Operation Steers-eye And Mountain Memories.

Bullseye enjoying the sweet mix of beet pulp, mineral, molasses, and flax we feed Maggie while we milk. 

It went super well. He loves the sweet mix we make for the cow and walked right in and BAMM the head gate slammed shut when Papa pulled on the rope attached to it. A couple of boards on either side so he couldn't move around too much, a piece of plywood to block his view of the humans. Then Papa tied a rope to his tail and I pulled the rope and kept his tail up, cutting off the feeling in his back legs and keeping him from kicking. Then Papa did his thing and TA DA we have a steer. And we no longer have to worry about if he 'can reach' when Maggie goes into heat! That was about a week ago now and he's doing really well. We wanted to do it before spring because of the flies and that whole 'reachability'  thing. He will be 1 year old in May.

He looks so tiny in there compared to big tall Maggie. The cat was PRETTY SURE we'd forgotten to feed her that day! We had fed her, but they have to try it. It was a warm wet snowy day and we had PUDDLES on the ice! 

I have to remember the last time Papa and I did this to a little bull. We were living on the mountain in WA. state and the calf was a Holstein bull calf we'd gotten as a 3 day old and raised on our goats. He was TALL and we placed two trucks side by side and tied him between the two of them. Then I stood with a pair of gloves and great balance on the truck bed sides.. OVER the calf. So one foot on one truck bed side and one foot on the other truck bed side and held his tail up while Papa 'did his thing' and Gaffer the calf bawled for his goat momma. Looking back we should have tied her to the front of the truck.. he would have been quiet then. Gaffers goat Momma was named Little Girl and she loved him as much as he loved her. She was always looking out for him and would let him nurse any time he wanted.. even though he was twice as big as she was. He was a lot older then this picture shows when we steered him. He's only a couple weeks, if that, old in this picture. He'd follow her anywhere. If he got scared he would hide behind her... well as good as he could anyway! Very funny! 

What do Pigs, A Steer, A Calf, Chickens and A Milk Cow all have in Common this Winter??

None of them want to stay in the pen that was made for them! The calf wants his Momma, or at least her milk. The steer wants FREEDOM plain and simple. The pigs and cow well they both want the same thing and neither of them can find it nearby! Papa commented after a particularly trying week 'Might be a good reason to keep them pregnant, at least THEN they stay in!' I, yes the pessimist, thought darkly, "No that just means there will BE MORE OF THEM OUT!!' So far this winter I have chased, yelled, bribed and shot, yes SHOT, each of our 3 sows, the steer and the calf multiple times!! The now steer is the worst and we've actually considered shooting him now just to get rid of him once and for all. Bullseye, recently re dubbed "Steers-eye" after a hour or so of work, is an escape artist who is too stupid to stop when the electric fence nails him. He's his mothers son and will be the last of Bindy's BAD SEED on the place. It doesn't help that we've had a LOT of snow this year and our fencer is NOT working as well as it once did. I think we will be replacing it VERY soon. I"m a bit leery of getting a bigger one as this one hits pretty good in the summer and quite frankly I seem to attract the 'charge' as much as or MORE then any animal on the place. OUCH! But it's been crazy around here and something has got to give. 

We got a lot of snow one night and the next morning Papa noticed the pig and then the tracks going down the driveway. So he bundled up and went out looking for her. Poor Chip sat in the middle of the driveway and watched as he's not allowed out of the yard. He sat right about where Papa is in this picture and I was able to tell what Papa was doing by watching the dog that loves him. First Papa went left and Chip stared off that way. Then Chip stood up and got super excited. Sure enough, here comes Papa into view. No pig. All of a sudden Chip sat down hard and dropped his head in sorrow. Papa's finger was pointing at him and I'm pretty sure he got the 'stay home!' Then Papa went right. Chip watched the right side eagerly. Time passed. Chip lay down, still watching to the right. Then he sat up. Barked. Sure enough here comes Papa, pig trailing behind him. Chip is SUPER excited and does his 'whole body wiggle' multiple times. Papa hits the drive way and starts down it. Chip launches himself in the air in excitement but doesn't cross the line. The stay home line. Good dog. Papa's knows the pig doesn't really care for the dog so poor Chip has to 'go lay down' and can't greet his love, his master properly. He MUST obey and he does. What a good dog! 

Papa, ( he knew I was taking pictures and does his best to look cranky when I take pictures of him. I think he thinks I'll quit if he always has a scowl on his face..but he's mistaken :) bringing home a pig one Sunday Morning in January. We have 3 sows. 2 with long tails and one dubbed STUB for a reason. Both Stub and this long tail get out every time they go into heat. EVERY TIME!! Neither of them like me at all but they will fallow Papa to the ends of the earth. So I rarely have to put them in. When I do I use the pellet gun and shoot them in the rear. Multiple times. They take the hint and stay off the front yard even if they won't go back in. At least they are staying out of the neighbors and out of trouble. We are contemplating butchering both Stub and this long tail and keeping the other long tail who stays in and the very last female piglet from this springs batch and breeding them to farrow this fall. Neither of those two get out! Bonus. What a lot of sausage that would be :) 

Maggie the cow has only been out a couple of times and only after the steer has ripped the fence down. I sometimes wonder if she enjoys chasing the steer through the fence just so she can go and try and make a pig of herself with the sweet mix we feed her at milking time. Thankfully it can't hurt her and she's not as tricky as Bindy or Steers-eye and we figured out how to keep her out of it rather quickly. 

We finally managed to keep MOST of the chickens in. I'm not really sure what caused them to decide to stay in but I'm grateful for it. I'm also getting about 6 eggs a day! Finally some one is behaving around here! 

Chip in the deep snow. 

The ambulance in the deep snow. Pretty much covered over!