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Winter Wonderland….
….but for some reason, I wasn’t singing. Right now 21 inches….but from radar I would say we’re going to wind up closer to 3 feet. This first run with the plow was to try to make the final job easier….and also clear a path to the pigs. Just a few miles to the north, Brooke Henley and her husband,Tom, ventured out into their pasture to see how their cows were doing. Better than Brooke and Tom I would say. We are somewhat concerned about our 20 new calves…all two weeks old or less…but in the past we’ve found the mothers do a good job of protecting them. And we do have…
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Wouldn’t you know….
….no sooner did we finish getting hay out ahead of the storm….than someone comes up with a better idea! https://www.facebook.com/Agri101/videos/1078013235577242/?pnref=story ….thanks to Lois Aylestock of Blue Ridge Meats in Front Royal, Virginia.
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Buddy is in the house!
Thanks to son Church Matthews on several levels. To explain: “Buddy” is this two-week old calf, a twin rejected by his mother that we brought into the garage and bottle-fed. In addition to being orphaned, he also had a serious infection that had crippled him and left him mostly blind. That required we “break protocol” and use antibiotics. Several days ago, we put him outside in a protected pen and permitted some of our nursing cows to visit….hoping for an “adoption”. It didn’t happen. And now, with up to three-feet of snow in our forecast this weekend, we decided we needed him where we could be sure we could get…
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Another totally unnecessary….
….”enhancement” of bacon. It’s called a Swineapple roast. Pork ribs ringed by pineapple and then a crust of bacon. This suggestion is from our son, Church Matthews, website. (He’s been away from the farm too long!)
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Gilding the lily….
….for some reason, people keep coming up with new ways of preparing bacon. Why that is necessary, I don’t know. Guess it’s because they don’t have access to Thistle Hill bacon. So for you folks…. http://www.aol.com/article/2016/01/08/oven-baked-candied-whiskey-bacon/21294253/?ncid=facebookfanpageusaolc00000007 Thanks to Church Matthews for the link.
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Rescue mission….
….grandson Church and a friend from college, Rachel Dyl, have suddenly found themselves spending their vacation nursing a newborn calf. The calf was a twin….his smaller sister is doing fine. But big brother never got up to nurse and mother has abandoned him. We have him up and standing…and even taking a few steps…but he still hasn’t decided whether this whole “living thing” is worth the effort. We won’t give up until he does.
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Thistle Hill Alumni Club….
….nothing like starting off the new year with a brand new calf and that’s what Bill and Cindy Keitner did at their farm in Summit Point, West Virginia. Mom is a very pretty bred cow we sold the Keitners earlier this year. We prefer starting out newcomers to the cattle business with experienced cows. That makes the first calving trouble-free and happy. The sire was one of our English bulls. The nosy bystander is another bred cow of ours’….and from one of our very best lines. She is due any day.