Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Twin calves born!

She was watching her first twin, and right as I walked up, she laid down to deliver twin number two.


The calf was born so quickly!


She looked at her newest calf ...


Started cleaning the calf off ...

But her first twin kept trying to stand up, and she couldn't stay away from her, either!


I never get tired of watching cows have calves.  We've been averaging 12 a day, so there are lots of chances!

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

A nice little Saturday

I took the boys to the Family Fun at the Farm event in Clinton County - and it was great!  Not only could you tour two farms - a calf raising operation and a dairy farm - but there were a variety of activities. To name a few ...

Feeding a calf
Cow bouncy house
Put your hand in the box and guess what crop you're feeling
Movies about both of the farms
A veterinarian and her truck for ask-a-vet
Signs explaining everything
Farm equipment like combines to climb on
A pretend cow to milk
Free food and ice cream
A book barn with ag-related books 
Corn box to play in
Tractor rides

There were also tons of volunteers that were available to direct you and answer all questions. It was so fun at Sonrise Farm and Cook Dairy Farm.  If you didn't get to go ... here's your virtual tour!  



As well as having people there, there were signs at all the stations explaining about the operations.


Have a seat on a bale to watch interviews with the farmers about their businesses.


Tractor-pulled trolleys for transporting people from the parking lot:



The calf raising operation uses automatic calf feeders for their calves.  Cool technology.





 Whenever I see a truck like this, I know it's a vet.  But I didn't know that before I moved here!






Put your hand in and guess ... soybeans, alfalfa ...


Cute calves!


The volunteer told the boys, "Perfect form!"  I felt forced to tell him this wasn't their first time.






Book barn:

Corn box:

Off to see Kris in the parlor!




They only milked on one side of the parlor so visitors could stand and watch from the other side.  Eating ice cream in a parlor?  Totally makes sense.




Huge equipment to climb on!  Max never wanted to leave this part.


Milking the pretend cow ... I think I'm going to take this to schools.  It's so memorable.






Just a few of the sponsors on the t-shirt.


Another great event, another way to expose people to agriculture.  Thank you, Family Fun at the Farm committee!

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Butterscotch bread pudding




My butterscotch bread pudding recipe was featured on the 'Go Bold with Butter' page.

Making food in general?  For me, it's sometimes okay, most of the time tedious.  But baking?  It has a whole different feel to it.  Baked goods are pretty, fun to make, and people love to eat them.

Here's the recipe and my post on their page:  Go Bold with Butter.





Run

I just sat down at the computer to post when I saw heifers out my window, running down the road.  I sprinted outside while calling Kris to help - he and my dad were already on the way.

We quickly got them back in, but it took some fast running on my part to keep up with them and get them back in the right place.

The fence wasn't working, so my dad went to check on it while Kris and I stood by the fence, looking at the heifers and talking.

"Regular running down the road is fine," I told Kris, since I'm recovering from a knee injury and already ran a couple miles today.  "But sprinting after cattle?  That hurts."

"But only one of those is practical!" Kris said, laughing.

I'm icing my knee right now after my cattle sprint.  I've got to be hefiers-are-out recovered!