Breaking the house.

We have a sort of odd tradition around Christmas time. On Christmas Eve we make a Gingerbread house together. Normally from a kit. This year we had a house and a tree. Then on New Years Eve we SMASH the house!! It's tons of fun and whatever is left over goes in a bowl and stays out for a week then gets thrown away. I'm sorry the pictures are late and backwards!! If you want to see them in order start at the bottom. Papa, J, L, E and Brianna (in the bright pink) admiring their smashing success!

E taking a whack at it.

L smashing it with his fist!

J trying to imitate Papa last year and smash it with one blow of his open hand.. didn't work. That icing is serious glue!!

Papa's Eye

This was taken a few days after the air canister exploded in his face in November. When I took the picture he couldn't open his eye at all and it's really not a great picture. If you look close you can see that his eye is all gummed up and there is a red area around his eye and down his face a bit. The first day that was all dark brown with embedded sand!! It took several days of showers for it to completely go away. The whites of his eye were full of blood and you could easily see sand embedded in it. He was in a lot of pain until it cleared out. Tears are amazing. Every morning there would be trails of crud down his nose.. were the tears had cleaned the sand out of his eye while he slept. During the day he was constantly wiping crud off. God made our bodies absolutely magnificently!! It was amazing to see his eye heal itself!! He was back to work the next day and his vision was perfect in less then a week!
The band aid on his thumb was a cut from pig butchering when he cut the outside of his knuckle almost to the bone!! Nasty!! It took a while to heal but it finally did.

Bunkbeds in the Kids room.

The darker set we've had for almost a full year and the boys were sleeping in them. Now the boys sleep on tops and girls on bottoms. R is on the pink sheet and that's her bed. It works great as she can't fall out!! The boys are on their Christmas Slide from G&B and can climb from the top of the slide to the top bunk! E is watching them from the middle of the room.

Brutus.

Well Brutus the Bull as he's been dubbed by Papa has a real soft spot... for our sweet mix. The night we got him Papa went out to milk and Brutus almost ate out of Papa's hand. Bindy of course did and she still visits the spot where Papa dumped the sweet mix that day!! Here in this 1st picture he's out of the pen on his 1st day here. Maggie and Bindy are SHOCKED!!

Here he is still out. See the wire across his chest? That's the fence and he's on the WRONG SIDE!

He has turned out to be VERY well fence trained and hasn't even thought about repeating his 1st days performance.

Another BULL story...

Well we did it again. Changed out minds again.. and hopefully it won't come back to bite us later this fall. We wanted to breed our Holstein cow Maggie to a Guernsey by AI-ing her. Which is a great way (we've been told) to get the breed you want and not have to deal with a dairy bull (which are reported to have more temper then beef bulls.) Well we can't say we didn't try because we did try for over a month to just get a hold of and talk to a AI-er and we never actually connected.

Then Papa, who has been mulling this over, came up with a great idea. Maybe. His thought was instead of breeding Maggie to a Guernsey just breed her beef (better calf for eating) and buy a Guernsey heifer calf. Raise it up ourselves and ta da! No messing with AI-ing (which has proved very frustrating and possibly quite pricey.) and praying for a heifer and having to do something with the bull calf if we didn't get our heifer. That and the fact that we spent the month we wanted to breed her trying to find out information and if she's not bred soon we'll have a winter calf and we DID NOT want a winter calf. As it is it will be Oct, Nov before she calves which is already a bit late. At this point it's better late then never.

All that to tell you we have yet another animal, thankfully borrowed not bought on our small 5 acres.

So Monday I took a good look at my calender and counted out days and heats and told Papa. "Better get him soon or we'll miss it again!" So Papa took J and L with him Tuesday and went to talk to our wonderful neighbor Jim about his bull. Jim is done with the bull and doesn't mind sharing so today (Wednesday) at lunch time Chip starts to bark and sure enough there is Jim backing his horse trailer down our driveway. Well Papa was going to come on his lunch break and help Jim with the bull but Jim was early so I called Papa and told him then went out to help Jim. After a 'where am I going chat?' Jim backed his trailer right to where it needed to go and his mirrors were only once in jeopardy!

As he backed the trailer in I was 'helping' and the bull put his nose out one of the tiny windows of the trailer and BLEW!! I was instantly intimidated. I'm NOT a bull person.. I'm barely a milk cow person. I much prefer animals that are smaller and less intimating.Really that's me in a nut shell. So a 2000 lb Bull is really pushing limits for me.

When the trailer was in place and the electric fence down and Bindy and Maggie were standing there ready to greet their new pen mate Jim handed me a whip (the 1st I have EVER seen him use.) and told me to send Chip away. EEK. Because the bull might chase the dog and you don't want that! As Chip loves to sit by my feet whenever I stop I sent him away promptly. He was very hurt and went about 20 feet off and felt sorry for himself. I sternly told my self it was better him then ME! Jim told me 'the bull should go into the pen but just in case' EEK EEK!!
Jim opened the outside door and then went inside to open the front compartment where the bull was. "Here he comes!" was a warning to me just before 2000lbs of Red Angus BULL came stumbling out of the trailer. Thankfully he never even LOOKED at me!! He got caught on the electric wire as he crossed it, shook it off like a pro and went to sniff the 'girls.'

I had the electric fence up before you could say 'red Angus bull' and got Jim's attention to tell him I was going to go turn it on. He thought this was a great idea and off I went. By the time I had the fence on Jim had pulled out and couldn't even stop for a coffee as his cows were still in the corral and he wanted to let them out. So I took one more look at this new animal and noting he was still in went inside to call Papa and tell him he could stay at work and have a nice quiet lunch. Well Jim pulled out of sight about the same time Papa got to the phone and so it was only me who saw a funny little thing that spelt TROUBLE clear as anything.

I was telling Papa how 'very smooth it all went' when, out of the corner of my eye I see something unexpected. Honestly if I was new at this whole farming thing or if I'd looked away 1 second earlier or if I'd never seen a electric fence do that before I probably would not even have thought about it again. But as SOON as I saw it I knew. Just a little jump in the wire.. like it came alive for 1 second just to jump, then stayed still, in it's insulator, still tight, just a little jump. I took one LONG look out the window and changed my tone!!

I'm ashamed to say I BEGGED!! "PLEASE COME HOME RIGHT NOW!" I don't think I shouted but I know my voice had a hitch or two in it. For those of you who don't know what it means when a wire jumps like that. THE BULL WAS OUT!! Bindy and Maggie seemed as shocked as I was. He just sort of walked over or under or something and was OUT. He didn't even break the wire! Pretty talented really. And before you think, as I must admit I did, what were we doing putting a 2000lb bull into electric fence if he was NOT trained to it. We weren't. Jim's cows are all electric fence trained, very well trained and so is this bull. He just simply didn't see it and being used to having 1/4 sections to run on he didn't even consider that he might have had less then an acre here. Just a moment to explain to you the SIZE of this sucker. Maggie's back is about as high as my nose. I'm 5,5 (they measured me at my last Doc. visit) So lets say she's about 5 feet tall, give or take. This bull is taller then Maggie, not by much ( he is a red Angus), but taller and instead of being skinny and bony like Holsteins are he is PURE MUSCLE!! Maggie's skinny little self weighs about 800lbs. This guy has muscles on muscles and has to close to my estimate of 2000lbs. Literal weight.(Papa always disagrees with me on weights so I'm not going to ask him. 1500 just seems TOO SMALL) This does NOT fit into my nut shell. My nut shell pretty much stops dead at 1000lbs.

Papa calmly tells me he'll come when he can but he has to finish something first. Oh and "make sure he stays off the driveway!" Right. Now if you take our 5 acres of place and measure acres from the road to the back the bull is about on acre #2. Back is good.. Back is FENCED. Front is HORRIBLE... Front is OPEN! When I hung up a minute later I really wasn't at all sure what I'd do if the bull went to the front. Maybe panic and try and chase it with the travelall... if I could get the beast of a truck to start??? Thankfully he was a good little bull (or a better big bull. He was out after all.) and went BACK. Unfortunately he got bored rather fast and went visiting. Thankfully the neighbors both work and unless they go to the back of their piece they'll never know they had a bull time visitor. He took his time wandering here and there and so did Papa. I did have to brave the outdoors and the bull several time to see where he'd gone too and to turn off the fencer. I didn't realize until later that the wire had not broken and he couldn't have gotten back in anyway. That was my big hope.. that he'd just walk back in!

Almost an hour later the bull finally stopped at the hay bale and started munching on the outside. It was lunch time for the children by then so I set J up as a 'watch the bull' helper and went and made then a snack lunch they could eat while watching a movie. Just in case I had to go do 'something' with the bull. I still don't know what I would have done.. gotten a big stick maybe?

The movie was just starting when Papa finally drove up. He'd been working on something simple and as so often happens it turned out to be less then simple and the driver was in a hurry and blah. He came inside for a bull update and then ordered me to make some strips of tin foil and went out and took the wire off the posts on almost a 1/4 of the fence and tried to herd the bull in. Well the bull didn't herd well and Papa came back and grabbed a rake (We both wished for Jim's whip) and finally got him in. Then Papa quickly put the fence back up and the strips of tin foil on the wire 'to remind him where the fence is' and turned the fence on. That's when we found his weakness. The bulls I mean :) I was watching out the window and I think if that bull had turned any faster without moving along with it he'd have fallen right over. He was inspecting this new fence from a distance when it happened and his inspection was suddenly over!

Papa had grabbed a bucket of our 'sweet mix' we feed the cow (it's not grain) and rattled the bucket. The bull is a bucket baby!! Papa poured the treat over a nice clean patch of snow and the 3 of them licked it up like kids do ice cream. Bindy of course made a real pig of herself and spent 3 times the time the other two did.. getting ever last bit of molasses off the snow.
When I checked the bull an hour ago he was laying nicely in front of the hay bale with Maggie. Thankfully, other then a quick sniff, he has not paid the slightest attention to Bindy. Which is just as it should be and renews our hope for a calf this spring. Maggie on the other hand has to breath out when he breaths in so that she can breath at all (slight exaggeration but not far off.). Perfect!!

Papa says he's a nice enough bull in that you can work with him and be in his pen and he doesn't loose it. But I put my foot down and informed him that neither I or the boys will be feeding the pigs or chickens or getting the eggs until the bull is GONE. We have to walk into his/their pen to do these chores and it will not be happening. He laughed and called me a chicken but I'm sticking too it. I'd rather be a chicken then have a run in with a bull.. any bull. I think I made my point as Papa fed the pigs today :)

Cluck clucking and proud of it!! :)

Papa's Schooling.

Well it's official. Papa will be starting his 1st year of school for his apprenticeship starting March 29th. First year runs for 6 weeks. He'll be taking the car (good on gas) to 'the city' every morning and coming home every afternoon 5 days a week. It's about a 50 minute drive to the college. He has book work type stuff in the mornings and actual mechanical stuff in the afternoon. One of his bosses thinks he will be bored out of his mind the entire schooling time. Not just this this 6 weeks but ALL 4 six week programs he has to do to finish his apprenticeship. Papa's 2nd 6 weeks (for his 2nd year) of school is right after the 1st years. So it will be 12 weeks total that he'll be in school and we will be without a paycheck. Eek!! So far his schooling has cost us about $550.00 and we are expecting to cost us about $1,500.00 total with with books and everything. Fuel is extra! Thankfully he will be able to receive UI for 10 of the 12 weeks and we have been saving up for spring things like chicks and feed and other costs. Our fuel bill will go UP but it hopefully will not be too bad as city prices are often MUCH better then our small town prices. Papa's bosses have also told him that if he gets more then a certain % they will pay for all his schooling costs which is wonderful!! His last day of school is the 18th of June and our new baby is due on the 22nd of June :) Thankfully the last 3 babies have been 10 days late so if this one follows suit he/she should be born the 2nd of July. Or around there. Who knows with babies :) One really nice thing about his schooling (besides the fact that he will be half done!!) is that he'll have Saturdays off and should be home by 6ish every night. That will work perfectly for our spring farming and clearing up the rest of the trees that we've fallen and will fall again this spring as we can work 30 to 60 minutes, or more, each evening and get a LOT done. By then it will be light enough too!!

Longer Days and Shorter Nights :)

The days are getting noticeably longer now. We now have light until after 5 pm. In the heart of winter it would get dark before 4pm and light around 6:30ish am. Now we have light til almost 5:20pm. I'm not sure what time it gets light in the mornings as I'm well tucked into my nice warm bed and really don't care too much. I do know it is still dark at 4;30am as I was up then last night and it was dark. I've already taken advantage of the extra light to send the boys outside more and more as we have some nice weather. They have been playing 'pirates' on a lump of snow which covers some old boards that serves as their 'boat.' They have TONS of adventures sailing here and there and looking for treasure. As they get older they can spend more time out of doors then they could before as they can come inside when they are cold and 'warm up' and I don't have to worry about them so much. They also bring firewood to the porch and soon I will have them running up and down the driveway again running off some of that energy that little boys seem to never run out of. For myself the longer days mean more time to remember that we have a farm and to get my brain ready for spring and the total lack of ice, snow and cold weather. One thing about living this far north that unless you go to a gym there really isn't any way to get exercise with out equipment during the winter.. the days are too short or too cold, or it's much too icy. So we end up living inside during the winter and outside in the summer. We don't get green grass here until the end of May and often it's only days between snow and ice and green grass and mud. Days between sleds and bikes. By May it'll be dark around 10pm and light as early as 4:30am. Boy am I looking forward to that!! But this is nice too and I always have some inside projects to be done. I better get going and get some more finished as I've only got 3 months til May and spring work and baby piglets :)

Family Update Jan 2010

Well the new year has started and so far it's like every other year. Some good stuff and some bad. After our unusually cold spell we have now had a few weeks of nice warm weather.. very unusual for January!! Normally we get our -40 F spell in January and as of today (the 28th) the coldest we've had is about -18C (about 0F). The kids have been outside a lot which is wonderful!! There is a thick layer of ice everywhere and we are having to be VERY careful at how we walk or as we call it.. the winter waddle. After falling 2 times on my hip in the cow pen I'm VERY careful!! Thankfully no damage was done!

Well I guess I'll start smallest and go up! Griggs baby #5 is growing well and has made herself/himself known. I can feel kicks and twirls and jabs and the baby moves around and gets more mature. At almost 20 weeks he/she is almost 6 inches from head to bum and weighs almost 9 oz. He/she has everything including eye lids and hair and can suck it's thumb and swallow! At 20 weeks he/she could survive outside the womb with lots of care. I always like passing the 20 week mark just for that reason! And at 20 weeks we normally have the ultrasound and find out the sex of the baby. Papa is still very sure it's a boy.. I'm not convinced. :) Our ultrasound date is the 23 of February and I'm sure we'll keep you posted!! I'm regularly asked if this pregnancy is larger or smaller then the last 4. Honestly I have no idea. There will be 27 months between R and this new baby and between them I dropped 3 pant sizes. My body is in a much different shape now then it has been in several years... since I was pregnant with L! I do have a baby belly all of a sudden (to me anyway.. I belly bumped a kid the other day and was shocked.. I had no idea it stuck out that far!!) and not just the baby fat belly I've had for years! I call my baby fat belly my 4 layers of fat.. one for each child. It really should be 5 since I had a bit of one before the 4 layers of fat came to be! Anyway we are growing and healthy if tired and a bit lazy with all the COLD weather we've been having this year.

R is growing up! The other day we took apart her crib in the 1st stage of moving her and E into the bottom bunks of the bunk beds. (the boys will have the tops) She is now sleeping on her crib mattress on the floor.. it's a great learning stage between can't fall out of a crib and can fall out of a bed!! She loves it and slept great last night. The 2 nights she slept in the tent after Christmas is when she came to 'visit' in the middle of the night. After putting her back 2x a night she's now staying put!! She's also eating at the table with us without a tray on her highchair but sits a bit too low yet and I'm going to move her out of the highchair and into a seat at the end of the table. Table Shuffle!! LOL. These are also steps that need to be taken to give her some responsibility so when we come to potty training at age 2 she'll be able to and ready for more!

E is a giggly, wiggly teaser of a 3 year old which a touch of attitude and a flaring of temper. She loves to play with J and L and thinks she can do anything they can do. Nothing new there. Often she does it too! She asked me almost everyday when the baby would come for almost a month.. now she asks her self and answers herself. She is very excited about the new baby and is quite positive that it's a girl. As both boys think the baby is a boy they have some interesting arguments!! No one wins though as we don't know if it is a boy or girl yet. She is learning to take her plate, fork and cup from the table when she's done eating and put them where they belong. She totally dresses herself and can put her boots on as well. She can put her jacket on too sure she always gets it upside down.. with the hood over her butt!!

L recently discovered LEGO and can make cars following the instructions that came with the kits. He took to it like he'd been born to it and loves it. He's also really into coloring and can spend hours at it getting it just right. He is learning to shower himself with brother J as a informer.. he informs L of when there is still soap on him or informs me when L needs help. They shower together so L is really learning from J. I still have to put shampoo in their hair and makes sure it's totally washed out but other then that they shower completely without help. Very nice!! The two boys are quite the team and together they do a lot of things that only one couldn't. Like bring in a sled load of firewood when the stack was nearby, collect eggs and feed the hens, set up the table in the living area for picnic's, set the table, bring me ingredients for baking, emptying the dishwasher and putting away laundry. Some things they only need the others presents for courage.. like the hens and the ability to reaffirm where the clothes go but they work very well together and I'm proud of them. It's interesting to watch them as they often take turns being the one in charge. J is a natural leader but often they switch and even if L is asking J what to do next he still 'tells' J what to do next. They are quite the pair!!

Well J recently turned 6 and has taken on some new challenges.. LEGO and following directions is so easy when L does it but J struggles with it and has to redo every project at least 2 times before getting it to work right. This is good for his "I know everything" ego and is also teaching him patience with himself.. something he's never had a lot of. He's done a bit of the training of Chip and that dog listens to him better then me!! J got a tent for Christmas and a fishing rod for his birthday and is totally looking forward to going fishing with Grandpa 'when the snow goes away and Grandpa is off work!' He can now turn laundry right side out and fold some of it! Both the boys can fold washcloths and L can turn shirts outside right but J can fold pants and socks as well as turning anything right side out. Great help when we do our gobs and gobs of laundry every week. He also put his sheet on his bed for the 1st time the other day!! He and R have an understanding and he's the best with her. He can wash her hands and once in a pinch put her on the toilet! She was naked for a shower with E (who I was busy with) and wiggling like she was going to pee on the floor. I said J put R on the pot! FAST and he picked her up just in time to get her on before she peed on the floor. I'm not sure who was more impressed of the 3 of us. J for putting her on, R for peeing or me for the quick reaction of both!

Papa worked 1.5 days in the 10 over Christmas and New years which gave us both a needed rest. We got almost nothing done and watched a lot of movies and I read several books. I got him the new FOOD INC book and his nose was buried for hours at a time reading up on his favorite subject. It was quite cold the whole time he had off so outside work was not really possible. He did milk the entire time for me which blessed me immensely as I was wiped out by the holidays and the 1st 3 months of this pregnancy. We had a great lazy Christmas with only 2 gatherings and lots of Griggs time! We made our annual gingerbread house and this year a tree also and decorated them Christmas Eve and the boys smashed them New Years Eve. The girls (E and R and Brianna) tried but couldn't hit it hard enough.... not that any of them really tried. M & A joined us for New Years Eve and after stuffing ourselves on appys we sat with 5 of the 6 kids and watched Ratatouille putting kids to bed in stages until the movie was over and the last 2 asleep. Papa brought in the new year milking Maggie which I told him was fate.. and that he should take that as a sign to milk all year long and leave me out of it!! He didn't think so though and I'm still milking once a day. I really didn't think it would work but it was worth asking. We have a line on a milking machine and Papa is going to look at it this week. We also took a day to plan our spring/summer plans for pigs, cows, meat birds and fingered out when we can hopefully expect piglets, chicks, the baby and Bindy's and Maggie's calves. (in that order!! Busy Spring!!) We've been planning on getting fruit trees this spring and after looking at the current busy spring decided to wait a year before putting $800+ into them as we will not have the time or energy to learn properly how to care for them. So we've decided to plant that area to grass and see how it does for a year before planting the trees.

Chip is growing and his back is over my knee now. He's finally learned to bark and will bark at people but only if they get out of their cars and preferably if he's under the porch. Ha bark in the OPEN... he's too chicken. Fine with me!! I just want to know when people are here! He's made friends with most of the people who come every week and will even come out to be petted by a few. This suits us just fine! He still loves the cows but Bindy does not love him.. though she does tolerate him. He can go into the cow pen again now. For a while there she'd chase him out over and over and over but he never gave up. He does love his Maggie. Speaking of Maggie the 2 of them gave us a scare the other day!! Papa looked out the window and saw Maggie licking a small black thing on the ground. He instantly thought CALF and panicked! A second later he realized it was only Chip who had turned to lick Maggie back. But his heart stopped for a second and we both had a good laugh over it! At the time it was -35C (-30F) and no time to be messing with calves!!

Maggie and Bindy are doing well together and seem to have bonded. Bindy is the "head" cow though and tries to stop Maggie from going in to be milked. I've had to chase her out twice because she stands SO close to the door Maggie needs to go through that Maggie will not pass her to go in even though she wants to be milked and loves her sweet mix. Bindy also loves the sweet mix and if your not careful she sticks her head through a hole and eats with Maggie. Maggie being the 'teenager' lets her!! But if we put the feed carefully on the other side of the box Bindy can't reach and scratches her way through the milking instead!! Papa fixed this the day after I wrote about it!! :) Note: We went and bought the milking machine today and what a sweet deal for $400!! Cheap, cheap cheap!! Yes!! That is one great thing about our cows is that they totally pay for themselves, their feed, hay, fencing and now extras too. Maggie has even taken us out for lunch or supper several times!! We are looking forward to the day when the cows will pay for some of our groceries too!! Oh and right now Maggie is paying for Chips dog food too!!

We have a new critter on the farm these days. A 550 lb critter who is thankfully only visiting. We borrowed a Berkshire boar to breed our 3 Berkshire gilts. He is HUGE but Papa informs me he is a very friendly pig. I can't get over his size enough to find out. I'm going to go out and take some pictures yet.

Update. We got the bunk beds up and sorted out and it's working great. It also gives them lots of room to play and if needed we can put a crib up in there as well. R has the most enclosed bunk on the bottom and hasn't visited us once since we set them up. One day at naps she tried to get out and went the wrong way and got lost on the end of her bed!! She was not fully awake and sat there and cried til I rescued her.

A L funny!! I was laying reading on the bed last night and L came over and put his hand on my belly and informed me I was FAT!! Papa and I laughed and explained to him that my 'fat' was his new sister or brother and that I would get much 'fatter' yet!!

A Six Year Old Birthday.

His Lion cake.

The Crew!!

Grandpa F and J. The have the same crazy hair!!

Opening the card from G&G G! Loved his face when 2 five dollar bills fell out!

Hard to believe we have now been in the same town for 6.5 years now. But yup J's birthday just proved it. When we moved here I was 3 months pregnant with J and he just had his 6th birthday. He's growing up so fast. He loves a good party and we sure had us one. Chocolate cake, ice cream, new balloons and toys. It was a great night. G&G F and the T family joined us to celebrate and we all had a great time. I made bread sticks and meatballs and sauce and we had them with oranges and chips and crackers with salsa and sour cream. What a feast! The kids really liked the cupcakes and J loved the lion on his cake. He really wanted a lion and so I washed a piece of glass and put a large lion wall sticker on the glass and placed it on the top of the cake. He picked out his 6 candles, 3 blue, 2 pink and 1 green and the candies for on top of the cupcakes, chocolate coins, little chocolate men and chocolate balls. He REALLY LOVES chocolate. He got his 1st Lego blocks and he and L are having a great time putting cars, castles and planes together. E really likes the horse J made out of Lego's and all and all they are a HIT!

Home Again Home Again. Jiggity jog.

Well Bindy is home again. After all our planning and fussing it went off lickity split. Bindy was corralled in the morning by our wonderful neighbor Jim and when we got there she seem to remember us and actually came right to Papa and he fed her some of our sweet mix and put her halter on her, with it's new cow chain. We planned to remind her how to behave on a lead properly right from the start! Then Papa walked out of the pen and Bindy followed and off we went!! The only time he had any troubles at all was when a car drove by on the road and all she did was walk into the ditch. Smart cow!! When we got home 20 minutes later (Papa walked her the whole way! I drove just in front of him and then behind him down the drive to cut her off if necessary!) she walked right into the milking area and into the stanchion. Papa brushed her for a bit just to firm up the bond and we called Maggie over so they could meet across the fence. Maggie REFUSED to come until Papa went out where she could see him and called her.. then she came running. It was interesting to watch them through the fence. The 2 year old dairy 'machine' who is learning to be a cow and the 9 year old short jersey Holstein who is a COW in the fullest sense of the word. Even for all their differences they both seemed shocked at the sight of the other. Bindy has really only ever been the ONLY cow here in the 2 years we've had her. And Maggie hasn't seen a cow since we brought her home in Sept. I was right about one thing. Bindy does NOT like Chip but after a few head bunts and some smelling her and Maggie are getting along well. Bindy went almost straight for the hay bale when Papa let her out and I have a feeling the cow pen will soon be a bit of a mess. Maggie only poops in 2 areas really and Bindy really just doesn't care! Both are fine with me as the reason the cows are there this winter is to get some fertilizer on that piece of ground. I told Papa that it really looks like Bindy caught the 1st month she was with the bull. Her belly is BIG and she's in all around good shape. But what do I know.. I waited almost a month for a calf that she never had!! Papa thinks she's bred too. And as the problem last time was the bull and not Bindy we are hoping she will have her calf this year! Oh and for all our worrying about her bag it too is in great shape. No funny lumps showing, just empty quarters hanging just as they should. So hopefully all is well there too. We won't know for sure until spring when she bags up to calve. I got a pretty good picture of them meeting and you can see how much shorter she is then Maggie!! Bindy looks like a chubby matron and Maggie a long legged teenager!! Papa and Chip watching Bindy (this side) and Maggie meet over the fence.

Maggie and Bindy side by side. Maggie is a LOT taller!!