The future of grass fed beef is looking good

This past weekend C and I had my wonderful sister and nephews visit us for a couple of days and we had a grand time with all of them.

The photo highlights of their stay happened when we (C and I-with the nephews) went on "an adventure" around the farm. We toured some old machinery, hiked and ran through the shelter belt (the trees on the north side of the house), climbed on some alfalfa bales and fed the feedlot cattle some grass.

The cattle really liked when Caleb came up with the idea to pull up some grass and feed it to them. They liked it so much that they were willing to come up and eat it out of his hand. Clearly Caleb believes cattle like grass... or else he was bored. Or perhaps cattle will overcome great fear to eat grass... or else cattle are so bored in a feedlot they'll eat grass much like they'll munch on a hydraulic hose if given a chance. You make the call.


Either way, lots of cuteness and good times were had by all, even if it meant I clearly wasn't the apple of my mother's eye for the weekend.

Keep on the sunny side

Farm lifestyle isn't always as glamorous as you likely have in mind. Sometimes it really is kinda nasty outside, but duty still calls. Granted, today duty called about an hour later than usual and also allowed for a slightly extended lunch hour, but still, I had to go outside.

We're currently feeding some cows silage out in the pasture as the pastures just aren't quite ready for grazing. That process is entirely mechanical, but it still requires someone to drive the tractor out in the elements. Here you can see how my face looked after about 40min on the tractor with the tires kicking up mud, sand and a fair bit of water to combine with the light rain constantly falling. The face was washable, but the jacket and pants will take longer to clean. In case you were wondering, I had my hood up and a cap on, thus the mostly clean ears and forehead.

Ah, the sheen of the glamor almost makes a person blind.

BBQ

A few days ago we were doing a little cleanup around the farm yard. Here in the country, that means FIRE. For a couple of little pyros like ourselves, this was really a job we couldn't turn down.

The burning actually took place out in one of the pastures where a pile of brush had accumulated. The day was about right, relatively quiet, recent rain but a predictable breeze. The title of the post comes from the fact that this was also the preferred way to eliminate a number of animal carcasses. Believe it or not, but sometimes an animal or two dies. Anyway, a good hot fire makes for a sanitary disposal and also eliminates the feeding of coyotes and other scavengers.

P misjudged the direction of the breeze a bit which meant that he got to play with the fire with the loader tractor and condense the burning embers to be sure we achieved complete combustion. Anyway, a somewhat gross job was made really quite fun and exciting in the presence of 15' flames.

SD gun show

As long as I have C by my side, I suppose I really should be joining the NRA, since I won't give up these guns except from my cold, dead hands.

Glad Easter tidings

C and I were graced by a good friend from Milwaukee over the Easter weekend who greeted us with a delicious cheese cake. We had a great time relaxing and enjoying her company. A few of the activities of the weekend were captured for posterity's sake.

We decorated Easter eggs with crayon. I haven't done that in many years, and this year we followed C's family tradition of hollowing out eggs and filling them with Jello. The decorating and slurping blue Jello was just about as fun as I could imagine.

The second, was that we engaged in a local custom of eating chislic, at a local dining option "Papa's" in Freeman. The Wikipedia article should give the necessary background, but more specifically, we enjoyed the BBQ, garlic and marinated variety along with saltines and curly fries. Our sodium intake was certainly adequate... for the month.

We also visited Falls Park in downtown Sioux Falls and walked the bike path.  It was nice to see a new variety of scenery and Falls Park is really a nice area resource.

Home on the range

At long last some of our (and I use the term "our" in the least financially indicative way possible) cows and calves made it out of the muds of spring and into the pastures where we had repaired fence. It was a long day of work sorting, giving shots and shuttling the cows and calves to the pasture.

Due to the complications of moving cow-calf pairs it is safer for us to move the cows (mothers) at one time (actually four trips with the moving trailer) and then make a fifth trip to the pasture with all of the calves. This makes for a wee bit of separation anxiety, and in the end for some endearing moments of cow-calf reuniting. The cows would greet us at the pasture gate waiting for their young each time we arrived with another load.  With the first four loads containing only cows the awaiting mothers' hopes were dashed when they did not find their calves. On the last trip, with calves in tow, the mothers could finally smell their young and got very excited to the point of trying to rush into the trailer to rescue their calves (not exactly helpful or all that safe).  In the end the cow-calf pairs trotted off into green fields happy and content.

On guard!

While I suspect she's not too bad with a saber, recently C and I have been spending a fair bit of time fencing. C's footwork is impeccable, but it's her work with a plier that makes me love her.

C and I have been mending the wires of various pasture fences that were brought down by the weight of snow and winter. Various wooden posts have been replaced, an easy job in the spring when the ground is soft. We're able to simply push the posts into the ground with the help of a front loader tractor.

C was a little amazed by how well worn my father's leather fencing gloves are able to get. Dad shared the secret with us. As usual, the secret is staples and duck tape.

Anyway, I'm happy to report that good fences are being made and hopefully also good neighbors.