Duffy's First Calf

On February 20th at 3:00 in the afternoon I checked on our heifer Duffy who was due to give birth to her first calf in a few days. She was laying down when I first saw her and as I got closer I heard her breathing very irregularly. I could also see that she was having contractions. I continued checking on her throughout the day and night. Sunday morning at 4:00am I checked on her again and noticed that her belly had shrunk, indicating that the calf moved into the birth position I watched for a little while longer until I was sure that nothing else was happening. I went back to bed and woke up at 6:30am. I went outside to do chores but before I started I went in again to check on Duffy. Only this time when I checked on her I saw two little hooves protruding out.
Warning, the pictures below may be somewhat graphic.

The feet have just emerged

Now the head comes out.

Soon the whole calf came out and Duffy excitedly began licking her new baby dry

This calf turned out to be a girl, we picked the name Hunny for her. In this picture She seems to be saying, “Whew being born is hard work”

Duffy and Hunny are doing great despite the cold weather. I hope it warms up soon.

Winter In Iowa

Today we had ANOTHER snowstorm. This one dumped about 10 inches of snow here. That wouldn’t seem so bad if we had somewhere to put it.

So far this winter we have nine, huge, snow mountains.

The cows can’t wait for spring, and green grass.

The snow doesn’t seem to be bothering the turkeys at all.




Hopefully this winter ends soon.

P.S. Our dairy heifer, Duffy is due to give birth to her first calf within the next two to three weeks. I will try to put pictures up as soon as the calf gets here.

Pork 2009

After 7 months of growing, two of our biggest pigs were ready to be butchered. We called the Locker a week ahead of time so they could schedule us in. We can't eat two whole pigs ourselves so we sold one to some friends of ours. Early Saturday morning we got up, did our chores and prepared to load some hogs.

It may not seem like it would not be too difficult to load two pigs onto a trailer but pigs always seem to know how go where you don't want them to go. after about twenty minutes of chasing pigs back and forth we resorted to luring them into the trailer with a pail of feed. Pigs usally don't fall for this trick but this time it worked (slowly but it worked). After they were loaded Dad drove them to the Locker. After a week the Locker called to let us know that the pork was done and ready to be picked up. Yesterday We went to go pick up the meat. In total the meat weighed almost 180 lbs which is good because we love pork.

New addition to our family

Well between fairs, historical events and general work on the farm we've also been busy getting ready for the new arrival of baby. Mom is glad it is finally over.

Here are pictures of baby mom and the rest of the family.

WELCOME NEW BABY!

Grandpa and Grandma with new bundle of blessing.

Sometime this early autumn we would like to update you all on activities this summer but this one was too important not to tell about.

Barn Dance

Last week we attended a barn dance in Nevada IA. Everyone had a lot of fun. The first dance was a circle dance which was very simple. We also danced reel dances which have different variations such as the Virginia Reel. St. Luke’s Circle is an old Scottish dance, which most of us thought was very difficult. There were also Waltzes, only Dad and our sister danced and seemed to enjoy themselves.

When most people think of a “Barn Dance” they imagine people wearing red and white checked shirts and with handkerchiefs around their necks but as it turns out these dances were very historical. Each dance reflected their origins from other nations that eventually became incorporated into our culture.

We would like to thank the Onion Creek Band of central Iowa for the great time we had that evening. We look forward to more of these dances and will be attempting to sponsor a dance ourselves one day.

Paintball

Today Dad I played a game of paintball out in our pasture. The first game that we played was "elimination". After a few tense minutes of running ducking and shooting, Dad's gun ran out of air and he could no longer shoot. The next two games we played were "capture the flag", we placed the flag in the middle of the feild amidst the trees. I lost one game when I ran out of ammo (I tried to fool Dad into thinking I still had ammo but that didn't last long). Dad won the last game after he shot me and grabbed the flag.

Dad, in full battle-dress-uniform.

Me, waiting for the signal to start.

Dad, shooting at me!

Oh, also...Donnie we missed you and your family today. Were sorry you couldn't make it. Maybe sometime soon we can get together.

New Arrivals

Last week our farm’s livestock population went from a mere 41 to 6041. Our new tenants are small, cute and furry. If your not careful, they may sting. Yes, we got bees. We bought them from a beekeeper in Lynnville IA.

Look at all the packages.


Installing

Placing the queen cage



We bought carnillion honeybee and I would highly recommend them if you are interested in bees.