It’s that time of year again – and there have been so many changes since last season! Our farm is growing, and not just with cows…🎉🎉🎉

Before Michael & Jennah even celebrated their one year wedding anniversary, they’d bought their first home! It’s perfect for them and has been exciting to watch them make it their own.🏡 They also started a pet sitting business, so keep them in mind if you ever need those services.🐶 [Click here for a link to Just Like Home Pet Sitting.]

After Paul & Annie got married last May, they decided to join us at the farm and were all moved in by the middle of the summer. We also learned a new addition would be arriving in March of 2023!👶🏼🎉

But first, they added 3 adorable kittens late last fall. They have been delightful and are soooo entertaining to watch play with one another! They LOVE people and getting attention. We do love having kitties on the farm again.😻😻😻

Meet: Freddie (white & orange), Frances (white calico), and Freda (gray). I’m quite sure there will be lots of pics of them moving forward, lol…🥰

🎉🎉🎉Just a little over 3 weeks ago, our new granddaughter was born!🎀 Ayla is absolutely beautiful, and what a gift it is to see our baby not only as a husband, but as a father, too.❤️ Granny & Pappy are so grateful for her safe delivery, and we treasure each moment spent with her.✝️🎁

That brings us to today’s addition, 4-8-23.🐮 We’re partnering with some friends of ours to begin with the first calf this year. They brought over their cow, Helga, along with her week old calf, Monty (think British TV – Gardeners’ World, lol).🐮🇬🇧 We’re grafting them into our dairy & calf herds, and looking forward to watching them grow alongside ours.❤️

Here’s Jennifer leading Helga off the trailer. Mike followed behind with Monty.🐮🐮

Monty hasn’t had much practice with a halter yet, but considering that, he did pretty good.😆 He is half Jersey and half Dexter, so he’ll be a smaller animal. Makes him extra cute!🐮

Helga acted like she already knew our layout! Walked right into the barn and headlock with no problems.👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Love our friends, Jennifer and Grant!❤️

Poor Grant got to experience a little bit of what Mike does on a regular basis with me, lol – crazy picture-taking, farmer chick…🫣📷

Not the greatest pics of Monty in the barn, but will try to get better ones as time goes on.👍🏼

Jennifer & I went out to check on Helga. She did well with milking and will stay down here by the barn to meet the other new mamas as they come down over the next week or so. I’ll try to get better pictures of her, too.🐮

It’s a blessing we’ll have Helga’s milk to add to what we get from our girls. We only have 4 of our girls bred for 2023, so our volume will be down. We are grateful for how the Lord provides.✝️❤️

Roni is slated to have the next calf. April 18th is her due date – BUT – when we went up to check on her this evening, we noticed the birthing process has begun!🎉

We are hoping to make it to Sunday School and Church in the morning, but looks like this arrival could make that a little challenging…🥴🙏🏼

Mike & I decided to put the runway fence up as the sun was setting. Will help us with time in the morning and thought maybe we’d catch a glimpse of the new calf before dark – or at least see if Roni needed any help with calving. This will be her first calf for us.🙏🏼

Another new addition to the farm is Paul & Annie’s gator. WOW was it nice to borrow it tonight for what we needed to do! Our four wheeler is still around and used every day, but as Mike & I get older, we can definitely see the benefit to getting in and out of a side-by-side vehicle.🙈 Might be on the lookout for one of these for ourselves, lol…👵🏼👴🏼

It was SUCH a beautiful night – PERFECT for a calf to be born…❤️

No, those aren’t city lights in the background, those are our curious, cud-chewing, zombie cows, lol…😂

Mike could see feet coming out, but Roni made it plain that she didn’t want any help. Us staying up there was only getting the rest of our animals all worked up.🙄😬 Soooo – I guess we’ll have to wait until Easter morning to see what we find. Lord willing, she will be ok and have a cleaned-up, well-fed calf up there when we come back. And if not, we pray for the Wisdom necessary to discern the next step in the situation. This is one of the hard parts of farming: watching and waiting…🙏🏼

🐮TO BE CONTINUED…🐮

It’s well past midnight now as I get the last of this post typed up before I crash. I can’t help but marvel at the miracle of creation – the miracle of Christ’s resurrection – the miracle of salvation to those whose faith is in Jesus Christ – and how I’ve been grafted in to the family of God. WOW.✝️🙌🏼

“I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be! But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree? For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.” “This is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭11‬:‭11‬-‭36‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

2:25PM 5-2-19

I got this txt from Mike. This is Ruby – the last of our 3 heifers to calve… We knew her calf would be born within a few hours, just didn’t know if she would require assistance or not. Needed to watch and wait…🙏🏼

2:51PM 5-2-19

I finished up what I was working on and headed up to the field to get a couple pictures for myself. She had progressed a little – you can see feet sticking out! But she was hungry, so she just kept eating, lol.🙏🏼

4:30PM 5-2-19

Ruby was laying down and beginning to push.

We waited around/watched for the next 40 minutes or so. Got to listen to a lot of grass chewing, lol…

5:02PM 5-2-19

Ruby continued to make progress…

And she didn’t want Mike to help speed things up! The other 2 heifers: Peggy & Nat, came over to throw some interference, lol…😂

As I’m taking pictures and videos of all this with Ruby, all of a sudden I hear a weird noise behind me. I turn around to seeing Gluey laying on the ground and pushing for a few seconds and then she popped up and started eating again. I asked Mike if he thought maybe Gluey was going to have her calf today, too?🤔🤷🏻‍♀️ Time would tell…

5:10PM 5-2-19

Decided that since Ruby didn’t appear to be in distress, we would head down to get a drink and come back up in a half hour or so.

5:43PM 5-2-19

Found BOTH Gluey AND Ruby with calves, lololol…😆

Wow. So funny how some labors take hours and others just minutes!😲 We could tell a rain shower was headed our way, so we decided to let the mamas clean their babies up, grab a quick sandwich from town, and then come back up to assess the situation after the rain rolled through.

It’s a boy! This is Ruby’s first calf for us. [Click here to read about when Ruby was born.] His name is Boy-o. A name from a movie my boys have memorized lines from. Kind of fun to attach it to a calf now, lol.😂

This is Gluey’s 9th calf for us – her 5th boy. [Click here to read about her calf last year.] Gluey is always cracking us up because she kinda looks like a cartoon cow – sorta clownish.🤣 We’ve often said she reminds us of Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars… Therefore, we’ve named this boy: Jarjar.😎

7:16PM 5-2-19

The rain was done & we had eaten, so we headed back up to check things out on the hill.

Both calves were pretty cleaned up, and it looked like they either had already eaten or were in the process of eating.

If you listen closely toward the end of the video, you can actually hear him sucking!❤️

We toyed with the idea of trying to get everybody down to the barn, but with only about an hour left of daylight, it would have meant that everyone would have needed to cooperate 100%. That was not happening, lol.🙄

After much prayer and deliberation, we decided to allow the boys to stay with their moms for the night. With the sun going down quickly and our bodies feeling weary, we felt it would be better to bring everybody down in the morning instead. This concept is scary for us control-freak-types…😬 In this field, the herd is contained in just a single wire of electric, and there is no perimeter fence around the edges.🙏🏼

7:49PM 5-2-19

Mike decided to add some kelp and DE to the girls’ mineral feeder in hopes of diverting their attention from the two new additions. Perhaps then the calves could bond more with their mamas in peace.😉

First Mike allowed Peggy to try some to see if it would entice her to get more. It worked! Didn’t take long for others to follow her.👏🏼

Of course, extra attention was needed, too…😏

It was such a beautiful evening.❤️

6:29AM 5-3-19

Sure enough – BOTH calves were on the WRONG SIDE of the fence when we got up there this morning, lol.🙄 We don’t think it had been for too long, though. They were quite happy to be laying together. Sure did have all the moms in a tizzy in the corner!🤣

Boy-o and Jarjar were good about letting Mike & I get halters on them. That made it easy to get them back in with their moms.👍🏼

Next we wanted to start walking everybody down to the barn as usual. This is when we realized it would be nice to have an extra set of hands to help. Fortunately, Michael hadn’t left for work yet, and was able to join us for this fun.😉

Mike had Boy-o, and they started walking with Ruby the direction we wanted. Gluey wanted to follow, but it took a bit for her to convince Jarjar to join her…

Amidst this drama, Ruby ended up leaving Boy-o and coming back to meet up with me, Gluey, & Jarjar.🙄 Mike was able to walk Boy-o to a fencepost and tied him there until we could get back to him.

Then Mike took Jarjar from me, and walked him with Gluey & Ruby toward the barn. At this point, BOTH mamas thought Jarjar was their calf, lol.🙄

Michael & I were ahead of them and walked the remainder of the herd down to the barn.

Once we got them in the barn, Michael headed back out to join Mike with Boy-o and his two mamas.😆

It wasn’t long, and Boy-o was really losing his steam, so Michael volunteered to carry him the rest of the way down the runway. Mike was overjoyed to allow Michael to do that!😏💪🏼

We were so grateful for Michael’s help this morning! What a blessing that Don’s Custom Meats is so close to our home, so he wasn’t too late getting into work.❤️

Mike was then able to walk Jarjar to his stall in the barn.👍🏼

Next, Mike & I headed back up to where Boy-o was waiting. He basically informed us he was DONE walking, lol.🙄

Mike prepped the 4-wheeler for the trek down the runway…

He scooped up Boy-o and loaded him up. This is the pose I get when I’m supposed to be driving, but turn to take a QUICK picture, lol…😏 (Have I mentioned lately, that I LOVE this man? How in the world he can even put up with me, I will never understand…☺️)

Unlike Clint, Boy-o hardly moved at all in the drive down. It was a much more comfortable walk for Mike down the hill.👏🏼

Mission accomplished! All the dairy girls were in the barn, and both calves made it to their pens. THANK YOU, LORD.✝️

We were also grateful that they both ate today. Sometimes, when they’ve been with their mamas for a decent spell, they aren’t interested in eating from a bottle for awhile. But these guys drained their bottles. ANOTHER PRAISE!✝️

11:55PM 5-3-19

Phew. What a long two days. I don’t think it’s ever taken me so long to write a blog post and get it uploaded!

Final tally for 2019 is 5 boys and 3 girls.❤️

What a season this has been, Lord. We’ve already learned many new lessons, and we know more are coming. We thank You for how You lead and teach us, and even how you gently correct us. We continue to seek Your Wisdom now as we move forward. With the Psalmist, we pray: May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us – YES, establish the work of our hands! Amen (Psalm 90:17)