A Quieter Day

Our new bull arrived today. The gent who delivered him brought his 1 1/2 yr old grandson with him...and the little knipper proceeded to smear cream cheese icing all over my table cloth...on purpose...he then poured his small glass of water on the placemat and with his hand smeared it all over the table as well...there was crap all over the floor, the chair and the granddad. I had given him a pail of matchbox cars to play with and he promptly pulled the rubber wheels off of one and swallowed it.  Good grief...I couldn't believe that the kid got into so much mischief is such a short time...they were only in the house for 15 minutes and when he left it was like there had been a small tornado go through the house..  But the bull looks good, so we gave him his double shot of vaccine and put him in a pen with one of our yearling bull we raised.

I made a nice roast chicken dinner today..since we ate out yesterday and had no leftovers of our own...I decided to spoil R and make him his favorite meal...it was good..

I also made a really nice cake this morning in preparation of the bull delivery...it was from the splenda cook book...and was delicious...it had pumpkin puree from the garden in it as well as prune puree, raisins and molassess. hahahammmmmmmmmmmhmmmm
with cream cheese icing of course....scrumptious.

We are hauling some fat cows down to Ponoka tomorrow...R has been feeding them all winter...and my god are they fat...hopefully they are still worth something...I need to pay the accountant.

Good luck to jen with her co-habitation experiment.  Anyone would be lucky to have the chance to be her mate.

Boy, What a Marathon

Well, that was a long day...R and I were up at 6 and outside by 7am. We started with the bulls since they are the ones most at risk of getting red water disease. Then the older cows, younger cows and lastly the yearling heifers.  160 head...and we were done by 6 pm. and stopped for an hour and a half lunch.  Not bad for two old giesers. The baby calves will get their shots at the regular time but will have to have a double dose...just like the cows did. and that will have to be the normal regime here from now on.

Apparently Red Water Disease is a fairly common illness in deer and elk, and they are one of the major spreaders of the spores. They also die from it.

It is just really frustrating that no matter how dilligent and devoted R and I are to maintaining herd health there is always something just waiting in the wings to slap us across the face...  The vaccine we use to treat the cows...to prevent this sort of shit from happening is the 8 way blackleg vaccine...if you read the label...red water disease or (bacillary hemoglobinuria) is one of the diseases it should prevent. but the recommended dose does not protect them if they are exposed to the spores...duhhhhh I know it doesn't make sense why they just don't up the dose.... the vets are also frustrated because they have to deal with people losing cattle to this illness and their hands are tied...our vet said he may have to travel to the states and smuggle some of the specific vaccine back....ahahahha.  On Friday  we had trouble getting a fire permit...there is a fire ban on here because it is so dry...we had to finally phone the head of the county and the forestry... but we did get an emergency permit..R had to have the CAT running beside the burn...but first we had to dig a huge pit...not easy when the ground is still frozen... thank god for R's CAT.

we put the carcass in first which turned out to not be the best thing to do...but we had no options since we had to keep it covered with a tarp until we were ready to burn. Then we collected a bunch of dead trees and old fence rails and junk to burn...by noon we set it on fire and boy did it burn of course there had been no wind all morning but once we set the fire alight...wow did it get windy...we were really worried about sparks. I had the hose ready incase and of course the tractor and CAT were on hand......once the wood had burned up we still had half the carcass to bury...we used the cat again...and buried it all under about 8 feet of soil...I don't know what we would have done if not for the CAT. So they called this morning to see if the burn went well and to make sure we had put the fire out... I hope I never have to do anything like that again as long as I live...the whole drama of it all has quite exhausted us both.

Everything went really well today with the cattle which is why were able to do so many in such a short time...usually we divide up over two days...

Until we did the yearlings... now yearlings are typically stupid at the best of times...but today the wind was  howling and dust was blowing everywhere...it was late afternoon and they were hungry...R had cut rations yesterday to ensure they came up when he called.   I had to poke one of the heifers with the prod (a cattle tazer, but before you get all up in arms...it gives a very slight zap...how do I know this...I have been zapped before with one....don't ask.)  I am very careful not to use it too much..but these heifers were kicking like little asses...and one kicked back hit the prod, instead of my arm..and sent it flying...it broke of course and of course I flew off the handle...grabbed R's plastic cane and took after her...she cheated me out of my getting even by running hell bent for leather up the chute and into the squeeze...ahahahah  but I have her number...little bitch.  and of course she is an angus...I swear to god I will regret my decision to breed to angus bulls for the rest of my cattle raising life...give me old straight simmentals anyday.

< Angus (red)

< Simmental






Our nice simmental cows go through the chute one after the other  once they see the way of things I don't even have to chase them...they just follow the leader through the alley and into the squeeze...they know it is inevitable..that they get needled again...and just accept it...but the bloody angus cunts, kick, bellow, run me over, kick, dodge and jump fences even a good equestrian horse couldn't clear.   It's like when I used to raise geese...I used to always get the big white emden geese until somebody told my mother in law that the grey ones were better eating (just for the record I never ate one of my geese..they were my babies. My mother in law used to come and kill them).  anyway...I never had a problem with the white geese being able to fly...they were to heavy and just couldn't...but the grey ones...those little dicks....dicks, not ducks... they were way lighter and could fly enough that when the wild geese flew overhead mine would rise up and join them and end up down on the slough and then when they walked back to the farm in the evening...don't ask me why they didn't fly back...the coyotes would get them...too stupid to live apparently.    Any way...the angus cattle seem to be the same....new but not necessarily improved...ahahaha.

It will take me a few days to recover...from all the trauma..   Tomorrow we get to go and make nicey nicey at our friends for easter dinner...Honestly I am sure their grandsons are going to think we are relatives of some sort...we are there so often..but it is really nice of them to invite us for all their family dinners.  kinda sad ...we have become the people that fill in the empty seats at other people's family dinners.

R says he doesn't care as long as he get a feed of turkey...hahaha how mercenary.. I just hope they have something chocolate, I can't have it in the house...it calls my name but I don't mind a bit of it at some one elses place...the caffeine keeps me awake. yes chocolate has caffeine...I am not lying.   At this dinner we will be rubbing elbows with millionaires.... our friend Norm's sister and her husband won 5 million in the 6/49 lottery 8 years ago...I bet they have every dollar still, if she's at all like her brother Norm...I am sure she does...they are scottish...and a typical tight fisted bunch. She buys her clothes at value village.hahahah that just makes me and R shake our heads... I am heading off to bed now and hope to sleep in until at least 8 am. we are going to have waffles for breakfast and fruit salad for lunch in  view of our having turkey later inthe day...nummmmmmmmy... wish you all a happy easter...

And The NIGHTMARE continues

This crisis is never ending.  The bull that died...turns out, had a serious disease that is picked up from the soil or feed when deer deficate or urinate on the feed, either laying in the swath or in the bale yard.   Once ingested by cattle the spores have a 10 day incubation period where the host animal appears perfectly healthy...and when the first symptom shows it is as little as 12 or as long as 24 hours before the animal is dead...the spores travel to the liver and the liver is destroyed affecting the animals red blood cells, and basically the animal hemmorages to death. Once they have it there is no treatment. Apparently there have been some cases in the area for the past few years. It is a very old disease...and there used to be a vaccine for it...but the drug companies were not selling enough of it so they discontinued it and just added it to another vaccine so that you treat for multiple diseases with just one vaccine, which we gave our cattle every year....however...we have since learned that it is difficult to give enough of the vaccine for REd Water to the cattle with that vaccine...which we just spent the past three days giving...  So now we have to run the cattle through the chute again and  vaccinate with a double dose and hope the hell we don't lose any more animals...

The Vet strongly urged us to burn the carcass of the dead bulll since the spores from the bodily fluids will travel on the wind, by birds and by deer.......

but we can't get a permit to burn...I have to go R needs the phone.... keep your fingers crossed for us...it is going to be a weekend from hell....

Okay, LET'S GET THIS OVER WITH !!!!!

Okay, things have been crazy here and I haven't had a lot of time or frankly the inclination to write the happy, cheerful crap one of you suggested I write...I tried it, didn't like it and so I am going back to my original game plan and using MY BLOG to vent my utter, loathsome, mind bending, stomach wrenching frustration with the world in general...if you don't like the negative lean, don't read it ! 

In actuality, if I didn't vent on this blog by pounding the keyboard with pent up physical anger, I might do R some bodily harm...I wouldn't want that....I'd be in jail and he would be enjoying a Cathy free house...hahahaha I make it sound like we don't get along but I love the guy to bits, it's just that he ends up being the whipping boy because he is the only one around...ahahahahha

GOD DAM IT.....I HATE FARMING AND ALL THINGS TO DO WITH FARMING
Yesterday morning we were getting ready to head into the city to have the brake control for our stock trailer replaced...the first one only lasted 4 years. hmmffff
R went out to do his chores and found a dead bull.  THAT'S RIGHT....a DEAD BULL .... we have nine bulls all together....but i bet you can guess which one died....no?..  the best one of course...Our best $5000. bull  "SLICK"  he was not sick, as a matter of fact, R saw him just the day before...he seemed fine and then he was dead.  It couldn't have been the one with the bad feet, or the one from BC with the really bad attitude that charges R all the time...or the one that throws crappy calves...or the big black 10 yr old who barely passed the semen test.  NNNOOOOOOOOOOO it had to be the one that throws awesome calves, has great feet, is a real sweet heart to work with and scored the best on the semen test...we had worked out a breeding list for this year and Slick was supposed to get the biggest group of cows....now we have to scramble to make a new list....we don't want to give too many cows to the bull with bad feet, or the one with the bad attitude and we can't give the black bull with the low semen count too many or they won't get bred in time....we can't rush out and buy a replacement because we bought one new bull this year already but he is too young to give too many cows too....and we bought that stupid baler so we are strapped for cash....  but that isn't the point anyway....it just can't stand the shit that happens on the farm...WE LIVE BY MURPHY'S LAW and consider him an optimest. 

Of course the bulls death put a pall on the rest of our day, hard to spend money frivolously and enjoy yourself when your $5000. bull is laying dead in his corral being cut apart by the vet during an autopsy...

We went to the city inspite of the bad start...got to the appointment on time, and had the new brake control put in the truck....but it didn't work...so the tech had to go over the wiring harness from front to back and finally after an hour and a half of me sitting in the truck waiting R finally comes to tell me it won't be long, they found some bad wire connections that the first outfit who put the control in originally had made and that is why the control quit working.....sooooooooo  we had a $150. control put in that we didn't actually need....just needed to fix a bad connection.... but that's my R....like the time he replaced the fuel pump on the big grain truck after it stalled on the road.... $549. for a new pump and it took him and I, two days to change it over...and it still didn't work...it turned out to be a $0.90 fuse.....hahahahahahahahah

Yesterday R asked the pharmacist at costco (a tall slim blonde woman, I think he was flirting with her) if she had anything for severe depression...she asked who it was for and he said him... and then told her about the bull being dead.  OMG I nearly choked.... every once in a while we would look across at each other throughout the day and just shake our heads, it was so surreal. I think we were in shock... about the whole thing.

R is being quite zen about the whole bull thing this morning...saying it won't be so bad...we'll just use the bulls we have and not worry because we will probably end up selling off half the herd this summer anyway if the weather is as bad as they are predicting...and we have more drought and grasshoppers than last year...the dug outs didn't get filled this spring because we only had a foot of snow and there was no run off...  so ya...you wonder why I hate farming so much....try doing it with no off farm income .....and shit like this happens....
But there is one good thing to come of all this...R is no longer able to turn a blind eye to just how bad the industry has become and now talks about getting out of farming all on his own...I quite talking to him about it over a year ago...since it just upset him to think about getting out of it.

We can't really do that...or I mean we could ...but we would lose money...we need to wait, if we can hold out long enough, for things to turn around and land prices to pick up and then get out...but I suspect that should that happen, I will have a fight on my hands to convince him to bail out when things are good.

Thank God That's over

Well there is one more chore that is done until next year...finished running the rest of the cows through the chute today.  No problems until the very end when one 3000 lb bull pushed all the planks off the fence and got in with a 2200 lb bull...and the fight was on...there is not much you can do either until the wear each other out. if you get in the way you could get trampled. and I still love R enough to not want that to happen..ahahahha

I had hoped to head to the city tomorrow for a movie and shopping..but R decided book the truck in for some tweeking...so it will have to be wed.

I got a nice invite in the mail today....for this summer..and will have to whine and plead to get R to take me. To the dew...get your minds out of the gutter...geesh...

I hit the mother load with this genealogy project for R's cousin....now I just have to put it all in the computer and print the book off...there goes all my ink.
R and I defrosted a really good turkey pie I had hiding in the freezer from Christmas...it was yummy after being outside since 8 am. and not eating until 5 pm.  I forgot to take a granola bar with me...and it's lucky we quit when we did, my fingers were starting to look pretty good to me.

i hope to have more time to write tomorrow...so bear with me.

What a beautiful day

Oh boy, what a gorgeous day it was here today..  +12 and sunny with a nice breeze, the geese honking down on the slough and no bugs yet...ahahahahha

R and I spent the day vaccinating cows. The  younger cows and some bulls.

In my spare time in the house I have been doing a bit of genealogy for R's cousin...updating some family info she gave me and making more copies of my Makepeace book for her kids. While doing that I have had the chance to re-read a facinating journal written by R's great aunt Fanny. It dates back to 1895 when she and her family first came to Alberta. I find it totally enthralling and  humorous. Interesting stuff.

I am waiting for my garden seed to arrive by mail so that I can start some tomato plants in the greenhouse...I admit I dragged my feet this spring and should have ordered the seed much sooner than I did.  R and I are hoping to have a decent garden this year.  The pototoes last year were pathetic.  small and full of holes.  so we are undecided as to whether we will plant any this year or just buy them from costco...but nothing beats new spuds from the garden...the carrots were awesome last year...as were the swiss chard

and corn. mmmmmm corn....

 I always have good corn...I have a secret recipe to get it to grow lots of ears...and ripen early. We gave corn to the neighbours for weeks. I want to grow more beans this summer so we can make bean pickles.  Last year I canned tomatoes and cucumbers and made pickled beets and asparagus. We froze bags and bags of green beans and peas. and the carrots kept until after new year in the crisper.

 I gave pumpkin to my friends and had spaghetti squash coming out the ying yang. I am not planting them  this year...but I will put in 1 zucchini plant.

Last years toonie sized hail really did a number on the garden and my flowers. I hope to plant lots of flowers too this year.

Scented flowers, those are the only kind I like to plant...I want to sit on the deck in the evening and be overwhelmed with the scent of stocks....I love their spicey smell... here's hoping we get some moisture and warm days.

A good short day

Semen tested the bulls yesterday and it went well, short and sweet just the way we like it...ahahahaha  no reflection on R of course...  The bulls were all quiet and the vet was in a good mood...  I never thought to take pictures as I kinda had my hands full but next year for sure...  The whole procedure is quite demoralizing on the bulls part. 

They measure his testicles for size and feel around for any abnormalities...then the shove...the probe down his butt hole and crouch down beside the bull while R holds the probe in.

the  metal U shaped handle remains outside of the bulls rectum and the cord plugs into one of the ends. The bulls tail is held down over the U shape and keeps the unit from going completely inside the bull, which would be difficult to remove.  The probe is about 12 inches long and 3 inches in diameter.  Kinda big by human standards...  wouldn't want that enema. ahahahah

 the vet holds a rubber tube with a test tube at the bottom under the bulls sheath and turns the machine on...it gives gentle electrical impulses and stimulates his prostate, which causes sexual excitement and before long ejaculate is dripping out of the bulls penis...which the vet collects in the test tube..  she shuts the machine off and takes the sample to the warm room where her microscope is set up to examine the sperm sample for motility(movement) and any deformities...if it is a good looking sample we pull the probe out...(not an easy job when the muscles are clamped down tight and turn the bull out... he wanders out of the barn alittle bit dazed and with a bit of a sex crazed look on his face...it takes them a few minutes to come back to reality...

We have to do the semen test to make sure the bulls have not sustained any damage to thier testicles and reproductive organs over the cold winter from the weather fighting or illness.  If the bull did not have a good sperm count and we just turned them out with the bulls our calving period the next spring would be extended and the calves later in the fall would be inconsistant in size.  A close, short calving period produces an even, uniform bunch of calves to send to market which in turn generates a higher price per pound. And we would have to send fewer open or unbred cows to slaughter. Which is a good thing since we have a lot of money tied up in the raising of a cow and she has to produce at least 5 calves consecutively to break even with the cost of a lifetime of keep. After the 5 th calf she actually starts to make us a profit.  The average productive life of a cow is 7 years so we don't like to have any open ones...Every cow must produce a calf or we cannot justify keeping her for another year.  Tough love, but that is what farming has been reduced to...all the warm fuzzy feelings have been cleaved away, leaving it strictly business. It is all about profit, loss and margins.