I came home last night while Bruce was milking the last cow. It was my understanding that he would be home soon but it wasn't long before I heard the skid steer running and it seemed to take forever before he actually came in. As it turns out, by the time he got the last cow done and was heading home the cow that looked close to due last night had feet sticking out already. When I asked him what he was up to last night he said "killing time", which made no sense until I saw the calf this morning. Another bull has arrived. Bruce learned in class the other day that the cow/calf (beef cow mothers) numbers in this country are at their lowest in 30 years. Looks like we will have a few to sell next year. Tonight that makes it 4 special needs cows to deal with.
The ground was frozen this morning and the farmer gets excited when this happens in March. These cold mornings give him the opportunity to clean all the barns again, and more critical, the pit where the barn cleaner goes out and under which our manure spreader parks. For a week Bruce has been cleaning the barn and just dumping it into this area in anticipation of the cold weather in the forecast. Had we known this would be so handy we would have made it deeper. As it is it will hold about 7 days worth of manure, and yesterday was day 7! On day 8 it could start running out into the road. Our neighbors like us, and in order to continue that we need frozen ground. After milking cleaning the pit was the first project of the day since this time of year there are only a few hours to work with before the ground thaws and gets sticky. Today Bruce got 6 loads hauled to some of our farther pieces of land so he is definitely a happy camper.
After the ground got sticky Bruce fed "all the critters". We finally had sun today and it was beautiful and dangerous and entertaining with ice on everything. We are both glad we managed to stay upright and enjoyed the entertainment of a border collie who has some trouble cornering on ice and goat kids who were trying to figure out how to run.
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