A few days ago we started the day cold and cloudy, then it snowed, 6 inches worth of snow. I thought we would have a white Christmas. But the good ole Chinook winds came up and melted everything away. It was muddy for about a day. The Chinook winds are warm winds from the south west. Our temps got back up into the 40's! It feels more like a spring day then Christmas!
Snowy sunrise.
Icicles hanging from the barn.
Feeding cows.
Yesterday all the snow was gone. Today is an absolutely gorgeous day!
Blue skies.
Old poplar trees in the back yard. They are HUGE!! A favorite place in the summer for the cows.
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Merry Christmas.
In just a few hours!
We headed out to feed the heifers and a few cows and the bulls around 7am. A typical cold, cloudy morning. "They" were calling for snow, but ya know how that goes!
Say hello to a real mellow fellow, one of my pals #17. He is a real gentle bull. When I was cutting the twine on the hay I turned around and ran smack into his face! He was standing right behind me waiting for a bite! I had no idea! Scared the , yea scared me! HA!
This is my other buddy New Design. You can carry a pretty good conversation with him. He likes to talk. :)
And then in just a few hours the snow started to fly and fly and fly! We got about 6 inches.
Heifers in the snow.
This is one of our early heifers standing next to a replacement heifer.
This is what the cat did all day! ha ha ha!
5 of our 17 early heifers have calved. A couple more look like they are gonna pop!
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These two pictures were taken yesterday morning when we headed out to feed the cows. Foggy and cold with just a skiff of snow left.
Today was absolutely gorgeous! So, today was the day we decided to deep clean the barn. We use this barn for every thing! From branding to a hospital for sick animals. We deep clean at least twice a year. Pressure washing, changing light bulbs, cleaning the waters etc.
Today's sunrise.
When we got to the heifer lot we were greeted by this beautiful sight!
There are 17 heifers that are 1 1/2 months early thanks to a special little bull who wanted to get his job done a little early! UGH! No competition I guess.
Cleaning the barn. The "old guy" pressure washing the deck along the lead up alley into the chute.
Looking down the lead up alley into the chute. Clean as a whistle!
The pens we put cows and their babies in when they need some extra TLC.
There is NO EXCUSE to giving the wrong dosage off medication! :) This is on the inside of the door in the tack room/medicine room.
We will be putting these shoes on Leo and Junior. They have borrium put on the heels and toes. Think of them as cleats. Called sharp shoes. They grip the ice so they don't slip and slide around and you can get a cow to the barn safely.
I can't imagine even thinking of putting sharp shoes on when we had a temp of almost 50* today!
Every one gotta help today! We are learning to be good girls. Two on the hay bale, Spook trying to pull her off! ha ha!
The moon rising over the barn.
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We weaned our replacement heifers yesterday and today we moved their mama's north. They have access to unfrozen water in a tank, but we also broke ice in the creek. Did it the lazy man way! LOL!
While we were breaking ice, the cows decided the feed truck was free access to swipe some hay off. HA!
When we went down to feed the heifers, there were 3 missing! UGH! While we were getting them back in, the ducks got quite upset and flew all over. There musta been thousands of them!! Then from a low spot, deer after deer came out. There must have been 50 deer, and in the middle of all the deer, a young cow elk! She looked so out of place with the deer.
When I posted yesterday about putting the calves "on the bunk". Its a big lot with a 400 foot concrete bunk that we put hay in for the calves to eat.
Here is the breaking of the ice.
Hogs!
Ducks waiting to land.
Deer and the lone elk. I wish I was closer. There was an awesome buck in the group. They are in the rut right now. Meaning, well, making babies.
These are heifers on the bunk from last year.
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Today we weaned our replacement heifers. The fat little heifers averaged 660 pounds! Little pigs. Ha ha! Most of the cows had already weaned the calves on their own. But they still get upset when they are separated. Now the heifers will go on the bunk until the end of March. It was a little chilly, but not below zero and no wind. A nice day to work cattle.
Bringing the heifers and mama's into the sorting alley.
My best little cowgirl helper. She keeps the cows a movin along.
A gorgeous winter sunset. The clouds look like feathers.
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The pups (Two and Spook), are getting vicious! They LOVE to play with Bandit and the cat Monk. I do have to say that Monk instigates most of the rough housing. Like hiding and attacking when they go by. lol! We moved the 1st calf heifers home today. Went to go make sure we got all of them, took all the dogs with us. We were in the truck. Spook was looking out the window at the heifers, like what? Told her "watch em". She started to growl! ha ha.
I think Bandit likes Spook.
Bandit's on the bottom of the "pig" pile! Ol' Monk has the glowing eyes. Waiting for the right moment to attack!
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