We are starting to come out of the winter season filled with feeding cattle and planning for the next year of crops. Now is when the long days of fertilizing, planting, harvesting, spraying weeds, and making sure everything else gets done in between. Redbeard has started fertilizing our irrigated fields that will have corn or soybean planted in the next couple months.
The long days have been easier for Redbeard this year. He takes our (not so) little Custer with him. The boys have so much fun in the field!
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| Tired puppy! |
So I will sit back and enjoy the last moments of the Winter schedule and look forward to great opportunities for farm photography!
A couple days ago I went with Redbeard out to the field by our house to visit the cows. These cows are going to be new mommies very soon. They met their perfect match in May and now is the time for the cute babies to arrive! I can't wait to get out and take pictures of the new bundles of joy! So what do cows do while they are waiting to have a calf? They eat, drink, and wait. I caught a few pictures of them that I wanted to share.
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| They weren't taking their eyes off the stranger with the black object in front of her face. And look at the belly on the cow in the back! |
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| This old girl is eating snow and any food she can get her mouth on. |
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| Still looking for the perfect bite! |
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| Number 51 was photogenic. She is hired! |
As you can tell, the cold weather and snow hasn't gotten them down. Now the weather is going to be nice for about a week. It would be a good time for them to have their babies. (Hint, hint cows) My good friend Sarah Jane at The Bos Lady wrote about cows and snow. They can learn to eat snow as a water source in a matter of days! Amazing! If you want to learn more you can check out her blog post, Snow As a Water Source.
That is all for now from the Moo-ternity Ward. :)
There is one thing I hate about Christmas coming...SNOW. I absolutely hate winter and the temperature and snow that comes with it. On the upside Christmas and deer season happens when it gets cold, so I tolerate the weather until the snow falls. My dad shares my dislike for snow. In our minds, snow means digging out of the house, driveway, and gravel road and chopping ice for cattle. Not fun! Snow also means bad roads, especially if the snow starts to melt, only to refreeze over night.
Now to show what the snow has messed up in 24 hours. Sunday we were supposed to have a potluck at church to celebrate new members. That means us. Our transfer to First Lutheran is finally complete. It was hard to say goodbye to St. Paul's, but that is part of growing up. I knew the recent snow would interfere with our plans. Redbeard has cattle to give food and water to and with snow and frigid temperatures that means chopping a lot of ice. Plus, the roads were less than ideal.
While he was off tending to cattle, I made a dish for the potluck. I decided macaroni and cheese would be a good addition to the potluck since I didn't have any eggs left to make a dessert. In a short thirty minutes, I let the noodles stick to the pan and boil its slimy noodle juice onto the stove. Yuck! I was trying to do too many things at once. Next time I will focus only on the noodles. I blame it on the yucky snow! It has me going crazy!
Redbeard finally got home right before 11 and church starts at 10:30. We hopped in the truck and made the trip to town. We entered right as they started playing the closing song, but at least we made it for the potluck. Better late than never, right?
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| Here is what the roads looked like on our way to church |
We had a great time at the potluck. I think it was the best potluck I have ever attended! Between cheesy potatoes, macaroni and cheese, beef and pepperoni Pizza Hut pizza, and Hawaiian rolls, I was stuffed! I didn't even eat supper last night!
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| The road on the way back from church...much better, but still not great. |
After church and the potluck, Redbeard and I went out to give a few bunches of cattle some more water. They sure drink a lot, even though it is cold out! Custer came along for the ride and loved every minute of it!
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| Sniffing around |
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| The puppy sits weird sometimes |
Our cattle live on the fields harvested this fall during the winter. This includes corn and grain sorghum fields. The nice part of having the cattle in the fields is they are gaining weight while cleaning up after us! They also leave behind some fertilizer. The "girls" pick up the corn or sorghum reside that was lost out of the combine during harvest and eat it. There is little waste then! They get a bale of alfalfa or other yummy forage to supplement the corn or sorghum. I think they deserve a little treat when they are doing so much work!
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| Some of the cattle eating corn |
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| Redbeard is the official ice chopper |
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| Redbeard ice chopping in action. Don't be fooled, he isn't the only ice chopper. I put the camera down sometimes to chop some ice, also. |
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| The girls eating some alfalfa |
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| "What are you looking at?" |
I blame my long, cold, yucky day on the snow and my long-time hatred for it. It causes problems in our days, but it is nice to go chop ice and feed with Redbeard and Custer even though it is cold.
I have quite a few friends getting married and some have asked me what items I recommend putting on a registry. In the future I am going to start reviewing some of our wedding gifts. We received a lot of great gifts for our wedding. This will give me an excuse to use some of our favorite gifts and share them with everyone! This is the first of "Wyrill Wedding Wins!" Warning: These will be my own views on products and there will be a lot of purple. Let the purple begin!
Jake has been begging me for days to make him some chili. I am not a fan of soup. Like I usually say, "I like to chew my meal, not drink it." Call me weird, but for the most part I only tolerate soup if a crazy amount of cheese is involved. In order to keep my status as Jake's best wife, I made chili to warm him up after his afternoon deer hunt. I decided again today to stay inside versus braving the cold.
Instead of using my usual pan to make chili, I decided to try out my purple 2.75 quart dutch oven. Since it is smaller than the other pot, I figured this would keep me from making too much chili. I made the decision to use the dutch oven from start to finish. I have never used one before so it was a good learning experience.
First I browned the hamburger. The instructions said to coat the bottom of the pan with oil and warm for about two minutes. I was concerned about the amount of liquid in the hamburger at first, so I added a little bit of water. The meat browned up nicely after warming up.
After the meat was browned, I added a can of tomatoes and chili beans. I also added Kroger recipe starters chopped onion, chili powder, and corn. Anyone who really knows Redbeard knows that the way to his heart is with cube steak (made it for lunch), corn, and potatoes. So corn in the chili and baked potatoes on the side.
Here is the final product! Redbeard came by and approved of my surprise. He is excited to have a bowl of chili when he gets back from hunting.
As for the dutch oven, I am impressed! When I make a meal that has ground beef in it I will use this again. I am sure there are people that are going to say, "She has never used a dutch oven?" Yeah, I grew up on grilled cheese, cheeseburgers, and steak. What can I say? I am an extremely picky eater. Now I can say I have used a dutch oven!
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