FGP Cattle

    The winter seems to have slipped by without anybody noticing.  Or maybe it was having the time to notice!  If we weren't busy checking for new babies, we were fighting with frozen twines to bed everyone done after another windy, snowy day.  There were times that it felt like we were bedding more than we were feeding.  And looking out the window, it seems like that is going to continue for a little while yet.  The ground is mainly white and there are still quite a few piles for the boys to climb.  If only the straw pile looked so good.  We are down to the last few bales of straw.  Even the square bales got used this year!  Here's to hoping that there are no snowstorms/rains until the grass is out and growing.  Tomorrow we have to go to the neigbour's to buy some more hay so we can scrimp along until the ground greens up. 

     The slow melt is good for slowing the threat of flooding.  And I am sure the grass will benefit more from it too.  But it has been a little beyond slow lately.  It is time to get on with spring and get the weather warming up!  We may be a little soft after last year and the lack of snow and cold weather.  But I think we have made up for it enough this year with the long, deep freeze in January and blizzards in March. 

    The winter seems to have slipped by without anybody noticing.  Or maybe it was having the time to notice!  If we weren't busy checking for new babies, we were fighting with frozen twines to bed everyone done after another windy, snowy day.  There were times that it felt like we were bedding more than we were feeding.  And looking out the window, it seems like that is going to continue for a little while yet.  The ground is mainly white and there are still quite a few piles for the boys to climb.  If only the straw pile looked so good.  We are down to the last few bales of straw.  Even the square bales got used this year!  Here's to hoping that there are no snowstorms/rains until the grass is out and growing.  Tomorrow we have to go to the neigbour's to buy some more hay so we can scrimp along until the ground greens up. 

     The slow melt is good for slowing the threat of flooding.  And I am sure the grass will benefit more from it too.  But it has been a little beyond slow lately.  It is time to get on with spring and get the weather warming up!  We may be a little soft after last year and the lack of snow and cold weather.  But I think we have made up for it enough this year with the long, deep freeze in January and blizzards in March. 

    The winter seems to have slipped by without anybody noticing.  Or maybe it was having the time to notice!  If we weren't busy checking for new babies, we were fighting with frozen twines to bed everyone done after another windy, snowy day.  There were times that it felt like we were bedding more than we were feeding.  And looking out the window, it seems like that is going to continue for a little while yet.  The ground is mainly white and there are still quite a few piles for the boys to climb.  If only the straw pile looked so good.  We are down to the last few bales of straw.  Even the square bales got used this year!  Here's to hoping that there are no snowstorms/rains until the grass is out and growing.  Tomorrow we have to go to the neigbour's to buy some more hay so we can scrimp along until the ground greens up. 

     The slow melt is good for slowing the threat of flooding.  And I am sure the grass will benefit more from it too.  But it has been a little beyond slow lately.  It is time to get on with spring and get the weather warming up!  We may be a little soft after last year and the lack of snow and cold weather.  But I think we have made up for it enough this year with the long, deep freeze in January and blizzards in March. 

     For the last 24 hours, the weatherman has been predicting a Colorado low moving in and dumping a quarter of the snow that we would normally see in the winter.  Or aboiut 20 centimeters.  Wind and blwing snow are supposed to come to, creating the first major blizzard of the season.  People are hauling in the provisions and preparing to settle in for the weekend. 

     The snow was supposed to start at 9 pm tonight (or so the last reports we heard said - but that time moved a few times over the last day or so so who knows!)  A look out the window shows nothing.  Just black.  With no sun (or moon) out, that's not much of a surprise.

     Hopefully it doesn't snow too much.  The cows all need to be vaccinated, ivomeced and weighed for the winter.  We have been waiting for the rains to stop and the pens to dry up a little before we brought the cows in and mucked everything up.  We didn't want to make ruts through all the pens and then have the ground freeze on us before we could get everything smoothed out again.  One winter of fighting with uneven ground was enough!  The surface is still a little soft but a dumping of snow should help to provide a layer of insulation to keep the ground cold and firmer.  Too much won't be fun trudging through though! 

     We'll have to dig out the big winter jackets and mitts so that we can fill everything up with needles to keep them warm so the vaccines go through easier.  Some time this evening may have to be spent sharpening the pencils too so we can right tags and weights down without having to take off mitts or worry about frozen ink.

     Ahh... the joys of an early winter...

Well, first the month started with snow.  And now the turn of the calendar has brought rain.  And more rain.  And more rain.  It has rained for 2 days straight now.  (or at least it seems like that!).  It's been a nice gentle rain - the perfect summer rain.  It would have been really great if it had come in July or August.  Not that we want to turn away any moisture, especially with how dry the summer and fall (to date) has been.  But after slogging through mud to sort calves, a little bit of dryness would be nice.  We won't say that too loud though as our neighbours to the south are still in dire need of water.  Let's just hope that the top layer of dirt has time to dry out before it freezes.  Otherwise there will be a nice layer of ice over everything all winter long.