Storms Acomin'.

I just saw on the news that there is a tornado watch for several counties around us til 10pm tonight. I'm sure it will be in our county soon too. I hate storms. My animals don't like them either. And why does it have to storm at night anyway? We do need some more rain but no storms, please.

I had my garden turned last week and with rain tonight then all weekend, it will be a few weeks before it can be tilled. But that's ok. It's still just march. I already have potatoes and onions coming up from last year I won't have to plant. And all my spinach, kale and red mustard I planted in the cold frame last week is up and growing really good now. But it will be chilly tonight so I will put the windows back on.

This is a spider web on the front porch. So cool.

Cows

This is a picture of the Hereford cattle up the road from us. There are alot of them. And this year they waited to have calves when it was warmer. So for the past month they have been popping them out every day. They are all so cute. I love cows. And that is Lookout Mt in the background. I love this shot.

It's been such great weather I am afraid it won't last. It is still March. Ya just never know around here.

Mazie

This is Mazie when she was little. So long ago. She is huge now. And a momma. She's a good momma. The other morning it was still dark and I heard her mooing. I thought maybe she's in heat already? Then later after the sun had come up I saw why she was mooing. She had rolled the round hay bale over by the gate and the gate had shut. So she was on the pasture side and poor Chuck was inside. I don't know how long they'd been apart but she was full of milk. And they ran to each other like in a movie. Such love. All is well now though.

Abby and Sandy

Oh my goodness! I hope this works and it shows up. But these are my 2 does that I have left. Abby is on the left. She is Lamancha. SHe just turned 9 in Feb. And she is due to kid in a few weeks. Sandy is on the left. She is mostly Nubiam with a little Togg thrown in. She is also due in a few weeks. She will go first I do believe. The are both HUGE right now and I don't see how they can possibly go any longer. And I am ready for nice fresh goat milk. Right now please!

Is anyone else milking yet?

Mazie and Chuck

Oh my goodness. They are so cute together. I was a little worried about Chuck yesterday. He had a drippy nose. He was born when it was about 33 degrees so I was thinking he could get pneumonia. So I gave him a 1ml shot of LA200 yesterday afternoon. I'm glad I did. This morning she had brought him back over here to her hay bale mountain. And he has been peeing and pooping! So I know he's getting momma's good milk. And he's running around the hay mountain. She chases him. So cute.

And I have been milking her! And she lets me! But yesterday I noticed the back left quarter was brownish-red in color. So I called my dairy friend up the road. He said lots of 1st time heifers have that happen. Just to milk that quarter out. It could get better and it may not. He was amazed though when I told him she stands still and lets me milk her. It's like milking a big giant red goat. No problem. But this morning she raised her left leg a few times. I just hollered NO! real loud at her and smacked her leg. Then I tell her "Good girl". So I think it will be ok and she'll let me milk her. My friend said she won't have alot of milk this first time. And she is a beef cow. But as long as I can get a little bit for us. Anyway, this is fun. And he's so cute. Now I have to think about castrating the poor little guy as soon as possible. They should just be born without that little package.

He's Here!

It's here! A bull calf born early this morning just like me and Mazie talked about. He was all nice and dry and nursing first thing this morning when I looked out the window. Such a pro she is and this is her very first calf ever. Mazie the Big Red Heifer is now a COW! I have given her several buckets of molasses water and fresh hay so far. The calf is nursing great. He knows exactly where those faucets are. And he knows how to use them. I just hope he lets me have a little bit sometimes.

I am so relieved that mazie is ok and that the calf is a bull and he is healthy. And I didn't have to do a dad blamed thing! Yee Haw!

I'm off to give her more water. She's gonna have to move over a little closer to her water trough. Enough of this already!

Mazie is Almost Ready!

I have been checking on Mazie all during the day now. She is very close to calving. And I am very nervous and anxious and scared all at once. I so want her to be ok and the calf to be healthy. But I want her to wait til the weather is better. I purposefully planned it so she would have the calf in good weather but the weather is not cooperating with me. We have had a monsoon the past week and it's a sopping wet muddy mess out there. It's been sprinkling all day and the temp has been dropping. So tonight is NOT a good night to have a calf. I have told her this so I hope she will wait. I have her due date as the 14th. So just 4 more days to go. But today I saw goo. About a 3" clear goo hanging off the back end. Which, by the way, is very floppy and big. Oh my, I am so nervous. I have helped goats give birth, no problem. But a cow? I don't know. I hope she does ok and the calf will be strong and healthy, all on her own with no help from me. The Herefords up the road are popping calves out all over the place this week and last week. SO stinkin' cute! Mazie's calf will more than likely be black.

And Abby and Sandy still have about 5 weeks to go. I thought I was going to lose Abby a few weeks ago. I didn't know this, but she had gotten out (which I did know, thanks to Sandy!) and she got so sick a few days later. I thought she had ketosis which was strange because she had almost 2 months to go. So I dosed her with all the stuff for ketosis. She got better. I was out front a few days ago and saw what was once an azalea but is now just a stick. I do belive the pig goat ate the azalea. She is very lucky to be alive. I just hope the kids are ok. She did look like she had 2 basketballs on either side. But she is back to her mean ole goat self again.

And the pigs are growing like, well, pigs! They have til the middle of April then off to the butcher they go! Can't wait for some good fresh bacon and pork chops and sausage!

And yesterday I was feeding the turkeys and found 2 eggs! 2 eggs! I was so surprised to see them. They are 9 months old. Then this morning I found 3 more! So 5 eggs in 2 days. I went and found a few turkey roasting pans and filled them with pine shavings for them to hopefully lay the eggs in.

Last Friday a friend came with his big huge tractor and a big huge seeding machine to seed my front pasture with fescue. I know this is not the time to plant fescue. But like he said, you plant it when you can. SO we did. Then the next day we got flooded. I mean the pasture was under water. Well, then a few days ago we had a monsoon. It was under water again til today. So we'll see in a few weeks if the seed survived all this water. I did this to get the pasture ready for some spring lambs. A friend has some Suffolk sheep about to have lambs and I want some for meat. But I also want to find some wool sheep. I think I might try to find some Shetland sheep. Been researching them. They seem to be a small breed and the rams are supposed to be nice. Ha! Nice rams? We'll see.

So lots going on here at Outback Farm. It's almost spring! I want to get the garden tilled and planted too. But it is only March. I will try to get back and post about Mazie's succesful calf delivery soon.