Calfy Day

He got to feed our neighbors cows this week. Cows love their grain and hay.

We lure them into the corral with grain and shut the gate. Then put out the round bale with the tractor.

Open the corral and free the cows into the pasture again. Keeps us and the tractor safe. 

To the round bale they go.

This little one was very pretty in the sun.

Mama watches us watching her calf.

Winter Maple Ride

Here is Maple our 2 year old fox Trotter. My husband is cleaning her feet before he heads out.

Bean can't be ridden as he has thrown a shoe.

All saddled up

This was a short ride for young Maple. The stirrup bar came off and could not be fixed on the trail. So they walked back home. The modern plastic stirrups have a screw bold and a nut, the nut fell off. Good stirrups, poor design. Thankfully the saddle is vintage, made well and is comfortable for horse and rider.Maple looks like a small pony in her fuzzy winter coat.

Loving Horses Always

Here is my good friend and the orphan filly she raised when I couldn't.

You can see she loves her horses.

Happy team.

Here is a black mare that was in poor shape from over breeding. 

My friend saved her and got her away from stallions and got her weight back on again. 

Pinkey the blind mare still goes for trail rides and only trust her rider.

Unhappy Cat

I was visiting a friend's house this weekend. While we talked her cat started to howl and scratch its face. The cat had been treated for ear mites and now had some rash causing the cat to scratch its face and bleed. So I offered to make a collar for her cat to ease its pain. Using cardboard, foil tape and some gold lacing I made up a working collar. She was able to eat, sleep and use the littler box without any problems and was finally healing up.

There was a lot of cat drama for a few hours but by the next day she was adapted to her collar and was healing up.

UPDATE: She had a yeast infection causing her face itchiness. She did get the collar off after 3 days, but she had healed by then after seeing the vet.

Winter Hunk

Here is my husband outside in the freezing sleet herding my turkey hen back into the poultry yard. Maple, Bean and Luna look on as he closed the gates and leads the turkey back into the warm coop. He did this so I could stay inside the house all warm with the woodstove going.

Zilla leads him home.

Boys Club

 My neighbor's Boer goats are giving birth in the cold winter time. 

They are happy in their heated barn and dry straw beds. So far there has been three boys and one girl.

Nice little boy with a star.

Twin boys born this week.

Eating their straw bedding.

January Cull

The brown turkey I raised and my six extra roosters were culled this week. I now have six chickens and a 15 pound turkey in my freezer.

This heritage turkey was much slower to grow and almost half the weight of the commercial hen I culled in December. However, he was a hen killer and had to go. At least they all had a great life on my farm.

Here are the bad boys from summer hatch.

All were culled for being mean to me or my hens. One was culled for being too old and useless to his hens. And one was just plain mean to everything on the farm. Now I have 4 good healthy roosters and 1 old one that hid during the cull. All the remaining roosters are kind hard working boys of the yard.

I have to say that my turkeys noticed one of their kind was missing. The turkey hen tried to run away and join some wild turkeys. And the remaining Grey Jake was depressed all day and quit gobbling. Next time I will cull buddies at the same time. It will be less stressful for the survivors.