Weaning and Baling

Weaners

On September 6 Amy, Mom and I weaned the calves and gave them their booster vaccinations.  We weaned 8 baldie steers that will be sold through Pacesetter Beef, 6 baldie heifers that will be replacements for old cows in our herd, 4 Polled Hereford bulls I'll keep and try to sell in the spring, and 2 Polled Hereford heifers who will also be replacements.  Health and weaning weights were excellent, demonstrating the value of a little rain and the goodness of our cows.  The calves were so big I think the mothers were relieved to wean them, as the protest and noise were rather perfunctory this year.

Bales

On the 9th and 10th I cut and square baled the Gamblin Place Coastal, making almost 200 heavy bales.  They'll be handy this winter for feeding horses, calves and cows.  The baler I borrowed was a 2003 version of the New Holland baler we used in about 1981 (which might be the last time it was used), and almost identical technically.  It was fun and I like having the square bales.  I'm going to get ours running again.

Life is good.  Come down and help feed calves and tote bales.

Anniversary

Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad

A Good Birthday

Tres Amigos

It's been a nice way to celebrate a birthday.  It started at the K-State game last weekend, where I was provided gifts and a homemade pie.  Today, Denny Anderson brought Sugarfoot back from her training trip to Fort Worth.  Whether she's been training Denny or he was training her is still up for discussion, but I hadn't been able to ride after my shoulder surgery and I thought they might be good for each other.  Denny brought his friend Johnny Johnson and Johnny's horse, Tex.  Denny rode Sugar and I rode Cowtown and we toured the big pasture for a couple of hours.  All the horses (and riders) did fine and the guys seemed to enjoy the tour.  We called Mom to come out and take a picture of us but forgot and unsaddled before she got there, so we're posing here with Angelfire.  Then we had lunch of Texas Star smothered steak, another homemade pie and lots of iced tea.  Through the day I've received many online and e-mail birthday wishes.

This evening the pleasant complication of feeding and watering big horses, little horses, cows and calves was a little more complicated by Sugar's presence and I couldn't be happier.  We'll wean calves this weekend and probably start a second round of hay baling thanks to 2.5 inches of rain while we were in Kansas.  Life is good.  Come pitch in, help, and ride a horse.