Our single 2024 calf

Another bull calf! The last 6 calves born here have all been boys, I can’t believe it. I watched the birth late yesterday afternoon. Momma Missy (also born here) was lying down so he came out very gently and within just a couple pushes. She let Al scoop up the calf and walk him into a deep bed of straw in the lean-to, out of the wind. He nursed within an hour of the birth and all is well. We ended up selling our other milk cow, Ruby, last fall in an effort to downsize, so this will be our only calf this year. He’ll have to play with the dogs I guess! No little playmates his size.

Snug as a bug in a rug!

Successful Rabbit Breeding -finally!

This first picture is of a young girl, excited and eager to begin the fascinating journey of breeding rabbits. This was waaay back on December 4. Since then we’ve had LOTS of breedings, lots of disappointments, lots of frustration, and just as she was on the verge of throwing in her rabbit breeding towel, we woke up to baby bunnies today! We had to wait almost 5 months for kits that only require a gestation of 30-31 days to grow, but we did it! Hopefully things go well from here, this is a first for us, so we’re learning as we go. 🐰

Pure joy!

Photogenic bull

Our Jersey bull, Percy, gave me an awesome photo opportunity a few nights back. I included the 2nd photo to give you an idea of his “daytime look.” He was born here on our farm, will be 2 in April. So far he’s been very respectful with those horns and the smaller animals. Personally, I never give him an opportunity to get aggressive with me -I always go in the pasture with a livestock stick and my guard dog. History has shown me that the bulls remain pretty well behaved until they approach their 3rd birthday. I guess it’s up to Percy to decide how long he’ll be here with us!

“And He will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.” -Deuteronomy 11:15

Beef tallow

I’m ashamed to say in the 10 years we’ve been raising cattle for beef, I’ve never asked for the fat to render from our processor. How wasteful! This year I did. I’ve never rendered down beef fat or pork lard so it was a new experience. I *think* it went well. I just crammed as much as I could into the crockpot. In trying to keep a low boil, I switched it back and forth from the low setting to the warm setting if it seemed to be boiling too fast. I let that go for over 24 hours, stirring slightly every few hours. The smell in the house was not great. 🤢 Maybe that’s a better task when I can open some windows? I did two batches which yielded a little less than 4 pints of creamy white goodness. I plan to use it to fry potatoes, but my husband is on a no candida diet right now so the potatoes will have to wait. I couldn’t quite get to all the fat, the last batch surrounded a bone that wouldn’t fit in my crockpot and I’d lost my steam at that point. It went to the dogs, who are both on a raw meat and bones diet. They devoured it happily. 🐾

I guess these are the cracklings left over? I’m told they’re good in soup, but the smell of the fat cooking down for so long turned me off, so these went to the dogs too.

Before it had cooled

Voila!

Rabbits?

After our daughter was surprised by a grand champion win with her Californian doe at our fair over the summer, we decided to try something new and become rabbit breeders! We are learning as we go, but picked out a daddy rabbit. A breeding this week will put us at the right timing for these baby bunnies to be shown at our fair. A rabbit friend came over on Monday to show us how to handle each breeding, and this 12 year old farm girl took it from there and has been breeding them twice a day since then. Today we saw a few promising signs that the doe might be pregnant, so stay tuned! Gestation is only 31 days! 🐰

Pasture improvements

The cold weather has arrived in Michigan. We’ve already had enough snow to build a huge snowman, and several days where the temps didn’t get above freezing. That means the trough heaters have come out, the barn cat’s heated bed has come out, we have our winter storage of hay, straw, and sawdust. Our last item to address before everything permanently froze for the winter was the pig pasture, which is also where we overwinter the cattle once the hogs are slaughtered.

Dogs are getting along great! Tilly is growing quickly through the puppy stages.

We peeled off the top layer of slop that was mid calf on me

Brought in about 8 loads of stone

So much better and safer for me to walk over all winter. I think the pigs approve!

Petting Zoo

This is our 2nd year volunteering to do a petting zoo at a local church event. It’s fun sharing our animals with the community! We bring ducks, a rabbit, a calf, and a pony.

Pippy the pony

Missy’s calf, Marty

Domino, our new Californian buck we’ll be using for breeding

My daughter, the giant chicken, hanging out at the poultry pen with a couple of our ducks

Beef soup bones and burger

Watermelon snack!

Pippy and Pebbles

Fluffy butts around the pond