Yay! After a lot of studying Richard is now a paramedic He passed his practical exam a couple weeks ago & then this Tuesday took his written exam & passed first time. VERY proud of him. This was a big dream of his.

Other news, Michael got a new job today so we are excited for him. He moved into his apartment on Saturday & has been looking hard for a job. He starts work at Big R on Monday. For those of you not familiar with this store it is a farm store that sells almost anything from animals feed, farm equipment to clothes etc. Michael has told the manager that he wants to start from the bottom & work up so that he knows it all & that is what the manager is looking for - someone who will fix something when they see something that needs doing. Michael is very good with people, plus being here on the farm & working at local ranches has given him alot of experience. We think he will do really well. He won’t get bored as every day will be something different & it’s a physical job so it will keep him active. Way to go Michael

At the beginning of the week Tulip didn’t have much milk, in fact zilch would be a better description. She had been in heat & their milk production always drops then but she should have had more. We soon found the problem. Miss Heidi! Heidi was not too happy when we sold Hazel & she isn’t dumb either. She has grafted herself onto Tulip! So now we have to shut the calves, three of them, away from Tulip at night (in a separate part of the pasture) so that at least I can get some milk in the morning.

Hope your week is going well,

Liz

Oh the joys of owning animals. We were supposed to notch the piglets ears when they were born but of course time has passed us by! Several of the pigs are headed to Oregon once they are weaned & each pig has to be individually identifiable. The standard practice for pigs is ear notching. Here is the tool:

The top bit shown in detail here is shaped in a triangle so it takes a “V” notch out of the edge of their ear.

Their right ear has to be notched for the litter number on the farm which for this is 2 so you can see the two notches in this piglet’s ear:

It actually doesn’t hurt them as the ends of their ears are mostly gristle so although we put blood stop powder on them they really don’t need it. Of course catching them is the fun part. The left ear is supposed to be notched for the birth order. And don’t panic, we didn’t have to put 11 notches in Piglet #11’s ear. Depending on the position of the notch means a different number so on this pic which shows #5 piglet’s left ear there are two notches at the back for 2 & one notch at the front which means 3 - 3+2=5

Once you get into the routine it is quite a simple job & gives me a chance to give them all a cuddle. Of course we cannot possibly remember what order they were born in so have just notched them 1-11 as we caught them.

The piglets are just starting on grain. This is their creep feeder - only they are small enough to get in there. As you can see it is built into the corner of a fence. If we lived in a wet climate then we would need ot build this inside a barn.

This way they can eat at their own leisure without the big pigs stealing it all. Of course it didn’t take the ducks very long to realize that there was a new source of feed for them

I love this pic of four of them with their back legs out & their front legs in:

Of course there is always one that has to sit in the trough!

To transport to Oregon (each state has its own laws & requirements) the pigs have to have 2 different vaccines so tonight we have the joy of doing that.
Michael is moving out this weekend. He has decided that he wants to live in Havre (20 miles away) as that is where he is hoping to get a new job. He has rented an apartment with a friend in a decent part of town so we are hoping all works out well for him. It is “growing up” time for him. We are actually pretty proud of him as he has done all this by himself. He has looked hard for an apartment as he didn’t want to put himself back in an area of temptation. The landlord originally wanted a Third Party Guarantor but Richard & I weren’t prepared to sign it. We wanted Michael to be fully responsible for his actions & so he had to pay a larger deposit but still got the apartment. (Thank you Landlord for giving him a chance to prove himself.) His sentencing date for Havre is Sept 9th. He has to go to court here in Chinook on Monday & will hopefully then get his sentencing date for that.

Hot hot hot here this week & very dry. Could use some rain.

Hope you’re all enjoying your weekend,

Liz

OK so my statement this morning was: “Let’s go get this fencing done before it gets really hot. It’s only a 5 minute job!” Hah! We needed to check all the fencing in our 4 top mini pastures. Montana is known for its wind but today there was not a breath, of course. Due to the mosquitoes long jeans & a long sleeve shirt are required. 4 hours & gallons of sweat later we were finished. OK so I’m exaggerating about the sweat but not about the length of time. We had to put in new T-posts, tighten wire etc. BUT the job is completed & things look tidier. Showers were in order when we came in.

Last time I talked to you I mentioned rattle snakes. Well, guess what? The very next day, I was out in the garage when Daniel & Hannah came running in shouting, “Help! Snake!” I honestly thought they were kidding but no! I could see the snake curled up on the grass by the driveway. Called for Richard who also came running. Sure enough it was a rattler & Daniel had “driven” his truck a foot away from it. We do NOT let rattle snakes live - way too dangerous to handle. (Other snakes we find we relocate to a safer place.) So that was another adventure. Richard cut the head off & we sealed it in a jar as these snakes are still venomous after death. Daniel thought that was pretty cool.

Enjoy your Sunday,

Liz

Morning folks!

Yesterday I got a call from a neighbor saying that she had got a call from another neighbor saying that a cow was in their pasture eating the freshly planted grain. Was it ours? Off I went to investigate & sure enough Daffodil had jumped the fence! I walked the fence line trying to figure out where she had jumped & just how I was going to get her back over. Not seeing any obvious solution to my problem I went down to where the irrigation ditch comes through, squeezed through a barbed wire fence with Rosco sniffing me to find myself in 2 foot of weeds & grass thinking, “Oh great! All I need is to meet a rattle snake.” And no, I was not being irrational, we have rattle snakes here. Anyways I climb up on to the bank & look for Daffodil. Where was she? She was up by the house having jumped back over SO I then, with Richard’s help proceeded to move her to the bottom pasture as we can’t have her jumping the fence eating the neighbor’s grain. Daffodil will now meet the bull down there & hopefully get bred. She’s a big girl so ready. In fact when she came into heat a couple weeks ago she was dangerous. She was jumping on every cow & so it was hard to get them where we needed them. She obviously has a strong heat like her mother, Tulip.

So that was yesterday’s little adventure. This morning I head out to milk Tulip & where is she? In the vegetable garden! (Not that there is any veggies in there, sad to say.) Daffodil had pushed that fence down a couple weeks ago when she jumped it & it had got forgotten so still down. Tulip’s babies were outside not too happy with her as they were hungry. Thankfully there is a gate so we got her out through that but not before she had managed to poop all over the gate chain! And no I didn’t see it on there so when I went to shut the gate I got a rather yucky, smelly surprise. Off Tulip trotted to the barn with 2 babies close behind. In the barn Barbecue was on one teat, Dolly on another & I was milking the other two. Needless to say the milk wasn’t fit for human consumption especially after Tulip delicately stepping back into it. Did I say delicate? Hah! There is nothing delicate about Tulip but I love her to bits. Not quite sure how I managed to get her foot back out without her tipping the bucket but I did. Charlie doesn’t care, he just wants milk so it doesn’t go to waste. He is still being bottle fed.

Just as I had finished milking & turned Tulip out, the Brand Inspector turned up. Hazel & Ribeye are headed to a new home today. When you sell cattle here in Montana you HAVE to get a brand inspection even if the cattle have no brands, like ours don’t. All’s good & the new owners will pick Hazel up this afternoon. We don’t need two milk cows here & we actually prefer Tulip’s milk plus she is much easier to milk. Also next year Daffodil will calf so we will have a cow to cover Tulip’s dry period.

One day last week it was hot here & all the animals were up by the house including Penny & her piglets who had gotten out. Snapped these pics which I thought you would enjoy.

As you can see in this next pic the piglets are already getting into mud etc.

Tulip & Charlie:

Ducks & big piglets:

From right to left - Dolly, Heidi & Ribeye:

What else is going on here? Richard is in Great Falls today taking his EMT Paramedic practical exam. He has his head in the book for several days now & will be glad when it is over. Next week he takes his written test & then he will be done. Very proud of him - he has worked hard for this & loves working on the ambulance.

Hope you’re having a great week,

Liz

I think I can quite safely say that there is no one reading this post who has given birth to 8 boys & 3 girls all at one time. Penny farrowed on July 1st/2nd. We left her to it as the weather was warm & she seemed to be doing a grand ol’ job. Every time we went out to check her there was a couple more piglets, all very content. Here they are on the first day:

Yesterday they were already going outside & so this morning I snapped these pics:

It’s not that we have big weeds, these guys are TINY! Here’s Penny later with them eating:

She is such a good mama.

Talking of good mamas here’s a pic of Dolly & Barbecue drinking side by side.

Tulip has plenty of milk & is doing well. Dolly normally drinks off the back quarters whilst I milk the front ones so we make a great team Barbecue is privileged to drink from Mama whenever he pleases. We are trying to halter break him but right now all that is happening is Richard is building his muscles pulling him where he needs to go! LOL!
Hope you all enjoyed your July 4th. We moved the turkey poults into another pen this morning, hosed out the aviary & then this afternoon put the new chicks out there. After lunch we biked into town for the 4th of July parade. This weekend is the “All Class” reunion so there are 100’s of folks around. Chinook may be a small town (1250) but it sure knows how to do things BIG. The parade was really good, even had some cowboys with guns robbing the local bank! (all pretend, of course.) We then took a longer bike ride home & came home feeling pretty hot & sweaty.
An update on Michael’s situation - he went to court again on Wednesday. Got handed his plea bargain just before going in so really didn’t have time to study it. The plea bargain is very fair - it could have been alot worse. Now he has to go back to court on the 16th to state his plea - guilty or not guilty. Then the judge should set the sentencing date. Of course the judge has the final say so although the plea bargain says one thing, the judge could do something else. BUT Michael is feeling OK at this point - he hasn’t got anything unexpected & if he behaves himself in the future should have no long term consequences. Short term ones yes but long term ones, no. However IF he does something stupid again then that will be a completely different story. I know this is all a bit like speaking ‘gobbledy gook” to you all but I’m not allowed to tell any of the details until it is all over with so please understand.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I’m looking forward to putting my feet up with a good book. It’s been a long week. Got to go out & milk the cow first though

Take care,

Liz