Goodbye Bart

Here is a photo of Black Bart when he first came to our farm. He is a polled American Dexter Bull. He was very productive at our farm. My husband's intentions were to raise some Dexters and sell them.
Well that never quite worked out. Bart did the breeding, the gals did the birthing and somehow we ended up with just more Dexters to feed.

That is another story however.

Bart produced some beautiful calves!
There was Stella, she was so cute when she was born!

I'd like to keep her as she is so tame, but she is another mouth to feed and hay prices are soaring.

As you can see, they are not huge cattle, but rather a nice size. However, I can't justify the cost of just keeping them because they are neat.

Anyway.
I opened the electric gate and fully expected to have to convince Bart to leave his pen. Bart looked at the open gate and walked regally through it and quietly down the electric gate into the pen where we'd ship him out.

He didn't run, buck, or even bat an eye. It was almost as boring to watch as paint drying.

I commented to my neighbor who had come along to close the fence gate while I walked behind Bart that I'd rather it be ho hum and boring.

Bart spent the day grazing and being quiet.
I worked in the garden and picked more buckets of beans. I peeked into the one squash plant I seeded and saw dozens of squash!
I pulled up more carrots and beets with Charlie's help, of course.

My garden may be messy this year, but it has been very bountiful.  I hope I am done by the time the corn is ready to start to freeze!

Here is a view of the garden from the porch...

Just as it began to rain, Jeff showed up with a trailer and we loaded up Bart. Rich actually came out to help which I was so surprised at and happy about.

He even visited with Jeff for a bit. Jeff had climbed into his truck and gotten out of the rain. Rich stood with his hands in his pockets and chit chatted with Jeff.

Bart will provide us with a lot of meat this next year. I will freeze and dehydrate my vegetables to add to our winter food.

Goodbye Bart.
Hello food.

And so it goes...

2 Days of Winds

Since I felt human again and could smell and taste again for the first time in over a week, I thought I'd take a few minutes and try and hide from the wind after I watered the stock tanks.

The cattle were sleeping comfortably on their fodder pile.
It seemed as if Houdini was trying to get WhoDunnit up from his nap.

Rich was taking his afternoon nap which I can usually count on like clockwork. Feed him a nice lunch and it is nap time. I could count on at least 2 hours of quiet time.

The skies were amazing so I thought I'd better see what I could accomplish.

I used my little point and shoot camera to sweep the Merry Meadow while I was waiting for the tank to fill. The clouds were racing across the sky and the winds were howling.

It looked like it could be an amazing afternoon.

So I found a spot out of the wind to sit on a log.

The north facing hillside has finally let go of all of the snow. The meadow grasses are green and because of the hard rains and the winds the ground is fairly stable and not the usual mush that we find this time of year.

The view to the east was pretty amazing also. The sky was rapidly changing.

These shots were taken within just a few minutes of each other. To the south were blue skies, to the east were these ragged clouds.

To the south east the blue was quickly disappearing.

After the snow/rain/wind squall came through, I went back out to do chores. There was Bart standing against a backdrop of blue skies and white clouds to the north west.

Bart seemed rather unconcerned about the strange weather. He stood quietly until I brought his hay to him.

I thought we'd have a magnificent sunset with all the wild weather coming in and the rapid conditions changing so I kept my camera ready.

Just before sunset, dark clouds swept in once again and we got sleet/hail/rain/snow mix with heavy gusts of winds.

And this morning I woke to clear skies, cold temperatures and wind gusts up to 50 mph. Looks like this roaring is going to continue today.

Busy at the Farm

We had icy fog for the sunrise.  Sometimes it blankets areas and at other times it just provides a beautiful winter backdrop to a sunrise on the ridge.

The rest of our day was spent scurrying around taking care of things.  My intent was to go snowshoeing again but the forecast said it would warm up to the 30's.  The snow shoeing would have to wait.  Warm temps make the snow clog up on the ice picks and it is not enjoyable.

I quickly got the chores done and the laundry hung out to dry in the fresh morning air.

Hubby started the skid steer and we got the round bales put out.  As the skid steer was warming up I noticed an Eagle and a young eagle had perched in the tree above the summer pasture.
I wandered a bit closer to see if I could get a decent shot and cursed myself for not having my Nikon with the zoom lens.

But there you go, Baldy and Immature Eagle.

It isn't so easy to see from the photo, but I did walk up and get a better look. 

My next 'to do' on my list was running to town to get groceries.  

We were going to have nice weather so I planned on riding Siera when we got back. Our farrier said I could ride her and it would do her a world of good in helping her 'frog' redevelop.  It would be worse for her to stand around in the pasture.  As long as she didn't limp, she was good for easy riding.

And how funny is it that she actually kept coming to the gate as if to say, "Let's get going!"

The phone rang and all of our plans changed.  Hubby's truck was done.

Finally!  It needed new fuel lines and brake lines [the rusted brake lines were noticed while our mechanic was doing the fuel lines so he decided to replace them].

Well that changed the our activities for the rest of the day.  The mechanic shop is not close and it would be dark by the time we got back.  
Our mechanic has known hubby since his daughter was in school.  Let's just say that hubby knew the mechanic since Jim was a teenager.

What a good guy he is too.  So after we got to the shop, the men talked 'old times' and visited, reliving memories and telling funny stories.

I scooted out the door and headed home so I could get the chores done before dark.  The guys could talk for hours!

Bart, our polled bull was happy to see me coming with his hay.  He'd been laying down and chewing his cud until I came up the hill with a sled full of hay.

I headed towards the house.  And stopped by my snowshoes.  I certainly am hoping I get to use them more!  They looked as if they were waiting for me in the pile of snow.

I hope today, Sunday, I should be able to ride Siera!
Perhaps I'll just have to grab her and do a short bareback ride.  It should cure my craving for riding and her craving to get out and do something!

However the weather service is predicting some high winds move in.  So that may make our riding a bit less desirable.

NOAA has predicted blizzard conditions tomorrow for areas just west of us.
Yikes!

I guess I will wait and see what the day brings.

Opportunities are all over the place.  Winter is such a wonderful time to have a camera handy.

Wow HOt!

Black Bart is doing a fine job.  He is calm and serene, and seems to put up with the 'gals' shenanigans rather well.
He is tending to his girls.  We should be expecting calves next April, if I do my math correctly.

Just a note.  The Dexter beef we've been eating is delicious.  The cattle are wonderful to have on our small farm and really do clean up pastures.
I can't wait until I have them working in the woods!

It was supposed to be cooler yesterday, but wasn't.  In the morning, I did my black berry picking up the driveway and came back with a big bunch.  Enough to freeze another pint and a half.

I ate lunch and then decided to go down to the creek and check out any bushes there.  I was disappointed so I hiked to PeeWee's knob and found myself surrounded by black berries.  I picked and picked.
I decided to check out the golden or yellow raspberry patch.
Boy was I suprised.
They were coming on like gang busters.

Morris went and laid down under an apple tree while I picked.  I'd call him every so often to make sure he hadn't wandered off.  
He was hot and not going anywhere.

After about 30 minutes of picking I quit.  The sun was beating down on us and there was no air movement in this patch.  It is hidden by thorny apple trees and huge bushes of multiflora rose.

I could feel the sweat running down my back, into my eyes, and down my pant legs.  I wanted to stay and keep picking, but felt I'd already gotten too hot.

So I grabbed the loyal Jack Russell and headed across the knob towards home.
My final take of the day put us up to about 1/2 gallon of berries frozen for this winter.

The wild grapes are in huge abundance and I am wondering if I'll be able to make grape juice and grape jelly this fall also!

Meet Black Bart

Meet Plum Creek's Black Bart.
We picked him up today from the Plum Creek Little Cattle Company.

He is to be our small herd sire for our registered Dexter cattle.

 
The owners told us that this bull would be quiet and docile, Black Bart did not disappoint us.

He pretty much ignored the 'girls' as they flocked around him.
I think the girls were so impressed by his good looks that they didn't know what else to do!
 

Black Bart was curious about his pasture neighbors.  The mules.  The mules were also curious about him.
They took a while to size each other up.

 
Pedro, the dun mule was more interested than any of the others.  

Soon after, they went their seperate ways and darkness fell.  Last time we looked, Black Bart was grazing and the girls were not far away...grazing also.

Country life is so much different than city life.  Of course that is obvious to most.
As we were coming home today we stopped in the road to talk to neighbors.

Everyone had to look at the 'new' bull in our trailer.  
Hay was discussed.
Weather was discussed.
The price of fuel was properly discussed.

Farming, cattle, crops, ... anything that had to do with farming...got a once over by all involved.

Notice in the photo that the road is blocked with tractors, a truck, and a trailer?
We leaned up against tires or trailers and talked farm talk for a good long while.

Not a vehicle came by.
Welcome to our neighborhood.

Where we all know each other and love to stop and talk on the road.

Life is good.