Sudokuaholics Anonymous 7

Is Heidi waiting forsomeone to turn the page

Yes, I am.

What are you doing up now, June?

Heidi, are you getting all your ducks and chickens in a row, preparing for your jury duty that starts tomorrow? I do hope you are not picked for the jury and are back home tomorrow before noon!

You missed my celebration??? The case was settled out of court on Friday!! No Jury duty!!!

YEAH, good for you! I missed your celebration, now how did I miss that.

How is the snow? How much did you get?

Found out how I missed that celebration. I did not click the MORE button! DUH

We only got a couple of inches. Everything is WHITE! It does make it easier to spot new calves, though.

I REALLY need to get dressed, check the cows and go grocery shopping.

Good morning everyone.

MizT..here is an update on the septic saga.We have filled the hole around where the broken pipe was fixed with salt.Thanks to your brilliant idea,we wont take out any trees UNLESS the roots get in again.It has taken so long to fix because the hole kept filling up from the rain and hubby couldn't see if it was still leaking.He could only work on it on the week-end also...that is his story anyway.

Morning all!

I know about that weekend only thing... I have been left with the job of finishing the skirting boards so we can put the furniture back, only hubby won't be home until after 10 tonight, which means unless I'm a lot stronger than I think I am, no furniture until tomorrow night. And it rained this weekend so the grass is getting very long. Not that the grass would have been mowed anyway with the painting being done... Wish we had a ride on.

If you handle the shipping, Suzy, I'll GIVE you one of mine.

It is SNOWING again. Vici is the only one I know who likes the stuff. It's pretty to look at, but not fun to farm in.

BTW..... Where's Vici???

I'd better finish bringing the groceries in. Be right back.

Dont move the furniture by yourself Suzy,better to wait or you might hurt yourself.
It took us 3 hrs to mow with the ride on and the push mower.It was so long that I was scared of treading on a snake just hanging the clothes on the line.
Hope your leg is much better Heidi!

The leg is feeling just fine today, Nola. for asking.

Wish I could take you up on that Heidi!

Nola, our front yard won't grow grass well at all, the back yard goes bezerk. After that week with temps in the high 30s it went crispy critters, but it's recovered in a big way. I'm guessing at least 4 hours with a push mower. I haven't checked the paddock yet, it might be ready for the lawn mowers to come over again. They have really helped!

Your welcome,thats good news.All your baby animals must be so gorgeous.If you have so many female cows, will you send some of them away for meat as well as the males when they grow up or keep them for breeding?

How much lawn do you have Suzy...must be on acreage.

Yes, Nola.... some of the heifers will get shipped to the feedlot for fattening for meat. To have our own pen at the feedlot, where our animals aren't intermingled with others (so they're stressed from having to establish a new social order, and run the increased risk of disease), we have to ship a minimum of 20 animals. We will not have 20 steers to ship, so we'll have to ship some heifers, too. I'll decide which heifers to keep as breeders, and the rest will go to the feedlot.

My connection is super slow today...

We only have 1.6 acres Nola. We have a large house yard, a paddock, and trees. It's a weird block, only the width of a normal block and very long. Greyhound owners love these blocks.

I've got a blueberry pie in the oven right now..... my favorite! Once it's out and cooling, I have to feed hay to the cows. We go through 2 rolls (1 ton each) a day.

Heidi, how long do you keep the calves before shipping them out to the feed lots?

I've positioned the Finch cage where I can see it from my computer desk. I just got to watch one of the males do his courtship dance. SO fun to watch.

Suzy,we have 1 acre and funnily enough have a neighbour who backs onto us that has 5 acres and breeds and runs greyhounds.

We wean the calves when they're about 270 days old, and keep them in our feedlot for 45 days, while they learn to eat a similar feed to what they'll get in Kansas, from a feed bunk, get all the rest of their shots, get weighed and get electronic ID's attached. Then they get put on high levels of antibiotics in their feed for 5 days before shipping out to Kansas. that prevents them from getting shipping fever.

I remember weaning time , from when we lived on the farm. The calves were put in the pasture nearest our house, and oh, were they noisy about not having Mom around! All the cows out in the big pasture were a bit noisy too, about not having their babies.

In all the years (14) that I've done this retained ownership at the feedlot, I've only lost one calf. That one had chronic health problems here (starting from frostbite at birth when her mama didn't dry her off properly). I had just wanted to dispose of her at the local stockyard. and IH had insisted that we ship her to Kansas. Instead of getting $400 for her here, we lost money from all her Vet bills out there.

Really interesting Heidi.Very involved process.Hubby asked me if the cows are out in the snow or do you house them in barns?
Stick beaks aren't we?
It is just that farming in Australia is so different.

Oh, yeah, weaning time is a blast. The noise level is deafening for 3 days, then it just stops. I think the cows get hungry, and their bags start to dry up.

The cows are out in the pasture, but have access to a large 2 sided shed. That's open enough to allow plenty of ventilation to prevent pneumonia.

That's an amazing coincydink Nola!

Heidi, I've been meaning to ask you something. Remember ages ago I mentioned the family who visits their horse across the road and spoils him rotten? They have put a whole roll of silage (I think that's what it's called - someone slashes their paddock, rolls stuff up and covers it in plastic to age) in with the horse. He's eating himself stupid! Can he hurt himself overeating?

I'm not exactly sure what he's eating. Here, silages are fermented to preserve them.... great for cattle, but dangerous for horses. But chopped feed, unfermented, is safe and tasty.

The pie is done! Now out to feed cows.

Toodle-OO

I am off to try and finish a few thing on my list to do while on holidays.Hopefully will at least get one thing done today.Bye and catch you later.

Hmmmm, wish I knew more. This stuff has been in rolls for several months. Don't know what that means in terms of fermenting...

Bye Heidi, Bye Nola, I should be doing ffuts too

Good Morning..

I'll have a slice of your pie thanks Heidi...

Blueberry Pie would make a great dessert for me and Al. I do hope you made a huge pie Heidi, so you have plenty to share hehehe

I wonder, is Tami home yet? She said she would be home Sunday afternoon or evening, and it is approaching evening.