A busy week

This week has been busy.
Calving is going steady with some hiccups now and again.
The calves on the ground are doing good.

The weather has changed and now all the snow is melting,

so everything is mud again...

I HATE MUD!

This weekend is going to be busy.

We have the local spring rodeo in town,

Jess is doing the grand entry,

my horse is also doing the grand entry... just with another rider..

Our sheep are doing the muttin bustin..
Oh, and Jess has entered the barrel racing competition.
I am sorry that I am missing this...

I will be away in Canmore this weekend,
so will leave Eric and the kids to do all the work and chores here...
and go to the rodeo.

Have a great weekend!

And, don't butt heads!

Walk in the woods

Our day started off with this:

view out our front window..

We had about a foot of snow and by the end of the day it would be close to two.
Where the wind was blowing it went to about 3 feet.
All our morning chores meant plowing through the snow and breaking trail.
It was a slog.
Feeding took longer as the gates had all snow drifted in and we had to dig our way out.
As the cows are calving, it was a priority to get our there and check and make sure everything was ok.

These two are doing good!

While out checking, I found two newborns.
Both were deep in the woods, protected from the wind and laying under big spruce trees for cover.
They were dry, had sucked and had good mommas.
I noted where they were and then went back to finish the rest of the chores with Eric.

After lunch we went out to tag, castrate and check the new babies.

The one was where we had left him.
We managed to vaccinate and tag him but his mom was getting more and more agitated.
We did not want her charging us in deep snow as we would not be able to get away.
Running from a raging cow in deep snow is just not a good plan.

So, we made a note to "do" him later again.

Off we went to find number two.
We could not find him so quickly and decided that his mom had hidden him in the bush somewhere.
We would check later again.

Later came,
and we went out to find the second baby.
We went to the last place we saw him...
he and his mom where not there.
We looked around the other cows, we looked at the feeders, we looked behind brush piles, we looked behind trees.

Nothing.

So, we decided to take a walk deeper into the woods.

Eric was leading the way, breaking a trail.
Every step was thigh deep.
Climbing over fallen trees,
bush whacking through thick under growth,
every step,
every bump of a brunch resulted in a snow shower.

The plan was we would first head west,
then turn south at "the clearing",
finding the back fence and the making a loop back.

We walked, we climbed, I made photo's, we walked some more.
We never did find "the clearing".

I suggested to Eric that he was heading in the wrong direction...
And, like most males, he disagreed.
So, we slogged on.

I reminded him that I had a compass on my iPhone...
nope he knew the way.

After lots more slogging I asked:
"are we lost?"

All I got back was a quiet "yes".



My view from behind...

Luckily, the fresh snow and the  woods were magical.
The walk was beautiful and we were enjoying ourselves!

So, once again I suggested which way to go,
as my sense of direction was still intact...
We followed the sound of some ravens, took my advice
 and a while later we out in the open.

Finally, we are out of the woods and can orientate ourselves..

We had turned north in our wonderings
 and had ended up in a completely different direction.

The way home is south...

So, we plowed on, found the cows again,
but never found momma cow and her baby.
So, today we will be out in the woods for another wonderful walk!

On out walk back we saw this eagle:

It was truly a magical day in the woods,
and we get to do it allover again today!

Good Intentions..

I am running behind in blogging due to a VERY poor Internet connection.
Honestly, it drives me crazy!
There are just way to many days that we cannot connect to the Internet.
I have the very good intention to phone and complain tomorrow!

On Jan 1st, I also had the very good intentions to keep up with the book keeping,
as tax time is here I have been scrambling to get it all done.
I intend, from now on to keep up to date!

We have a really old cow.
She should have been shipped eons ago.
However, despite all those intentions,
it did not happen.
And, now she is pregnant.

So, Eric and I decided to help the poor girl as she was rather thin.
We would move her into the barn,
into the lap of luxury...
warm, plenty of food and water and lots of TLC.

So, I started to move her nicely along to the barn,
when she had a change of heart.
She decided there and then that I was the enemy!
The old bag started charging me and trying to kill me.
I scrambled to safety through the mud, but the old gal decided to keep going.
So, I jumped behind a tree.
When I ventured out again, she put the run on me again.
Eric was having a good laugh sitting up on his safe perch in the tractor.

I gave him the evil eye and he came down to help.
I then decided to whip out my camera and watch him scrambling away from our geriatric raging old cow, all while I was laughing and making pictures!

So, once again despite our well intended actions, the cow is still out in the bush.
I bring her a pail of feed everyday...
I am a slave to a geriatric crazy cow!

And, now a quick update:

• we have a new student called Barbara, from Switzerland
• she arrived yesterday and today she had to catch close to 300lambs.
• we vaccinated all the lambs today.
• she has muscle ache
• our twin calf died, despite my hard work to keep her alive.
• we have another new calf
• it has a nice natured momma, without murderous intentions
• two weeks ago we still had all of these:
  
  
• since then another pup joined the jet set club.
  
  
• the great thing is that Minka has gone to another great home!
  
  
• we only have two pups left, Shadow and Zina (pictures to follow soon)
• Jess is getting a lot of driving as she will be doing her test next month
  
  
• this is scary
• last year this time we were halter breaking 4H steers,
  this year we are halter breaking 4H lambs
  
  
• Jess was given a horse for her birthday, from a friend not from us!
• He is black, sweet and bright. His name is Ace (photo's to follow)

And, that just about wraps it up for now.
Hope you all had a great Easter!