He Got An Eye Full

A cattle buyer found out that Shane had a load of cull cows and steers getting ready to take to the stock yard. He offered to come out and take a look at what we had and would buy them straight from the farm if it was what he was looking for. 

They worked out all of the details, and he loaded his trailer full!  I ran inside to grab my camera so I could share with all of you dear readers.  As he came out of the gate he pulled right up in front of our house and stopped.  Since the trailer came to a stop, I decided I would try to get  a photo of the load.  No sooner than I started taking photos I heard "Awe MAN!!!"

Shane and Mr. Cochran had been standing near the back of the trailer talking.  A cow slipped in poo and managed to sling some of it at them.  I really think she did it on purpose for making her have to leave the pasture.  She was probably claustrophobic or something like that and decided to show her discontent with her situation.....Not really.  I thought it was pretty funny myself to see these fellas covered.  Shane actually got a huge splat in his right eye.  At least his mouth had been closed ;)  That woulda been awful!  The funniest thing is that Shane and I both had worked all of the cattle that morning in the catch pen and managed to stay clean.  I mean neither of us had one drop of manure on us.  That very rare around here, but she more than made up for it!

You see, after the incident she turned to look at me and seemed to say, "Lady, payback is pretty messy!"  What do you think?  Does she look guilty to you?

I'm sure glad I was standing way back shooting the photos.  I really am not a fan of getting an eye full!

Mississippi Farm Bureau Annual Meeting 2012

We attended this years Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation's annual meeting in Jackson a couple of weekends ago. We had a great time this year. We had someone from our county, Austin Smith,  participating in the Young Farmer and Rancher Discussion meet, so we were thrilled to be able to cheer him on.  He made it through the first round and the photo below is of the last round.  There were four to participate in this round.

All of the participants did a great job.  

Austin is seated to the left

At one of the meetings, we were treated to some music performed by The Mustard Seed.  What a blessing it was.  They played hand bells and treated us to many Christmas tunes.  They did an awesome job!

The Mustard Seed

One of the highlights for our kids, was the room that was set up for the YF&R silent auction.  Tables filled the room with items donated from various folks to benefit the YF&R scholarship program.  They always have a wide variety of great items.
 

We made many trips around these tables.  The kids were wanting to bid on just about everything there.  Our sweet girl wanted this bird house.

And of course when I saw this, I couldn't help but think of Mr. Mike ;)

"Go State"

This area, in the photo below, was the hit of the convention.  Ice cream was available at all times compliments of Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation and Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.  The girl in red below, ate more in a couple of days, than most adults could consume in a week.  I would turn around to find her back in the cooler again getting another ice cream.  I think that was the highlight for her.

Dillon actually chose to bid on some walkie talkies that he really wanted to take home.  He was persistent about getting them, but he had a budget and didn't go over it.  Before the auction ended, most folks knew that he was serious about "winning" those as he called it and I don't think they wanted to disappoint him by bidding against him. He is now the proud new owner of some Midland walkie talkies

I look forward to being involved with Farm Bureau this year.  I see potential for some great things to happen.  Hope you all have a great week!

Identifying Our Goats

***Warning***Please excuse any typographical and grammatical errors that may have been made in the writing of this blog post.  I do sincerely apologize.  It's been a long day, so my eyes have started to cross after looking at this screen for so long :) 

Hi. My name is Ashley. I am a procrastinator at times. Please forgive me. :) I have to say that I was piled on the couch for a loooong week at Thanksgiving. I don't know what type of germs invaded my body, but I can say that they kicked my butt! Then the week following, I  procrastinated again; not getting a post published on this  blog. This past weekend we went to Jackson, MS for the Mississippi Farm Bureau annual meeting. So finally, after procrastinating some more, I have finally made myself sit down in front of the computer. 

 Last Friday I happened to go out in the pasture, with my camera around my neck, to worm our Anatolians. While I was out there I decided to take some photos. Then it hit me, I don't think I've introduced you to some of them. They each have a name or number, or a name and a number. Or just a name. 

Take this goat for example.  Shane call's her Humpback.  Not such an attractive name, but when he mentions "humpback" I know exactly which goat he is referring to.  We purchased her at the 2nd Cream of the Crop Sale in Indiana.  I really wanted to have her join our herd.  Shane, not so much.  Her rump had a slight slope to it.  He didn't want her because of the slope.  I wanted her because she had a nice frame and was stout. I could overlook the slope, so we got her.  Shane referred  to the slope as a hump.  It's really not a hump, but that translated into the name Humpback, for Shane.  I call her Oreo Blast daughter.  That name has stuck too.  Shane knows which one I'm talking about when I mention that one.  I couldn't tell you her tag number though, only if I sneak up close enough to read her tag.  

Humpback / Oreo Blast daughter

This yearling doe's name is fitting for sure.  We call her Freak or Superfreak.  She is Humpback/Oreo Blast daughter's daughter. :)  That was  a mouthful.  Her name came from the fact that, out of the whole kid crop she was born in, she had the heaviest weaning weight.  She even outscored the bucklings.  So we call her freak, because she was/is outside of the norm for a doe. 

Freak/Superfreak

And below we have a few like: Raiz N Kane's daugher, Sweetie Pie, Wild Thing, T-26, and 46-2.  The last two have managed to keep their tag number as their name.  

This is V7.  We call her by her tag number too.  It is becoming a problem though when it comes to her daughters.

V7

I refer to this one below as V7's daughter. You are probably thinking there is nothing wrong with that, but there really is. 

V7's daughter

You see, this one below, is also V7's daughter from another year.  So if I look out there and refer to either goat as V7's daughter, I have to try to get closer to see their tag number to pinpoint specifically which one.  Of course that's only if I have to make a note of something with them.  They look so much alike.  They totally favor their dam.  Her genetics pass through to her kids remarkably.

V7's daughter

If you have goats, how do you identify them?  Do you give them names, or only refer to them as their tag number?  I'd sure like to know.  Are we the only ones to give their animals off the wall names?

Thankful and So Blessed!

Today our kids had to go to school to make up days that were missed during Hurricane Isaac.  So for the next few days, I'm going to try to get all of the house matters in order.  That way, when they are out Wednesday-Sunday, we can enjoy time with each other.  That's what I love about this time of year.....reflecting on how blessed we are.    Our pastor mentioned yesterday in his sermon that rather than wanting more things, we should be thankful for what we have and not take some of the simplest things for granted.  So true.  We have salvation, love, food, water, shelter, health,   What more do we need?  Absolutely nothing. 

Hope you all have a great week! 

 

Easiest Cornbread Dressing Ever!

This is a post that I shared last year at Thanksgiving.  It's hard to believe that it's almost that time again!  I thought I would re-post for those that may be interested in trying out this recipe.  I had several people that tried it last year and told me they would never go back to making it the "old-fashioned" way again.

For those of you that have been asking for the recipe for crock pot dressing, here it is:

4  cups of deboned chicken (I usually cook a chicken in the rotisserie and use the meat from that; store- bought chicken would be easier!  I love WalMart's rotisserie chickens)

6  cups of cornbread crumbled

9  slices of white bread torn into pieces

1  small onion, chopped in the mini food chopper ( I don't like the big hunks)

3  stalks of celery, chopped in the mini food chopper ( again, I don't like the big hunks)

3 1/2 cups of chicken broth ( I have frozen chicken broth stored for this ) or you can use 2-14oz. cans of chicken broth.

2  cans of cream of chicken soup

4  large eggs

1/2  tsp pepper

1/4  tsp salt

2  tsp ground sage

Mix all of these ingredients in a large (very large) bowl.  Then put it in a greased 5-6 qt crock pot.  Then cut up 1 stick of butter into "pats" and arrange on the top of the mixture.  Cover and cook on low for 7 hours or High for 4 hours.  Stir well before serving.  

Ever since I have used this recipe, it is the most requested dressing...... It stays so moist!

The Brands

I'm really glad Shane decided to go with branding the cows. I can see the numbers much better than I could ever read a tag from afar. This is what they look like 2 weeks later.

I think they turned out real well.  If you want to read about the branding you can click here for that post. 

The Best of Friends

Last night, someone called asking me about Anatolian shepherds. She said that she had never heard of them, but wanted to know more about them. While talking with her, I told her of the bond that the dogs form with the livestock they are with. It's absolutely amazing if you've never seen it. I told her of Sinbad. We purchased him when he was around 4-5 months old. We had the bucks separated from the doe herd, so he was put into the buck pen with them. Right away, he took to Rooster and Pistol Pete. On cold mornings, it was no surprise to see him sleeping cuddled up right beside Rooster. 

He just loves this goat!

Til this day, when Rooster is put in the same pasture with Sinbad they still have that bond. Sinbad will get right next to Rooster and stand there leaned against him.  Of course, Rooster doesn't have the same feelings toward Sinbad. He doesn't seem to like a lot of anyone in his personal space for too long, unless it is a doe.  He will take all of that friendliness towards him to a point and he will finally just get up and walk off.  Then Sinbad will go on about his business, patrolling the pastures.  These dogs are amazing!

An Easy Breezy Day

I got out today with my camera in hand and took some pictures for my dear husband of the 6 month old steers that we have for sale.  I must say it was quite breezy and chilly.  Although the sun was shining, that wind was blowing straight through my clothes.  Of course I wasn't appropriately dressed. The sun tricked my mind into believing it was warmer outside that it was.  I guess fall is officially here in the deep south!  

 

  

Shane is going to try to sell the steer straight off of the farm this year.   Most of the time, he just makes one big load to the stockyard.   He always likes to try new ways of doing things.  His motto is you won't know until you try it. 

Drenching A Goat

I thought I would do a post about how we give medication orally to a goat. I saw someone trying to use a regular disposable luer lock syringe to administer medication to their goat, and I wondered why they didn't use a feeding syringe with a drench nozzle. Now if you like using the disposable syringe, that is fine. We used to use one in the very beginning because we didn't know about a "drencher" as we call it. That is the purpose of my post....to let those who may not know about drenching a goat.  We very rarely have to medicate our herd since we have culled out the weaker ones.  We do a monthly FAMACHA scoring on our does.  These scores are logged down on a spreadsheet and will help you see which ones are the weaker ones. 

Crazy Horse was our "volunteer".  If you will notice the syringe in Shane's hand.  It is called a feeding syringe in the Jeffer's catalog.  This particular one is a 20 mL.  ( I am not getting any sort of discount or kickback from Jeffer's by mentioning their products or company name.  We just happen to order from them most of the time. )

After pulling up the medication in the syringe, you just open the goats mouth, and put the nozzle to one side on the back of the tongue.  ( Be sure that you do not put your fingers near the goats back teeth because they are very sharp.) 

Once the nozzle is in place, slowly administer the liquid.  It's that easy.  Hopefully you will not have to do this very often, but it is better to be prepared about the how-to's.

When it comes to medications and administering them, you should consult your local veterinarian should you have any questions or concerns.  I just wanted to share my opinion on how we administer medications to goats.   

Branding and Banding

This past Saturday we worked our cattle and weaned the last group of calves, banded the bull calves and ended up having time to brand the cows.

We had a young man, Undray, that lives out in this area that wanted to come and help out.  He said that he was interested in farming.  What better way to see what it's all about that to visit a working farm?  In the photo below, Shane was banding a calf.  Undray, would get the bands ready and hand the bander to Shane after each calf was ready.  I was very impressed how well he caught on to working the gates and just his attitude in general of working the animals.

After sorting through the calves it came time for Shane to get to try branding.  We have always put ear tags in the cow's ears, but over time, some of them can lose them.  Shane knows each cow just by looking at them.  I personally am not that great at identifying them.  We could be out in the pasture and come up on one with their backside facing us and he could tell me exactly what number they were.  And sure enough, their ear tag number would be exactly as he called it.  

one of the electric branders

Now that we've been keeping replacements from our own herd, some of the heifers look just like their dams.  I mean sooo much like them that it can be confusing.  Shane decided on the branding because it is permanent and we will be able to identify them much easier.  He went with the electric brander from L & H Branding Irons.   Of course we do not have power way out in the back forty, so a generator had to be pulled out there.  

It only took a few seconds for the electric brander to work.  It produced some smoke and the smell wasn't so great, but the brand came out perfect.  Now we won't be having any cows losing their identity!

Guardians On Duty

Can you spot the "predator" in the photo below? 

Uh-oh.  She'd better watch out!

When I was taking photos of the pups the other day, our cat decided she wanted to be where I was.  Only problem is, our LGDs do not like any other animal in their pasture unless it looks like a goat, horse, or cow.  When she got to the hot wire separating the pasture, she was met with some very serious pups.  She decided to hunker down in the weeds hoping they wouldn't notice her. They just barked and dared her to cross that line.  All the while, I'm wondering if she was going to be crazy enough to try......And how in the world am I going to intervene.  All was well though.  She stayed on her side and didn't cause any trouble.   Thank goodness.  I don't think my body could move that fast! 

Anatolian Shepherd Pups (LGD) For Sale

We have 4 Anatolian Shepherd pups for sale. They have been raised with cattle, horses, and goats.  I managed to get out and get individual photos of them this morning.  That was a job!  Moving creatures are hard to photograph for me.  I really need to get some photography lessons under my belt.  Oh, and despite what Mr. Nic says, I need to get Photoshop too ;) 

male - SOLD

male - SOLD

female - SOLD

female - SOLD

They are $400 each without registration. There is an extra fee of $20 due if the pup is to be registered.  If you are interested, let us know.

Legislators at the Farm Bureau Meeting

Last Thursday we had our monthly Perry County Farm Bureau meeting. This was my first meeting, and boy was it a good one. We were fortunate enough to have some of our legislators attend the meeting. It was  very informative.  They talked with us about what is going on in the legislature that pertains to agriculture, while offering to answer any questions that we may have had for them.  

The legislators that attended are in the photo below.  Standing L-R:   Senator Billy Hudon, District 45; Dot Cole, Perry County Farm Bureau President.  Sitting L-R:  Senator John Polk, District 44;  Representative Dennis DeBar, District 105.

Farm Bureau plays an important part in agriculture.  Many people around here think that Farm Bureau is an insurance company, but the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation is the largest general farm organization in the state. Insurance is just one of the things that the MSFB offers.   Click here, for more information on the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation.

Where's The Beef

Where's the beef?   Well, it is now in our freezer!

 

We had one of our steers processed and it was ready for pick up today.  He was a little over 600lbs and dressed out at 70% which ended up being 410 lbs of meat.  That's a lot of beef!  I was afraid we wouldn't have enough room for it all.  I managed to squeeze most of it in with a shelf to spare! Shane took an ice chest full to his mom to stock up her freezer.  She had already cooked some of the ground beef tonight and called to let us know how good it was. 

He Has Driven Me CRAZY Today!!!

Meet Rooster.  He has been one pain in my backside today!  It started earlier in the morning.....I was cleaning out our old house down the road and I went outside to only hear his "sweet" little voice.  He just so happened to be right near the fence sweet-talkin to the ladies trying to get them to come his way.  The only problem is that it isn't time to visit with the ladies.  He had gotten out of his pasture and made his way down the road to where they are.  After much frustration on both our parts.....he was returned not ever-so-kindly back to his place. 

Thinking of a way to get over this gate

I fixed what I thought to be the problem....a gate that doesn't have the best latching system.  Only to find out later that the particular gate mentioned wasn't the problem.  He made way back out again.  Finally I found the spot.  He was put into a smaller pasture that is surrounded by hotwire.  We'll see if this keeps him in....If it doesn't, I might be inclined to have this fella hanging on my living room wall as a discussion piece.  Nah.....Just kidding :)

Rooster Cogburn

A Little Day Trip to LA

I can't begin to tell you how many times I have sat down in front of this computer to try to get a new post going. It seems each time I start, something comes up...... or I just have this mental block that will not allow me to put my thoughts into words. It seems the older I'm getting, I get all kinds of "mental blocks"......especially the one that causes me to wonder why in the world am I standing in the laundry room with a freshly made pitcher of tea trying to put it in the cabinets. Or the time when I couldn't find a USB cord for my camera and I finally found one in the bottom of my sock drawer....Or the time I looked for 30 minutes to find my keys, only to find them still in the deadbolt of our back door from the day before. Yep. Slept all night with my keys in the door. Am I the only one that suffers from the many absent minded moments? 

Anywho, back to the original purpose of this post. A couple of weeks ago, our little family took a trip to LA. We were delivering this happy fella to Mr. Nic Girgenti to put with his does.  He was about to go out of his mind seeing our does across the road and not being able to get to them.  When he was unloaded out of the back of Shane's truck, he wasted no time getting acquainted with the ladies. 

DSK Lumberjack

Of course, I left my camera back at Nic's house when we drove to the pasture to put out Lumberjack.  So I didn't get a single picture.  While we were getting a tour, Nic stopped his truck to point out army worms to Shane.  We haven't seen any around here, but have been hearing of the trouble others are having with them causing devastation to the forages in the pastures.  Mr. Mike Kimball was kind enough to use his phone to get a photograph of the army worms for me.  Thank you ;)

army worms
(Photo courtesy of Mike Kimball)

We were also treated to lunch at The Boston Restaurant. It was delicious. Thank you Mike and Nic!

After that, we went over to see Nic's brother, JA, at his store.  On this particular day, the store was celebrating it's anniversary.  All sorts of festivities were going on to celebrate.  They had a trailer outside that was made to look like a red barn full of animals for kids to see. 

Shane and Mike checking out the animals

This was Mal's favorite part; getting to hold a little bunny.  She's been after us to get her one.  We just might have to after this little hands on session.  She loved it!

The kids were also able to see and pet a couple of fawns.  I took pictures of it, but they didn't turn out real well.  I later found that my lens needed some serious cleaning.  It's amazing how much dust had settled on that thing!

I'm  glad we were able to make the trip over to Louisiana.  It was so nice to meet up with good friends.  Hope we will be able to do it again soon.

Happy Hump Day Y'all!!

Diet Mountain Dew

I am soooo gonna need one of these today!   Yes, I just admitted it.  I totally rely on products loaded with caffeine to make it through the day sometimes.  I am a total diet mountain dew-aholic!  I do drink only water every day with a shot of coffee in the morning; but I'm telling ya, occasionally I'm able to get my hands on a diet mountain dew.  And when I do, it makes me flat out  giddy.  It's some sight to see.  Most folks can't handle being around me.  

 

A big thank you to whomever created this magically delicious, heavily carbonated and caffeinated drink.  (That was a mouthful )  I am so gonna need it today!  

Hope y'all have a great Wednesday !