Winter : )

Started our day with a winter snowstorm that came sideways.  The wind was from the south/southeast which is our coldest side.  By the time the day was over we had about 6 inches of snow and a frozen drinking cup in the back of the barn that blew the plug out.  The good news is a .75 plug is way better than breaking a $75. drinking cup but the mess is still the same with water running down the feed alley and into the cow feed alley.  Lots of sweeping and a general mess.  Thankfully the wind has died down and the barn has had a chance to warm up so all drinking cups are in working order again.  Gotta love winter : )   Today during all that snowing and blowing Tony came and we butchered one of our steers.  We really like having him come and do it here because there is no stress on the animal from trucking and strange yards.  The lack of stress really does make better meat.  He does the actual processing in his shop and ours was his 5th animal today. This particular animal will be divided 3 ways.  Generally we sell to individuals by the half but we were 1 person short and couldn't just do 2 animals today so this will work. Bruce has decided to make some kopfwurst this time so he spent the afternoon cutting up meat to be cooked tomorrow.  Should be an interesting project since its been a few years since we have made any.  I spent the day doing the secretarial part of farming  by paying bills and processing all the year end forms like W-2's.  I think I have everything ready to go in envelopes, a good job done!  I am glad to report that all the animals on the farm are behaving today.  The calves are doing well in their hutches and no one has gotten sick.  Bruce went through with the skid steer and made a path to get to the barn for now.  Some of the drifts are hip high on me.  The dog thinks this is perfect weather!