my new calf

she is the red calf, the cow on the right is convinced that she is her baby.

more to come

i feel like my life is happening!

30 pound calf

This bull calf was a twin whose brother died. he is one of the smallest calves i have ever seen. me and rick fell in love with him as soon as we saw him. He is the size of a golden retriever dog and is just about the cutest thing you have ever seen.

isn't he cute as a button

This is down at the calf compound One of our favorites 1227 she was really small when she was first born as well, and now she is thriving.

calf blankets

So this was too cute to not share, we have two calf blankets that we use for obvious reasons. Ruth do you remember in 4h when we made blankets for our horses. I had Chester big stuffed horse. and you and me and my mom made a blanket for him, i still have it and hope to make some calf blankets from the design its the perfect size. isn't it funny how things from childhood come back in the most interesting ways?

This is our little barn Minou. She is the sweetest little kitty, we bring her food sometimes but her favourite is milk or milksicles, "frozen milk"

She loves the calves and is known to sleep with them.

She also loves it when they suck on her which is kind of weird, but she will come up to you and you pick her up to snuggle and she is all crusty with dried down calf drool, end of her tail and ears, its gross but cute.

water main break 2-21-09

These are pictures of my most recent Battell Disaster, phone started ringing at 8 am on saturday concerned tenants letting me know that there was water coming up through a crack in the parkinglot.. 6 and a half hours later there is a huge hole in the middle of the parking lot and a break in the main water is fixed, all of this happened on the day of the first annual winter carnival in middlebury. had to turn the main water to the entire building off. imagine how the resturants took that bit of info! The break was caused by a large rock being pushed up by the frost and cracking the main water which is located benieth the main sewar...Yikes i always say it could have been worse!

In this picture you see the break, pretty clean break i suppose but still...

My star plumber Keith was right there all day with me (at 90.00/hour) to keep me calm. Bruce (my boss,owner of building) showed up just as keith was turning the water back on for the building.
Here they are poking the rock with a shovel to show it a lesson.

We see the 12 inch sewar pipe and the four inch water main below it the rock in question is under that.

they put this heavy duty patch on the main allegdly it will last longer than any of us. although the guys i was working with had 20-40 years on me, who exactly will it outlive?

Here we see the patch working!

all in all it went as well as it could have. it cost 8,100.00 to fix all said and done (but the escavation crew will be back in the spring to permanetly fix the pavement). The numbers are in to the insurance company who already is saying they will not cover the plumbers bill (smallest bill) so i guess we will just see...it took alot of deep breathing but Bruce is very very pleased with me and rick (he had the day off from the farm) for the way we delt with it all. Like i said Bruce showed up at the very end when the water was being turned back on. Trial by fire.

weekend farm pictures or where the calves go when they are "teens"

me and rick bringing water to the springer cows (pregnant ones )where we are standing is right next to where our driveway will go.











me trying to convince this cow to stay in the picture with me, didnt really work.








This is down at "the pad"down the road from the main farm (across the street from ricks parents house) there are 42 calves here and all but two (bought from another farm) were raised from birth by rick and I! This is where the caves go after they have been fully weined from milk and constant attention. (they begin to look more like cows than calves here)



they all respond to our voices and a few will come running up to us just to get love.















this is the heffer barn, behind ricks shoulder is the pad, the calves have a big pasture and only get feed (that we harvest all summer from our fields).these guys and the calves from the pad all got out and mixed up this weekend. it was a chore and ricks dad didnt think we could do it but we got them all sorted out and put back in their respective spots. There is 43 hefferrs here. and most of these are all raised by rick and i as well. they also all come when we call.




This is Buffy she is one of the first group of calves that i met when i started to go to the farm and actually help instead of just standing around ackwardly.she is about 3weeks to 1 month in this picture






This is buffy now over a year old lovin the organic feed in the heffer barn

no evil forces at work my camera has been located!!

so this is my most recent addition to my orchid family. 11 blooms!!

These are the 30 or so beef cows that ricks dad holds on to for some odd reason, when times get tough we sell one or two. They are kept up near the main farm during the winter and put out to pasture for the summer. They are pretty cool very wild, not like the milking cows, who are mostly docile. they keep me company when im putting hay in to the small calves hutches, although the smaller beef calves like to squeeze through the fence and eat my hay! This picture, i just love, it was as the sun was rising, most of the valley you see in the backround is part of what the snomobeilers call "quesnel flats"

so now that the big switch to digital has happened and we no longer have tv ill be posting more which is good although i do miss my morning cartoons!

Short list of things ive learned on the farm.

1 if your cold, your not working hard enough.

2 go to the gym bah! run everywhere when your at the farm, you may look like a retard but no one cares!

3 the miricle of life can be helped along with some bailing twine and smooth straight pull.

4 cows eat the afterbirth, and its very important in the development of colostrum (health smoothy from mothers teat)yuck am i going to want to do that!!!

5 no matter who you are if you put your time in at the farm, the family will love you

6 cows/bulls really can smell fear,try not to show it...they know

7 a cow in distress can sound alot like a dinosaur.

8 Love and compassion go a very long way with sick/dying calves. we have a few that have survived on only this.

9 you know you are doing something right when the big guy brings his buddies down to show them the calf operation.

10 a calf can stand up and walk/nurse minutes after birth Amazing!

This calf (1156) is now 8 months old and about 400 lbs!

1157 (left)1158(center)1159(right) These are dutch belts (oreo cookie cows)the white stripe is softer fur than the black arnt they just so cute!