Visiting the Calves

I came home yesterday from a weekend trip out to Rapid.  I got home and did a few things inside before Logan asked if I wanted to go outside and see the calves.  Of course I wanted to see them! (I think Logan thought I missed them all weekend so he was going to take me out there and see them!

We walked out there, and of course, the calves were still as cute as always.  Most of the calves were running around and wanting to play.  One calf ran up behind me and pounced on the ground wanting me to play with him....sorry, but I don't think it would have been a good idea to play with him!!

Here are a few pictures from the calf visit-

And to end the night there was this beautiful South Dakota sunset-- we are so blessed on the farm!!

Farm Girl Tip #86: Always go out and see the calves--They like to get visitors!  Who knows, you may even get an awesome sunset too!

The Titan Tour

Logan and I had to go to Aberdeen yesterday to get Logan some new mud boots.  On our way home, we were coming up on Titan Machinery when Logan said, OH! I haven't been here for a while, lets stop! So we pull in to look at EVERYTHING that only farmers would want to look at for ever.  Well we pulled up to this huge corn planter that Logan thought was awesome! It was pretty impressive because it was massive, but we had to sit and look at a corn planter for 5 minutes.  You can only imagine how exciting that was!

Here is the awesome rig...

Farm Girl Tip #85: Whenever you go to town be prepared to take a tour of Titan and look at awesome corn planters forever!

Farm Girl Selfies

My Uncle e-mailed me a few weeks back and sent me a link all about farmer selfies.  (If you don't know what a selfie is, it is a picture of yourself with something or just a picture of you taken by yourself.)  He mentioned something in the e-mail about how this was pretty out there and quite crazy.  I e-mailed him back with a WHOOPS!! (Since I have taken many farm girl selfies.)  I didn't realize this until I started going through some old farm girl pictures...

Farm Girl Tip #84: It is always important to take selfies of yourself before you go out and help so at least you get one picture from the event! I seem to get in trouble if I take pictures while working so I guess I will just continue to take farm girl selfies!

I Live In A Castle!

Well Spring is here, or so we hope, and the snow around here is sure melting making a muddy mess!  To get inside the house, there is a massive puddle that you have to (or had to) walk through to get in the door.  NOT ANYMORE!  Here is what you do when you live on a farm so you don't have to walk through puddles...

Use a PALLET!  I feel like I live in a castle! You must use the bridge to cross the moat to get inside!

Farm Girl Tip # 83:  If you ever want to feel like you live in a castle, just put a pallet outside your front door.  You must walk on the bridge to go across the moat to get inside the house!  You are now a Queen!

Go Check

Logan and his Dad had to leave the farm yesterday for a few hours, but before they left, Logan came in and asked a favor of me.  He asked if I could go check the cows in 45 minutes or so because there was one calving.  Sure!  45 minutes passes, and it is my turn to go check for new babies.  I put on my mud boots and go outside.  After checking in on everything, the one that was calving had still not had her calf, so my duties were done.

Of course, I couldn't go out to check and not take a few pictures!

Polka Dot mud boots....CHECK!

Here some mothers or mothers to be--I'm not really sure! :)

Farm Girl Tip #82:  If the men leave, you must check for babies.  Don't be afraid to walk out through all of these cows--they are nice! :)

Emergency Baby

A few nights ago Logan and I were getting ready to go into town for supper.  Logan went out to check the cows one last time before we left.  I backed the pickup up to the gate and waited until Logan came.  Well I waited, and waited, and waited, when one of the hired men showed up and walked out to the barn.  I sat there kind of confused, so I got out of the pickup and I see Logan running from the barn.  I ask him what is going on, and he says to start the other pickup- we have to go to Groton.  Well, when you live on a farm and hear the words...We have to go to Groton...you know we are headed to the vet. 

Sure enough, we loaded the cow up and headed to Groton.  When we got there, the vet wasn't there yet so we had to wait....

Once the vet showed up, we pulled inside, unloaded the cow and everything was peachy.  I, however, had to stand outside of the operating room, otherwise I would have fainted! haha!  Here was my view--

Farm Girl Tip #81:  If you want to ride along to go to the vet for an emergency, just make sure you stand outside of the room so you don't faint!

Fun With The Calves

If you read my last post, you saw that it was too cold outside for me to help out, so I would just sit inside and watch off of my phone....well that sure backfired!!  

Logan and I were driving home this afternoon and Logan was talking to his Dad on the phone through his pickup so I could hear what they were saying.  They decided to haul a few pairs up to the other farm to make room at this farm.  Logan told his Dad that Megan would help and that we would be up to drop everything off in a bit.  He hung up the phone and looked at me and said, you don't mind helping out do you? Um no, I guess not!

We get home, I go inside and bundle up.  (How cute right?!)

Then I go outside to Logan waiting for me to help him.  First, I have to back up the trailer a bit to the gate to load the pairs up.  Then we walk down the alley to all of the calves laying against the barn door.

How cute are they?!!

We had to get all of these little tykes to stand up so we could walk them down to the trailer and load them up.  It took a while but here they are all walking!

Then I had to help Logan go get their Moms and load them up into the trailer with them. While we were loading the mamas up, Kevin, the hired man, showed up to feed his bottle calf.  Well sure enough, I got pawned into feeding the calf while those two moved a few other pairs to different barns.  

This bottle calf loved me!  He was happy I was feeding him, but he also wanted to play with me!

So all in all, I had quite the eventful afternoon hanging out with all of the calves, but I guess I shouldn't complain about it being too cold outside because it will come back to get me in the end!!

Farm Girl Tip # 80: Even if it is freezing outside, DON'T SAY IT'S TOO COLD! You will get suckered into going outside to help out! (Although it's not a bad thing...it's actually kind of fun!)

Too Cold For Me

Well it's been a busy past couple weeks on the ranch.  Babies are EVERYWHERE! Since it has been so cold outside, I have not been willing to go outside to help or look at the newborns as much as I should.  Instead, I watch the cameras on my phone and see what is going on.  This morning I tuned in and watched a little calf follow its Mom around the barn.  It is fun to watch the calves first hand, but until it warms up, I will watch from my phone!

Farm Girl Tip # 79: When it's too cold to see the calves outside, just watch on your phone.  It is much warmer!