Hey Everybody!
Well, it was a busy weekend here at the Donley farm!
On Friday I took advantage of the beautiful, if not WINDY, weather (It gusted up to 57 mph!!!) and planted my strawberries. It felt so GOOD to get some dirt under my fingernails! (And all my fellow gardeners said, “Amen!”). I plan on posting about that soon (I used a different method of planting them than I have in the past) if all goes well. #gardeningisagamble
On Saturday, I baked lots of bread and rolls (using this recipe) so that we could have sandwiches on Sunday after church. We planned a full afternoon of working cows, so I wanted something quick and easy to make and clean up after.
We headed down to the pasture and the fun began!
We put the cows in this squeeze chute so that they don’t jump around and hurt themselves and us! Our goal on this day was to re-tag them, check ages by looking at their teeth (our herd is very mixed and we needed to see if anybody needs culled), deworm them and de-lice them.
Jeff gave them a worming shot and a lice pour-on, I took out old tags and re-tagged them, Elisa kept records of everything and kept syringes filled and reloaded the tagger, and Lindy played bovine dental hygienist and check their teeth (Jeff held their heads and I opened their mouths).
It was all fun and games until this….
Yes, people, after 150 days or something with almost no moisture (we had small ice storm about a month ago, but that has been our only moisture since September!), it actually started raining!!!!
We still had 20 cows to go, so we finished them up an hour and half later! We were all chilled, soaked and muddy, but when you have all your mama cows penned up, you can’t just stop and wait for a later date and more conducive weather!
Such is the life for farmers and ranchers all over the world 🙂
On another note, notice Reece is missing from these pics?
Well, we asked him if he wanted to come with us, but he wanted to stay home, and honestly, we were OK with that. He loves feeding cows, but to be down in the pasture with nothing for him to do for 4 hours is not his idea (or mine!) of a good time. Plus, we knew that we would all be busy and wouldn’t be able to exactly keep an eye on him. Plus, if he got to stimming too hard, he might spook the cows!
So, he stayed home and watched a movie 🙂 Grandma checked on him occasionally, but I think he enjoyed his quiet time. Quiet time is a valuable commodity in our house and when he’s worked hard at school all week, he needs time to decompress on the weekends. (Don’t we all??)
That was our weekend, folks!
On another very sad note- you remember this guy?
Joey, my in-law’s beautiful black lab? Well, he passed away last night. A neighbor accidentally hit him with his truck. Joey was a car/truck chaser and we knew it was a matter of time, but we all loved him. Elisa is especially devastated. Joey was her dog, too. She even did the 4-H dog project with him last year.
All of you animal people understand, I’m sure. We love our animals and it’s so hard when we lose one! But, like Lindy said this morning, she just wouldn’t be happy if she didn’t have a dog to love. The risk of loving something is the pain you experience when they’re gone.
On that note, I’ll sign off now. I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday!
~Melinda
PS- I have a guest post up at Finding Cooper’s Voice.
I’d love for you to check out this page! If you are a special needs parent or know one, this page is an awesome community!
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