The Ranch & the Weather

Cooper the Climber

2011-08-07T00:14:00.000-05:00

I knew Cooper was smart, but witnessed it tonight. While I was washing dishes and waiting for dinner to finish cooking, Cooper decided to play with the kitchen drawers. He opened one and found something I didn't want him to have. So I grabbed it from his hands and set it on the top of the counter to deal with it later and shut the drawer. I went back to washing dishes, but Cooper had an idea. He was going to get what I put up on the counter, no matter what. So, he proceeded to open the bottom two drawers and use them as steps to reach the counter. What a little smartie pants.... he almost pulled it off, but I was quicker. He kept at it and I was able to snap some pictures.

Turn around Don't Drown, Cooper

2011-07-06T09:52:00.001-05:00

This post is a little late, but we've been really busy and I haven't had time to sit down at the computer for a while. These are photos from north of Hamlet, NE after the heavy rains of June 21st brought around 5 inches to the area. As you can see from the telephone pole in the first photo that the water had receeded a bit. Under the water was a stock tank that wasn't visible for many days.

I set Cooper down to take a photo with the water in the background and he turned around to try to crawl into it. The water washed across the road and was over a foot deep earlier.

Turn around Cooper, Don't drown.

Once he was away from the water all he wanted to do was grab rocks and see what they tasted like.

The road was still there and Ted drove thru it, against my wishes. On the left side of the photo is a huge pit that was full of water. The embankment west of the pit was even covered. That's a lot of water!

Standing up...

2011-04-08T23:57:00.002-05:00

Watch out! Our little Cooper has found his legs and is standing himself up everywhere. In the crib, folding chairs, laundry baskets, the side of the tub. You name it if he thinks it will hold him, he'll try to stand up. Sometimes he thinks he can stand on his own, but usually ends up on his padded bum.

From 4/8/2011.... time to move the crib mattress down!

Cooper makes Green Rice

2011-03-22T23:44:00.001-05:00

Cooper helped make daddy's favorite side dish, green rice, for the first time on March 21st. He was a big help for most of it, until he figured out he could grab the bowl and stick his hands in the rice.

Pouring in the rice.

Holding the chopped green onions and green peppers.

Dumping in the green onions and green peppers. It's easier for me to have these already chopped and measured before I start. These came from our garden so they've been hanging out in the freezer.

Adding the Worcestershire sauce with mommy's guidance.

Trying to get his hands in the rice while mommy measures the oil.

Adding the parsley, also home grown from the garden.

Two hands adding the chicken broth, a big task for a little man.

Can't forget the Tony's.

Trying to add too much red pepper.... bet daddy would still eat it.

A little red pepper goes a long way!

Cooper Playing

2011-03-17T07:10:00.009-05:00

Cooper playing with his grandma and grandpa from Michigan on March 9th. He's been trying to get all over the place lately and I'm hoping my parents didn't get sick to their stomaches flying around with him. ;-)

Scooting Cooper

2011-03-08T23:50:00.011-06:00

Cooper's starting to move around and has been since Wednesday, the 2nd of March. We've been really busy but I finally found some time to show off Cooper's moves. He's starting to get on his knees and learning how to get to where he wants to so he can grab his toys. Sometimes he doesn't get to where he is going and gets upset. Here's a little movie I put together from photos I took when he got up on his knees, he ended up scooting back and a little to his side. Exporting this video to an .AVI file distorted the images, but it's a start...still looking for the best way to make a video that will post here well.

On Friday, he skyped with his grandparents in Michigan. I don't think he really got the idea of how grandmama and grandpa were in the computer but they were able to see him. He liked to try to pound at the keyboard instead of looking at the screen, hey, he's only 5.5 months old. The next day he found his way to the photo of my parents. He then proceeded to roll around the floor with them, pound them on the carpet, eat their faces and wonder why they weren't talking with him. I captured some photos of him playing with their photo and here are some of them.

Playing with my ball isn't fun right now.

Oh, I know, I have grandmama and grandpa around here somewhere....

Ah, I found them!

Look who I found mom!

Let's go for a roll guy...

Wasn't that fun?

I love you Grandpa Dave and Grandmama.

Mom, they aren't talking, what do I do?

No time like the present

2011-02-25T13:08:00.001-06:00

Tuesday afternoon we moved the fall cows and calves closer to home. They had ate all the corn stalks where they had been and needed to be moved. They are on some dryland corn stalks we own and were really happy to take the couple mile walk home. There is a self waterer at the place which was working when we moved them. Ted went to check on the water Wednesday morning, and it was still working, but come Wednesday afternoon it was bone dry!

We've had water pipes freeze there in the past, but the weather had been nice. There is a hydrant there and only a trickle of water came out of it, so the next step was for Ted to go into the basement of the old homestead house and check on the pipes and water pressure tank. He dreads going down there and I would too, one look through the hole in the floor to climb down the vertical stairs will send chills down your back.

There's a broke out window on the porch you can see into the basement and he took a look in there, came and got me and asked me if what I saw was what he thought. Before looking into the window, I was thinking there was some sort of animal in there, dead or alive. I peered in and then I said, "Looks like the basement is flooded, is that what you saw?" "Yup. probably about 3 to 4 feet of water down there", he replied.

Well, no time like the present. Since we bought the property which is a combination of farm ground and pasture with a small portion having some buildings on it, we've wanted to tear down the old house that animals have been living in. The only thing that was stopping us was that the water pressure tank that governs the water for the cattle was in the basement. To tear down the house would require relocating the tank underground, preferably near the well away from the house.

Now, it's not a matter of finding the time to do what we've wanted to do, but calling the drilling well company and after getting a quote, geting a new water pressure tank and bypassing the old house altogether. In the meantime we have to stretch garden hose across the road from Ted's grandpa's house and a portable stock tank for the cows and calves. Since it gets below freezing at night, this also including draining the hose every night.

Cooper the Reader

2011-02-19T19:14:00.001-06:00

Cooper received a cloth Mother Goose book from my parents for Christmas and I was able to get some shots of him reading it today. Although he decided to read silently, he was very interested in it.

First Tie Blanket Completed

2011-02-19T18:33:00.003-06:00

I thought I'd never get this project done because everytime I tried to work on it I would get pulled in a different direction. SO, I had Cooper help me. Yes, it's a NU fleece, but hey, it was on sale and the kid does live in Nebraksa so Ted says. I got to finish the knotting while Cooper was napping, then was able to snap a few shots.

Cooper's First Valentine

2011-02-15T20:36:00.000-06:00

Cooper got a valentine in the mail Monday and loved it. He stared at the front, tried to eat it, opened it, tried to eat it, and would never let go of it. Here are some photos from his first valentine's day.

I got mail!

Look at this card!

If only I could read...

...seriously, I might need help with this...

...is this some sort of code?

hmm....that's a lot of words for a little man...

Oh, I know what to do, just eat it ;-)

Yea, look what I got...yippie!

Got the sewing machine out yesterday

2011-02-10T10:41:00.000-06:00

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when Ted told me that the thing he was looking to bid on at an online auction had 6 hours until that bidding for that item was over. That meant we got to stay home and inside instead of out checking cows.... can't let that item slip away. So, I took advantage of the much needed time and got my sewing machine out of the closet. Cooper had decided to sleep in past 8 am so I was able to finish up the 7 bandana drool bibs I had started for him while we had been in Michigan. I also decided to see how easy another project was going to be before I cut up more squares.

Two drool bib patterns can be found on this blog. I used the first link for this project:

http://madquilter.blogspot.com/2009/06/free-bandana-bib-pattern.html

http://madquilter.blogspot.com/2009/06/bandana-drool-bib.html (this is for a slightly smaller version).

Since he got two that his Aunt Lauren made him for Christmas, I made 7 this time around...but I could have just kept going and made a ton.

3 with green alligators on one side and turtles on the other side.
2 with cows and a blue backing.
2 with horses and a blue backing.

Here are some photos of Cooper posing with his new bibs.....

Well, I couldn't just stop at there, I had more time and Cooper was being SO good... so I decided to tackle making a bag. that I'm going to make for a girlfriend. I wanted to test out the pattern before making hers because I don't always follow directions right the first time (Just ask Ted)! This is from the same blogger and the pattern can be found here:

http://madquilter.blogspot.com/2009/11/charm-square-jewel-shaped-bag-free.html

Since I already had some 4 inch squares cut up, I decided to modify the bag to be a little smaller and use those to save some cutting time. I got a little happy bidding on ebay for already cut squares and I didn't really know what I was going to do with the small squares at the time. Might as well use them as a trial run. The hardest part for me with this project was picking out which squares to use. I've posted a photo of the squares I chose after they were sewn together flat and then some of the almost finished project... I just have to do a few hand stitches, but it got to be almost 1 am when I got done and didn't feel like poking myself with a needle all night long. The bag didn't take that long to make since I didn't get started til sometime after 8 pm, or was it 9, I can't remember?

Cooper the Chef

2011-02-04T23:00:00.000-06:00

Cooper has been wanting to help more and more with things around the house. Opening the mail, carrying a bag, typing on the computer, you name it he's trying to get his hands on it. Wednesday night we decided to have enchildas and Cooper wanted to help with that too. Here are the photos of my little chef helping make the best tasting enchiladas I've had.

He wanted to try to eat the can.

Opening the sauce. He wasn't too sure about the can opener.

Dumping the sauce in the bowl.

Dumping the hamburger in the bowl.

Dumping the cheese in the bowl.

Getting the shell out. He really liked this part.

Getting ready to roll the enchilada up.

Putting the enchilada in the pan.

He got bored after rolling the third one, so he went to play with daddy and I finished them off.

Serving mommy an enchilada. He was so impressed with the final product that he kept trying to grab mine and did get some sauce on his fingers.

Arctic Air and a Tropical Cyclone

2011-02-02T15:40:00.000-06:00

Well it's been a few days since the last post and it's been busy around here due to the weather. Feb 1st we had a low of -10º with a windchill in the range of -25 to -36. Our winds from the north are sheltered and even with the shelter our instruments had -26º windchill reading, but Imperial (not to far away) had a -36º windchill reading. At the time, we were a degree colder than Imperial. We dodged most of the snow here and only picked up 1.5 inches, that the wind didn't sweep away, while Chicago received 20 inches. This storm stretched for 2000 miles and impacted 31 states with some type of winter weather product.

Here's an image of all the watch/warnings/ and advisories that were out on the 1st.

Satellite image of the Groundhog's Day Blizzard of 2011, taken at 10am EST February 2. Image credit: NASA/GSFC.

The past few days has been typical around the farm, check the water for the cows, break ice, get ice out of the stock tank, check mineral, feed bales, check for baby calves, here and 20 miles north. Needless to say it takes most of the day when you throw in help load the semi that has been delivery corn to the ethonal plant. Good news is that no babies were born, bad news is that still no more fall babies have been born. I was too busy trying to stay warm to be taking any photos.

On another note, our friends to the south in Australia are dealing with a Category 4 Tropical Cyclone (their name for our hurricane) that had sustainted winds just 5 mph short of Category 5. Tropical Cyclone Yasi is doing considerable damage to Queensland. Below are a few images of the large and powerful storm.

Enhanced Satellite Image on Feb 2, 11 am EST.

Tropical Cyclone Yasi at 03:35 UTC February 2, 2011, as seen by NASA's Aqua satellite.

Cooper's helping around the farm

2011-01-27T13:50:00.000-06:00

Cooper has been helping around the farm since he was 3 weeks old, but most of the time he's sleeping. When he's awake and tired of his car seat, he gets out and helps. Here are some photos of him learning about driving around corn fields.

Cooper helping roll out electric fence .- Nov 30, 2010

Cooper helping daddy drive around the cornstalks checking the calves. - Jan 20, 2011

Daddy wasn't going fast enough (actually he was stopped) and Copper found the gear shift. - Jan 20, 2011

Cooper helping mommy hold the break while daddy was loading bales of hay on the trailer. "Mom we need to start the truck." - Jan 26, 2011

Still just sitting around getting the bales loaded.

"Come on mom, let's get moving!"

Found the shifter again.

Cooper's Baby Dedication - updated with photos

2011-01-26T13:29:00.005-06:00

I haven't blogged in a very long time, but I'm going to try to write more often. This past Sunday we dedicated Cooper to the Lord during the morning service. It was great that some of Ted's family was able to be there too. Ted's parents, sister and her family, grandfather and aunt were there. I ran out of the house with out my camera. Ted's mom had her camera and took some photos, a few turned out blurry and I did my best to fix them.

Two babies were dedicated during the morning service and while each was up in front on the congregation with their parents, a slide show of the baby was playing for the congregation to view. I have included the photos for Cooper's dedication below. There are photos from a few days old, each monthly milestone and some other fun ones in the show.

The verses that Pastor Kevin picked for Cooper were Pslams 1. I thought that was so neat since that was the first Pslam I memorized during high school.

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish."

Cooper was dressed in a white gown that his great-great grandma June and her mother made in 1946. It was worn by all 3 of great-grandma's children, 9 grandchildren, and now the great-grandchildren are continuing this family tradition. I will post photos of the special day soon. In his gown, his blue eyes just popped out with his smiles.

Cooper was such an attentive baby, wide awake, quiet, and looking at Pastor Kevin during the dedication. That is, after he spit up when we first got up to the stage. It reminded me of the movie "Any Given Sunday" when Jamie Foxx's character, as a 3rd string QB, gets to play and everytime he gets sick before the first play, then gets the job done. Well, I don't think it was because of Cooper's nerves but that he got hungry while the first baby was being dedicated, ate too much and didn't get properly burped.

Ted, Christina and Cooper before the morning service started.

Cleaning my hand off after catching Cooper's spit-up.

Passing off Cooper to Pastor Kevin

Pastor Kevin talking to Cooper and Cooper was so attentive.

More of Pastor Kevin and Cooper

Ted getting ready to shake Pastor Kevin's hand

Cooper with his cousins Malia and Tessa at lunch.

Great-grandpa Warren holding Cooper after lunch, Cooper really got to kicking.

Cooper with Great Aunt Judy

2nd October Snowfall

2009-10-23T20:02:00.000-05:00

October 21st at 11:55 pm the rain switched over to snow and continued to snow overnight. At 6:30 am six inches of wet snow covered the ground and powerlines. Power was out and power poles south of our house about 6 miles were down. The power remained out by Friday morning and we bought a generator in case the electric company couldn't get the power back up by evening. At least we will be able to turn on an electric heater and keep the fridge and freezers cold.

Below are visible satellite images I captured showing southwest Nebraska's snowpack. The blue lines are the state lines with the county lines dashed. The +D2911 is our Davis Weather Station location. As the day progresses, the sun angle makes it appear that the snow is melting, but there is still snow on the ground.

The rain came quickly

2009-05-02T15:31:00.001-05:00

During the early morning hours of April 30th, 2009, a line of thunderstorms moved into our area and dumped out rain and small hail. It seems from talking with the neighbors we are the only ones who noticed any hail, up to the size of nickels, that almost covered the ground. With the hail came abundant rain over a short period of time. We received 1.13 inches of rain, our neighbors 1 mies East and 3 miles south received 1.4 inches, Grandpa 1 more mile south got 0.85 inches and Ted's parents 2 more miles south and 1/2 mile east only got 0.65 inches.

The photos below are from a pasture we had spring pairs at the time and Ted had to drain water across the road just to get in the gate with the tractor and feed wagon to get the cows fed. The water has gone down a few feet since these photos were taken thanks to the pumping across the road. You can see a two little bumps in one of the photos and this is the dike on the south side of a pasture pond that the water has gone over.

Radar Image from a few minutes after the 3/4 inch hail fell.

Valentine's Day Snow

2009-03-28T17:58:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to post these, but haven't had the time. These photos were taken after a light snow event on Feb. 13th.

Looks like it could have happened decades ago.

I call this one "Utterly Full"

New additions

2009-03-28T17:36:00.001-05:00

We recently brought home 3 kittens from Ted's parents house. We shall see if they like their new home. We have 2 boys and 1 girl. Meet the new additions.... Cuddles, Oreo, and Su.

Recent fall heifer

2008-10-04T15:37:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to share a couple photos of a new baby calf. It's probably a week old and this was the first time I saw it standing up. When I had checked this pasture before she was always laying down and I didn't want to disturb her. I think she so pretty we should keep her, but Ted isn't as fond of red calves. We'll see.

Snakes at the office

2008-08-31T20:52:00.000-05:00

Two bull snakes were spotted in the office parking lot tonight, slithering around our vehicles. By time I got my camera out, one of the snakes had disappeared. This larger snake pictured below made it's way from the parking lot to near a tree in the front of the office.

All Eyes on Gustav

2008-08-30T16:33:00.000-05:00

As of 5 pm, Hurricane Gustav was a strong Cat 4 hurricane located between the Island of Youth and Cuba. The path of Gustav is shown below with a place marked at Grandma June's House. The other image is the latest radar image of Gustav out of Key West.

All eyes are also on where Gustav heads after passing over Cuba as far as how New Orleans will cope with a landfall near to or west of the City.

Meet Brownie

2008-08-30T00:40:00.000-05:00

Wednesday afternoon when Ted and I were looking for a calf to doctor out in the pasture, we stumbled across another calf that we hadn't seen yet. After a long time of trying to figure out which cow had the calf, we finally decided we didn't know. There was no cow that would claim the calf... thus we concluded the little guy was a twin that was abandoned. We came back the pasture with the trailer to take my new bottle calf back to grandpa's to hang out with Blaze and 902 (he was a calf who's ma passed away). Since this new little calf has brown, curly hair, I've named him Brownie. Ted wanted to shorten that and call him UPS. "What can Brown do for you?" Today, Brownie ate his bottle out of a bottle rack, and I'm so happy. I can just make his bottle and let him eat alone instead of standing there holding the bottle until he's finished. Here are some photos of Brownie, and the other calves at grandpas.

Dealing with a flat tire away from home

2008-08-25T05:22:00.000-05:00

I had a flat tire on my car after my first mid... so that would have been Saturday morning when I went to leave work... totally flat. Thank goodness Ted bought me a 5-in-1 portable power pal for our anniversary because I was able to air up my tire... in the pouring rain. Well I exaggerated there... I waited in the office for 15 minutes for the pouring rain to let up, then aired up my tire... only to get it to 15 lbs before the rain started again. I thought that was enough to drive it to the tire shop. I fell asleep waiting for the guys to work on my tires, oh, the other back tire was half aired up too. They said the were able to repair the tires, charged me 15 bucks a tire, then I was out of there to get some sleep. I'm staying in town on mids which was a good thing that morning. Next morning leaving work (now Sunday morning) I notice that the same tire that was flat not 24 hours before is low. I drive it to a gas station and use the air compressor to fill the tire up to the recommended pressure then go to where I'm staying and crash. Not 15 hours later when returning to my car to go to my third mid shift the same tire is totally flat AGAIN! Now, I've already locked myself out of the place I'm staying and the people are sleeping. They have an air compressor in their garage, but I don't want to wake them to get to it. Once again, I get out my power pal and air up my tire. I was running out of time to get to work on time so I only aired it up to 20 lbs, good enough to drive the 2 miles to work. Needless to say, I won't be going straight to sleep this morning, but will be going back to the tire place and filing my complaint.

Cooler Temps

2008-08-18T20:16:00.000-05:00

It's been forever since my last post. Since then the 100 degree weather has been replaced with wet, cooler weather. Yesterday Goodland set a record for the coolest high temperature for the day and is currently tied for the third wettest August on record... if no more precipitation falls. Since my last post I've flown to Michigan to visit my family, and then turned around and drove to Louisiana to visit my husband's grandmother. Things have just gotten back to normal with all the traveling. For August we've had 3.01 inches of rain at our place and 16.77 for the year so far. It's too bad some of the rain came late since we have several dry land corn fields that will be used for cattle feed... they are missing the corn on the stalks.

Soon I will add a post to talk about how wheat can be damaged and what it looks like.

Blaze Stuck in Bale Feeder

2008-07-17T21:29:00.001-05:00

A couple days ago I went to feed the weaned calves to find Blaze stuck. She just keep walking around the inside of the bale feeder trying to get out, but not thinking she could. I had to get in there with her to startle her enough for her to jump through one of the openings. Silly heifer!

Vortices off Pacific Coast

2008-06-16T01:59:00.000-05:00

This is several weeks old, but I had forgotten about these images until now. While working on a shift a few of us noticed some very neat waves on the satellite data off the Pacific coast. I have posted three of the images I captured to show the progression of the vortices that formed.

1715 UTC May 24, 2008

2215 UTC May 24, 2008

0215 UTC May 25, 2008

Bull Snakes on Front Door

2008-06-08T15:58:00.000-05:00

From my husband, "These 3 bull snakes were with in 10 ft of the door to my house at the same time had to fish the big one out of the grill."

I was a happy camper when I came home and most of the yard was mowed. God answered my prayer to change my husband's heart with the over grown yard. I didn't expect his answer to include 4 bull snakes. Needless to say, my husband wasn't too happy with the snakes. The 4th one got away.

Convergence of Radars

2008-06-03T21:04:00.001-05:00

Something very interesting showed up on several radars tonight. There appears to be some sort of interference in central Kansas that is affecting the Hastings, Goodland and Dodge City radars.

Here is a zoomed in image.

Softball sized hail

2008-06-02T20:31:00.000-05:00

Wow, one storm this afternoon near Burlington, CO produced hail up the size of softballs. I'm sure glad I wasn't near that one. As the storm moved eastward and a little south, the size of hail diminished. I'm glad my car missed the hail, but I could use a nice downpour to clean the mud off my car. I haven't had time to wash it, and it would just get dirty a few hours later... so what's the use?

On the ranch, we have just 3 more spring cows that have to calve. I think one is pretty close... and the other two might still be a while. We sold some of the fall calves today...which weighed a little more than we thought. That turned out pretty good with the sorting and loading. I wasn't able to go to the sale today since I had to work.

Yesterday, while sorting the cattle that we were going to take the the sale, I found a turtle in the middle of the corral. I didn't want him/her to get stepped on by a cow, so I moved it outside of the corral. Below is a picture of this little guy. We've also been seeing lots of toads or frogs hopping around in the pastures lately with all the rain we've gotten.

This turtle is an Ornate Box Turtle. More information about this type of turtle can be found here

First Severe Weather Event At New Office

2008-05-30T17:48:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was my first operational shift at my new office and was also my first experience with severe weather. The office issued over 30 warnings last night with some reports of tornadoes, hail and flooding. For the preliminary storm reports, click here to see the map from SPC . With the Memorial Day holiday on Monday, I've had a short first week, but it's been a good one. I'm really enjoying the new location and am fitting in just fine. The commute is about 15 miles shorter each way, but with the speed limits on the roads being different, it's almost 30 minutes faster each way. No... I'm not speeding either. That's all I have for now.

Front and Moisture on Radar

2008-05-24T14:28:00.000-05:00

I know this is a few days old, but I wanted to show some cool images that I noticed the other day at work. Below is a reflectivity image and the corresponding velocity image from the Thedford, NE radar. Also plotted on the map are the surface observations. For those not used to looking at radar data, the radar is located where there is a void of data in the center of the image, this area is also referred to as the "cone of silence". The surface observations show dew points in the 50s to the east of the radar and the 40s to the west. The moisture profile can be seen on the reflectivity as the enhanced echos... the darker blues and little bit if greens. There is a sharpness seen, which corresponds to the location of a front.

Looking at the velocity data, greens are moving towards the radar and reds are moving away, sorry if you're color blind. The sharpness can be seen in the velocity pattern too. To the east of the radar the winds are from the south-southeast- also evident from the surface observations, and to the west of the radar, the winds are out of the north-northwest.

Meet Blaze Star

2008-05-23T05:57:00.000-05:00

So we have an orphan calf this year. Her mom passed away about a week and a half ago. My father-in-law has named her Blaze Star. I'm too young to know the significance of this name. Since I am the one feeding and taking care of her, she responds to Sweetie Pie. She likes to lay in the old hog shed that has a spare stock tank in it, it keep the wind and sun out... and she likes it better than the barn. She drinks her milk in the shallow pan and it's gone in less than 2 minutes after I give it to her. It's funny because she knows that I am mixing up her milk and comes over to watch. She's still a little shy, so she stays back most of the time. When I fill her pan with milk she comes running over and acts excited. It's so cute. If my hands weren't all dirty with milk, I'd take a video, but I'm probably the only one that would think it's cute.

She listens pretty well too. There was an open doorway through the garage, and she could have escaped her penned up area. I was cleaning the bottle that I mix up the milk and saw her trying to go thru the door. I told her no, and she actually listened! I'm glad she didn't escape because I didn't feel like running around the yard trying to get her back in.

One another note, we had a pretty good rainfall last night. We got 1.61 inches and a few hail stones. Apparently there was a tornado reported about 6 miles to our north, but I was trying to sleep, having to be at work at 4 am today. The visibility wasn't the best with a lot of haze, so had I wanted to go out in the rain trying to see if the tornado warning was going to verify. Also, we couldn't really start driving around since the roads were so wet and it hard even to get home with the 4 wheel drive.

Until next time,

Christina

Catching up on what's going on.

2008-05-20T18:55:00.000-05:00

I am going to try to start writing something more frequently, but we shall see how long that lasts. I had a couple photos I took of the cows using my camera phone since I didn't have the good camera with me. The quality isn't the best, but I still wanted to share them.

Usually I see the momma cow cleaning/licking the babies, but this time it was the other way around. The baby was showing the momma how much he loved her. It was so cute.

I can't remember where this picture was taken, but it was from last year. I just love the colors and wish the resolution was better. I think I was out checking the cows and just had to stop and use the camera phone. I couldn't let this one go without capturing it.

I took some photos of this year's orphan calf, but don't have the correct cord to upload the photos today. Maybe I can get this done soon. She's so cute and is fast becoming a friend. When there is no one else around, me and little T3 have conversations, which are mostly one sided... although she responds differently when I say certain things. When her mom died and we moved her to grandpa's to have her closer around to feed her, she was pretty traumatized. I tried feeding her a bottle of milk only to get kicked twice. I was ready to give up on her and let her fend for herself, but I persevered and changed my approach. Now she gets her milk, not from a bottle, but a pan. We had a talk about her mom and that she wasn't coming back... and I think this helped. People think I'm crazy, but there are horse whisperer's, why can't I be a cow whisperer?

Well, that's all the time I have for now. Have a good one and see you soon.

~Christina

La Nina into 2008

2007-11-09T16:01:00.000-06:00

The climate prediction for the winter months is out. We are in a strong La Nina pattern, which means drier and warmer for the central plains. This prediction doesn't look good for the dry land wheat that desperately needs the rain. The warmer weather sounds good after the harsh winter of 2006-2007. Warmer days for calving and drier ground for the newborns will be welcome with possibly less sick calves. Bundling up in layers upon layers of clothes to check for new calves in feet of snow is no fun, but I pray we get some rain to help the wheat grow.

To read more about the winter climate prediction visit http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.html

Photo of calf nursing

2007-11-08T19:58:00.001-06:00

This calf must have been really hungry. I've never witnessed a calving nursing while it's mother was laying down. I just had to take a picture of it.