At Home On Basket Flat

When we moved out here to the country, the first thing my husband wanted to do was to get some cows. The people who lived here before had cows and we couldn't have sheep because we have coyotes and didn't have the kind of protection we'd need for sheep. Well, Jon fell in love with cows. Me, not so much. Well, not at first. The first group of cows (really steers) we had were a mangy looking group a guy sold us who sold hay (we found out later - hay that wasn't the greatest quality) to us here locally.

Nonetheless, I had just read Nourishing Traditions (which I HIGHLY recommend) and I had found out how really red meat wasn't so bad for you as we have been led to believe, it is how red meat is typically fed in this country. So, we decided with that first bunch of cattle (I'm getting my terminology right now) to grass feed them. Well, anyhow, that first batch weren't the most fantastic growers and they CERTAINLY weren't tame, but they made good meat.

Now, I still wasn't so keen on this cow thing. Generally I considered cows ugly and stinky and not very interesting. Plus, my husband was a bit BUSY with those cattle the first year. And I was jealous. Rightfully so. Anyhow, the obsession wore off and my husband, being the faithful husband that he is, wanted to find a way to make me happy with the cows. In comes raising Pinzgauers and having baby calves. This last year was our first year having calves. Unfortuneately, we had some troubles with that. But, we got one adorable Pinzgauer calf out of it and her name is Annabelle.

Pinzgauers are a beautiful breed of cattle. They are known for their beautiful color, resistance to disease, tenderness of meat, low cholesterol of meat, good growth rate, and tameness of breed. Unfortuneately, it turns out the breed has a bit of an Achilles Heal. They are known for problematic births, especially in Heiffers (1st time mommies). So, we lost two of three calves. It was heartbreaking for my husband. We probably would have been able to save at least one of them if we had more experience.

My husband got curious at that point about other breeds. He had previously gotten some Angus steers that were really good growers from a local breeder and liked them. So, he looked into getting some Heiffers (1st time Mommas) with them. Bottom line, this year we have 2 Pinzgauer Cows (2nd time moms), 1 Red Angus Cow, and 2 Black Angus Cows which are suppose to have calves this next spring. We are looking forward to it. In addition to those 5 cows, we have 1 Heiffer (girl) calf, and 14 steers (yes my husband is crazy - this is not his full time job). Oh yeah, we also have a bull on loan which is on our property.

Well, anyhow, here are some pictures. First I show you the calf and her mommy. Annabelle, the calf, is such a sweetheart. She lets me pet her anywhere and especially loves her belly rubbed. She comes over to us and the girls. And she stands still for us. I'm not sure if she is properly halter broke. If anyone could help us with that, that would be great.

This entry is part of Canada Girl's Show and Tell Friday. To see more Show and Tell's visit her blog. 

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Today

Today my husband and I had a date. Yes, a date. But, today our date was at home. We had a babysitter come over and he and I worked in the garden together. We love working in the garden together. Just like we love hiking together. But, with baby Abigail, it's been downright difficult to get garden time in. The only time I have is her nap. If she is up, and I take her in the garden, well, she puts dirt in her mouth. And, generally she is fussy. So, it was really nice to get to the garden, and my hubby and I got to do so together, without anyone saying, "mom, can I...".

A Garden Tour

I took you all on a tour of my garden here in June. So, now I take you on a tour of my garden now in September.

Garden Bounty

Strawberries & Broccoli Gone To Seed

Corn

Carrots, Lettuce Gone To Seed, & Yellow Beans

Pumpkins & Squash

A Pumpkin To Be

I actually got some Grapes this year.

Grape Vines

Tomatoes

Asian Pears

Apples

A Lone Red Pear

Raspberries Up In A Trellis

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I've had a busy week

I've had a busy week. You would definitely NOT want to see my house. The older two girls have had day horse camp during the day, then the older three girls have had swimming lessons in the evening (with me front packing the baby). Plus, there were a couple of appointments this week. I am looking forward to the weekend. I'm hoping the kids want to play outside - although it is suppose to be VERY HOT this weekend - by my Northwest standards, of course - meaning it is supposed to hit 90. Luckily, we have a couple of box air conditioners.

Gardening

Jon put up a grape trellis for me. It's not quite done actually - but he did the hard part and put up the posts. I'll get the wires this weekend, and then I will do some pruning. I weeded around my roses earlier this week and added compost and fertilizer at their base. I have four roses I've bought between last year and this year, then four I transplanted that were in a shady spot from when we originally moved here. I treated them for Blackspot several weeks ago and they are all starting to perk up and have leaves and buds. I can't wait for them to all open up and bloom at the same time. I hope that happens this year.

That's about it for my garden escapades, except that I was out yesterday morning before it was hot turning the ground. We have soooo much room here in our "yard" to plant flowers and such. Unfortuneately, it's sooo much space I've had trouble getting to it. The previous owners did bark and fabric ground cover (which I can't stand and am still trying to get out of the ground) and probably caseron'd it, with a few bushes and a few flowers, but not the way I'd do it. I want to get it mostly planted in perennials and have it come up year after year. One of these days, hopefully next year, we'll be building a house and then our yard will be elsewhere, but I like gardening and I don't want to caseron it, so I'm trying to plant stuff anyhow. I've got to live in the here and now. It's been three and a half years of in two years hopefully we'll build, so that's what I've got to do.

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Strawberries, Strawberries From Our Garden

Yes! We got a bumper crop of strawberries this year, with more to come. The work of the last couple of years is starting to pay off.

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Here are a couple of pretty pics of some perennial flowers I have that I am just as pleased as punch with. They really burst forth this year.


Perennial Violet


Perennial Begonia
 

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PLANTING DONE

I don't have any more pictures of our garden to show you, because the progress that has been made isn't very interesting to look at. However, my husband got a lot more work done in our garden on Sunday. To him it really isn't work of course, it's recreation. He told me at the end of the weekend that he had such a good weekend. He and the older girls planted corn, green beans, yellow beans, pumpkins, acorn squash, carrots, and green onions this Sunday. That's in addition to our garden perennials and to crops we already planted like broccoli, potatoes, yellow onions, tomatoes.

IRRIGATION

My sweetie also finished a real professional irrigation system for our garden on Saturday. I am very hopeful about this garden season. Everything is coming together. We will have even water, composted soil, well rototilled soil, and permanent crops that are starting to produce. Plus we have figured more things out. For instance, did you know that corn comes in varieties that produce in 60 days and in 93 days? All sold at our local farm store. So, if you have a shorter growing season like ours, you just barely get a crop by the time the season is over - then you get it all at once. This year, we plan on planting more in waves - so we have a longer harvest time.

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Here are some pictures of our garden shot today, June 7, 2007. It will be fun to look at the pictures as the summer progresses.


Kiwi


Broccoli


Marionberries


Blueberries


Strawberries


Fruit Trees


Tomatoes

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I am inspired about enjoying the simple things in this life God gave me.

I just went outside and the cows were nearby. We currently have three momma cows, one bull (he's just on loan), two calves, and twelve steers (for a total of 18). And, soon we will get two more momma cows. Don't ask me how my husband talked me into all those cows. One at a time that is for sure.

But, the one calf we got on the ground (helped successfully birth), she is the greatest joy of all of them. Her name is Annabelle. She is growing like a weed and she is very friendly. I can go out amongst the herd of cattle and for the most part the herd isn't bothered. But they don't come over to me either. Annabelle comes over to me. She wants me to scratch her back and her tummy. And she's very tame. She's probably about 200-250 pounds now, I would guess. She will make a great Momma.

So right now the other future Mommas we have are two Pinzgauer's and a Red Angus. The Pinzgauer's are a very mellow breed, which also make very tender beef. Of course our Momma cows are for breeding, and so we can get more attached to them. The two adult Momma Pinzgauers are Pattina and Dora Ann. Dora Ann lost her baby. Pattina is a fantastic Momma to Annabelle. The other adult Momma we have isn't named yet. She is a Red Angus. They are a real low maintenance breed. We are breeding her to the Pinzgauer bull and we hope her baby turns out looking like a Pinzgauer (which is reddish brown with a white stripe down their back). The Red Angus is very mellow, but it still pretty standoffish, as is her calf (he stands behind her most of the time).

We are also going to get two Black Angus Mommas. This is Big Boss Man's idea. He wanted to try an easier breed in terms of birthing. Black Angus are as easy as it comes for that.

So, next year we should have five new calves. Then the year after that six new calves.

What's So Simple About That?

I know it's not so simple. Farming, healthy eating, budgeting, child rearing - all of this is hard to figure out. It's not something I've had handed down from the generation before me and it's something that's easily lost in our culture. But, it has the potential to be so simple. And, even in these beginning stages of figuring this all out - the simple joys of petting a calf or planting some vegetables or watching my birds at the bird feeder - well they are so cool!

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Our Calf

Here is a new picture of our calf, Annabelle. Annabelle is quite spunky and very friendly.

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I have my card reader replaced and now I can update my blog with pictures.

Sad News

I am sad to share that we lost another calf. This calf was not stillborn, but died after a week. The calf had a tongue that hung out of his mouth. We had read all the articles and books and gotten advice from people. But, we didn't know that if a calf didn't get the proper amount of colostrum in the first few hours, that they are not likely to make it after that. Because of his tongue he probably didn't get the proper latch on his mom. We were very much saddened.

Annabelle

  On a brighter note, here is a more recent picture of Annabelle, our first calf. She is about two weeks old now and is very sweet and vibrant. I'll have to get a picture of her running around - that is even cuter.



Country Life

We are very blessed to live in the country. I went through a LOT of adjustments at first, but now that I am getting to feel at home here, as well as now that I am getting to know people in our area, I am starting to love it. Here is one of the many benefits of living where we live: wildlife abounds. I opened the door to our house the other evening and this is what I saw. I got up my oldest daughter who was in bed, but still awake and showed her too.




Frog At Night (With Flash)

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