Today for my Thursday Blogging episode, thought I’d try an entry from my phone since loading the app a few weeks ago. So I’m sitting on a bale watching my crazy dog run around me and climb even higher bales than me as we wait for the cows to finish feeding on chop so we can move them to the processed hay bales in the field for the rest of their feeding day. Minus 30 wind chill going on here so taking a break now to put the gloves back on.
Note to self….don’t do mobile blogging in a minus 30 wind chill.
Month: February 2015
What Is Boredom?
According to the Wikipedia definition, it “is an emotional state experienced when an individual is left without anything in particular to do, and not interested in their surroundings.”
I can honestly declare that I have not experienced this emotional state ever since I became a rancher’s wife [also know as “unpaid farmhand”] sixteen years ago. And my surroundings? How could I not be interested…what with the husband….the dogs, the cats, the horses, the chores, the weather and of course….the cattle. The cattle are our life and our purpose…the reason we do what we do, day in and day out. My husband has always said “the cows come first”. That used to bother me a wee bit but now I’m “all in” on that reality and it has helped us become a much more cohesive decision-making unit.
New Life
Being the conscientious, forward-thinking, responsible ranching couple that we are….we were diligently attending an afternoon seminar on Farm Taxation/Succession in town yesterday. {Yawn!]
Meanwhile, back on the ranch, one of our young bred heifers was busy birthing a baby! Problem is, we don’t officially start calving until the end of March. The other problem is, there was a wicked -30C windchill going on. Thankfully she had calved on the straw bed. Also thankfully, hubby had decided to leave the meeting just a few minutes early….I swear he had a premonition….he’s pretty in-tune to our critters. He found this poor shivering little new-born calf upon return home and gave her the front seat [or floor, in this case] of the Ford pickup for a nice warm-up.
She got to meet her mom an hour or so later and all is well
But then, next morning, when both of us are about to head back to town for our respective jobs….another incident on the straw bed. Another new calf from a young bred heifer! Oh right….back in May of last year the bulls broke out!
We are so fortunate to have home-grown, calm and quiet young heifers in times like these. I guess then – unofficially – calving 2015 has begun on Berg Farm & Ranch.
Dad Would Have Been 87 Today
I am reminded today why it is so important that I keep a blog and that I have kept a blog in the past. Today would have been our dad’s 87th birthday. It is the first time a February 9 has come that dad has not been with us. He passed away last summer and we all still ache over our great loss. Two years ago we had a grand family celebration of his 85th birthday and between my youngest brother’s pictures and my blog story of the day, we have a comforting memory intact. Mom shared with me today how heartwarming it was to review again. Thus….why it is so important to journal and capture life’s events. Blogging is that avenue for me.
Miss you so much dad.
Trixie
Although I’ve “been told”, over the years on the ranch, to not name my cows, I do so anyway. But only for the ones that have a unique-ness or a story or……a place in my heart. Like Trixie. She was born with a stunted back leg, thus leaving her with three good legs. I turned “tri” into “Trixie”. Because of her minor disability….she did get around fairly well….she was allowed to stay home instead of out to pasture every season. Her first calf was a handsome steer and she delivered him quite easily and on her own. In fact we were both alone that year as hubby was full-time trucking and I was nervously responsible for supervising her first calf. Then last year she needed an expensive C-Section to deliver her fancy heifer calf, Suzy-Q.
I was so happy that she gave us a heifer as I knew I wouldn’t be allowed to keep Trixie around too much longer. Her disability was getting greater as she got older and I knew hubby would not put up with another C-Section. This week Trixie left the ranch to be slaughtered. It bothered me more than I expected. But I’m okay now, a couple days later. I have her fancy heifer calf to keep with us for years to come and Trixie’s legacy will carry on through her, Suzy-Q.
Then there’s always the others….Puddin’, Zsa-Zsa, Vanilla Dip, Shaggy…..
Flicka Rancher 