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Post by Mari-in-IN on Aug 5, 2018 7:31:38 GMT
That is so grand... So happy for all of you!! Just wondering - how did the last girl "escape" from having her tail docked? ~Mari
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 5, 2018 11:32:11 GMT
Lillian wasn't born on the dairy; she was the daughter of my late great Holstein Christine, who escaped and got in with the neighbor's beef bull back home. One of my favorite cows at work, Jewel, got to keep her tail, too. She's been a pet of mine since she was a heifer. When it came tail-docking time, I asked my boss not to dock her, because I planned on buying her someday and she was gonna need that tail. He obliged me.
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Post by feather on Aug 5, 2018 13:12:23 GMT
Congratulations to you all! It's a nice sunny day for a walk with the cows.
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 5, 2018 19:52:19 GMT
Well, we went out to the new place first thing this morning to check on the girls. It was a nice, sunny morning and along the way, we passed some Appaloosa horses grazing in a paddock and a herd of Angus cows cooling their hooves in a creek. When we got to our place, we found our cows ... laying in the barn. I'm beginning to think I wasted $68,000! If all they're going to do is lounge around all day, they could have done it in a barn that was already paid for!
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Post by countrymom22 on Aug 5, 2018 21:04:37 GMT
So glad to hear that you all are home! Hope the knee isn't too painful as you don't have time for that right now!
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Post by mollymckee on Aug 6, 2018 4:23:19 GMT
That looks like one beautiful cow sanctuary! I'm so glad it all worked out!
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 6, 2018 5:08:13 GMT
Thanks girls! Oh, it was just a glancing blow from Roz, so the knee is fine. I do have an impressive bruise on my other leg from a heifer who nailed me at work last week! It was her first trip through the parlor. Had 2 more heifers calve tonight; only one was a stinker though and luckily my boss was around to help me shove her in. The heifers who have to be dragged kicking and screaming in to milk their first week are usually the first ones in line by Week 2.
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 7, 2018 12:33:53 GMT
Last night was our first night of Midnight Barn Chores (after I got home from milking, with their TMR). I picked up Numb on the way so we went out together. The girls were sleeping in the barnyard and were a little alarmed by the truck's headlights coming down the lane, but once they realized 1) it was us and 2) we were bringing food, glorious FOOD, all was well. They got up and shuffled down the lane to their hay shed and dug into their midnight snack. Numb put up a dusk-to-dawn light in the hay shed and rigged up the barn fans on timers so they'll go off in the cool of the night. He also found a nearby source for sawdust -- I was delighted, as I'd MUCH rather bed with it than hay or straw! The volume of dirty bedding is much smaller and it makes such a lovely compost. I hauled some pallets out over the weekend and wired up a three-sided compost box to dump the dirty bedding in. I'm planning to put a row of them right along the fenceline opposite the barn. It's far enough from the creek to not have to worry about leaching or contaminating the water, and the boxes look cleaner and neater than just having a manure pile, IMO. Most of the property is visible from the road, and there are nice houses along the other side. I want to stay on good terms with my neighbors if possible! I'll kinda hate mostly seeing the girls late at night -- I used to be able to do barn chores in the afternoon, between jobs -- but they're close enough so that when I have a morning off work, I can pop over for a visit. And Numb will get to spend much more time with them now, and can pinch-hit for me on days when I'm super-busy.
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Post by Daniel on Aug 7, 2018 13:13:58 GMT
willowgirl, This is the first place I come to when I sign onto the forum. I so enjoy hearing about your girls.
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 7, 2018 13:21:34 GMT
Aww, thanks Daniel! What a nice thing to say.
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 8, 2018 11:41:47 GMT
Well, on Night Two of the midnight feedings, the cows came galloping up the lane mooing as soon as they saw the truck headlights. (I hope the neighbors across the road aren't light sleepers, lol.) I told Numb that by the third night, they'd be gathered around the feed tub waiting for us.
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Post by allenw on Aug 8, 2018 12:26:17 GMT
Your cows are spoiled rotten
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 8, 2018 12:41:06 GMT
Yeah, they kinda are! Numb made a funny video of Marianne yesterday. I'll have to get him to post it.
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Post by comfortablynumb on Aug 9, 2018 0:42:13 GMT
I got a load of sawdust today for $10, it's more like ground corn cobs than sawdust... very nice stuff. And there is a mountain of it a mile away from the barn. The sawmill also sells bark mulch for the same price.
That place is better than a gold mine. Mulch AND coarse pine sawdust. I have grown to hate straw and hay bedding.... what a mess.
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 9, 2018 6:16:27 GMT
OK, here's the new video .. Marianne carries on like this whenever she hears the lawn mower fire up. She won't shut up until I bring her a bucket of chop! youtu.be/uk0n1-qkhNE
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 12, 2018 22:48:55 GMT
The Bovine Bulldozers (equipped with Mouth Mowers) are working some changes out there! I'm surprised how much brush they've knocked down. Go girls!
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Post by mollymckee on Aug 13, 2018 3:01:55 GMT
Beautiful property! Too bad the cows can't find enough to eat!
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 13, 2018 12:01:22 GMT
LOL, yes they are starving! The funny thing is that they seem to prefer leaves to grass for some reason. Maybe they're part goat? There is a small paddock connected to the barnyard; Numb opened the gate yesterday for the first time and Shady and Roz went running in there to explore. Later Roz came back down to the barnyard. I looked around for Shady in the new paddock and couldn't see her over the tall weeds, but at the top of the hill by the fenceline a small sapling was being shaken back and forth, so I figured she was either rubbing her head on it or eating it. Numb was there one day last week and said they were all up on the hill plowing around through the tall weeds; when they couldn't see each other, they would moo to one other from across the pasture. He swore they were playing "Marco Polo"! I have the little barnyard almost cleaned up now; Numb whacked all the ironweed down with a scythe and I piled it in one corner; now I'm running the DR string mower over the smaller weeds and grass left behind. It was super hot yesterday so I didn't get it finished, but the part that's done looks really nice! In the spring we'll have everything brushhogged good and then it won't look so raggedy. I have always hated the look of a neglected pasture!
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Post by comfortablynumb on Aug 13, 2018 15:36:42 GMT
The bottom land strip is infested with what we think is Yellow Iron weed. It has yellow flowers and its about 6 or 7 feet tall. The leaves and stems look like iron weed. the flowers are more like a cluster of yellow daisies.
The higher meadow is covered in ragweed and goldenrod. Along the fences and creeks is about every wold herb and plant known to Western PA. There is even a few I've never seen.
The walnut trees are abundant too. I think we should cut them all out over time ad replace them with other natives. The creek has a lot of different willow tree species along it.
I dunno how they had horses there with all those walnut trees.
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 20, 2018 13:22:26 GMT
"Just a Nom at Sunset" We drove the truck down by the gate to shovel up some buckets of the gravel Numb had had delivered so we could fill in a couple ruts of made by the recent rains. The cows heard the rattling of the buckets and came running ... oy! Picture Snowy pushing over the filled buckets with her nose ("they smell like grain ... surely there is grain in here somewhere?") while Shady licks the side mirrors on the truck. Oy.
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 21, 2018 4:40:38 GMT
Midnight feedings are getting interesting because the cows have come to expect our visits and wait for us by the gate. I pick up Numb on my way home from work; he rides out with me and opens the gate and tries to get the girls headed down the lane. It's not easy because, having been raised on a dairy among tractors and Skidsteers, they're not at all intimidated by motor vehicles, nor are they much fazed by us! Tonight Numb got three out of the four moving the right direction; meanwhile Shady had stuck her head in the truck window and was trying to lick me. Sigh. Usually Numb breaks off a long ironweed stalk to spank their butts with to keep them moving while I follow behind in the truck. The other night, he started marching like a drum major, then twirling the stalk like a baton. I nearly hurt myself laughing ... No one can say we don't have fun here, even though it's probably true we're not quite right in the head.
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Post by willowgirl on Sept 30, 2018 2:49:10 GMT
An afternoon snooze on the banks of Horseshoe Creek ...
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Post by countrymom22 on Oct 6, 2018 1:17:57 GMT
Those are some happy cows!
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Post by willowgirl on Oct 6, 2018 12:23:28 GMT
Yes, they are enjoying their lives! There is a lot more for them to see and do at this new place. We started painting the barn yesterday (FINALLY!) but it looks like we're gonna get rained out today. I'll post pics when it's finished ...
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Post by willowgirl on Oct 7, 2018 20:07:15 GMT
OMG, Shady gave us such a scare today! We commenced to painting as soon as we got there, so when we were ready to leave (six hot and sunny hours later) I told Numb I was going to go find the girls and make sure they were all OK before we went home. I found the other three lounging on the bank behind the hay ring, but Shady wasn't with them! I walked around for a bit looking for her with no luck, so I went back down to the barn, told Numb and he started looking, too. We spent at least a half-hour trudging up and down the hill, following cowpaths through a field of goldenrod calling to her, fearing the worst! I have no idea where she was, but when we came back around to where the other cows were, she was with them. Then had the nerve to want to lick us like she hadn't done anything wrong! Numb says he's going to put cowbells on them. The good news is that we got ALL the painting done except for one more coat of red on the rough (cribbed by horses) side of the barn, and all of the white trim. Numb did all of the spraying and rolling while I cut in the crevices on the T-111 and painted the three sets of Dutch doors on the front of the barn. (What a pain those were!) The insides of the doors were still raw wood, but I decided I wanted them painted as we leave at least one set pinned back all the time, and I figured it would look nicer that way. So I made myself a bunch of extra work, lol. I have Tuesday morning off so, barring rain (which has been an almost daily occurrence here) I hope to be able to get at least a first coat on all the trim before milking time.
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Post by Melissa on Oct 8, 2018 0:49:37 GMT
The rain has been unbelievable this year. Look forward to seeing your photos!
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Post by willowgirl on Oct 8, 2018 12:48:57 GMT
Yes, we still have standing water in the lane and mud alongside it, although the upland paddocks have dried out nicely. I would be surprised if things dry up before winter ... I think the odds are we'll be dealing with mud until spring. The good news is that it's supposed to be dry today, and I'm holding a gun to Numb's head to go out and finish the red paint so all I have to paint tomorrow is the trim (not sure if I'll have time to do both before work).
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Post by willowgirl on Oct 9, 2018 19:56:32 GMT
Well, it was 89 degrees here yesterday, so I gave Numb a pass, lol. We got up at 6:30 this morning, though, hit it hard, got the rest of the red done and a first coat on all of the white parts! I have to work split shifts the rest of the week that will keep me away from home for 12-14 hours so it will be the weekend before I can do anything more out there. Hoping it's not too hot tomorrow so Numb can go back out and finish the trim ... I want to have this project DONE! Then it's on to replacing the roof. Sigh. We're gonna do that ourselves, too. This year has been tiring.
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Post by comfortablynumb on Oct 10, 2018 1:24:13 GMT
I did discover today there is another road above the barn up on the hill, albeit very overgrown and hidden. We can use that road and walk down a short slope where there is an old path cut to the barn.
Well... we can once its mowed off. That will require us to rent a walk behind brush mower due to the fact we have no clue what way the ground up there slopes or drops. I think we can clear quite a lot with a cheap 7 day rental unit.
The large flats can be brush hogged by one of the neighbors at least once in the spring.
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Post by willowgirl on Oct 14, 2018 13:08:55 GMT
Still have to get one more coat of paint on the white trim then the barn will be finished! I had to take the day off yesterday to get my plants in before frost. Nights are getting chilly here; the hibiscuses (hibisci?) were starting to look stressed, although they've perked back up since being brought inside. On Friday we had our inaugural fire in the woodstove. BRRR! Winter's coming!
We've had a few mostly dry days so the mud at the farm is receding a bit. I'll be surprised if it dries out completely before winter, but I'll take any improvement we can get! I don't think this is going to be an ongoing issue -- we had a wet spring with record precip in February, but it was dry as a bone out there when we first looked at the property in May. It was just a weird, wet summer ...
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