Well, it is the second, but March has decided to act like February here, so I will use that as my excuse for being slow.

Stan got the motor up in the silo all by himself ("I do it myself!") without doing himself any damage. He is resourceful.

We came from here: The thread "February, month of the Hunger Moon" in Farming forum

Lovely photo of the cardinal.

The SU went to help Carissa milk last night. I got done at Equity about 3:30, but needed to go to town for some things that i didn't get on Thursday when we wandered through. I got home about 5:15. He got back about 6:30. This has just reinforced that I am SO glad I do not have to do this on a daily basis with no end in sight. And I don't even have to do any chores. LOL

We're getting our bags packed slowly but surely. I think I have about everything; just waiting on the skort I ordered Wednesday. I love skorts, you can look classy and not have to worry when you bend over. I'm getting rather excited about the whole thing by now.

Kathleen, I hope you have recovered from your impressive fall.

Anna, I'm excited for you too. You realize that we expect detailed reports and pictures, of course.

Some good and some bad here: last week we lost a cow to a leg injury and a sow to a prolapse, BUT it is definitely looking like spring here, so it's easy to be optimistic. Sunny, 50s, and very windy today.

Sorry to hear that you lost a couple of your animals Porkpal.

Porkpal, I'm sorry to hear of the losses. We do expect a certain amount of those things on a farm, but not the same week. Was the prolapse due to pregnancy? Is it genetic in pigs like it is in sheep?

I'm still doing the 1am lamb check. More often than not, there is nothing for me to bring to the barn, but the rest of the lambing crew sleeps better when they know somebody is checking, and that I carry a cell phone with me to call one of them if there is something I can't handle alone. Right now the biggest problem in mud in the corral. I walked the pasture last night rather than risk getting the lambmobile stuck in the mess, as I almost did the night before. Calving has started now too. Two calves so far, one born in a snowstorm on the nastiest day we have had in 2 or 3 weeks.

The sow had prolapsed before - neither time was she pregnant, but she may have had an abdominal tumor, and, yes, it can be genetic in pigs too.

Mary how many ewes do they breed? Also are you responsible for calf watch too? Our heifers are done calving, the cows should start mid-month.

Porkpal, I'm guessing that the prolapsed sow is history now?

My neighbor's flock is about 100 ewes. When I started working for him it was closer to 200. Last night a set of quads was born, all healthy. The ewe had one lamb out in the pasture and was brought into the barn where the other 3 were born. She will get to raise 2 of them. One of the others has already been given to another ewe who only had a single lamb, they are in one of the stanchion pens for the next few days. Hopefully it will work out. If the ewe is calm and doesn't dance every time the lambs try to nurse, it usually works.

I do watch the cows, but am not responsible for anything there unless I am specifically asked. I can see about half the pasture they are in from my kitchen, and can walk up the road to see the rest of the pasture if I think something is happening behind the hill. The calf count is up to 3 now, with the latest born last night. The mother is very protective, so the owner says he is not risking life and limb to give the calf an eartag. I'm not sure how many cows he has now, somewhere around 35 I think, which includes about 6 first calf heifers. I usually help with branding, shots and things like that, and often with moving the herd a few miles to different pastures.

Snowing here...............can't say I like it much. LOL Only 3 more milkings and we are off to halfway around the world.

The sow is gone and I'm glad that we never kept any of her offspring.

Anna, I'm guessing that you don't want to hear about all my roses that are already in bloom...

No, I do not. LOL

We are having a nice, normal March - a relief after last year's crazy summer in March. It warms up, (58F yesterday), it melts the snow a bit more, it cools off (lows in the teens predicted for Wednesday), we get a little more snow, it warms back up. Right now there are spots of grass showing in the yard and the snow drops and little firefly crocus are blooming away. the bird feeder that got stuck in the snow after the big wind knocked it down has tipped over again. No knowing how it's going to get fixed or where until Stan gets a little time to think about it. Robins have been seen in the area, but I haven't seen one here yet. The black birds are singing spring and the crazy cardinal and her consort are courting. He feeds her sunflower seeds that he's taken the hull off and she makes him nuts when she peeps at me through the window. They both sing a good deal.

We have seen elephants, giraffes, wildebeest, impala, gazelles, hartebeest, water buck, cape buffalo, lions, zebra, hyenas, jackels, and today we saw 4 rhinos. They were about 30 feet from our vehicle. It has been so fun.

Wow! (And you didn't have to milk any of them). That must be really exciting; I am very envious!

If anyone else gets the Daves Garden newsletter, you might find the article on AG week amusing - if not exactly informative.

Yesterday was a cold, windy day with some snoflakes sailing sideways. A great day for calves to be born! Three safe deliveries, unassisted, and the 4th one was a problem. The cow was lethargic at daylight. These are cows that are not handled often, and like to have a bit of distance between themselves and us. This one didn't even try to walk away. She had a dirty string of mucous or something, indicating that she probably had been in labor, but she wasn't showing any signs of having contractions. Better get her into the chute. Easier said than done. We went round and round over about 20 acres, back and forth, and finally got her where we wanted her.

The calf's front feet were in the right place. Where was the head? Oh, turned back and sort of upside down. We already had chains on the front feet but needed to push the calf back to make more space while the cow was finally having some contractions. Long chains are a good thing, as are those heavy hook-on handles that keep the chains from disappearing inside the cow. A few minutes later the calf was pulled out, put on a bed of clean straw next to the front of the chute, and the cow was let out. She took about 10 steps forward, made a U turn and went right to her calf. The calf was trying to get up about 5 minutes later.

Mary, that's the kind you want. Stan had to pull a dead calf the other day. He says he really isn't quite up to that. Fortunately, the heifer in question is a big girl, so there weren't any of the problems that sometimes occur with first calf heifers.

I completely forgot it was Ag Day. whoopee. Stan spent the day trying to get 8 bolts off the loader tractor so he can split it and redo the transmission. He had 4 off when he came in for lunch at 2. Hmm, I think those stats are a little out of date. If any of our girls were only giving 12,300 pounds a year (roughly 1500 gallons), she'd be making up the hamburgers a little further down.

Good work, Mary!

Ag week: the math is a little sketchy too. Last I heard there were 4 quarts in a gallon...

I guess I didn't read it closely!

Today is Ag Day. Glad we got that straight...

Stan is out splitting the tractor. He wants to figure out what parts he needs so he can get them tomorrow at the annual Wigger's Day, the local New Holland Dealer. The parts are all on sale, and if they have to order, the sale extends to that, too. Personally, I just go for the pancakes and fresh syrup.

We had snow, sleet, rain, freezing rain and high winds last night. Now we're back to snow. The only good thing about this is that historically, when we have a nasty March, we have a nice spring. One can hope.