Mud, Mud, and More Mud!

The last few days or maybe weeks we have seen our fair share of rain at Liberty Belle Acres.  I'm all for rain...it keeps the grass and flowers growing, but too much of anything is not a good thing.  Yesterday morning we hurried over to the mall to take back the faulty elliptical I received from KC as an anniversary present.  It wasn't raining and KC wanted to get back to the farm asap as it was moving day for some of the bovine.  Well it rained on us all the way back home.  It was not only raining, but it was pretty chilly out too.  To work with the cows, I wore my bibs and a big heavy jacket to try to keep me dry. We tried pumping water to the new holding pen across the road where the cows were being moved to.  No such luck...it didn't work for some reason, so we had to scrap that plan.  After checking all of the fences, we decided to just load the kids up and take them across the road.   Luckily the first 5 or so cows loaded themselves into the trailer, no problem.  That wasn't the case as we went to drive away.  Trying to keep the nice truck nice, KC used the older, smaller truck to hook up to the trailer.  As I went to drive away, I knew it was a bad idea and thought the truck was going to snap in half!  With a little rearranging of trucks and trailers, we were on our way to take the first load of cattle across the road.  All was going fine until the truck and trailer backed a little too close to the ditch.  It seemed like we were having one problem after another.  The next load went a little easier, but Number 42 needed a little coaxing to get in the trailer.  After I gave her a hug and a pat, I decided to get up in the trailer and give it a try.  She came right to me!  I left her to eat some grain and KC closed the trailer gate.  She is now across the road and not so easy to see from the house.  Atleast she is still around though.

This morning KC decided to load up Whitey and Butterscotch again.  After about an 1/2 hour we got Butterscotch loaded, but Whitey wasn't so easy.  We tried a few more times over the course of 2 hours, but knew she wasn't going to have any part of getting in the trailer this morning.  So, we made the hard decision to send Butterscotch to the sale without her buddy.  As we pulled out of the driveway, Whitey looked pretty lonely watching us leave. I told Butterscotch good bye and petted her head as she was unloaded at the sale. We stayed to see Butterscotch sell.  It was very hard to watch her in the sale ring, but the man who bought her also bought another of our heifers late last fall, so we think she has a good home.  With tears in my eyes, we left the sale and headed home.  Definitely something I have to get over if we are going to make this farm thing work.

Saved By The Rain

Although it was raining, KC decided to still try to load my beloved Whitey and Butterscotch to take them to the sale.  As he left the house to go load the girls, I watched him from the window crying.  To take my mind off them leaving, I cleaned the house all morning while it rained.  Butterscotch easily put herself on the trailer, but Whitey wasn't so sure about the situation.  She stood back and watched while everyone got soaked.  She never stepped foot on the trailer.  Fortunately, KC understands that they came to our farm as a pair, so they need to leave our farm as a pair.  Not wanting to separate them, he let Butterscotch back out of the trailer to spend some more time on our farm.  The rain saved the day for Butterscotch and Whitey this time, but they may not be so lucky the next time!

                                                               Whitey and Butterscotch

Hard Goodbyes

The time has come for some of my favorite heifers to leave the farm.  I knew the day would come sooner or later.  Tomorrow is possibly that day.  The husband says it might happen tomorrow, but he isn't sure because it's supposed to rain.  Less than a year ago these two heifers came to our farm.  The one girl is a Charolais; the other I'm not so sure, but she is yellow in color.  Their names are White Lightning, a.k.a. Whitey, and Butterscotch.  Whitey first got her name the day after she arrived in the field.  She was quite excitable and pretty much crazy.   She was great at escaping and learned to put her head under the gate to pop off the hinges quite quickly.  I never thought we would get Whitey back in her pen, and I remember telling KC to sell her ASAP.  Butterscotch was only slightly better.  I never thought I would be sad to see them go.  Each day I pull my car up the driveway, Whitey and Butterscotch lead the crew down through the field to the fence to greet me.    They are still skiddish and freak out when a human or dog or cat gets too close.  Once while feeding the "kids," KC reached out to pet Butterscotch.  Not such a good moooove.  She jumped and fell into the feed trough.  Flailing to get out, we thought she would hurt herself for sure.  Once she got herself under control, we were able to see no harm was done to her or the trough.  These cows come to our farm for only a short time, and during that time they become part of our family.  Maybe the rain will let them stay part of our family for a little longer...