A long weekend......one day.....

It was a long weekend, yesterday. We left Friday night and drove to Janesville-- about three hours. We stayed at a motel where Scooter had no trouble making himself comfortable.

The next morning at seven, we left the motel with a destination in lower Michigan at the home of Stephen Rouse of Shetland sheep fame. After many trials and much tribulation mostly in Chicago, we arrived at his home at about 1:00 p.m. Luckily Stephen had stayed up to await our arrival. He graciously showed us his operation and corraled the three sheep we were buying. He is pictured with Sugarplum Snowflake, one of the two ewes. The other one Lemonade Lollipop....ie. Lollie is fawn colored. The boy is gray. (He still needs a name.) They will provide the new color I wanted.

All three made it home in fine shape and so did we. Unfortunately it was 10:00 when we arrived. That was a long long day. Jake drove the whole way with much pain and agony getting through Chicago twice. It was really all Interstate driving except for 10 - 15 miles on each end, but, boy, are there ever a lot of cars on those interstates.

Now we are home in God's Country where the colors are glorious, and home is a great place to be.

The three new sheep will be a great addition to my small, small flock. I am up to four rams, one wether, and six ewes. One more would make a dozen. That sounds like a number I should strive for.

Hired Man

Every farm needs a hired man. Mine has one. He is not only helpful, but also darn handsome. So far he doesn't do much work, but he sure is easy on the eyes. He helps with the chores whenever I take him along, riding and watching-- only asking for a piece of an apple if we go to pick them up. How could I have done all this work without him? He sure is a good companion.

I am waiting for my next Hungarian visitors. Kati and her husband and children are expected soon. She is keeping the date a secret from me. They arrived in the U.S. yesterday. I do not know if they will fly up from Atlanta or drive. They have come primarily for her tenth reunion at Emory where she did her master's degree. How blessed I am to have visitors from Hungary twice in one summer. What a surprise!!

We are supposed to have dry weather for a few days. That will be a relief since the storms that we have had in the last few weeks have wreaked havoc in this part of the U.S. Many counties around ours have been declared disaster areas so that the victims of the floods could have some help with cleaning up. We have not had any problems, but being up on the ridge has been very helpful. Needless to say, everything is green again, and there is third crop hay to make and grass to mow, big time! (Peter, where are you?)

Little Hungarian Kittens

The kittens have reached the adorable stage. They ARE just adorable. I
really wonder if there may be some long hair among the bunch. Three of
them are very soft and fuzzy. I think they are three girls and one boy. The boy is the dark striped one.

Their names were the responsibility of a wonderful Hungarian family, the Batar's:
Dr. Peter, Dr. Gabi, and Peti, Jr. Here is what they suggested: Mischka, Mirr-Murr, Cili, and Picsur. Thankfully, they also sent me suggestions for the proper pronunciation. I sure need that.

Now I will just have to wait for them to tell me which name goes with which
cat since I cannot tell if the names are for boys or girls or just
kittens.

Tony, the abandoned calf, is doing fine. He has caused me much pain as I wrestled with the fence trying to get away from him. He thinks I am his mom and cannot come near me without trying to suck on my clothes or my fingers. His attentions made it very difficult to climb back through the fence while holding unto the bucket. Of course, I fell. The huge bruise is almost gone now.

We have one more calf, a boy, of course. I named him Harry, after Harry
Houdini, since I found him outside of the fence up by the barn one
morning. There is still one more cow who had a calf last year. We are
not sure if she will calf. She is quite advanced in age, so it wouldn't
be a surprise if she did not have a baby. I am quite sure that her
daughter is pregnant. That calf will arrive when we see the signs of
imminent birth since we have no idea when she became fertile.

Jake is building fence. That will be wonderful when it is finished.

Kicsi update and other news from the ridge......

Kicsi and her kittens appear to be doing just fine. I moved them into a
box that I had fixed up as a birthing box, and they stayed there. For
now, all seems to be well.

I am still feeding Tony from a bottle two times a day. I just go outside and yell to him that is it time to eat, and he comes trotting up to the gate. He eats vigorously and then wishes he could have more. He also appears to be doing well.

Scooter is continuing to be a very good companion. He seems to have gotten over
his "car phobia". Since Jake put him onto the seat of the golf cart
alongside me, Scooter has no fear of the moving vehicle. He loved
riding in the golf cart and has been good in the car so far. We haven't
gonetoooooo far, but all is well at short range.

The lambs are all growing so quickly. The triplets are quite friendly, especially Fluffer. I still have no idea what I will do with those four boys. Sugar has a home here since she is a ewe lamb.

We are still waiting to see if there will be any more calves this summer.
Two cows who had calves last year have not calved. It is just a waiting
game.

No more animal news. In house news, we have moved my shop
upstairs and turned the shop into our living room. It is wonderful. I
have never had a living room of that size. The former living room is
now the dining room. I feel like a real person now. My furniture looks
so beautiful where it is now. I have really missed having my house look
like this.

I have been somewhat busy with freezing strawberries that I bought at the produce auction. They are wonderful.

New Family

Well, it was a perfect first full day of summer. Kicsi became a new mother. She was fat and sassy when I checked her this morning about 6:00. When I came home from work at 3:00, she had four kittens under the bed in the Packer suite. There are two yellow and one gray and one tiger gray/black. Mother and children were happily nursing when I left them. I had a feeling something was up because Kicsi had not eaten much in the last 24 hours. Maybe cats are like sheep in that way.

Dr. Peter will help me with the names, I hope. He was the last one to sleep in that bed, so the honor should be given to him. If he is too busy, which he may be, I will have to use my Hungarian/English dictionary on the web to find Hungarian names for all of them. Maybe his son, Peti, could help.

More pictures as the kittens continue to grow.

Kicsi

I hope I got that spelling correct. Kicsi is the latest addition to our vast herd of cats. We seem to attract them like fleas. I think they may have a six sense that tells them that coming to our farm is a "free ride". Anyway......Kicsi showed up several months ago. I thought it was a kitten. It was semi-friendly, meowing when we came into the barn and approaching closer and closer to us as time went on. When I finally managed to catch it, I took it right to the "cat house". My plan was to keep it there until I could tell what sex it was and then take it to the vet. Well....I have figured out what sex she is. She developed nipples a few weeks ago and a nice taunt belly. She is still growing, but we should be the proud owners of new kittens any day now. I am such a pushover for cats. I am excited that I will have kittens to raise and play with this summer. I will keep them in the house until they are socialized and then they can play outside all summer. Everybody will get a trip to the vet for various procedures, if you know what I mean. Her name means "little" in Hungarian, and it sure fits her because she is sooooooo small.

Back to normal

Our famous visitor has left. Today he flies home. Yesterday he left us about 1:00 to drive to O'Hare Field in Chicago. Before he left we had some more of the pizza from Wednesday night and the steak from Thursday night. He also learned to mow the grass with my Dixon mower. He is quite a speedy mower.

He will be pleased to know that Tony, the calf, is still doing fine. Inyi, I can't remember how to spell that Hungarian nickkname, hasn't arrived yet. Isci, his housemate, hasn't given me any kittens yet, and Jake will plant some of our crops this weekend. I will just do my work around here and miss my wonderful Hungarian doctor.

Hungarian doctor arrives

The famous Hungarian doctor, Batar Peter, has arrived. He got here about 4:15 yesterday. We have made sure that he gets lots of exercise doing work in the barn. Luckily we have a rejected calf in there and triplet lambs with their mother. The calf is only 24 hours old, but we are feeding it because the mother rejected it. Everyone needs to be fed and loved, so we are the designated workers. The doctor is quite able and seems to learn fast.

Boys and their toys

Or maybe it would be a good idea for the good Hungarian doctor to learn about 4-wheelers. It is a great farm implement. We use it for everything you can imagine. Of course, sometimes Dave comes up and uses it for recreation. It is great fun

OR........maybe he would like to try out a bigger tractor than the one I mentioned yesterday. I drive the one in the picture when we use the chopper to fill the feeder wagon for the cattle. There is also the 4010, 5010 and the 3010. Jake has a thing about John Deere tractors. We are tractor poor.

I suppose he could try them all out and decide for himself which one suits him best. But then again there is always the bulldozer........

We really do have a lot more equipment than we did down in Salem. The best one is the combine. It is really cool, and I enjoy just riding along in that big machine.

High Ridge Highlight for June!!!

Yes, we have having a highlight that is actually planned. We are having a visitor, and not just any visitor. He is Dr. Peter Batar from Hungary. He is attending a medical conference in Chicago and is coming up here for a short, toooooo short, visit before he returns to Europe. It will certainly be a highlight for us. We haven't seen him since he did research in Oklahoma City years ago. It will be wonderful for us.

Now, what will he do while he is here. I certainly hope that he plans to take over my job as hired hand. I am quite willing to let him use my tractor as seen in the picture to do whatever the farm boss, Jake, wants done on that day. I will be glad to sit in the house or on the deck with my feet up. OR........he could use the new Dixon lawn mower. There is more than enough lawn to be mowed. OR........he could just sit around and enjoy "God's Country" with me and the critters. OR........he could do all of the above. It is his choice because I will just enjoy seeing him again.

Three on a match

I have been lax in posting to this blog. It is because the appraiser
came here today to have a look for our refinancing. I have been more
than busy getting all my "stuff" moved from the upstairs here to the
upstairs at the guest house. (sounds like a fancy place) Yesterday I
spent the whole day carrying boxes upstairs and getting them put in the
right places.

The real story is the three lambs that Mellow presented on Saturday afternoon last week. The sad part is that they are all ram lambs. Two of them have real crimpy fleece with the best one being the white one. Now, what do I do with three ram lambs? That is really something to think about. They can't be father to any of my ewes but Millie. Their father is my ram lamb from last year, Linus. He did quite a job on everything but the gender.

It is good to have something to think about.

The other picture is an example of the humor of my dear husband. He missed this shot with Ami's twins. Last year he got a great shot from behind of me picking up the twins for my picture with them. This year he got me again with the triplets. Maybe he is taking them to compare the size.......me or the lambs?????? This year I come out on the up-side compared to last year.

Now, if anyone who reads this has an idea of what to do with four ram lambs, just let me know. The freezer is really not an option at this time.

Stanley Steamer

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Well, the rugs got cleaned. I wish that Stanley
Steamer had come to do it, but I did it on the driveway the old
fashioned way with the hose and a long handled brush. They may not be
the cleanest they have ever been, but they are cleaner than they were.
All the plaster dust left the whole house a "pig stye ". Today I am
being a "spring cleaner". It is a nice calm day up here without too
much heat, so doing the rugs was a possibility. Now I wonder how long
it will take them to dry.

The other picture is Ami and Sugar
and Cinder. They are doing well. Ami is such a good mom. Each day the
lambs venture farther from their mom, but when she calls they scamper
back. If she happens to move away while they are distracted, you hear
the little call of the lamb who has lost his mom. She nickers right
back, and they are soon reunited...........and it feels so good.

Happy Ewe's Day

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I am sure that Ami is a happy ewe. Her lambs have arrived. On lamb check last night at 2:30, they were up and dry and outside. I knew that Ami was in labor when I went to bed, and I wasn't surprised to see them. Since it was beginning to rain, I
gathered them up and took them into their shed. All three of them are still there today.

Simply Sugar is the ewe lamb on the right with the sugar sprinkled on her head. Snazzy Cinder is the ram lamb on the left, black as a cinder. He is much bigger than Sugar who is quite small. Mom and lambs appear to be feeling fine.

That really made for a special 24 hours. First I-43 let me watch her give birth to Ziva. In the afternoon I saw a Baltimore Oriole. At night Ami gave birth without incident to twins. That makes for a memorable Mother's Day for me.

This morning we had a little excitement before church. After I checked the lambs, I checked to see if any cows were outside. Everyone was in the lean to keep out of the rain. Well........out----way out-----laid one little calf. I went out and made it stand up. It ran a ways off from me and immediately laid down again. I went into the house with the news. Jake came out and carried her into the lean. Of course, it was Ziva, not quite 24 hours old. After being only slightly late for church, we returned to find Ziva bounding around the shed. I guess she is feeling better now that the is with her mother and dry. It is always something around here.

Apology

Sorry about the mess on the last entry. I don't know why it does that sometimes. Where I wrote it, it was just fine; then when it was published, it was a mess.
I never know what will be there when I push the "publish" button.

Third time's a charm..........

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Well, it is Saturday, and we slept in. When I
got up, I went out to feed my sheep and check on the cows. I loaded my
wheel barrow and then decided to go out the field to check on the one
cow that I thought was ready to calve any minute. Of course, I have
thought that since Thursday, but I knew it was close. Scooter is my
morning helper, and we walked out to the field. As we got closer to her
she was mooing like the other cow had done when her calf was on the
other side of the fence. So......I continued walking now looking in the
tall grass for a sleeping calf. I passed the cow, and she looked the
same to me. I went to the end of the fence and then continued back
looking on the other side. As I got up to where the cow was standing
about 10 feet into the field, she pushed, and the calf began to emerge.
I high tailed it into the house to get Jake thinking I would have
enough time. Seeing me hurry is a real hoot. I can't run, but I can
still try. I ran into the house and told him the news and headed back
to the field. I needn't have worried. It took her about 15 minutes to
deliver the calf. On the last push she stood up, and the calf
dropped to the ground. Thank heaven it didn't break it neck.

The pictures show the calf's first attempts at standing up. Again, three times and it was up. We did not know at this point if it was a boy or girl.

I finally did it. I saw a calf born. I will admit it got me worried for a
while there when she was pushing and not much was happening, but we got
through it. Of course, the calf was born in the dirt, and the more the
mother licked, the more dirtier the calf got. After the calf was up for a
short time, it began looking for its first meal and was successful
after a few tries. What a miracle, both the birth and the instinct that
both mom and calf have for this blessed event. Nice Mother's Day
weekend present from both of them.

Yuh Think, McGee!?

Here we go again. We spent two hours last night from 7-9 waiting and watching for Spike to have her calf. We knew it was going to happen; we saw her water break; we could tell that she was having contractions. But would she have the calf before it got dark, and we went into the house? NO!!!!!!!!! I went back out at 10:30, and the calf was on the ground, wet, but licked off. We missed it again. Last year, Poppy did the same thing to us, only worse. We had her in the barn, and when we went in to grab a quick supper, she had her calf.

Oh, well, I guess I am happy that he is here and doing well. Unfortunately, he is a boy. His name is McGee. He is the brown one in the picture with his Hereford mom.

The other picture is Ducky, the calf that was born on Sunday morning while we were at church.

That brings out total to five, three boys and two girls. We need more girls!!!!

And then there were three.....

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Last evening, Tulip gave us another heifer calf, Jen. She has a lot of white on her and is easily recognizable. It all happened while we were working around here, and I could have been there and seen the whole thing. But......another chance to see a
calf born slipped by me. I know it will happen sooner or later, but I
wish for sooner.

We have three out of a possible eleven now. Two girls and a boy. We want to be heavy on the girl side this year to enlarge our herd. Right now we have fourteen females. Three of them are too young for calving this year. Two did not produce last year and are getting a last chance this year. Time will tell.

Other news. I still haven't learned to never say "never". We are getting thirty
guinea hen keets around the end of May. They are supposed to be real good at
eating bugs. That will help with our organic gardening. (We are going
to have a garden this year. Yeah!!!) Ticks are included in the bug
thing, and we sure do have a multitude of ticks. With all the deer tick
and Lyme's disease stuff, the hens will have a big job to do. The other
thing that they do is sound an alarm whenever they think something is
wrong or different. I guess they are quite loud about it. "Well",.....she
said, as she ate her words......"I guess we will be having something around
here with feathers besides pillows." I hope it is a successful project. We will have to outfit housing for them and raise the keets from small things. Who knows how all of this will go. I will update you when it all happens.

And then again..........

Then last Saturday Pepper gave us this little guy. Meet Jimmy Palmer. Our calves this year will be named after fictional characters from television shows that we watch. I chose this name because Palmer is a small time player on NCIS and who knows if he will be there next year. Unfortunately, Palmer, the calf, comes from the cow that threw the calf that was ill and died last year. We gave Pepper another chance. We will be watching carefully to see if she just keeps throwing calves with some defect or whether this one will be healthy. Her calf last year was fine for a while but then slowly went downhill even though the vet tried everything he could think of to bring Schroeder back to health. We will keep our fingers crossed.


We are at fifty-fifty. One heifer, and one bull. Hope for heifers!!!! Other births are imminent, judging by the way the cows move around. I feel for them and remember the days. There is also one sheep that is "heavy with child".

And then......

A week ago today, Poppy gave us this little heifer calf, Abby. She is quite small, but active and thriving. It is the beginning of the calving season. More should follow since many of the cows are shaped liked eggs in the middle.

One month later.....

Here is the first addition. His name is Skooter. He is a rough tri collie dog. He is wonderful. So far he is easy to train and plays well with others. That is more than you can say for me. He is growing and has been here for over a month. He was born on January first so is almost four months old. He likes going for walks which is good for both of us. Suni thinks he is a pest, but he loves his old Suni and often lays down and sleeps sunggled up with her. He is learning to interact with Junior Minty Fresh, who was real testy at first. Unfortunately Pansy doesn't know enough to get away from him, and he tends to maul her. We have to work on that and getting brushed since he usually comes in from outside with burrs somewhere on his body.