Tuesday, Feb 26

Good morning farmers. A bit cool (14*) and windy again. Not strong wind like the weekend tho, someone else like KathyJo or EvaMae has that now. Yesterday my neighbor needed some help with a cow that had prolapsed so I helped him get the herd to the corrals (about a mile by road) and we got the cow into a chute, got her calf and the bull in another corral and were ready when the vet got there. He put everything back in and sewed her shut. Paul will take her to the meat buyer on Thursday. The heifer yearlings are starting to cycle so we needed to get the bull out before any of them are bred. It is a few months too early. Then we took the herd back to the winter pasture. By the time we did all that I was good and cold and it was too late in the day to get the workout I had planned for the horse, so hopefully we can do that today. Last night I started checking sheep at 1am, there was only one ewe and lamb to bring inside, it had just been born and wasn't cold. There are two lambs in the warming oven (barrel with straw and sheepskin and heat lamp), one of them needed to be tube fed, and then I found a somewhat willing donor ewe and milked her to refill the pint jar. You can picture this I'm sure: I am on my knees holding the ewe against the fence with my head and shoulder and milking with one hand while holding the jar with the other and listening for the milk to be going into the jar. The ewes all outweigh me, some almost double, I got lucky and got one that was fairly cooperative. Have a great day everyone, count your blessings.