I recently celebrated a birthday! Another year older and maybe wiser? Haha I don’t know about that part. But I will say that I am blessed with amazing
family and friends and I am especially reminded this when my birthday comes
around. I am always surprised how many
cards, phone calls, texts and emails I get to send me birthday wishes. The other thing they all have in common is…”
What are you up to on your special day?”
Well the same thing I am up to everyday, and I wouldn’t have it any
other way!
But this year in particular it made me realize that many
people in my life don’t know really what my family and I do every day on our
farm and what is really involved in producing our beef. This thought has inspired this latest posting
of how we celebrated my recent birthday and an average Monday.
5:00 am – Wake up! Yes,
I know it’s crazy early…well at least for me but when you have a family of 6
you have to be an early bird. So coffee,
shower and more coffee it is!
6:00 am – Wake up the two older children so that they can
get ready to go to school for the day.
6:05 am – Attempt to wake up the Farmer…notice I said
attempt. He is definitely not an early
riser, more of a night owl.
6:15 am – Attempt #2 to wake up the Farmer…this time with
the assistance of two of the children.
This time it works!
6:30 am – Wake up the younger two children, who settle in
for cartoons.
6:40 am – Preparing breakfast for my children. I will be the first to attempt that though I
love to cook breakfast is not my thing so, cereal or pop tarts it is!
6:50 am – Time to get the remaining children dressed…I love
them but chasing calves is more productive than getting these two in their
clothing.
7:10 am – The school bus has arrived!
7:15 am – Off to the barn we go to quickly do the morning
feedings of the feeder calves and finishing steers.
7:45 am – Back to the house, and to the goat barn to feed
our small herd.
8:00 am – Breakfast! – The Farmer, twins and myself indulge in
some yummy cereal.
8:20 am – Off to Nana’s and Papa’s! I am truly blessed to have parents who live
nearby and watch my children often so that we can work cows.
8:45 am – Back to the barn.
Now I know I said that this was an average day on the farm
but to be honest every day is different.
Yes, there are many of the same tasks every day; feeding, cleaning pens,
filling creep feeders, etc. But every
day there are always those extras. And
today we had to move many of our mama cows and calves from one pasture on our
farm to another. Now our farm is really
two farms directly across the road from each other. They were once owned by family members and
over the decades have been paired together into one spread. So in order to move cows when rotating pastures,
we have to bring all the mamas and calves on that side down and into the barn
to load on to the livestock trailer to be hauled across intersection to the
other side. (How did the chicken cross
the road?).
9:45 am – Cows are loaded and we are on our way!
The “rounding up” seems like an easy thing but in reality
our mamas are well trained animals who hear the atv and will automatically many
times start heading right to the laneways that lead back to the barn. Their calves who are anywhere between 4 and 6
months old...well they are a different story, more like rebellious teenagers. So this is when we have our almost daily chat
about how we really need a cattle dog.
And also when the Farmer reminds me that we have a cattle dog, who is at
the house probably sleeping on the living room floor. (Hey, what can I say she is amazing with my
children and I have definitely spoiled her)
I am also starting to rethink my earlier thoughts about
rounding up calves being easier than getting toddlers dressed.
9:50 am – Cattle are unloaded into a sorting pen. We discovered that one of the cows had a sore
foot and was limping. So we had to sort
her out and put her in a pen in the new barn to be treated. With all the wet weather we have been having
it has been bothering some of the feet of the cows.
10:10 am – We had several cows that were in heat and had to
be brought into the barn to be AI (artificially inseminated).
11:30 am – We had a new feeder calf arrive that needed to be
weighted and vaccinated.
12:00 pm – Back to the house to change clothes (Did I
mention that it has rained for about 3 weeks straight.... covered in mud has
become my new look.)
12:30 pm – In the car and off to the diner with the Farmer
to have a birthday lunch! Nothing better
than a turkey club and fries!
1:45 pm – Errands and to the bank.
2:30 pm – Back home and into the office for me to catch up
on book work, while the Farmer goes back to the barn to clean, clip and ready
some sale cows for when the photographer comes to take pictures for an upcoming
sale.
5:00 pm – Back to the barn for me to help with evening
feedings. And scope out the sale cows
who were looking all pretty with their haircuts.
5:10 pm – Feeding time for the feeder calves, steers,
heifers.
5:40 pm – Feeding cows who are in the barn, and checking
water tubs in pastures, filling mineral feeders.
6:20 pm – Back to Nana’s house to pick up the kids! The best part of my day.
6:35 pm – The Farmer and kiddos are feeding the goats while
I am making dinner.
7:40 pm – Cake time! The
kiddos made me a yummy cake with Nana’s help.
8:00 pm – Bedtime…well at least for the kids.
8:02 pm – Laundry, dishes, packing book bags.
8:10 pm – Going to remind the kids it is indeed bedtime,
which does mean they have to sleep.
8:45 pm – Time to crash on the couch.
9:00 pm – Falling asleep on the couch….zzzzzzz
10:00 pm – The Farmer wakes me up and says it’s time I head
to bed.
10:05 pm – Off to bed and to start it all over again!
So that is our day, some are much busier and some are less. For instance, last week we were planting our
corn fields and next week we will be digging up trench lines and putting in
water lines to pastures. Every day is a
new adventure! But I would not have it
any other way and I would not have wanted to spend this birthday any other way!
