Dreams Realized

There is no doubt that spring is here!

The other day was 18C and snow was disappearing as fast as it could go!

Spring brings such wonderful changes! Brand new life and the glorious feeling of sun on skin that has been bundled up for so long!

We are just delighting in watching the season change, and savoring the great anticipation of our favourite summertime activities!

Winter coats are shedding out

The landscape has come alive with birds and insects everywhere you look

Spring also brings a lot of water around here! We refer to this time of year as "the ugly time" and for a good reason too!

Matt had the neat idea of retaking this same picture of little farm Boy and 12A (or Baldie as the little farmers call him) at the end of the summer to see how much they have grown.

I am thrilled to be out playing with ponies once again! I had been toying with them just in a small area of the hay barn for the last few months.

Little farm girl and I took Tex for the first ride of the year and it was glorious to be back in the saddle again!

We are now 7/8th done our calving. We are just waiting on our favourite cow #9 (or Spot-nose) and our tall Simmental cross cow to calve.

The rest of the babies look excellent! I absolutely love to be able to watch them play from my kitchen window.

We go out and cow check frequently, a lot more frequently than we need to!

We train our cows to lie in numerical order...

Matt is starting to feel like a real farmer now

Little farmers watching Matt inject and tag new calves on a spring evening

Number 1l's heifer calf gets a shot of Selenium and vitamin A,E and D.

Little farmers find hundreds of ways to keep entertained

Having these cows has been something Matt has wanted since he was really little. He is loving it more than he even  realized he would!

It comes very naturally to him too

Little bulls sparring. Oh, they make me laugh!

Especially when their mothers come in bellowing and break up the fight!

These calves are either playing or sleeping. It looks like it would be a lot of fun to be a calf

We also attended our first bull sale (quite an experience!) and came home with this brute!

He is really well bred, out of a bull called Economy known for calving ease, and a maternal line bred for excellent mothering ability and milk. He is pretty much exactly what we wanted as far as his Expected Progeny Differences go, and he should throw some excellent calves for us next year!

Watch out Sunny!

And its not just Matt who is realizing his dreams! I have tried with my last couple horses to teach a nice sit and I haven't been able to get one. I have been playing with this for years. I don't know if its because he is a flexible little weanling, but it sure came easily to Milo!

If I am asking him to do something more difficult, he just goes and sits himself down instead. I don't mind, its pretty cute!

Calving 2016!

Calving is halfway through and we are absolutely loving it!

There is nothing like going out as the sun is coming up, and finding a fresh little calf, up and bunting its Momma

Or seeing them leaping and frisking

Or getting a quick snuggle with the babies bedded in the trees before the Momma's started calling them away

Some are still waiting for their little ones

Here is two fresh little ones born last night

Thats all I have time for today! 

Babies Everywhere!

Spring is slowly creeping up and there are babies everywhere on the farm!

I was a little worried going into this new year. Over the first two months we had a sow due, all of our cows and of course myself. I was really hoping that the babies would not all come at the same time!

It ended up working fabulously.

Lady, the sow had her litter towards the end of January. Unlike our other farrowings on the farm, this one went excellently!

She farrowed over the daytime, on Matt's weekend, on the warmest weekend I think I have seen in January!

The were 14 all together, blacks, pinks and reds with spots.

We ended up loosing a few of the weaker ones and a couple to injury in the first few days, but we were kind of expecting that. Its always hard, but we were pretty satisfied with 10 vigorous piglets!

Who would have thought it would be this warm in the barn in January! It was a great time for piglets to come!

They have been growing super fast, we have weaned the biggest ones off of mom and the little farmers and I are starting to tame them up. They are so cute and frisky that its not a chore in the least!

This baby is growing well too.

This picture and the next were taken by little farm girl when we went out to grain the horses one afternoon.

For fun we were asking them to sit down onto a hay bale. Tansy has actually sat down on her rump on the hay with her hind feet sticking up in the air, which is pretty fun, and a little silly. Little farm girl took this one from way up on the hay pile in the barn.

And of course, the newest farm boy made his appearance as well! He is growing very well and has been a joy for the whole family!
He is keeping me pretty busy so there may not be too many blog posts for a while!

And we have been excitedly anticipating our very first calving on the farm. It was thrilling this morning to go out and find our first two babies!

It was quite an adventure and a bit of a learning curve. The first was born in the shelter that Matt had bedded thickly with hay, and was up and vigorous. The second was born in a bowl in the snow and was shivering in a puddle. Matt pulled it out and bedded it with hay before he went to work. I spent the morning checking it, pulling it back out of the hole, rubbing and drying it, trying to fill the hole thickly enough that when the calf floundered back in he would stay dry. Hours and hours passed and she calf was still shivery and unable to stand. 

It was hard to decide what needed to be done as we haven't done this before. The mother cow is our very most wild and thankfully allowed us to handle the calf, but there was no chance of getting near her or confining her in anyway to get some colostrum.

As the day wore on and the calf didn't show any sign of strengthening or getting up, we decided that we should probably intervene. We ended up mixing up some powdered colostrum and feeding the little guy from a bottle. He sucked well and within 20 minutes was on his feet and following his dam, and this afternoon has been nursing on her happily.

2 down, 14 more to go!