Working the Cattle Ranch

Today we were asked to help work at the ranch again and we got to see the results of our previous efforts with artificial insemination through the miracles of vetinerary ultra sound....it was a good day.

The purpose here was to check the cattle we had helped get artificially inseminated a couple months ago to see if they were with calf through an ultra sound examination. Along the way we added insecticidal ear tags (which Chris is afixing here), gave them a Lepto shot (Judy did that), weigh them, and de-worm them (my job along with working one of the gates on the squeeze chute).

Ken the ranch owner worked the head chute and he has been so gracious in showing us the ropes of cattle handling. We have learned a lot from him.

The Vet has to reach up the rectum of the heifer and then inserts an ultra sound probe and you can actualy see the calf fetus, legs, hooves, and everything.

Holly took the pictures and unfortunately (since she is so cute) isnt in any of the pictures but she keeps the records for Ken and tracks the estimated gestation time, shots given, weight, whether the calf is through AI or exposure to a bull, etc...

In addition to working the back gate I de-wormed them...

And Judy gave them the Lepto shot....

We lived in Alaska just over a year ago, none of us had ever worked on a farm or could have dreamed that we would have this opportunity.....its been a strange journey but we are enjoying the ride.

And the Ozarks are just,,,Glorious!!

Canning the Harvest and Enjoying the Evenings

We are in the middle of the summer harvest and its been hot but some unexpected rain has allowed us to enjoy the outdoors a bit more. We grow most of our own food so this is an important part ofthe year and here is what we have been up to so far:

We harvest this many banana peppers every day and eat them with almost every meal...and we will freeze a few but they taste best to me fresh, cold, and with a little salt.

The first batch of pickled beets...a personal favorite.

Chis, who is staying on the farm with us after being layed off, and I shucking peas. We blanched them and froze them and we have many more peas yet to harvest.

Boiled tomatoes cooling awaiting peeling and canning, We are canning halved tomatoes, tomato sauce, ketchup......I love the taste of fresh tomatos. We have them with almost every meal and if you havent had a tomato and candy onion sandwhich your really missing out.

My partner Holly canning stewed tomatoes.

They are accidic enough to use a water bath canner...and the whole house smells like fresh tomatoes

We have so many tomatoes each day its hard to keep up.

But we have also found time to enjoy the evenings

Yard darts...

Feeding Maybelle...

Playing with Rose the farm dog...

Maybelle is growing and almost weaned...and she likes her chin scratched...and we could never send her to slaughter...

And of course, we have many projects awaiting their turn for our attention....

Busy Time of the Year

The gardens are now being harvested, we have been blessed with a few rain showers lately, we are canning, drying and freezing the harvest, and we are enjoying the fruits of our labor so to speak....

We have 7 different varieties of tomatoes in the garden and they are now starting to ripen...so we are busy. And if you havent had a fresh tomato from your garden you are missing out.

Our first harvest of onions was very successful. We are now curing them for long term storage in the root cellar.

Part of the beet harvest, we have canned pickled beets (which we all love) and we have had BBQ beets on the grill. The beet juice we add to our pickled eggs (eggs we get from our neighbors chickens) and man are they good.

And this is farmer Holly in her reading glasses, my best friend and truly the most loving person I have ever met. I am a lucky man and I am smart enough to know it. 

I was chastized about the previous post about our flowers for failing to include the Gladiolas so here are some of them.

We have this herb garden and use these herbs daily in our cooking. The one herb leaning over towards the back left is cilantro that we let go to seed so we can collect and preserve the seed, also known as corriander.

Castor beans and peppers

One of our tomato and tomatillo patches

The bush beans are producing a ton of beans

And we are getting some big cabbage heads...I'm thinking cole slaw by the pound here!

Cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, collard greens....we wont starve.

Just one of our corn patches...we are already way more than knee high by the 4th of July.

Our banana trees have come back strong and are really getting tall.

Unfortunately, some birds built a nest in one of our grape arbors...

And they are slowly eating these grapes but we have enough for all and we just cant bring ourselves to oust the nest.

So far we are harvesting onions, potatoes, tomatoes, bush beans, banana peppers, 6 varieties of sweet peppers, sweet peas, snow peas, beets, lettuce, onions, cucumbers, squash, collard greens, raddishes and tomatillos. Soon to come will be black berries, swiss chard, cabbage, black eyed peas, corn, bell peppers, carrots, mellons, ...and probably a bunch of stuff I am forgetting.

Old Fashioned 4th

Well, I drew Fire Department standby duty over much of the weekend and since I got the priviledge (and it really is a priviledge) of lighting the fire works for the celebration in our small community as a member of the Lions Club last weekend I didnt mind. My Fire Department brothers and sisters took the duties of lighting the fire works in a nearby community while a couple of us stood by here and we all had a good time. But Holly, Judy, Chris and I went to a small community about 24 miles from here where they were having the 134th annual 4th of July parade and it was so what I think the 4th should be. It celebrated our troops, the great country we live in, and our history. Its hard to describe how friendly everyone is here and this parade was the same way. It was well attended and circled a traditional town square lucked right out of the 1940s and we had floats, horses, fire trucks (yea!), antique cars and tactors, clowns (boo) and patriotism was the theme of the day. I dont think New York's parade had anything on ours.

They had lots and lots of really old Model Ts and Model As in the parade...and you could tell the owners were having a blast.

And what parade would be complete without the Shriners...they do so much for the treatment of kids and its just a bunch of old guys having fun and doing great things for their communities...kind of hard to find fault with that.

We have all seen these guys in just about every parade in the country....they were great.

I am not much of a clown fan thanks to Stephen King but this guy was a hoot..

I dont know who these guys were but they had a lot of fun and used soaker water guns to spray everyone

No matter what your political leanings are, it was nice to see young people get engaged, and it was pretty low key as far as politics go.

This car caught my eye

But therfe were probably 30 antique cars in the parade

Sons of the Confederate Veterans....we are in Missouri but south of the Missouri river they sided with the Confederacy. I know nothing of this group but there was kind of an uncomfortable silence when they passed and it seemed out of place in a parade that celebrated this great country. But you know it is part of our history and we shouldnt forget this important part of our history.

There were a lot of FarmAlls but this FarmAll Cub is on my wish list for Christmas

And Minneapolis Moline tractors were well represented, cant you just see this tractor doing its thing 50 or 60 years ago?

This is john Deere country and though they arent my favorite, if you have ever heard a John Deere B with the distinctive sound you know how heaven must sound.

We have two small NASCAR dirt tracks close-by and just about every Friday night we have tucks going by with a beat up race car on the back of a trailer whizzing by our farm. We all admit it...we love the races and they were well represented in the parade. Redneck? Yup...and proud of it.

I dont really know what these guys were doing but they were having a blast...look at their faces.

W had lots of animals in the parade as it should be. Around here, little girls have horses, kids participate in 4H and FFA is just as prestigious as HS sports except Football...cuz nothing is greater than football..seriously.

If you dont think that kid is cute your either already dead or you are a psychopathic killer

Everyone had a good time, everyone was friendly, and this may be fly over country according to the dimwits in Wash DC but this is the real America and we like it just fine.