Funny

We often go to Aristacats for breakfast on Saturday mornings.  They have free Wi-Fi, advertised on a homemade sign.  Apparently a customer had a better meal than marriage experience...

Another Farmer's Holiday

Now I see why they call it the Red River

I try to save office work (including blogging) for rainy days, but those are so few and far between that I get way behind.  We're forecast to have showers all day so I made a big pot of coffee, brought up 2 days' supply of wood, built a fire and hunkered down.  I'll try to catch you up...

I might have mentioned before that, soon after we moved in, we spent a little money and had the chimney fixed so the fireplace doesn't smoke any more.  I really wish I had done it as a gift for Dad years ago, he enjoyed a fire so much and enjoyed tinkering with this firebox and heating system.  Kathy loves a fire too, and can go through a lot of firewood.  By the time I got back from Africa she had burned everything I had cut for the fireplace, the smoker, the chiminea and a couple of old fenceposts!

Argh, argh, argh!

Since my attempts to cut more were hampered by frequent trips to the  chainsaw repair shop, Kathy got me a Christmas/Valentine/Father's Day/birthday present of a new chainsaw.  It's awesome!  I immediately took it to the Gamblin place where there's a big thicket of dead Live Oaks, and cut more in half an hour than I had all fall.  Two days ago I put a big old stump in as a back log, figuring it would last the night.  It lasted 3 and still had embers this morning so I put one little stick in there and had a fire in 5 minutes.

We're deep into our favorite season, calving.  I've talked enough about the shortage of grass and hopefully expressed enough thanks for a good hay year last year.  I know I complained this summer about all the time I spent in the tractor, but I'll never complain again.  We started feeding hay in September, got the cows in good condition, and calving is going great.    

First one--Amy's, wouldn't you know

The first one arrived January 29.  Amy and Todd were here last week and helped me tag on Friday, and there were 8.  Last night (Tuesday) I counted 18!   A perfect score would be that we have 24 by tomorrow, which would indicate all the cows conceived on their first heat cycle, a sign of excellent fertility and nutrition (not to mention hard-working bulls).  I'm happy with how well it's going.  Two of the four 2011 Polled Hereford heifers we raised have calved and the other 2 are looking close. 

Baldies

 You can see a little winter grass greening up thanks to the January rains.  I'm hopeful for some more today.  After being brown and dead-looking the oats have grown out a little and now I'm trying to decide whether to graze them or save them for hay.

Polled Herefords

Sometimes we take a glass of wine and go up on the Gator just to sit and watch them run around.  Kathy's working at H&R Block in Waco, making almost enough to pay for her gas, and it's our favorite way to spend the last half hour of daylight when she gets home.

Not that it's all work.  Holly and I decided to check on the bass situation at the tank.  The tank's low and the bass are hungry.

Come see us.  There's enough work and fun to go around and we'd love to share it with you.

Life is good