Tag: Spring Cleaning

Selling Our First Calves

On By Tiffanie WrinkleIn farming, UncategorizedLeave a comment

As we are going in to spring, it is now time to begin thinking about selling our calves. This seems like quite the process to me, but B is a seasoned pro. Every year buying and selling calves is a risk. Last year was an especially hard year because SWMO was in a drought. Luckily, we had enough hay to feed our cows through the winter. That is not always the case, and wasn’t the case for many SWMO cattle farmers this past year.

The bottom line is we got lucky this year. We were in a position where we already had hay put up when we started buying our cows last summer. B had cut the spring hay, and we ended up with a substantial amount. This allowed us to figure out how many cows we could feed for a year with the hay we had on hand. We then proceeded to buy our cows, as a lot of people were selling their cows because they couldn’t feed them adequately through the winter.

Not all years are like this, however. Like I said before, we just got lucky. Even though I would say this year has been a good one for us, we have still lost a few cows. They always say, if you’re going to have cows you’re going to lose some. The loss has also rolled over to our chickens, as many of you may have read in a couple of my other posts. The calves we have lost this year have been to pneumonia. With the rainy and cold weather, the cows have had a hard time staying dry and warm which lead to pneumonia.

The loss has been hard for me to cope with. I wasn’t raised on a farm, and didn’t realize how much work comes along with taking care of the animals. I mean obviously I knew that it WAS work. However, it’s not work that I’ve ever experienced first hand. Losing the cows that we have lost can be stressful, as that is our source of income. The more we lose, the less of a paycheck we get when we do sell our cows.

As we are gearing up to sell our babies, we must decide when is actually the best time to sell them. As we get closer to spring, more people are buying cows and the price is up right now.

We are so glad to finally be seeing spring weather. The cold has really taken its toll on our animals. Even with the spring, we have some last minute complications. With the weather constantly changing, it’s hard to tell how the cows will respond, either with being perfectly fine or needing a dose of antibiotics for pneumonia.

The Slow Down

On By AdminIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Winter brings a slow time of year. While there are animals to feed, and some chores outside to take care of, that typically only takes a few minutes of each day to complete. This leaves me with the task of trying to find other ways to occupy my time, including indoor chores.

In June, we are expecting our first child. With this adventure getting closer each day, I have been tasked with cleaning out our upstairs bedrooms to make space for the baby.

Over the years, the two upstairs rooms have become storage space for my grandparent’s collections. Both of them have several collections upstairs, and it has not been an easy task sorting through all of it. The main reason this is such a difficult task is because of the sheer amount of stuff that there is to go through. On top of Grandpa’s gun and fishing lure collections, there are also collections of antique dishes and other stuff that has been in boxes untouched for years. The task of going through all of these items has been especially hard on Grandma, as she has a hard time letting go of some of Grandpa’s things.

Despite the setbacks, we have made progress. One of the bedrooms is almost ready to go. That bedroom will become the office. We have successfully moved the roll top desk upstairs, and have a couple more things to move out before we get all the office space set up.

The other bedroom will, of course, be the baby’s bedroom. We have already started accumulating some of the bigger baby items needed. Tiffanie has also began collecting some of the smaller items, a pack of receiving blankets here, some bottles there. We are ready to have the room cleaned out so that we can start setting things up for the baby.

While it does make me sad to go through some of Grandpa’s things and ultimately throw it away, we are ready for this next chapter to begin.