october's almost gone?

Where is the year going? 
It seems like the weeks are flying by, and our little family has been so busy with cows, preschool, church, and just living life that I have been a less than stellar blogger lately.  Tonight is no improvement.  I'm only able to muster up enough energy for a little bulleted blogging this evening.

And so, here is a little update from the nest:

• I have some awesome parents.  Today they took the boy birdie and I to see the stage production of Beauty and the Beast!  Wow!  It was such a great show and I think the baby bird enjoyed it - even with the scary parts.

• We're getting ready to wean calves next week.  I'm dreading this for several reasons: one is that it's going to be FREEZING, and two, I hate weaning calves!  It's always way harder on me than it is on them.

• October is almost over, can you believe it?  Halloween is next week.  The boy is going as a cowboy (3rd year in a row) and the girl is a peacock.  I'll attempt to get some pictures to document this.

• The only good thing about November is that my favorite holiday is on the way....Thanksgiving!!!  Oh how I love Thanksgiving.

• I need a haircut.  So.  Bad.  I'm getting mats in my curls at night, it's that bad.  I'm thinking about a new look.  I dunno...any ideas?

• I need a date night.  That doesn't involve cows, buying cows, doctoring cows, or calves.

• I've said this before, but I LOVE the show Parenthood.  Oh, and I'm ready for Smash to come back.  And can y'all believe this is the last season of The Office?  I have watched since season one.

• Does anyone else think this has been the most beautiful fall we've had in a long time?  I'm generally not a big fan of fall, but the great weather we've had and the gorgeous leaves, I'm going to make an exception this year.

That's all you get for tonight.  I'm so tired my vision is blurring.  I'm going to do my best to be better about blogging!  Just bear with me during this season of busy.  Goodnight!

and...she's back

It's been a while since we've had a good Daddy Bird cow post.  So, without further ado, here's Daddy Bird to tell about a recent "situation" with our cows.

Farming can definitely be frustrating.  There are many factors beyond your control the largest being mother nature and the independent thinking of a living animal.  To make a long story short this summer has been a trial of patience and perseverance.  In June we started renting additional land from John who we currently rent from.  He had about 6 cattle in an 80 acre pasture that he could not get up to sell.  They are Wild.  This was mistake number one.  So if I wanted to rent the land it would be my job to eventually get the cows up this fall.  We turned out 4 of our cows with his in mid June.  I had been trying to feed them to gentle them down.  One day I went to feed the cattle and when I walked up to them, one of his spooked and ran through the fence into the neighbors pasture.  All the cattle ended up getting out and after a lot of work, fencing, and persistence we were able to get all back but one cow. 

This is her.  She is number 17 and we raised her from birth.  We call this color Mousy.  Like the color of a mouse.

I hadn't seen this cow in over a month.  She was hiding in the neighbors woods.  You would think a 1100 pound cow would be easy to spot, but she was not.  I had actually given up on finding her.  Well about two weeks ago, she was back.  She had given birth to a calf during her hiatus.  The calf was still in the neighbors field, and I pushed the calf across the fence to his mother.  They have managed to stay there for the last 2 weeks.  Lets hope she doesn't get a wild streak again. 

Her calf is the "Mousy" calf standing behind the other young calves.  As you can tell by his expression, he is still not very trusting.   

To add to our stress in the past month, our neighbors bull and some of his cows got into the field with our cattle and we had to separate them on horseback.  Then the next week one of our cows gave birth to a calf that was dead and she escaped the pasture and was standing in the middle of the gravel road when we drove up to check on them.  Luckily Melissa was with me and we were able to get her back where she belonged.  This has tested our patience and desire but for now we're still farming.  It definitely takes some faith and a positive attitude to do this. 

Remember Rosie?

She had her calf back in April and the color is...

 
Blue Roan. 

Blue roan is a mixture of black and white hair.  Kind of like salt and pepper.  This color is common in a breed of cattle called Shorthorn.  I suppose Rosie is a mixture of Shorthorn and Hereford but I'll never know for sure.  This picture was taken today, so he's about 4 months old now and weighs around 350 to 400 pounds.

In closing I would like to thank everyone who has purchased beef and supported our business and family.   

Thanks for the update, Daddy Bird!

growing so fast

She's getting so big, my little opinionated, strawberry blonde spitfire.

She sooo wears me out, but I'm trying to appreciate this age. 

It will be gone before I know it!

williamsburg

We spent week before last on a fun trip to Williamsburg, VA with my parents.

We are so blessed to have two sets of parents that enjoy traveling, and also enjoy taking us along on a trip every now and then!  We honestly wouldn't go anywhere if it weren't for traveling with family.  Thanks Mom and Dad!

We spent the first two days exploring Colonial Williamsburg, which is basically a recreation of the Williamsburg Colony as it would have been around 1776 and the early years of the Revolutionary War.

Williamsburg is a great place if you like history (like me) but I think anyone can appreciate and find interesting to see how our nation's founding fathers lived.
One of the highlights for us was a working farm.  Imagine that.

They also had lots of fun things for kids to do, to get a taste of what life was like for a kid growing up in Williamsburg.

Even the adults got in on the fun and games

There were Revolutionary Minute Men

And amazing buildings to tour

And even opportunities to dress up and get in on the action

Oh, if you know Daddy Bird personally you know how truly hilarious this is.  This woman basically grabbed him and started dressing him up before he could object.  I was practically peeing my pants with excitement!

Teehee!

The Girlie Bird kept herself entertained by playing in the gravel that covered most of the outdoor surfaces.

We managed to get a rare family photo, against the wishes of the baby birds.

After a couple of days in Williamsburg, we were all ready to hit the beach.

This was Girlie Bird's first trip to the shore, and she was thrilled to say the least!

The Boy Birdie was happy to get back to the sand

and the waves.

On our way home, we stopped to visit Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson.

Monticello is one beautiful place, and Thomas Jefferson was one inspiring guy.

Here are some fun facts I learned about our third president:

1. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independance at 33 years of age!  This blew me away.  I am 32 - what monumental thing have I done lately?  Hmmmmm.  Nothing comes to mind.

2. In addition to serving as president, Jefferson served in Congress, as governor of Virginia, minister to France, as Secretary of State, and as Vice President under John Adams.

3. Jefferson was a self taught architect and designed Monticello and also the University of Virginia.

4. Jefferson was an agricultural pioneer.  He cultivated a vegetable garden which also functioned as a laboratory where he grew 330 varieties of some 99 species of vegetables and herbs.  He also used rotational grazing and growing practices with his livestock and crops.

5. Jefferson loved books and had one of the best libraries in North America with nearly 7,000 volumes.  I'm jealous!

6.  Jefferson believed in abolishing slavery, but yet owned over 200 slaves himself.  It is believed that after his wife passed away he fathered 4 children with Sally Hemings, an enslaved lady's maid at Monticello.

7.  Thomas Jefferson dies on the 4th of July 1826, exactly 50 years to the day of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

There you have it! 
All in all, it was good times.
Thanks again Mom and Dad for taking us along!

(Please disregard all the gray hairs on my head in the above photo.  Please pretend they are blonde highlights.)

recovering

Daddy Bird, the babies and I got home late Friday night from a vacation to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia Beach and Montecello with my parents.  I can't wait to tell you all about it in an upcoming post, but since I'm recovering from a post-vacation hangover of sorts, the best I can muster tonight is a stream of conciousness post.

If you are friends with me on facebook or in real life, you know about the cow shenannigans we have been dealing with over the past 3 days.  To update the rest of you, our fall calving herd of cows decided it would be a good idea to break through the fence and spend some time on the neighbor's farm, which is full of woods that are too thick and full of brush to even walk through in places.  Our cows were happy to hide from us in those woods.  It took us one day  to find them, one day to drive them back in the direction of where they were supposed to be, and this morning most of them managed to go back on to our farm.  We're missing one still.

I rode my horse more in the last three days than I have in over a year.

My. Butt. Is. Sore.

I picked beans from our garden tonight until it got too dark to see.  There are still a ton left to pick tomorrow.

I'm going to do some canning this year.  Starting with pickles this week.  Anyone have any good canning recipes?

How does a family of four go through so much laundry?

I came into contact with something today that caused my face and arms to burn and tingle like a sunburn.  No other symptoms, just burning and tingling for most of the day.  I took a Benadryl in case it was something allergy related.  Then I got in the car for an hour and 15 min drive to go pick up the baby birds.  Note to self - don't take Benadryl and try to drive.  Not safe.

My rear end is bruised.

I have to start working out.  I'm back to pre-baby weight but I'm jiggly.

Colonial Williamsburg made me feel very patriotic and Montecello inspired me like crazy.

I'm finishing up the Beth Moore study on James.  Two words - Do it.  It rocked my world and it will rock yours.

I'm watching America's Got Talent and this guy is playing an instrument made out of a baseball bat.  Weird.

That's all I've got tonight folks.  I'm going to go nurse my sore backside. 

not the reaction i expected

I painted the girly bird's tonails for the first time.  We've got a vacation coming up and I thought she needed a pedicure :)

Color: OPI Italian Love Affair.

I know it's messy.  The child doesn't sit still for long.

She couldn't figure out what I had done to her toes.   Then she did something I didn't expect.

The poor little thing started crying!

She was all good today though.  Very proud of her new pink toes.

This child never ceases to surprise me.

Happy Friday - off to do my own toes!

buying cattle, instagram style

Daddy Bird and I had a date of sorts the other day.

We've been expanding our cattle herd, so that means lots of trips to the stockyards to buy cows.  Romantic, huh?

Honestly, we don't get much time alone together these days, so I'll take what I can get.

Thought I'd share some Instagram pics from our last trip.

The same auctionere is there almost every time we go.  I love to listen to the auction.  It makes you want to buy something...

My favorite part of the stockyards is the people watching.  These folks decided they would put a bull in the back of a truck, in a cage.   I decided I would take a picture.

After you buy cattle, you have to go pick them up.  Daddy Bird is waiting patiently.





Here they come, the new mamas.

All loaded up on the trailer.  The stickers on the cows are their sale number and one that tells approximately when they are due to calve.

Home Sweet Home!!

four generations

The baby birds and I were able to spend Mother's Day at my Grandma's house and my Dad snapped this four generation shot.

We'd been wanting to take a photo like this for ages, and I was glad to finally get one taken.

Do you think any or all of us look alike?

My mom and I are told all the time that we resemble each other, but I don't think the Girlie Bird and I look alike.  She definitely favors the Daddy Bird.

Mother's Day this year was such a sweet time for me to remember how fortunate I am to have these ladies as role models.  I treasure any time I get to spend with them!

cows, kids and all kinds of crazy

Hello there!

Where has the time gone?

I've been one big ol' blog slacker over the past couple of months.  Not intentionally, just completely too busy living the craziness of life to document it.

The cows are keeping us crazy busy, my kids are driving me kind of crazy, and by the time I get done with the business of my days I have absolutely no energy left to blog or do anything for that matter.

We've been mostly doing a whole lot of this:

Lots of cows these days, folks.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.  I've got lots to tell you. 

Not all of it involves cows. 

I promise.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go to bed.

arthur

Meet Arthur.

Arthur is quite the celebrity around here.  Seems like everyone thinks it sounds like a lot of fun to bottle feed a calf.

They don't have to do it twice a day, now do they?

I'm just kidding - sort of.  He is awfully cute.  And we really enjoy sharing him with our friends.

Especially when said friends volunteer to feed Arthur when we go out of town.

Pedro got a little attention too.

Oh Arthur, I complain about you, but I guess we'll keep you around for awhile!