Back on Track

Whoa!  Totally remiss in keeping the blog updated....Not because there isn't anything to post about, but because it's just darn busy and there's too much to post about!  We'll work on that.

Starting slowly since I'm a bit rusty - a new Mooster heifer in October.  Meet Moosters Fire Opal:

She's perfect.  Big eyes (the first thing you notice about her), great conformation, black nose and feet, red.  She's parentage verified, of course, and PHA and chondrodysplasia free as an obligate.  We are celebrating her even more as her polled test came back and she is our first (at least since we've been testing potential candidates) homozygous polled heifer!  She just gets prettier every day.  

Living where we do, we see so much wildlife.  Big birds of prey are usually somewhere nearby.  We've had a pair of owls living in the trees down by the creek for a long time.  Unfortunately, one of them met something slightly bigger and badder:  a vehicle side mirror from the looks of things.  We noticed him/her right next to the highway and very nearby was the cause of death.  So sad.

We still see the second owl every now and then, but he/she looks so lonely in the tree.

Save the Last Dance for Me

This week is 'Dance's last week at Moosters Meadows.  We are going to miss this guy more than we can say.  He's arrived here about 5 years ago looking not quite like the herd sire we had envisioned.  Maybe he resembled a gawky teenager?  But we had faith that he'd live up to his genetics and he's never once disappointed.  He matured into a most handsome boy with sweetness to go with his looks.

Despite his broken coffin bone last year, he's done very well getting around and we are grateful that he's going on to sire a few more calves for someone else.

So yesterday he got one more ride in our trailer to Gordon, Nebraska, home of Western Sire Services.  We decided to have him collected "just in case."  He's certainly made some beautiful Moosters calves over the last few years and while we know that his son, Dance Machine, and our very special PRF Hondo Lane will make more Moosters, we might need to call on 'Dance someday.  You just never know.

We were allowed to watch the process since 'Dance was a "trailer bull" and headed back home again.  This is a truly lovely facility with great people who take care of everything.

He may be short, but he's mighty mighty!

That's no optical illusion - the steer was really that big!  Didn't bother our boy one bit -- he did his job and we were out of there in no time flat.

This really is a beautiful, state of the art facility.  We can't recommend them highly enough.  (It's also where we store our other straws - again, for one of those "just in case" scenarios.)

We aren't affliated with Western Sire in any way other than being satisfied clients......just a tiny disclaimer....

And so, we say goodbye to our boy with sadness.  He's going to be missed.............

An Orphan named Thumper

Last weekend was especially awful.  We lost one of the very first Dexters we ever purchased to a fast moving infection.  RIP Fawn.  We really will miss you.  Fawn left behind some wonderful offspring and we learned a lot from her.

On Saturday, she left behind a five day old bull calf.  We alternate between calling him Orphan and Thumper (a much better name thanks to Calli).  With all of the other calves running around, we hoped to find a foster mother for him.  Enter Yanni, Thumper's sister.

She's been more than generous with her little brother.  Unfortunately, her calf takes most of what she's got in the tank.  That's Yanni with Thumper at the milk bar.  She is becoming more protective of him as each day goes by.  We're separating Frostie for most of the day now, so Thumper ought to be getting more milk now.

Enter Luna, who has more than enough milk for her heifer, but isn't going to allow Thumper to hang around her udder unaccompanied.  Sweet Luna is so easy though.  We just walk her into the chute and she stands stock still while Thumper nurses.  She's already figured out the routine.  Feed the little guy, get treats, go back to your heifer waiting for you in the pasture.  Easy.

He's doing fine so far:

The Calf Stork has been Busy

While we are seeing a few more bull calves than we'd prefer, the heifer stork finally arrived this morning bearing two red heifers!

Bess (on the left) and Luna (on the right) waited impatiently for the stork to arrive.  Bess gave us a perfect little black bull calf.  Ragnar is a full brother to one of our up and coming herd sires, Dance Machine.  He ought to be homozygous polled - waiting for that test to be processed now - like his brother.

Here's Bess and Ragnar!  He looks exactly like Machine did last year.  Bess has always shared her boys with us, but she's a bit stand-offish this year.  Not threatening, just not too interested in letting him hang around with us.  That won't last too long because SHE likes to hang around with us.

Here's Luna with her newly born red heifer.  Polled.  Couldn't get much of a picture this morning since they did not want to leave the shelter and soft bedding for the very windy day.  We are so excited that she broke the bull bonanza.

Saphire's little bull calf.  He's a chunk.  We still aren't sure as to his polled status.  No buds yet, but one day we're sure he's got the horned look, then convinced that he's polled the next.  Saphire has no objections to him being handled, so we'll get it figured out with certainty one of these days.

Jasmine and her bull calf.  This year she's a little reluctant to let us "play" with him.  Last year we didn't give her much choice with Acqua di, so she may be keeping him at a distance on purpose.

Our beloved Meara and her new horned bull calf.  He's sweet and both of them are fine with us handling him any time.  He already runs over to greet us while in the corral.

Rally graced us with another lovely heifer this morning.  She is never inclined to let us near her calves until they are several weeks old.  We'll sneak up on this little girl one day soon and see if she is going to be polled or horned.

And because I got such a great picture this morning while having such a good morning in the pasture:  Tracy and Barkley.  He's almost three months old now and will soon be taller than his chondro-carrier momma!  He's become Mr. Personality in the pasture - a very nice polled boy out of Kip.

All of the girls found the birth of Rally's heifer this morning to be an event of great interest.  It took Rally a while to convince them all to go Away!

Keeping our fingers crossed for more of those beautiful red heifers!  Our schedule will now be a little more erratic, but we have 7 or 8 more to go by summertime.

Misery Loves Company?

Just had to share these pictures!  Here are Luna and Bess waiting and waiting and waiting for calving time to arrive.  Both are due next week sometime.  They have been standing in the shade on a lovely warm sunny day so they must be miserable.  At least they have one another for company.....

Dreary winter keeps hanging on....

Not much to write home about in February.  It's the month of truly uncertain weather - we've seen 60 degrees and way below freezing.  Blue skies, fog, ice, rain, snow......  Fortunately, we'll be seeing February in the rear view mirror soon enough.  Spring must be on the way.

In the meantime, I get these pleading looks from all the girls.  They are letting me know that they are quite pregnant now (we are about a week away from our first potential calf!) and want the snow to stop!  Bess is already a guest in the corral because we think she'll be first (and she has the saddest eyes).

And there's nothing left to do but entertain ourselves by learning to take pictures of ourselves with our friends:

In Other News......

We often see Wide Loads travel down our north/south highway.  We can see the caravans go by from our back deck and sometimes speculate on what the heck IS that!?  This time we first noticed the utility trucks gathering at the corner where our county road meets the highway.  In the country, we really notice when there are "strange" vehicles in our vicinity, so we were kind of wondering what the heck was going on....

Finally --

This is definitely the biggest thing we've ever seen coming down our highway.  It takes both lanes and had multiple semi's pushing and pulling.  Just wow.  Apparently we weren't the only ones in awe as there was an article in the Lusk newspaper soon after.  This, folks, is the Spud Gunn.  It's 198 feet long and weighs 261 tons.  Combined with the trucks and trailers, it's a whopping 425 feet long (not counting the accompanying  warning vehicles and utility trucks!).  It's actually a demethanizer column that can separate methane from natural gas.  It's headed to Kansas at a mind-numbing 50 miles a day from Eaton Metal Products in Idaho.   The logistics must be amazing.

And just for fun, lunch time in the pasture:

Here's Twizzler.  She always has a milk face.  Watching her eat, we can clearly see why!  She is a busy busy girl at feeding time!

Frostbite is much neater when she eats and can't understand what all the fuss is about!  Love her fur coat this winter......

Dun da da Dun Dun Dun !!!

Looks like we're going to have to change a bit of wording on our website because we are now owners of two beautiful new dun girls (and an equally beautiful black full sister).  Meet Hershey, her daughter Cocoa, and Hershey's sister Dash:

How could you not love this face or those horns!?

We are so thankful to Randy and Susan for trusting us with these lovely girls.  Can't wait for summer calves!

First Calf of the Year is Here!

At long last!  Seems like we've been waiting and watching for Tracy to pop this little guy out for a very long time (I'm sure she thought so too).  Meet Wieringa's Barkley.  He's a stout polled bull calf out of our Tracy and Kip.  Definitely carries red.  More info to come as he gets a bit older.

Now we can relax on the calving front for a few months.  Then look out in the spring!  All 'Dance babies for 2014.

In other news, our new updated website is finally done!  Pretty darn pleased with it - hope you enjoy the new look too.  We'd recommend Roger at Made Right Media if you ever want to do your own web site.  I still have a lot of pictures to add to the Our Herd page (and I'm pretty slow), but I was trained well and can do it myself!  Thanks Roger!

No Cows Were Harmed

No cows were harmed (or even aware of what we were doing, for that matter) in the tiny little adventure below.

We'd been out checking on the girls and both of us commented on the "something" down by the creek in the south end of the pasture.  We couldn't tell from the upper pasture quite what we were seeing (might have something to do with getting older and eyesight and all that), so we thought we'd motor down to see what we could see.

The creek looked well frozen so we crossed over at the cross over, then cruised down to where we thought we saw the "something."  Um, okay, it's farther that we thought, but the ice is pretty thick.  Right?

Nope.   We dropped that front wheel right through the ice and into the creek.  No traction because there is ice most everywhere else.  The cattails disguised the mushy ice - really.

After a nice brisk walk back to the barn to get the tractor, and after multiple times of breaking the rope, my ever patient husband pulled the ATV out of the creek and we were both soon on our way home.

By the way, we never did find out what the "something" was........