  The very next day it started snowing and it's been MUCH colder since then, but we are rejoicing that the calves are all worked for the year.



Now, we've begun insulating the shop so the guys can work out there when it's colder still.  I'm needed out there at this very moment, but I wanted to take this time to pay tribute to God who has made us organic farmer/ranchers and to the incredible people that I live with.  Oh, what a wonderful life we have!!!

Here's to you, oh God, maker of Heaven and earth!

Dawn

My incredible blessings

Hi everyone,

 Being I find myself alone this afternoon, I decided to post a nice, long narrative of the things that I'm most thankful for.  Cora has been doing this every day this month, which is a lovely thought, but it's been impossible for me to accomplish. 

I'm starting with Thanksgiving day which began very early for me.  Cora had to work in the afternoon which meant that the 15 pound turkey had to be tender by noon.  I am humbled to admit that I used Stove Top Stuffing as Robert and I had made a late trip to Bismarck the night before to pick up building materials for the shop. 

 When we had entered Dans, I said to Robert, "I'm not even sure if we have any bread at home to make stuffing with."  Being I don't eat bread any more, I don't pay that much attention to it nowadays.  "Better buy some Stove Top Stuffing," he had said, so I did.

It smelled wonderful as I forked through it after the 5 minutes of it setting in the boiling buttered water.  I stuffed the turkey in the usual places; buttered the breast with salt and pepper added; protected the wings and thighs with tin foil; and slid the whole mass into the oven by 6:30 AM. 

Being I was pretty sore from so many sessions last week, I took a wonderful soak in the whirlpool as the rest of the family woke up.  Then Cora and I got to work in the kitchen and did we ever have fun! 

The staff at the nursing home always has potlucks on holidays and Cora had decided to make a Thanksgiving table cake as her contribution to the day.  You can see her turkey here and, if you look closely, you can see that she stuffed hers too--wonder if it was Stove Top Stuffing too!  You can see a picture of the completed cake over at her blog.  The next day she shared all of the wonderful responses to her cake with the cutest one being, "I ate 2 plates." 

 Here is a picture of my darling daughter with the cake in the foreground.  She made a lovely table runner too.

 I'm not much good at cake decorating but, when I saw that Cora had a little bit of red fondant left, I said, "Why not make a big heart out of it."  Cora took my suggestion and, when I saw that there was a small bit of green fondant left, I made a great big B out of it and put it on top of the heart.  Four Bornemanns shared the fondant treat at lunchtime but I passed as I am trying to minimize sugar too.

 When I was out at chores that morning, I took a few pictures of things that I'm thankful for.  Here are our 2 dogs, Millie and Lady.  After goats, I'd have to say that dogs are my favorite animals.

 Jacob said, "What are you taking a picture of, Mom?"  "The alfalfa," I answered.  Being our small grain crops were poor, we especially appreciate all of the wonderful alfalfa the Lord blessed us with this year.  Further, he's opened up doors for our hay to go to Texas and to Oklahoma, so now we have the money to work on our shop!  PRAISE THE LORD!

 I think everyone has posted about the shop project.  We've been wanting to do this ever since we moved here 8 years ago.  However, funds are always tight, but it's also a big chunk of work.  Now that Andrew is into buying cars that need work; repairing them; and then reselling them, he has a need for a warm shop too, hence the work is going forward with gusto. 
Thanksgiving afternoon, Jacob and I painted the side of the wall which will be heated while Robert and Andrew finished putting the chipboard on the other side of the wall.  There will be cold storage on the other side of this wall now but this will leave plenty of room to get a tractor and some smaller vehicles in here to work on.  It will be nice to have the feeding tractor in a heated area this Winter too. 

 Those are the only pictures that I have from Thanksgiving Day, but when I looked through the November pictures on my computer, I found these to share with you.
 
Have you been to Scheels in Bismarck lately?  If so, it would be impossible to miss the tribute that they have made to freedom.  Jacob and I were so impressed as there were these life-sized statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Ronald Reagan. 
You know how the ACLU is saying that we can't have the 10 Commandments etc on public property? 
Well, this just goes to show that human ingenuity CAN win over bullheadedness.  Jacob and I were so thrilled as we read on the placards beside our former presidents various of their quotes.  There were statements like, "A nation without God is doomed for failure,"  "We need the Bible to guide us so that we can please our God who formed this great nation.................... 
I was so thrilled to see God honored in this way, that I asked Jacob to take my picture beside this statue of one of the greatest minds to ever live.  Long have I admired Thomas Jefferson--don't we look good together?

 Now we're jumping to Fargo where Andrew and I attended the delegates training workshop.  Here we met Robert Brown who is the branch supervisor over our area in the John Birch Society.  Mr. Brown did a wonderful workshop on economics and he honored Andrew with a picture.

You must imagine our surprise, when we looked up towards the end of the day, to see Dr. Ron Paul in the room with us.  I shook his hand, as did everyone else within reach.  When he permitted pictures to be taken with him, Andrew didn't wast much time taking his turn.  As I snapped this picture, I remembered the Dick Van Dyke episode where Rob's uncle had his picture taken with Abe Lincoln before Abe was our President.  HMMMMMMMMMMM.

 Later we went to the Fargo Civic Center and heard Dr. Paul speak about his views of how to save our country.  He painted a glum picture, to be sure, but with God's help I know that we CAN turn this country around again.  This was such a special day spent with Andrew!

 We were so happy to see some "Old" friend there too.  This is
Tim and Louisa Stegman and below is Tim's brother, Andrew
with his little cutie, Carrie. 

I'm not sure why my computer is being stubborn and won't let me move my pictures back in order but that's how it is sometimes. 

I'm very thankful for these young people who are serving the Lord and are building their homes upon the principles of God's word.  I'm also thankful that my children plan to do the same when their time comes.  As you can see in the picture below, my Andrew is celebrating his 21st birthday by going bar hopping.  He laid out a bunch of bars on the ground; asked Cora to come out and take his picture; and then proceeded to jump over the bars.   He came into the house laughing and said, "I've always wanted to go bar hopping and now I have." 
Praise the Lord for helping us to raise 3 people in the next generation who will not waste their money, and their health, on alcohol!

 Here's another one.

 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future," Jeremiah 29:11.  Praise God that He is leading our lives and he's guiding us to raise our children to receive the blessing of God in their lives.

 As I looked through some more pictures from the year, my mind was opened to see other blessings that I am thankful for.  I dearly love acting in Godly plays and it gives me joy that my children have picked this up from their mother.  I'm sure that you all remember Barney from the Andy Griffeth show.  Well, we have our very own Barney now.  :)

 I'm also thankful for the Appleseed Project which is helping folks all around the country learn how to shoot and defend themselves if need be.

 I'm very thankful to know how to operate a radionics instrument.  I'm also thrilled to know those who make them AND teach others how to use them!

 I'm thankful for the annual Prairie Days celebration at the Dagley farm and the friends that we meet there.

I'm thankful to be an organic farmer/rancher and that the cattle are home for the Winter.  It always feels so much more homey when they are nearby.

I'm thankful for a husband who can build anything.  We were just talking about the huge number of building projects that he's taken up in our 31 years of marriage.  Here he is on top of the Quonset on Friday afternoon cutting the hole for the stovepipe.

Here are my 2 sons holding the ladder for their papa.  If ever 2 sons were opposites, it's these 2, but I love them both with all my heart!  Andrew, so assertive and brave, and Jacob, with such quiet strength, how proud of them I am!  How happy I am that they are brothers and that they can help each other through life--each one strong where the other is weak.  Isn't that like the Lord--putting us together in families so that we can learn from each other and ALL can become better people IF we are willing to let Him change us.

I guess I could talk all day about how much I love my family and how happy I am that we are Christians, Americans, North Dakotans, Organic farmer/ranchers, Sabbath keepers, home schoolers, Birchers, energy workers, gun owners, dog lovers, gardeners, car restorers.....  However, somehow it seems most important to say that I am happy that we are lovers. 

Over the years, many folks have had supper at our house and left with lighter hearts.  Many have spent the night with us and woke to the sound of our roosters calling, "It's a beautiful morning."  Many more have come for tea and found themselves smiling and laughing and, even sometimes, throwing dinner rolls in a food fight.  My heart grows happiest at the thoughts of those who have come burdened down with cares of this world, and who have left knowing that SOMEBODY cared about them, and knowing that this somebody was our family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As the love chapter says in I Corinthians, all that we do is for nothing if we do not have love.  I'm reminded of the numerous times that we dear friend, Sarah Keister would say, "Your children are so warm, Dawn--indeed, your home is so warm." 

Now THAT is what makes me the most thankful of all as I ponder the hatred that I inherited.  Only God could reach into such a war-torn heart, and produce a legacy of happy hearts coming out of my home.  Praises to the King who has healed my wounded heart and placed there instead a heart of compassion for the sick, wounded, and hurting.

 

Say there, want to come over for tea?

 Eternally thankful for God's love in my life,

Dawn

Cattle Working

Please note that I wrote another post this morning called, "Victor" which is underneath the "Prayer request" post. It was saved as a draft which I just completed this morning.

Working calves on a farm is something that most people typically dread. It's a LOOONG day for everyone involved and most years somebody ends up getting hurt because it's just tough to deal with so many large animals and have no bumps or scrapes. This year, praise God, we were accident free and the animals were very cooperative.

I suppose that I'll never be able to "Prove" that the Reiki that I did throughout the day had anything to do with the rather pain free experience, but then I couldn't disprove it either. That being the case, I will say that many times throughout the day, I felt the Lord urging me to do the decreasing energy part of Reiki to calm both people and critters down. One time Andrew came up to me chuckling and said, "So are you doing it the right way, Mom?" I laughed and said, "Yes Andrew, I am DECREASING their energy!" Animals get worked up when you start moving them around and especially when you take their babies from them. A little cooling down seemed to come in handy for them and US!!!

Things went pretty well all morning and we had 25 of them worked by the time that Jerome came to help us. Then I went in and made lunch and the guys, plus Cora, had half of the stock calves worked before they stopped for lunch. This is a picture of the operation. In the closest pen are the calves needing to be worked yet and to the left are the ones already worked. Back by the tractor is the head gate that they all had to get caught in so that we could give them their shots; ear tag the later born ones; and band the scrotums of the bull calves. The heifer calves got off easy but they yelled loud enough too when they got caught in the head gate. Isn't that like a girl. :)

A closer view of the calves waiting to be worked. When we started back in cattle about a decade ago, the buyers seemed to want the big boned cattle so we went into Charlais which are white. Then slowly over time, the buyers switched to wanting Angus cattle which are black, so we switched too. We still have quite a few of the light colored calves but are moving towards black as all of our bulls are Angus now. I noticed that when Robert culled the cows, he culled more whites than blacks so in a few years you'll see far fewer white calves in the mix. I like that we have a few red Angus cows too as it seems more colorful to have a variety. :) I can just imagine Robert's comment about that statement! It would go something like this, "As if I breed my cattle just for color!" :) I am entitled to my opinion, am I not?

Jacob had many jobs throughout the day. He kept the big bander filled with bands and he kept the syringes full. He handed us syringes and his dad the bander. Here he's loading the big bander which we use on the bigger calves.

Cora had many responsibilities too. She made the ear tags; put them in the calves' ears if nobody else was doing it; and covered the calves eyes while we gave the shots. We learned this trick from Jerome years ago. If a critter has their eyes covered, they settle right down and you can give them a shot without breaking your needle OR SYRINGE!!

Here Andrew is putting the ear tag in the calves' ear. That is something that I have never learned to do as it just galls me somehow. I can give shots or do the banding with the small bander and I even think that I could do the dehorning if I absolutely HAD to do it, but for some reason it just seems so awful to do the ear tag. One time I saw someone do it and they hit the vein and the calf bled something awful. I suppose that's why I gladly step aside here and let somebody else take the ear tagger in hand. Goodness, even Jacob has given his calves ear tags--come on, Mom, get with it. :)

Good job Andrew--not a drop of blood and he is now identifiable.

One of my jobs, which I learned as a girl at home on my dad's farm, is to keep a steady eye on the worked calves. One time then, I had noticed that a calf wasn't moving and I told my dad and brothers about it but they ignored me until it was too late. That calf had died because of a reaction to the shot and then they yelled at ME. ): One time about 10 years ago when Robert, the children, and I were working our calves the same thing had happened. Then I quickly put a large pinch of cayenne pepper in it's nose and mouth and it shocked his system so much that it brought him out of anaphalaxis. To this day, I keep cayenne pepper around when we work the calves just in case. So what would you think if you came up to this critter who had just had it's shots?

Well, he was ok and he stirred as soon as I got close enough to check to see if he was still breathing. I decided to take his picture to show you how they lay down after the banding is done. They're kind of stiff for a few hours to several days but then they're back at running.

We keep track of what we do with each animal and I am the official record keeper. Cora had the chart all ready to go for me so that was nice. :) We record the tag number; gender; color; size; presence of horns, and anything unusual about the calf. Maybe you can see that I was literally surrounded by animals all around me which I just love. I have always loved animals so I am so glad that I am a farmer/rancher.

Cora covering another calves' eyes so that he would calm down enough for us to do what needed to be done.

Andrew has been our official head gate operator for many years. In my opinion, this is the very WORST job of them all. He must slam the head gate shut at EXACTLY THE RIGHT MOMENT. Too soon of a slam and the calf backs out and slams into Robert who has just brought him up from the back--not greatly appreciated. Too late of a slam and the calf gets out the front without being worked--even worse. One ALMOST escaped but Jerome ran up and caught the calf. Robert and I grabbed the syringes; Cora put in the ear tag; and being it was a heifer (Praise the Lord); she was released in record time. GOOD JOB, ANDREW, for your excellent work on the head gate!!!!!!!!!!!

Here Jerome and Andrew are giving the shots; Jacob is handing the bander to Robert who is in the shoot ready to band this bull calf; and Cora is up in front holding the calves' eyes shut. After I recorded the details, I recorded the moment with Cora's camera.

Did I mention that the Lord gave us an absolutely gorgeous day? I was bent out of shape lots of times because it just wasn't coming together to get these calves worked earlier. We usually do it around the middle of September--not the middle of November!!! But the weather was absolutely wonderful with bright sunshine and NO WIND--a truly miraculous combination in North Dakota!!! Thanks Lord!!!!!!!

I kept trying to get a picture of Robert doing the banding inside the shoot but this was the best that I could get. Basically he slips the big band over the calves' scrotum; gives the bander a push which pinches the band together; then tightens the bander which puts only a little pressure on the skin; and cuts the band off of the bander. Over time this slight pressure cuts off the blood supply to the scrotum. Over a period of 2 months, the scrotum dries up and falls off of the body. This is soooooooooo much nicer than the way we did it when I was a girl. At that time, my dad would take a knife; cut open the scrotum; take out the testicles; squeeze the wound for a few seconds to stop the bleeding; put on some iodine solution; and release the calf. Now THAT was gross but there is no bleeding with the big bander so it makes the whole deal bloodless and much more pleasant. Of course, Robert is the one back there who could get kicked by the calf so Andrew squeezes the shoot so the calf can't kick and Robert squeezes himself into the shoot behind the calf. It's a good thing that he's on the slender side or it would be tough to get in there to do the dastardly job. :)

I kept trying to get a good picture of a calf coming out of the shoot but they're pretty fast which makes for blurry pictures. Here's the best one that I got.

This is a picture of my whole family. Andrew and Cora are working on the front end of the calf and Robert and Jacob on the back end.

Late in the day we finished with the stock calves. It was a happy moment when we were able to release all of the calves back into their mother's care. There was lots of bellering all day while the pairs were separated but there was TONS of bellering when we let the calves out as they all went in search of their mothers. It doesn't matter that some of these calves were half the size of their moms, it was a trying ordeal for them all and THEY WANTED THEIR MAMAS!!!

Note the size of this baby as he comforted himself with a little drink from mom.

After we turned the stock calves loose, we got the baby Holsteins out of the barn. They'd been cooped up inside all day, so that they wouldn't get run over and they were VERY happy to get outside again. I'm not sure if you would call them actually "Happy" to be run into the shoot, but after dealing with wild stock calves all day, they were a pleasant change for us. Here Robert and Jerome were giving a calf it's shots.

Here Jacob is leading one of the Holsteins back to it's pen. When we raise these calves on the bottle, they're just like pets. They would follow a person all over the place so it's an easy task to lead them. Trying to get behind and chase a calf like this is a disaster because he will just turn around and try to follow you and then you're going in the wrong direction. :) Jacob has always loved the baby calves on our farm. He was pointing out to Jerome his various calves. "That's John Wayne over there," he told Jerome. I added, "Yes, but Roy Rogers died." That's the facts of life--we lose some of the animals that God gives to us but most of them are very happy that they came to live at our farm. How do I know? because they wag their tails a lot. :)

We all chuckled when we switched to the Holsteins and Andrew asked Robert, "Say dad, do you mind switching to the front now? I'll do the back end." What this meant was that Andrew didn't mind doing the little calves banding now that dehorning was being done in the front. Typically stock calves are bred to be polled (hornless) whereas almost all Holstein calves have horns which need to be cut off. After Robert dehorned the calves, he put some blood stop powder on the spots on the head where the horns had been. This stuff is gross--if you even happen to be breathing nearby it, you'll be coughing for a few minutes.

Well, that's our calf working day in review. It was a wonderful day in the fresh air and sunshine working with my family and extended family (Jerome). I hope that you enjoyed the pictures and learned just a little bit about what it takes to work calves on a farm.

I thought I'd also mention, before I close, that yesterday I was in Bismarck and was with my dad when they discharged him from the hospital. I took him to his sister Dee's home and got him settled in for a visit there. He'll stay with her until after Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for that as his sister is a nurse, so he'll be in good hands. We're trying to make plans for dad's 80th birthday which is on December 1st too, so there's never a dull moment around here. Sharel and I decided that it will have to be something simple as Dad's not very strong yet.

Oh yes, I should say that he had an infection in the gall bladder area and Dee said that it was most likely in the area where the stints were in his surgery this summer. He looked very weak and tired but he was VERY glad to be out of the hospital. Somehow it seems that farmers don't take too well to being cooped up inside. :)

Blessings,

Dawn