And the bull got out...again!!

Todd went to B'town today to help work on the building there. Our day here was going along pretty well - we were doing a little housework and laundry - until one of the kids looked out the window and shouted...you guessed it...Samson is out!!! This time he was in the yard by the swingset. Of course, Todd was 45 minutes away. I was able to go out and open the gate, and he walked right in - whew. Luckily the other bulls were safely in a pen that so far none of the cattle have escaped from - the sheep have because the bottom wire isn't hot and they are pretty short - they like to get out and wander around the yard for a while until some of the other sheep and their lambs start bleating for them to come back. Anyway, back to Samson... I called Todd and he headed home. We walked around the fence and found the place where it was shorted out - YEAH!!! - Todd put some tighteners on the wire so Samson couldn't walk under it anymore, we went and got our lead cows and led Samson back into the pen with them - walked them right back out again while he was enjoying some treats. By the time he looked up from his beet pulp, he had been tricked again!! Hopefully he will stay put this time!!!

More fun with the cattle!

(Before you read this post, I will answer a couple of the questions you will be sure to have - I know I would have some questions if I was reading about my son, daughter, brother, sister, friend... doing this - Yes, we do know that it is very dangerous to be in the pen with fighting bulls - and yes we are very, very careful while we are working with them - and yes, we are working on getting rid of the bulls - oh, and yeah Rog - maybe we should think about that cattle prod! ) Yesterday morning, just before breakfast, someone looked out the window and shouted - Samson is out!  Samson is a bull (the top picture) that has been staying with us for a few months.  He had been in a pen about 1/8 mile away from the rest of the herd - so he must have really wanted to get together with them.  He and our other bulls just don't really approve of each other, to say the least.  Anyway, Samson and Fred (the bottom picture) (we call him Friendly Fred because he is usually like a puppy dog - someone must have bottle fed him or something - he is very gentle - but we treat him as if he wasn't - because you never know with a bull) were going at it - round and round - banging heads trying to tear each other up...  So, we put away the eggs and sausage we were planning to cook for breakfast, pulled out the cold cereal - told the kids to eat and get ready to go to piano lessons, grabbed our sticks and buckets of grain and headed out into the pasture.  Really NOT my favorite job!

Some of the cows lead pretty well with a bucket of grain, so we got most of them - including Fred and Samson - into a pen.  Then came the job of trying to get one of them out while keeping the other in - not an easy feat with them being so interested in each other.  Finally after about 1/2 hour of going round and round the pen without much luck, I was about fed up with them.  I pointed my stick at Samson then at the pen and yelled "YOU GO"...then pointed my stick at Fred and then pointed out the gate and yelled "YOU GO" ------- and they went - just as gentle and good as could be.  Hmmmm.... I must get lots of practice with that tone of voice or something!?!

Then, this morning after Todd had gone to work, the kids were looking out the window, and again - someone yelled "Samson's out!"  and sure enough - Samson and Fred were at it again.  By now we were figuring out there was a "girl" involved.  So Todd came home from work - We got our sticks and buckets of grain - and headed back out to the pasture.  This time Fred wasn't so hard to get out.  We left a few girls in with Samson to keep him happy - they were still in there this evening.  We got Fred in a far pasture to get him fattened up for the freezer.  We are really hoping all of our bulls will be gone in the next few weeks.  

We also moved Blossom and Stormy into the pen with the rest of the Herefords.  They had been separated from the rest of the cattle since Stormy was born.  Neither one of them are very tame anymore - they have both gotten quite a bit of spunk.  We were able to get Blossom into a corral and squeeze her down so we could get ahold of her lead rope.  She didn't want to go, but we did finally get her over to the other pen.  Stormy has fully recovered from her difficult birth.  We went round and round the pen - she's fast!!!  We were finally able to get her in a corner and grab her lead rope - but then she planted her feet and absolutely refused to move!!! So we ended up carrying her across the pasture - she's no lightweight!!!  Another time that we were glad that we don't have any close neighbors to watch us! 

Memorial Day Weekend

It's been a few days since I last posted.  We had a nice Memorial Day Weekend.  Todd went to B'town to help work on the new building there on Saturday.  The kids and I stayed home and worked around the house a little bit - did some laundry, cleaning, cooking... :)  Sunday we went to meeting in the morning, then to the gospel meeting at Jean's in the afternoon.  We stayed there for a good steak supper with her family and then Leslie came home with us for the night. 

Monday we had a real nice Bible study after breakfast.  We read the first chapter of Ruth about the time that Naomi, her husband, and daughters went down to Moab to "sojourn" because life was too hard in the promised land.  Leslie told us that Moab was a type of serving the Lord in word but not with a whole heart.  

Jeremiah 18:10-11 says "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.  Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed. "

Malachi 1:17 says this about those that do the work of the LORD deceitfully: "But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the LORD a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen."

So Moab is a type of a person who knows about the Lord and may even make vows to Him, but when it comes to really living the life God wants us to live they aren't willing.  Jesus said "if your right hand offends you, cut it off" but Moab "kept back his sword from blood".  When they made wine, they would let the dregs settle to the bottom and then "empty it from vessel to vessel".  When we let God lead us through experiences that cause us to leave behind the dregs of our own wills, we become sweeter and sweeter to him. How sad to get to the end of life and just have our selfish human nature instead of the Spirit of Christ - "his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed"

When Naomi and her family left the promised land they thought they were lacking and in the middle of a famine, but looking back on that time Naomi could see that she had "gone out full".  It would save us from so many poor decisions if we could just understand our current situation from the perspective of eternity.  Through of all of Naomi's experiences, she kept her relationship with God alive so that when she returned to the promised land, Ruth wanted to go with her and said "your God shall be my God".  

After breakfast, we headed back to B'town for more work on the building - only we found out after we got there that the work had been cancelled for the day because of rain.  Todd had his phone turned off and hadn't gotten the message.  We ended up staying for the day - I had a nice time with Talisha, the kids, ours and theirs, played outside in the rain most of the day, and a few others showed up to work after all.  Brad came home with us for the night on his way back up north, so that was another really nice surprise.

Laura & Abigail Playing at the piano recital 2009

Abigail playing Witches Brew

Abigail playing Night Train

Laura playing Solfeggietto

Laura Playing Harmony of Angels

Pictures of Jemimah, Ribeye, and Stormy

Here are some pictures of Ribeye and his mom, Jemimah. You can tell how small he is by comparing him to the fence posts.  They are about waist high.

The last 

picture is a more current picture of Stormy - she is really doing 

well.

2009 Recital

These are the videos of Emily and Charlotte at their Piano recital in April.  I will add Abigail's and Laura's after I figure out how to split up the file to make it smaller.

Emily playing Raspberry Popsicles and A Tisket a Tasket

Emily playing The Trumpet Song with Laura accompanying her

Charlotte playing Hoe Down and Cool Walking Bass

Happy Anniversary R & T

Happy 15th Anniversary Roger & Traci!!

Todd took the afternoon off of work today to be with the kids while I took Garrett in for his 6 month check up.  I don't know where the last 6 months have gone!  

Only read this next paragraph if you have a strong stomach!  Disgusting content follows!  Just before I left, Heidi came across the living room with a thermometer in her mouth.  She had picked it up from behind the faucet where Todd had laid it after we took the calf, Stormy's, temperature after she was born.  Imagine where you take a calf's temperature...and then imagine the look on Heidi's face when I told her where the thermometer had last been!  I really wish I had taken a picture of it.   She spit and sputtered for quite a while and then grabbed Laura's toothbrush to brush her teeth - which Laura promptly threw in the garbage.  Don't say I didn't warn you... :)

Todd got some pictures of Ribeye today, so I will get some posted.

Last evening we tried to separate the cows from the bulls that we had put together in the pen in the morning.  We took a salt/mineral lick into the pen thinking we could get the bulls occupied with it while we worked on getting the cows out.  We found out that they had really been missing having the salt lick while they were in the far pasture.  They went after it like it was candy.  There was no getting any of them away from it!  While they were busy, Todd was able to get a lead on one of the cows that hasn't been tamed.  He grabbed the lead and took a ride across the pasture (you would have thought he would have learned his lesson when the heifer yanked his shoulder out of the socket  last year - but he at least had a hold with both hands this time and was holding a rope he could let go of and not just a halter) Anyway, I wished I had had the video camera.  The cow jumped clear across and round and round the paddock with Todd doing a funny little dance behind her.  He finally decided to just leave her in there.  We got the gentle Herefords out, but ended up leaving the rest in there for another time.

We were able to get Jemimah into the corral hoping to get a better look at little Rib-eye.  Unfortunately she had parked him somewhere again and he didn't come up to join her.  We let her out just before sundown and she ran off to find him.  It was a bit of a rerun from Monday night - he hadn't stayed put - so she frantically ran around bellowing for him until she finally found him.

Today the kids had piano lessons, so I did my weekly shopping while they were there.  Then on our way to Bible Study we went by our current favorite store - Rural King - for some more fencing parts and goodies for the animals.  Had a nice meeting and visit afterwards.

Another day at the farm

This morning we moved the cattle into a temporary fenced area.  It is getting easier to get them moved.  Either they are getting more used to us, or we are figuring out what we are doing.  Or just maybe it is the new grain mixed with molasses that makes them follow us around.  The farmer who rents the tilled ground from us will be starting to work in the field pretty soon since it looks like it has stopped raining so much, so we needed to get the cattle out of that pasture before he brought his tractors in.  

We had another cow calve the other day - a very cute, very small bull calf.  He looks like he will be a true miniature.  I will try to get a picture up of him soon.  His mom is pretty skittish, so it is hard to get them to stand still long enough to get a picture.  Yesterday, she came across the stream crossing, but left him in the pasture over there.  I closed the gate across the crossing, not knowing she didn't have him along.  Close to sundown, she started frantically looking for her baby.  We went across and looked for him with no success.  We finally let her across again and she called and called for him.  This morning, after we got the rest of the cattle in the pen, we opened the stream crossing again and she came back with him in tow.  We were sure glad to see him! Next we are going to try to see if we can get her in the pen with Blossom, Stormy and the sheep.  We need to decide if we are going to make him into a steer, or if he should be left as a bull since he is so small.  His name is "Rib-eye".

Another Lincoln Moment

Lincoln just came in with a pile of his clean, folded shirts.  I asked him where he was going with those shirts (having clean, folded laundry around here is an accomplishment!).  He just looked at me.  I asked him again, then again.  His response...   I am going to put them away.  I never did find out exactly what he had planned to do with them?!?

Stormy update

Stormy has come a long way in 5 days! She is now walking, running & jumping a little bit.  She is nursing all on her own.  You would never know that she had had so many problems when she was born if you looked at her now.  It is amazing to think of how far she has come.

Lincoln's 3rd Birthday

Since we didn't have time to eat birthday cake last night, we started the day with birthday cake for breakfast!!  We figured it had flour, milk, eggs... all breakfast foods.  The kids did a great job on it - it was delicious.

Dad and Mom Fox came this morning to celebrate my 40th birthday and Lincoln's 3rd birthday.  It is hard to believe he is already 3 years old.  He wasn't sure he was ready to turn 3 this morning. He kept telling us that no he wasn't three yet, he was going to be three.  By the time present opening time came, he had decided that his birthday was alright after all.  His favorite present was a big red ball.  He has also been having fun with his new flashlight, batting tee, train to go with our Geo-Trax set, and tool box complete with real tools that his daddy put together for him.  One of these days we will go to the store and let him pick out something to buy with some birthday money he got.

We really enjoyed the day with Dad and Mom.  After lunch we had a DQ cake and also some brownies that Laura made and that we decorated with a farm theme.  The tractor was a bit big for the cake, but Lincoln liked it, so that is all that mattered. :)

We spent the afternoon outside, then went to Rural King with Dad and Mom on their way back home.  We picked out a really nice Red Maple tree for our front yard.  The kids wanted to get me something, so we put their money and some money from both Todd's and my parents together to buy it.  It makes it a very special tree that we can have around for years.  Todd likes to tell me that it was an appropriate present because 40 isn't old for a tree ----  I just remind him that his turn is coming in January!

My 40th

Today's post actually starts from last night.  We were in bed and just drifting off to sleep when I heard a huge commotion.  Of course my first thought was that there were coyotes in the sheep pen.  I woke Todd up and he jumped into his jeans, grabbed his gun, threw open the door and... the dog was still sleeping on the porch and it was completely quiet outside.  I went over to the computer to check to see what the weather was supposed to do, and there on the screen were about 5 horn blowing, confetti throwing, cheering party emoticons that my dear sister had sent me on yahoo chat at midnight their time to welcome in my 40th birthday.  (Thanks Dawn! :) )I found out that my 40 year old heart could still beat pretty fast!

We spent the morning taking care of animals, working on laundry and talking on the phone.

The girls wanted to make a birthday cake for me, so in the afternoon we made a German Chocolate cake (from scratch of course - they don't like to bake from cake mixes - it isn't real cooking...)  

We spent the evening in Mattoon doing some shopping, ended up getting home too late for birthday cake, and then took care of the animals in the middle of another big storm.   

Kid quotes

I was going through some of my e-mails and chats and found these:

Lincoln and Heidi are having a hard time going to sleep because of their naps today - and they are back in their beds - and I hear Heidi say "Lincoln" and Lincoln wails "I'm not Lincoln, I'm Don" and she repeats "Lincoln" and he repeats "I'm not Lincoln, I'm Don" - just wailing away - it goes on over and over again - finally Todd goes and sorts it out leaves the room and it starts again - so he calls out "Lincoln"...and Lincoln just bursts into tears - "I'M DON"  so Todd says - "Don - be quiet and go to sleep" it is now all quiet...   Kids - gotta lov em.

Lincoln is now going around saying "ain't ain't a word" - apparently he was listening in on grammar.

The other day I asked Heidi to go take her bath.  She looked at me and said "I can't wait until I am in Heaven".  I said, "what?"  She said "I want to be with God".  I said "That is very nice, but why are you saying that now?"  She said ... "Then I won't have to obey you".

Laura just reminded me of another one.  We were outside the other day, and one of our neighbors was doing some target practice.  Lincoln listened for a while then asked, "Is someone pounding posts?"  I said, "No, someone is shooting a gun."  He looked at me for a long time and then asked "Are you a little bit dead? - Did they shoot you?"

Lincoln's cute saying of the day

This afternoon we were trying to get out the door to run some errands.  Charlotte came in to inform me that Lincoln was dipping his head in the puddles left from last nights storm.  I called him into the house and he came in with his hair soaking wet - somehow he hadn't gotten wet anywhere else, so he must have been standing on his head.

Tamara - "Lincoln, don't put your head in the puddles, the water is filthy"

Lincoln - "I'm taking a bath - am I dirty?"  

The expression on his face was priceless.  He must have really thought he was washing his hair!

Our day today and more about Stormy

We had a busy day today.  Luckily we buckled down and finished the school year up on Monday so we didn't have to worry about that.  We started out by taking the calf out to the pasture to be with her mom.  We were surprised that the mom, Blossom, recognized her.  It was sweet to see Blossom come over to the calf, Stormy, and start licking her and making the low, quiet moo sound that cows use when they are talking to their babies.  Blossom still isn't walking very well.  She must have had some of her nerves injured when Stormy was born.  She lurches and sways her way across the pasture.  Stormy is still pretty weak, but she has started sucking pretty vorociously on her bottle now.  She is able to stand on her back legs now, but her front legs still give out on her.  She can move across the pasture a little bit, but on her "knees" not her hooves.  We were hoping to get her to start nursing, but between her falling over and Blossom lurching, it didn't go very well.  Todd puts her across his knee and holds her on with one hand while giving her the bottle with the other.  

Later in the morning, the girls had piano lessons.  The rest of us went to the feed store to get  feed corn and some calf feed, went to the vet to pick up some colostrum in case we have another calf needing it, went to Wal-mart and then home for a quick lunch - fed the calf again and then headed out to Arthur for milk and eggs.  When we got home, it was time to feed the calf again!  I am thinking our life just got a little busier for a while!  

Then the kids went in with the sheep for a while, looked into the bluebird house and discovered that the eggs had hatched, and climbed the trees that they have found nests in to check to see if any more eggs had hatched.  They couldn't believe it when I called them in for their baths.  It is nice that it stays light so late now, but it makes it hard to go to bed.  

The birth of Stormy

This story begins back in August of 2008.  We woke up one Saturday morning to find that our heifer, Blossom, had gotten out of our pasture and was visiting our neighbors cattle.  We spent the rest of the day trying to catch her and bring her back home.

Several months later, we borrowed a miniature Hereford bull for Blossom and one of our other small Hereford cow, Rosie.  After a few weeks we had the vet out to see if Blossom and Rosie were going to be giving us some new calves, and we were surprised to find out that Blossom was already several months pregnant.  Apparently she had been visiting the big Black Angus bull in the pasture next door when she got out in August.  At least we could come pretty close to guessing her due date.

When her due date got close, we penned her up in the pasture close to the house.  About a week before her due date, in the middle of the night (2:15 a.m.) Todd sat up in bed and said he had heard the heifer making a funny noise.  We got up and went out, and sure enough she was in labor.  After a little bit, we could see the hooves, then the nose, then nothing progressed.  We finally called the vet at about 4:15.  He came out and put chains on the calf's legs and got her pulled out.  The calf had been in the birth canal and without oxygen for quite a while.  Her tongue was hanging out, eyes rolled back, and she couldn't get to her feet.  It had been storming all night, so when she was born she was laying out in the rain and was freezing cold.   

After the vet left, we brought her into the basement.  We put 2 space heaters near her and put some heating pads on her.  We still couldn't get her warm, so we carried her to the shower.  She was probably the only calf in the county to get a warm shower that morning. :)  Our neighbor, Curt, came over and fed her through a stomach tube and gave her a couple of vitamin shots to help her out.  We stayed with her all day, making sure she was warm and trying to get her to drink out of a bottle.

The beginning of "Critters on the Porch"

This blog was started the day after we were out in the pasture most of the night with a heifer who was trying to deliver a calf that was much too big for her. Several times since our family has moved to the country we have looked at each other and said "we need to put this in our book". We jokingly call the book Critters on the Porch. I decided to start this blog to write down the stories that belong in our book. We have a family of 7 children. We currently have a flock of 14 Shetland sheep, a herd of 13 cattle (mostly miniatures), a couple of guineas, 2 roosters, 2 dogs, and too many "barn" cats to count.

I am hoping to use this as a journal, so most of the posts will probably just be "daily happenings".