New Guy In Town

His name is Cowtown, but his friends call him C.T., and he's Ethan's birthday present.  He's an 8-year-old Pony Of The Americas gelding, and very friendly.  You can see he's mostly a red roan with a loud Appaloosa rump, but they say in winter he changes to a sorrel.  He's a little smaller than Sugarfoot, but still big enough to carry a fat old Grandad.

Amy and I rode him and played with him to be sure he's gentle, and we'll probably bring him home this weekend.  I'll rig him up a saddle, bridle and halter.  Hurry down and ride your birthday present, Ethan.  And everybody else--Ethan is always good to share his stuff.

That's How It's Done, Son

Yesterday Amy in the John Deere, Kathy on the lawn mower, and I on the IH mowed the weeds in the hay lot and carried our 61 new bales of oat hay off the field and into the hay lot.  Next we'll put up a temporary electric fence to let the cows graze the remainder of this field while keeping them off the Coastal, in preparation for separating them for breeding.

The picture, with the long evening shadows, doesn't do the hay justice.  It's over half of our requirement for the winter and, after last summer's meager harvest, it's a big deal.  It was a beautiful day to be outside and fun to all be working together.  Come on down and we'll find you a tractor to drive.

Parrotheads

We ate the last mango in Paris...

              ...and missed Richie.

Hay, So Far

It's a work in progress, but baling the oat hay is going well.  Yesterday I made over 40 bales on the main part of the field, between the dirt road and the waterway.  I'll finish this morning and expect the total to be over 50 bales.  Holly took this nice picture of the sky but, if you look real close near the bottom, you can see some hay bales.

Bull News

Here is the new yearling bull I bought in Kansas last week.  His name is Lambert but I'm sure we'll think of something more manly.  His genetics favor calving ease, so he'll get to breed the 3 heifers this year and probably become the main Hereford bull next year.

Bottle Baby

She drinks 2 quarts of milk substitute twice a day and I'm trying to get her to taste solid food (the horses' sweet feed).

We'll still try to bring her mother up and see if she'll nurse both twins, but my concerns for the survival of this one are past.  It's fun to feed her and see her grow each day.

First Hay

I cut the oats yesterday and today.  It looks great.  If the rain can hold off for a few days (don't say that very often) for it to dry, we'll get the hay season started off in good shape.

Bonus Baby

It's a rich season, with grass and weeds everywhere, oats about ready to cut, two litters of kittens on the grounds (here's a picture of Carly and hers)...

...and then one of the cows gives us twins!  It took us a couple of days to figure out that there were 2, because we kept finding one in strange places.  We put a tag in one's ear so we could tell them apart, and then it became clear that the cow was favoring one and ignoring the other (the tagged one).  So yesterday we decided to bring the unfavorite to the barn and bottle feed her (I think they're both heifers), but we couldn't find her anywhere.  We searched until after dark.  This morning I was out at sunrise on the 4-wheeler and searched until 2:00.  I took a break to get some things ready for the weekend, and was back in the pasture by 5:00.  Under different circumstances it would have been a beautiful day to drive around the pasture, with wildflowers and grass everywhere.  Kathy joined the search on the Gator when she got home.  Finally about 7:30 I found her, and commenced following her around on foot trying to catch her.  At about 9:00, after nearly a complete circuit of the pasture, we were able to walk her through the gate and into the hay lot, go home for a rope and finally catch her.  Here she is adjusting to her new pen in the barn, which Lawrence and I built and I'm extremely proud of.    She got the idea to nurse immediately and likes the bottle.

Hurry home and help take care of all these baby critters.