Category Archives: The Boys

9th calf 2017

Got up to Mordor this morning and saw our heifer RedRobin looking like this:

Sure looked like she had just had a calf – but there was no calf to be seen…😲

So Mike and I split up and began searching. I looked inside the fence, and Mike looked outside the fence.🕵🏻 (We try to keep the cows away from this area due to all the briars; but for some reason, they love to hang out right at the edge…😬)

Wasn’t but a couple minutes and Mike spotted the calf. Outside the fence. Encased in briars.🙄

Decided to leave it be until we had the halter and the boys to help bring them down. So Mike headed back to the barn, and I waited up in the field for them all to come back. Here is RedRobin staring at where her calf was laying from her side of the fence.

And here is a picture from the opposite direction so you can see the single line of fence sectioning off that area. (RedRobin on the left, and calf hidden on the right.)

Here come my boys…❤❤❤

They positioned themselves around the area in case the calf decided to bolt. (WHICH WAS A REALLY GOOD IDEA, LOL)👍🏼

Can kinda see Michael’s head as he waited by his post…🔎

As Mike got close, the calf jumped up…

And it took him and Paul to keep the calf from running so they could get the halter on it. NOT fun amidst thick, sticky briars…😖

RedRobin started bawling as she heard her calf…

They enjoyed their reunion, and all was well.👍🏼

Meet our 5th bull: Smith. We are so thankful our second first-timer this year had her calf unassisted and healthy! (First one was Pinetar with her twins.) One more heifer to calve yet this season…🙏🏼

{Click here to read about when RedRobin was born.}

RedRobin led us all around the outskirts of Mordor. And Smith did a good job following her, but you could tell he was losing some of his steam.

Right about here RedRobin pretty much said goodbye to Smith and started down to the barnyard at a brisk pace…😑

With his mama long gone, Smith lost his momentum and ended up hitching a ride in the wagon the rest of the way…👍🏼

(Sorry – couldn’t resist putting that pic in…😻)

Updated tally: 5 boys and 4 girls. (2 more, we think!)👏🏼

2nd & 3rd calves 2017

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TWIN GIRLS!!😮😮 Meet Maple and Syrup. Mike was delighted to see that one of our two bred heifers (Pinetar) not only had one cleaned-up, full-tummied calf this morning, but TWO!😱

Pinetar took really good care of her new babies…👏🏼

[click here to read about when Pinetar was born]

This is our first set of successful twins here, so we are pretty excited!🤗

Back in 2010 we had a cow named Amy who had one live calf and one deceased calf. (It was before blogging days, so I don’t have a link to share.) But click here to read about Peekaboo – half of another set of twins we had back in 2012.

Mike and Paul were able to get halters on Maple and Syrup pretty easily.👍🏼

Here is Maple:

And here is Syrup:

Maple was not as cooperative with walking as Syrup was… The boys took turns carrying her all around Mordor. (At least these girls were smaller than Rose was yesterday, lol!😂)

Paul carried her first…

Then Pinetar led us through downed trees/scratching posts…🙄😬

Next it was Michael’s turn to carry Maple…

And finally, we all made it through the gate and into the runway to the barn.👍🏼

Syrup walked the whole way down with her mama, and I drove Michael and Maple down in the chariot…😉

Whew. What a morning! Thank You, Lord!❤

Tally now 3 girls, 0 boys, and 8 more to go…WE THINK!😉🙏🏼

Pastured pigs 2016

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Last year we raised two Berkshire pigs as an experiment – and they were SO cool!! They were a perfect compliment to our dairy, feasting on our discard of skim, buttermilk, whey, and scraps. They were moved through a couple of our pastures and we also added some soaked oats to their diet. It was important to us to not feed any corn or soy. {Click here to read more details about Dave & Buster.}🐷

It has been a joy to have pork in our freezer! We have been very pleased with the flavor of the meat.👍🏼

Since our experiment went so well, we decided to open it up to our customers for ordering this year. The response was amazing! We closed orders at 10 after a couple days because we didn’t want to be too overwhelmed in the jump from 2 to 10…🙏🏼

Today we headed to Loudonville and picked up 7. (The final 3 will come from a separate batch.) They are 7 weeks old. These will be named after the 7 dwarves: Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey.❤️ (Can’t wait to see who will get each name!!)👏🏼

So fun that our friend Jennifer stopped by when we were unloading them! She also raises piggies and was excited to see them!❤️

The last one! Wonder if it will end up being named Bashful?🙄🐷😉

Here they are in their new place. We’ll keep them in here for a few days to get used to us and learn what electric fence is. (You can see we have a line of fence strung along the side.)

The calves even came down to check out what was going on…🐮

Didn’t take them but a few minutes to start rooting around…🐽

No doubt, more posts will follow as they grow and the season progresses. Can’t believe May is almost here!🌷💐🌺

5th calf 2015

FINALLY 2nd calf 2015

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Waiting for mamas to have babies is kinda like watching water come to a boil, lol. We’ve been eagerly awaiting an explosion of births each day since our first one on March 21st. But it’s been very non-eventful around here… Fiskars and Chewy are doing fantastic, but if you’re gonna milk one cow, you might as well have MORE, right?? Ahh. Good lesson in patience on the Lord’s timing… Guess He knows we need it.😉

BUT. Finally. Went up at the crack of dawn today, and spotted an extra little body through the misty film of a rain-soaked field!

It’s a girl!! PeaPod is proud mama to Leia (think Star Wars and roundy hairstyle).😉

[Click here to see her calf from last year.]

I had an appointment this morning, so I couldn’t help with bringing them down. I passed on picture taking duties to the boys and their friend, Tyler… (along with Blake, the cat, lol)😏

I’ve been told it all went smoothly…👍

I’m glad the boys had Tyler there to help this morning!❤️

Hooray! Our count is now one boy and one girl. Perhaps we are coming up to a rapid boil here… Stay tuned!😊

1st calf 2015

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Here we go! Last night, Paul’s heifer (Fiskars) had her first calf, making it also our first calf of the 2015 season.👍 {Click here to see the post when Fiskars was born.}

And here are a couple other posts featuring Fiskars from the past couple years: https://robertsfarm2004.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/paul-fiskars/

https://robertsfarm2004.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/banana-fiskars-showing-off-their-winter-coats/

So back to last night… It’s a boy! Paul named him “Chewy” (think Star Wars 😉). The boys were at youth group while Chewy was born, but Mike and I were blessed with being able to witness his birth. Mike even helped a little…

He’s a cutie! Now the next test – will Fiskars get him cleaned up and fed?😳

Yep!👏 So Paul decided to allow Chewy to stay overnight with his mama in the big field, and we would bring them down to the milking barn in the morning. (Gotta say, the control-freak in me wanted to just snag him up, bring him down to the barn, and feed him thawed colostrum since it was supposed to be 18° last night… But – we told Paul we’d honor his decision. We prayed about it together, and were excited for the adventure in the morning.❤️

It was such a beautiful evening to begin our 2015 calving season…

Mike & Paul headed up to the field first thing to check out the situation. Here’s what they found…😊

“Operation distract” started first. Mike fed hay to the rest of the girls to keep them from getting in the way of our parade. It was a success.👍

Next step was to bring Chewy & Fiskars down to the barn. Chewy was THE most laid back and calm calf we have ever had, lol. His tummy was full and he had ZERO ambition to walk ANYWHERE… By the time the 4 of us were ready to bring them down, Fiskars had stashed Chewy in the briar patch. That was fun getting him out, lol…😁

Now it’s Paul’s turn to carry his calf…😉

Fiskars contemplated participating in Operation Distract, but thankfully without too much prompting, she followed her baby through the gate and down to the barn.👍

Fiskars did a great job milking for her first time!👍

Cats were super excited for milking to start back up, too!😜

Thank You, Lord, for new life. And for allowing us to witness just a small snippet of Your amazing creation. Prepare us to handle whatever lies before us as we begin this milking season. Amen❤️

fishing game

Scripture pictures and frames

Farmily fun with Flat Stanley

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Got a fun assignment from Arizona last week… 🌵

I decided to turn it into a blog post for a couple reasons. First, because I am THE WORST at being prompt at mailing packages out. [Like birthdays, for example. I still have my mom’s August 25th b-day gift sitting on a table waiting to go to the post office. I mean, the gift is DONE and ready…all I need to do is mail it! 😔] And second, I am THE WORST at getting pictures printed… We don’t have a color printer, so the procedure to get a picture printed is just more than I can handle, lol… Especially when the printer at our local Rite Aid doesn’t seem to ever be able to read our travel drives! 😡

Soooo, to my brother, Mark: Hope this post can count as completing Abbi’s assignment – and if you want to print any of these pictures out, you’ll get them quicker than any I’d send from here! 😬I’ll place Flat Stanley and his new wardrobe in mom’s package and try to get it shipped tomorrow… 👍

Now: on to our adventure! 😊

First thing we had to do was prepare Flat Stanley with proper “farm” attire… Custom-made a pair of muck boots for him and introduced him to the dairy girls during the morning’s milking. 🐮Here he is with the boys and ScotchTape:

Next he helped me hand milkers to the boys…👏

Then he “hung” with me in the milkhouse… 🙈

And he helped me bottle the milk. He MAY have taste-tested the milk when I wasn’t looking…not sure how else he may have gotten a milk mustache… 😧

He liked our cats, too. Though they weren’t interested in sharing their milk with him…😼

He wanted to get an up-close look at the calves, so we brought him to see them… 😎

He chose the wrong wire to hold onto and was a little “shocked”… [It was a “hair-raising” experience! 😉]

Then he almost turned into a snack, but Uncle Mike saved him… 😱

Didn’t take long and everybody just went back to business… ☺️

Then he helped me frost Uncle Mike’s birthday brownies… 🍫

And posed for a selfie with Michael… 😏

He fit perfectly in Uncle Mike’s phone pocket on the 4-wheeler, so he was ready for a ride with the boys…🌞

They took him to see the dairy girls grazing in their field…🐄

Fixed him up with a Terriers shirt to root for Michael’s baseball team, and then he partied with us as we shared a dessert celebration for Uncle Mike after the rainy game. Even Aunt Jenny got in on the fun! 🎉

That’s it! Some farm, some family, and some fun. Thanks for sending Flat Stanley to us, Abbi! 💌

😘,
Aunt Dawn, Uncle Mike, Michael, & Paul

Tractor tugboat…

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So funny. Couldn’t help snap these pictures this week. Our lawn tractor stop moving forward while Michael was mowing. My 3 “mechanics” needed to get it next door to the big barn where all their tools are. Paul went and got the 4-wheeler and a chain, so he could tug Michael up the hill next door. Mission successful! 👍

Funny, our school year has started a little differently than planned. Lifeschooling: Mechanics 101 actually began a couple weeks ago with our “farmily” (no, that’s not a typo) truck. Boys got to learn how to replace brake pads, emergency brake cable, and water pump. And this week it’s all about replacing mower belts and patching tractor tire inner tubes. Perhaps next week will be oil changes, fixing muffler holes, and door handles… Ahh, vehicles – such a love/hate relationship! 😬 Truthfully, we ARE very thankful for them, but it seems they are most often used as vehicles to grow our patience. 😉 And that is most definitely A GOOD THING. 👍

So here’s Michael coasting down our hill to hook up to Paul.