There Be Calves Here
I love the line from Star Trek IV: The Journey Home, when Scotty beams two humpbacks into the Enterprise’s cargo bay and is overcome with joy: “Captain, there be whales here!”
As an experienced writer, I will steal this line and make it my own. “Captain, there be calves here!”
First, some early spring images:
The living footstools under our kitchen counter:
The tray our neighbors gave Melissa:
The neighbor’s pasture burn, to the south of our driveway, done to stimulate the native grasses growing there. Amazing how they set two lines of fire which then burned toward each other. Magic.
The Farmer’s handknit socks, both of them. (I’d knit one, but that apparently wasn’t enough—she wanted another one.)
And then it was time to prepare for the arrive of two calves. First Melissa used our Farmall 706 to scrap up the manure and composted hay around the barn:
Then she borrowed the neighbor’s little Farmall 300 and manure spreader (that’s the thing groaning under a load of composted manure):
I don’t have a photo of the manure being flung all about the pasture from the back of the manure spreader. I’m thinking everyone can live without that image.
I forgot to take a ‘before’ picture, but here’s the scrapped up yard. We’ll seed it and hope the chickens don’t eat all the seeds:
Then our friend Emily, visiting from Madison, mucked out the inside of the barn (Poor Emily—bad timing to visit the weekend the barn needed mucking!) Another visiting friend–Mary—and I put down down lime and fresh straw and made two pens.
Then Mary and Melissa drove off in the pickup, and came back two hours later with these guys:
Got finger?
Ahh, life is good. A full tummy and warm sunshine. It doesn’t get much better than this.
10 Responses
Great photos! Looks like nice weather has arrived for good there. Of course I especially like the Border Collie footstool, I have one of my own just like it, LOL! And I totally GET the sock thing, I am afraid to start learning socks, and I know my family is very afraid… I think they will probably pool all their single socks under the Christmas tree this year and have a lottery on who gets to pick an actual pair from the pile. I just know I will be over it after sock #1 !!
They are adoreable! I assume the others have “left the farm”? Was it a tough one, or was it easier as they sometimes are not quite so cute when they are older & bigger.
Will you teach these guys to cross that little bridge at a much younger age? New babies are so fun.
I’ll leave now with my bucket of warm molasses water for a doe with brand-new twin bucklings.
Is your lambing time coming soon?
I miss “my” babies! That sure was fun!
Erin, my incentive to keep making socks was to conquer the process. I hate to quit before I’ve figured it out. So keep going…
Carol, yup. Four BIG steers left the farm in December, and the meat is almost all sold. People keep coming back for more.
And I forgot about the bridge. Yikes. We’re not going to get any Holstein crosses, so that should help. Those guys are stubborn.
Congrats on the kids!
Lotus—The one guy is drinking like an Irishman (can i say that?)and today I let him walk around the barn. He bounced all over the place. The other guy is still a bit stressed by the move, but is eating more and getting lots of good stuff for his tummy. Both he and I are on PeptoBismal!
When I was a girl, living on a farm in Upstate NY, we always kept one male calf to raise for meat. My dad called each one the same name: “Freezerbound”. I was quite old before the meaning of the name dawned on me.
I got so enthralled with the calves, I forgot to mention the other cool pictures. I love seeing barns & tractors and other farm things, including the warm & fuzzy footstools. A video of the spreader in action would be cool, that is kind of entertaining to watch….at a safe distance, of course!
Oh, those calves are adorable! I am new to your blog. I just finished reading your book, Compassionate Carnivore, and it has really inspired me. Thank you so much for writing it!
Are those purebred jerseys? That is so much fun! Love your homemade socks-what a practical thing to be able to do. Enjoy your spring activities!
I just finished Hit by a Farm. I loved it. I am looking forward to following your Farm Tales.
Carolyn
Melissa—Yup, purebred Jerseys. They are not only pretty, but very sweet. The other two we have now are only 1/2 Jersey, and they’re going to be a handful…