Prairie Rants

Picking and Grinning

2007-09-02T17:49:00.001-07:00

Well, we made a trip up to northern Indiana to try to catch the last of the peach harvest. I hadn't been able to get up to Michigan (and the Lorenz hospitality) in July, our usual peach-picking location, so I was a little worried we'd missed the season all together. But Catherine got on the internet and found a u-pick place near LaPorte. So we loaded up kith and kin and drove a couple hours, spent 30 minutes picking 100 pounds of beautiful peaches, had lunch at Arby's (at Rachel's insistence - one thing she misses in Germany), and drove a couple hours to get back home. Ellis was a big help- he made sure, by carefully sampling, that we were getting the best fruit on the trees. Now, he selects the ripe ones off the table so we can "put up" some peach halves, make some fruit leather, and have peach pie with Aunt Lucy's homemade ice cream.

E. M. Schek takes over the farm...

2007-08-30T18:23:00.000-07:00

He came with only a few days warning...now he has everyone and everything wrapped around his LITTLE finger and eating out of his hand! Ellis Merle, my grandson, is visiting and as the photos attest, he has made the place his own...he's only 14 months old!

He also has us humans eating out of his hand, too. Of course, being his grandmother I HAVE to let him do anything he wants to do, play with anything he wants to, and eat anything he wants to...but his two aunts are spoiling him something awful!

I just wish his cousin, Silas, were here to share in all the activities - I know he and his old pal Eli would have a good time together. Thanks for letting me gush a bit...I didn't know being a grandmother would be so much fun!

This is how I felt last night...

2007-07-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

My daughter Bridget is knitting things...lots of things...and one thing is a little sweater that has a front panel that can be removed, rather than just a single placket for the buttons and corresponding holes. Anyway, we thought it would lend itself to two or three DIFFERENT panels for different times of the year - autumn, holiday, snowy January days, etc. As an experiment towards that end, Bridget knitted a gold panel and felted it in preparation for my needle-felting class. The class was last night and here is the finished panel - though I think I need to "needle" it a bit more, and I may add a few more long leaves. I had a great time at the class and will soon be felting everything - no sweater is safe! Purses, slippers, headbands, beware! The instructor also showed me how to make 3-dimensional felt sculptures - we did a fish and a jelly-fish. She told about a woman who will needle-felt-sculpt your dog from a picture you send her - and she gets $80 per 6-8 inch felt rendering of the pooch! what a way to make a living!

Birthday Cakes

2007-07-05T15:53:00.000-07:00

This is a Bridget, in a first time guest post at Prairie Rants. We spent last week here at home and we're home for a little one day encore before going back to Orrin's family on their island in the Tippecanoe River for a couple days. But before we did we made some little bug birthday cakes for Silas and his cousins. When Mom visited Lucy in Colorado they stopped in at Williams Sonoma and bought this pan. So here's a little photo essay of mixing, baking, and decorating the birthday cakes. Stop by here in a few days (ok, maybe a week, I'll be jet lagged you know) to see more pictures of eating, smearing, and throwing birthday cakes.

Doing it with (a) Stile...

2007-04-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

At last,
I have my very own stile
for crossing
the aforementioned
(and feared)
electric fence!
I just love this stile!

Where did this come from?

2007-04-21T18:05:00.000-07:00

Born today, a little miracle - but a very odd one on this farm!
Yes, I know recessive genes manifest themselves occasionally - but I have never seen a calf like this on our farm in 30 years of breeding! Maybe it's Shorthorn? That's the only Non-Red semen we have ever used to AI our Hereford herd. And usually that appears as just an odd spot of white on the legs of the normal Hereford markings. Even odder, I did NOT AI cows last summer - we let our bulls do things the way nature intended. I thought both our bulls were full-blooded (or nearly so) polled Hereford. What do you think is going on here? Well, at least this little one will be easy to spot when his mama has hidden him out in the pasture - and doesn't remember where she put him!

Udderly Easy

2007-04-20T07:45:00.000-07:00

This is a long-overdue account of the new milking aid we purchased in January. An article in a farm journal made us aware of this wonderful little tool. It was origianlly designed to help gather colostrum from mares who wouldn't nurse their foals - or for foals who couldn't nurse. But in typical farmer fashion, we try to see more than one use for every implement. I don't think it was ever intended for dairy cows, but it is absolutlely great for milking dairy goats.
Since I have arthritis in my thumbs, hand-milking was not so easy some mornings. With this device, all I need to do is squeeze the handle a few times to start and maintain the suction, and the milk flows quickly into an attached quart bottle. What's even nicer is that the milk stays very clean - no goat hair or bits of hay or insects dropping into the fresh milk as it often did with an open pail. I just unscrew the full bottle from the device, cap it, and take it in to the house for pastuerizing and chilling. The device is called Udderly E-Z. According to the literature, it is actually gentler on the doe than hand milking. None of my does complained a bit while I used it. And it certainly was gentler on ME! Here is a photo of the morning's milk - can you tell which bottle has the colostrum?

Ridiculous!

2007-04-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know snow in April is an oddity. It might be expected, or even desired in some places (ski resorts, for instance). But to have three inches of this crystaline precipitation pile up over the new ryegrass seed in my freshly-tilled garden plot on April 14th is RIDICULOUS! Here is a photo of my garden at 2:00 pm on Saturday. The next photo is just an hour later! And it is still coming down - what I would call heavy snow. I guess I should just throw out the calendar and let Mother Nature continue to dictate, willy-nilly, when spring (i.e. planting time) actually arrives in northern Indiana. After 30 years of trying to understand her, cajole her, appease her, bend her to our will, you would think I would know better than to try to out-guess her. Oh, well, if life gives you snow, make snowcones!

Do fence me in!

2007-04-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

Since it is still too wet and too cold to put corn or bean seed in their fields, we have turned our attention to our fences. The last time we built fence, I was a newlywed, nearly 30 years ago. We use all high-tensile electric fence around our pastures and lots. In the long run, it is easier and cheaper to maintain this type of fence, and when the charger is working correctly, the livestock - including my wiley goats, respect it. Me, I fear electricity, but I have only a rudimentary understanding of it (and a great repect for it), so my husband takes care of the switches and the circuits and the volt-meter testing. I just make sure the chargers are turned OFF before I do any fence work.
This week, we purchased 50 new fiberglass posts and special stainless steel "clips" that fasten the wires to the posts. This is a new system of fencing that we could easily incorporate into our existing fence wires. We un-clipped the hi-tens. wires from the old splintered fiberglass posts and pulled the old posts. Then we drove in the shiny white 2/3" diameter posts into the soft ground. Next, we slid 4 new clips onto the post and then slid the hi-tens. wires into the clips. Voila! revitalized fence!
We set 45 new posts (that includes installing 180 clips) and we put them along the roadside - we always want our neighbors to appreciate our efforts. It really does look a lot better, but more importantly, it should make for a more secure enclosure - and with our animals, keeping them securely enclosed is an ongoing challenge. Now, if these post last 30 more years, someone else in the NEXT generation will be replacing them in 2037!

Cozy Pursuits

2007-04-04T16:55:00.000-07:00

March went out like a lamb here, with summery weather - including a few thunderstorms. Unfortunately, there was enough rain combined with the snow melt to fill our basement with 8 inches of water. We have tried to waterproof everything down there, but this time, the water got deep enough to actually float some of the plastic tubs - which caused them to turn sideways, and then fill with water. It has been great fun to sort through the soggy stuff for yet one more time. Ironically, the guy with the trencher/backhoe was going to come fix the boken tile (the cause of our flood) one day BEFORE this storm, but he was worried that it might be too wet! Ah, well.
Now, April has arrived and brought winter back with her. We may even see snow flurries this week. I can't even think about all the fruit tree blossoms that may suffer, but I am not up to getting out of bed at 2:00 am to light smudge pots. I think it's early enough that the trees will try to blossom again. I'm too tired to fight with Mother Nature these days - she always wins, anyway!
I've been doing some sewing - while my sister-in-law was visiting last month, I think she infected me with a quilting bug. She does absolutely beautiful things with tiny pieces of fabric. I have daughters who are very capable quilters, too, but I never caught the bug from them. Maybe my resistance was low in March. Or maybe this cold snap, which is keeping me out of the garden, out of the yard, and out of the farm fields, is making me pursue cozier activities. Though I'm just learning, I feel rather proud of the small project I'm working on right now. So, indulge me and let me brag a bit here.

Easter Bunny Arrives Early at the farm

2007-03-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

What a nice (and sweet) surprise greeted me at the mailbox, today. It was a package from Colorado and no one had even ordered (and paid) for anything from there. When I opened it up, THIS was inside!
My daughter Lucy and her hubby played Easter bunny. They baked, and SUPER-decorated a 3-D rabbit, a 3-D basket, a 3-D duckling, and a 3-D spring flower. Unfortunately, the post office broke most of the basket handle into pieces, but it is still beautiful. We'll have to wait until Mike tastes them to tell if they are delicious (though I am sure they are). I'm actually glad I'm dieting now - I'd hate to spoil this lovely work of art by actually eating it! Seems a shame... Thank you, Lucy and Josh! I am very impressed with your basket-weave technique! Can't wait to see the wedding cake you are constructing for Saturday.
Happy (early) Easter!

A few scraps of wood...

2007-03-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

According to our "Raising Dairy Goats" guide book, NO goat should have horns - they are nothing but a dangerous nuisance on a dairy goat and should be eliminated from offspring as soon as possible (by day 5). Unfortunately, the only reliable way to do this involves a slightly barbaric technique of burning off the tiny horn buds on those sweet-faced baby kids. We heat an small "iron" until it's hot enough to brand wood and then press it onto the buds. Supposedly, if done correctly, this does not hurt the kid - it's only burning the hard horn tissue that has no nerve endings.

The key phrase "done correctly" is the stumbling block. Every other spring, this has been a two or three person job, and the task of holding/restraining a rambunctous kid goes to the person who drew the short straw (usually ME!). You must hold the kid's head as still as possible while a red-hot iron is pressed onto it. Guess where your hands are? And guess how still a baby goat is? That is why last year's kids all had a nice set of beautiful curving horns, nice handles for dragging them around. Our current buck has such a set - and I do not like them for many reasons!

This spring, Mike and I knocked out a little box designed to do the tough job of holding a kid during the de-horning process. It made the whole dehorning process so easy and I think we actually did a good job of eliminating the horn buds. We were able to hold the iron in the correct place and for the correct amount of time. And best of all, no one, man nor beast, got burned! This is Go on the left, demonstrating the new kid-restraining box. He looks like a trophy hanging on the wall in the last photo, but he felt just fine!

In other goat news, Rosalie, our other brown Alpine goat decided to surprise me and have her kids early, at least according to my figuring - obviously not early for her. On a sad note, she delivered two kids, but I discovered one had been still-born. Both kids were biggen's, so that might have contributed to the problem delivering two healthy kids. It really was a surprise to me - I thought one of Frappie's babies had gotten into Rosie's stall, but he was exactly where he was supposed to be! He's a cute little buckling, and I've dubbed him Han Solo - since he's technically a singleton. His ears stick out like a true Alpine, unlike his cousins. Go and Happy, both bucklings, and Lucky, my only doeling, all have floppy ears, more like a Nubian.

Cute Kids, Goat Kids, that is...

2007-03-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

So, we have some kids! Frappacino FINALLY delivered her baby goats - three of them. I walked out to the barn on Thursday afternoon, convinced that Frappy's girth was just a ruse, a twisted diguise to gain special treatment - a private stall with running water and her own feed pan and hay rack. I'd even spread new straw in preparation for these phantom offspring. Just when she had me convinced there really were no kids, she drops 'em. Actually she delivered them very gently and without a lot of trouble, for her, for me, or for her kids. By the time I got to the barn, two of the newborns were already standing beside their mother, waiting for her to get up so they could nurse. But Frappy was delivering a third kid - butt first (i.e. the wrong way round - see previous post). It was dark in the barn, all the doors were closed and the light in the stalls is dim at best. I wasn't sure what was emerging from the doe's backside, but by feeling it, I could identify all the parts of a goat inside a sac - except the head, which was still inside its mama. Without much force, I easily pulled the last of this kid into the world. I decided to call this last-born kid "Lucky". It seemed to me that my timing that day was lucky for the little'n. Lucky is the wet, all-brown one in the second photo of the previous post, and the one thinking about following Go above, though he thought better of it at last.
Lucky was a little slow at first. I was worried that his backward entry may have hurt him. His hind legs were a little disjointed and I didn't think he would be able to compete for one of the available milk taps (A goat doe only has two teats; if she delivers more than two kids, it is survival of the fittest - pushiest). But the next day he was standing strong and nursing and pushing his siblings around.
Of course his siblings had to be dubbed "Happy" and "Go". Go is the black and white one who has managed to find the only gap in the "goat-proof" pen and has moved freely back and forth at least 24 times that I have witnessed! Despite being butted away by all the goats in the next stall, Go insists on...well, GOing! He tried to convince Happy to join him,too, but Happy couldn't find the gap. Besides Happy seems content to stay by his mother, who doesn't butt him away and provides very nice snacks.
Lucky likes best to lie in the sunshine with the cats, while Go does his going and Happy does his bouncing around. Baby kids are so much fun to watch. They get to be very bouncy, springing into the air, all four feet off the ground at once, and then flinging their back legs out, as if trying to click their heels together - and this is all done for the sheer joy of it. Tomorrow there will be less joy for these kids - at least for a few seconds. We are going to de-horn them, before the horn buds get growing. It will make them much nicer grown-up goats if we can get this little chore done early. Then I'll have to introduce the kiddies to the bottle. I'll probably feed them mother's milk for a few days and then start mixing in some kid milk-replacer. The kids get a lot less cute when I am the one who must feed them. That also means I will be milking again! How did I get in this position, anyway??? Oh, well, I have a new milking tool that I've been waiting to try - I'll keep you posted on how (or IF) it works as expected.

Bad Day / Not So Bad Day

2007-03-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

We have had some problems with calving this spring. Remember when I said I wasn't expecting any more calves until May? Well, apparently some heifers had here-to-fore unknown "relations" with a bull - and five of them have had (or rather, tried to have) their calves in March. Unfortunately, only two calves have survived, and we have even lost one of the heifers. Her calf was not in the right position to be born, its head and neck twisted sideways and down between its front legs. Almost every living thing arrives into the world head-first - even chicks and alligators peck their way in head-first. When the head is pointed in some other direction, problems arise.

We tried to pull the calf ourselves, but quickly decided we needed professional intervention. The vet arrived with a vet student as an assistant. Dr. Gruenburg told us about the calf's strange position, and that the calf was already dead, but that he hoped he could remove the calf and save the heifer. He and his student worked, I mean WORKED HARD, for nearly four hours, trying several methods to get the stubborn calf removed, but to no avail. Ultimately, we had to put the heifer down. I've never done that before - usually we let nature take it course, or as Mike is often saying, we "give her a little more time". So, it was kind of sad to see it happen, though I know it was really the only thing left to be done.

Dr. Gruenburg was exhausted and so apologetic, saying he hated to leave us with a vet bill AND a dead cow, but these are the kinds of things that you face when you raise livestock of any kind. Sometimes it's so frustrating because you feel like you work so hard trying to save an animal, and often it feels like the more you do, the less it seems to help. You come away from an experience like that and swear that you're DONE with animals of any sort...then, one day you walk out to the barn and you see this...

Spring has arrived, wet and wobbly!

2007-03-09T09:05:00.000-08:00

We were feeding big round bales to the cows. I have the job of pulling the plastic netting off these bales before my husband, Mike, uses the tractor-loader to plop them into the feed wagons. It doesn't seem like it would be a difficult job: just use your utility knife to cut the netting from top to bottom and then unwind it from around the upright bale, wad it up and put it in the incinerator. At least it works that way on a crisp autumn day in November - or even on a clear cold day in January, when the bales are still round and clean and dry.
But come the damp, muddy days of early March, the bales have been rained on, and snowed on, and iced on, and thawed and frozen several times. So, the bales are a mess, with this impenetrable layer of ick enmeshed in the hay and netting. I can make the initial slice, but pulling the netting off is a hard and messy (and frustrating) job with dirty ice shards flying in your face - which means it falls to a woman to do it!
Anyway, while I was being distracted by my job, Mike spotted something in the cow lot. He started to point and tried to make it clear what I should be seeing, but I was in no mood for a game of "do you see what I see"; the netting was winning the battle! Finally I saw the object of interest - a newborn calf! This little fella was still wet and just barely able to stand. He was valiantly trying to follow his mama around the lot, but he was having a lot of trouble. His main problem came from the two fall calves who had wintered with their mothers. For some reason, they took a great interest in this new arrival. Unfortunately, their interest manifested itself in a game of knocking the newbie to the ground at every opportunity. So, we decided that the cow and calf would need to be moved to the barn. We loaded the calf into the loader bucket and chased the cow out of the lot, hoping she would have the maternal instinct to follow her newborn - she did!
Our next hurdle was finding a way for a cow to enter the barn. Snow from previous accumulations had been piled in front of the small barn door, and the big door was still frozen in place. Finally, we realized the south side of the barn had an operating door (where the goats spend the hot summer days out of the sun). We drove the loader up to the door to get the calf into the corner stall - by now, he is standing up, ready to leap off the edge of the bucket. We do manage to direct his forward motion into the barn, and mama obligingly follows. So, both are now comfortably settled in the barn, a private suite with access to the sun (new calves need their vitamin D) .
I don't expect any more calves until May, but I guess I could be surprised again. I thought my goat kids would be the harbingers of spring, but again, few things happen as expected around here! And the kids are STILL not here - I don't see how my does could get much rounder.
I better pay attention - order seeds and plants and chicks - spring is on its way!

Are you ironing?

2007-02-10T16:59:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, I took my mother-in-law to her doctor's appointment. The reason for the appointment was that her red blood cell count was low. It has never been particularly high for a number of reasons, hovering at 11 (normal range is 12 to 16), but her last blood test indicated a RBC count of just over 8! What to do? A transfusion might be in order...but then the doctor suggested Procrit or Aranesp. The MD was quick to assure us that cancer was not an issue - Procrit has a pretty good ad campaign aimed at chemo patients. What these drugs do is stimulate the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells. Chemotherapy often can reduce this production, so Procrit and Aranesp are injected to help fight that. But, there must be enough iron in the blood stream for the bone marrow to use in RBC production. My mother-in-law has also been struggling with that (keeping her iron intake up to snuff) . So, I did a little research to find out how a woman (and women are the most likely to be anemic!) can keep her blood in good shape, i.e. full or iron building-blocks and red blood cell production on high! What I found out was rather interesting. Of course, taking a multi-vitamin + mineral supplement was one way, and the ferrous-form iron pills are great, though sometimes uncomfortable. But what foods would be good sources of iron? I thought I knew. . .
First I found out that there are 2 types of iron: heme, from animal sources; non-heme, from plant sources. Heme iron is much more readily absorbed than the non-heme. To increase the absorption of non-heme, you should eat "absorption enhancers" with those foods. For example, if you're having bran flakes for breakfast, you should have a glass of orange or tomato juice to "enhance" your absorption of the available iron in the cereal. We all know LIVER is full of iron, but sardines, tuna, shrimp, clams and oysters are good sources, too. Cockles and blood pudding are powerhouse iron sources, but ewee??!! Spinach, right? WRONG! In fact, it shows up as an iron-absorption INHIBITOR, as do red wine, tea, rhubarb, sweet potatoes, whole grains, and soy products! You can still eat these things, just don't eat them with your iron source foods.
Iron really is important in a woman's (and a child's) diet. Do you know what the RDA is for iron? For children and adult males, it's 10 mg. For women (age 12 - 50) it's 18mg., and 30mg. during pregnancy! Iron is notoriously low in the North American diet, especially in children one to two years old, and in women of child-bearing age. Surprisingly, it is also low among athletes, who pack their diets so full of carbohydrates that they tend to omit iron-rich foods.
Consider this a PSA. Knowledge is POWER! To find out more about how to IRON-UP, try here or maybe here , though I'm sure there are lots of sites that can give you more information. I just thought I would pass on what I learned. Now, I have to go make some liver and onions and wash it down with a BIG glass of WHITE wine (an iron-absorption enhancer - of course, I wouldn't drink it unless it were!).

Snow!

2007-02-06T17:38:00.000-08:00

It has arrived here in northern Indiana. I was out throwing corn to the fat calves. The cows in the next lot stood at the gate and bawled. Were they out of hay? I couldn't see their feeders but assumed they wouldn't be complaining if they had access to hay. So Mike and I decided to go ahead and feed a few big bales. As soon as we rounded the building, we saw there was still quite a bit of hay left in the cows' feeder - what they were bawling for was CORN! So Mike decided he would give them some corn; he filled the loader bucket from an over-head bin and hauled two loads to the feeders. Then we fed four big bales of hay. Lesson: Bawl loudly enough and Mike will do what you want!

As we were finishing this chore, big soft flakes began drifting down onto the hard frozen ground. The forecast was for 1 to 3 inches of this stuff - we smirked "that's 'heavy snow'?" I had a few errands to run in town and my mother-in-law needed a ride to her doctor's appointment - no problem! But the snow kept falling - in earnest - piling up! And of course the more the snow accumulated, the more stupid my fellow travelers became! I feared them more than the snow-covered roads. By the time I was ready to head home, the roads were a mess, drivers were all over the place, and many schools were ready to dismiss early. I was so relieved to be home! I really do like the snow - it has been quite a while since we've had much snow. It makes things look so clean, pure, and glittery, especially when the normal view of late has been muddy plowed fields or brown whithered grass and alfalfa fields.

Poor Little Pluto

2006-12-06T18:44:00.000-08:00

In leiu of REAL posting, I want to pass on some thoughts about an insignificant speck in our universe. I thought this poet/musician said it very well... (she has set these words to music, too!)

Planet X

In Arizona at the turn of the century,
astromathematician Percival Lowell
was searching for what he called "Planet X"
'cause he knew deep down in his soul
that an unseen gravitational presence
meant a new planet spinning in the air
joining the other eight already known
circling our sun up there.

But Percival Lowell died in 1916
his theory still only a theory
'til 1930, when Clyde Tombaugh
in a scientific query
discovered "Planet X"
3.7 billion miles from our sun
a smallish ball of frozen rock,
methane and nitrogen.

It joined Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
our solar system's newest neighbor
two-thirds the size of our moon
a tiny, barely visible speck
Cold! Minus 440 below.
Not exactly Paradise,
they named the planet Pluto

That same year, 1930, Walt Disney
debuted his own Pluto as well
but a cartoon dog with the very same name as the CEO of Hell
was not your normal Disney style
most figured he was riding the coattails
of Pluto-mania sweeping the land
(not unlike our modern love for dolphins and whales)

For the next five decades mysterious Pluto
captivated our minds
as late as 1978 its own moon Charon
was seen for the very first time
but now telescopes and satellites
and computer calculations
say that Pluto may not be a planet at all,
creating great consternation

(Some scientists say)
That Pluto is a "trans-Neptunian interloper"
swept away by an unknown force
or a remnant of a wayward comet
somehow sucked off course
others say that Pluto is an asteroid
in the sun's gravitational pull
but if you ask Clyde Tombaugh
he'll tell you "That's all 'bull'."

"I get hundreds of letters from kids every year." he says,
"It's Pluto the planet they love.
It's not Pluto the comet,
It's not Pluto the asteroid
they wonder about above."
And at the International Astronomical Union Working Group
For Planetary System Nomenclature
They too say that Pluto is a planet
reinforcing Clyde Tombaugh's view of nature.

Norwegian Kaare Aksnes,
professor at the Theoretical Astrophysics Institute
He too says that Pluto is a planet
and a signficant one, to boot
but at the Unversity of Colorado
astronomer Larry Esposito
says "If Pluto were discovered today,
it would not be a planet. End of discussion. Finito."

He says that it was not spun off from solar matter
like the other eight planets we know.
By every scientific measurement we have
is Pluto a planet? No!
and now 20 astronomy textbooks
refer to Pluto as less than a planet
I guess if Pluto showed up at a planet convention
the bouncer at the door might have to ban it.

St. Christopher is looking down on all this
and he says, "Pluto, I can relate.
When I was demoted from sainthood
I gotta tell you little buddy,
it didn't feel real great"
and Scorpios look up in dismay
because Pluto rules their sign.
Is now reading their daily Horoscope
just a futile waste of time?

It takes 247 earth years
for Pluto to circle our sun.
It's tiny and it's cold
but of all heavenly bodies
it's Clyde Tombaugh's favorite one.
He's 90 now and works every day
in Las Cruces, New Mexico
determined to maintain the planetary status
of his beloved Pluto.

But how are we going to deal with it
if science comes up with the proof
that Pluto was never a planet.
How do we handle this truth?
As the Ph.D's all disagree
we don't know yet who's wrong or who's right
but wherever you are, whatever you are,
Pluto, we know you're out there tonight.

And in the year 2003
you're going to see
the NASA Pluto Express
fly by and take pictures
of your way cool surface
to send to this web page address:
h t t p colon slash slash d o s x x dot colorado dot edu slash
plutohome dot h t m l
You've got your own web page!
For a little guy,
you've made quite a splash!

Yes, at the turn of the 20th century
astromathematician Percival Lowell
in his quest for "Planet X"
started this ball to roll,
but at the end of the 20th Century
we think he may have been a little off base
so we look at the sky
and wonder what new surprises
await us in outer space.
We look at the sky and we wonder . . . . .

The Sale Barn

2006-11-12T05:09:00.000-08:00

First, I must apologize - Since I did not take a camera with me to Veedersburg, the true picture of this experience was not captured for your viewing pleasure. So, you will have to be appeased with 1,000 words, instead! We took a cage of 6 Buff hens and 2 Black Star hens. We also took the last 2 doe kids to sell. It was an overcast, but warm evening. It would later turn very cold and pour rain. Sam and Elizabeth, a young(er) married couple, actually WANTED to accompany us down to the sale. They are both misplaced farm kids, homesick for the country.
When we arrived at the sale barn, the place was busy. They normally have an outside sale going on at the same time as the animal sale inside, but because of the forecast of rain, all these items were inside the barn with the animals. The outside items are usually farm related , and there are usually lots of small bales of hay - for the horsey people, mostly, though goat and poultry owners buy a bit of this hay, too. So there were two auctions going on in the same building at the same time, with two loud and verbose auctioneers on two different P.A. systems. I'm sure I was more annoyed by this than most of the auction attendees, but fortunately, all the clucking, honking, quacking, gobbling, and baa-ing (is that the sound that goats make?) drowned out most of the second auctioneer.
We walked through the items in the "outside" sale - sometimes you can find something of use - nesting boxes, an 6-foot oak board, fence posts, and the like, but sometimes there are really odd things, like a warming box from a caterer or vibrating recliners, and this night, it was stuff that looked like someone had cleaned out his barn...and his garage...and his basement. So, we skipped that sale and went into the arena for the "critter" sale. We had walked through the cages and boxes and stalls before the auction started and it was pretty much the norm - no donkeys or peacocks this time. Of course there were hundreds of chickens and rabbits, quite a few goats, and some odd (i.e. strange) sheep. There were a few turkeys that showed up late, but we didn't stay long enough to see them sell.
After 20 lots sold, we led our two does into the ring. These "girls" are an Alpine/Boer cross, which is a milking breed crossed with a meat breed. I'm pleased to report that they sold for $70 each - and as I later learned, the woman who bought them had no intention of milking OR eating these two - she wanted them for PETS! The chickens went for $4 each, the 6 Buffs to one buyer, the 2 Black Stars to another. However, because of the commission of 35% on small animals at this sale, I only made $20 on the chickens! The commission on the larger animals is state-regulated at only 10%. I guess our government does work - sometimes!
While at the sale, Elizabeth fell in love with a baby bunny - it really was sweet and cute (calico) and soft - "and she will love him and pet him and name him George". She ended up buying him when she found out that he was also missing part of a hind leg (poor baby). On a sad note, after spending $3 for the bunny, $15 for a cage (with tray), $7 on feed, $2 on a waterer, and $2 for rabbit treats, "Skippy" died on Monday morning. I guess Elizabeth will be wanting to go to the next sale in the spring - though by that time she will have her own (human) baby. We'll see how she feels then before we make any plans to go down to Veedersburg again!

The Hard Truth

2006-11-09T06:33:00.000-08:00

Today, I put the last of four 50-pound bags of feed into the chickens' feeders. Each bag of this premium feed costs $8.75. It is an excellent feed, full of corn and bean meal, trace minerals, no hormones or antibiotics. It is designed to MAKE EGGS! But my chickens did not get the memo. I warned them, told them I would have to see some improvement if they wanted to keep their happy home. They have successfully devoured 200 pounds of feed in the span of 10 days and I have been rewarded with a total of 9 eggs! Now those are really EXPENSIVE eggs! So, tonight, when the chicken coop settles into evening, I will be visiting these unproductive birds and putting the oldest ones (they have little red bands around their "ankles") into plastic poultry cages, and tomorrow I will be taking them down to Veedersburg, a small-town sale barn . Do not grieve for these birds - I'm sure their new owners will love them just as much as I did. ;)
I will report on the happenings of the last sale of year in my next post. Bye-Bye Birdie!

Reap What Ye Sow(ed)

2006-11-06T09:42:00.000-08:00

As you (few) who look to this blog occationally, thinking that by some miracle, or incessant nagging, a new post might have appeared in this space...TA-DAH! Here it is! apologies for the long span between posts, I really have no excuse.
In truth, it has been so long since my first post, I had actually forgotten how to get back to my own blog, and had trouble figuring out how to post a new entry. All this was in addition to the writer's block I was suffering. I know I claimed that I would record the mundane as well as the miraculous here, but even I was bored with the subject matter available to me.
Actually, there have been a few miracles - we managed to plant, maintain, and harvest a decent crop of corn and soybeans...No, that's not the miracle...the miracle is that grain prices are higher at harvest time than they have been all the rest of this year! There is no explaining it in human terms, so it is a miracle, I guess. These prices do not mean we will be solvent - just that we will be able to farm another year - whoopee!
Of course, there were a few other happenings of note over the summer and autumn here on the farm. We had a copious amount of rain which was good and bad for our hay crop - it grew like crazy, but there were never 5 days in a row without rain during which we could cut, dry, rake, and bale the wonderful crop. In fact, we only made two cuttings (normally, we take three) and ended up with more hay than we ever had in one season!
Speaking of hay, we had a strange happening concerning one of those creatures who devour our hay - at an alarming rate, I might add! A neighbor driving by our pasture noticed a heifer who looked as if she might be calving. Cows will generally wander away from the rest of the herd to do this, but ours invariably choose a spot where all the neighbors can witness the fun. Our neighbor was kind enough to let us know about the heifer's difficulties and I rode the ATV out to check on her.
Yes, the calf was coming, but was "stuck" about half-way out. In fact, I was pretty sure the calf was already dead, it's tongue out and eyes glazed. But the calf had to come out. All I had with me was a small 3-foot strap, which I looped around the calf's front legs and then pulled. Sometimes, if you're very lucky, the cow will be laboring hard enough that she will stay down and let you assist her - almost as if she appreciated your help. Well, not this cow! In fairness, this was the first birth for this heifer, so she couldn't be expected to cooperate as fully as a more experienced cow.
Anyway, when the heifer got up, I lost my hold on the strap (and the calf) and thought I had a much more complex situation to deal with now - coaxing the agitated animal up into our barn, corralling her into the chute, applying the mechanical calf-puller, etc. But instead, this heifer was annoyed at the "projection" coming out of her backside and proceeded to turn in circles, around and around, much like a dog chasing its own tail.
As I stood there with my mouth agape, she made five or six revolutions and finally, with the aid of centrifugal force, succeeded in dropping her calf. And perhaps it was the unusual delivery, but the calf was revived ( obviously, my first assessment was faulty) and within the hour was standing next to her goofy mother, nursing and enjoying her mother's attentions (i.e. licking). How's that for miraculous?

My First Rant - Welcome to this Rural Blog

2006-04-19T05:12:00.000-07:00

Life on a farm is often very routine, yet sometimes surpising. Every year it seems we repeat what we did last year. But every year, some new joy or pain keeps us from settling too deeply in a rut. So, I thought I could use this medium to record both the mundane and miraculous as it happens here on the prairie.