Colonel's Blog, Earthdate 18 Jan 2023:
Hey Y'all!
Good Wednesday morning from Air2Ground Farms! We awoke to a drizzly to thunder-stormy and back to drizzly morning. I would still much rather do the morning rounds in the 50 degree drizzle than the -30 degree windchill of those recent December mornings. For the most part, all of the animals are good on the farm today. The sickly ewe still isn't getting better. We had some time to do some research while on the road yesterday and we think she is at least 7 years old, if not older. Some of the leading sheep gurus say that ewes that age will cost you much more than they will make you, and at the end of the day, you are running a business...not a zoo. Hard decisions. We made the mad-dash to Birmingham and back yesterday without event. Pork delivered and Hank the Bluetick is home and has settled back in like he was never gone. We are going to refresh the milk cows' straw today and make things with milk. We already have a gallon and a half starting to ferment as clabber. We will also make some big batches of heated-milk cheese, ricotta and paneer.
An amended version of Murphy's Law It is a commonly accepted axiom in the military: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong...as soon as the military member deploys or goes on temporary duty." Just ask any military spouse! The tire will go flat, the washing machine will break, the kids will get head-lice, the terrier will not quite kill the hamster but only break its back (I still owe you for that one, Richard!), etc. Well, I believe a very similar amended version is true for farming. "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong...as soon as you leave the farm with a sitter." All was going well until early afternoon yesterday when our very observant sitter noticed one of the new moms from the beef herd was down and flailing. She was writhing and flailing, obviously in distress. Unable to get her up, she called us. We immediately called Brad, one of those amazing neighbors I described in the 'Midwest Nice' blog. Although he was busy mowing his pasture, he performed an amazing superman spin in his tractor cab, and was on our farm within seconds. Together, they were able to get the distressed mom turned and she popped up onto her feet. It took her a minute to calm down and get her energy back, but she is doing well. Sometimes cows and sheep can get turned just right (or wrong actually) on the hills and they don't have the weight in their lower extremities to get the momentum necessary to stand. That was her case. Oh, by the way, Betty the Jersey had her calf about an hour and a half before we got home! The top pic above is Betty and her heifer calf only 2 hours after birth. The bottom pic is the calf this morning. Farm birth #4 for 2023. Only gone for17 hours, but it's good to be back on the farm!
Local Farm Report for 17 Jan 2023:
Harvest:
26 Chicken eggs
2 Duck eggs
2 1/2 Gallons of milk
Sales:
N/A
Farm Additions:
1 A2-A2 Genetics Jersey Heifer Calf
Cheers! Rich & Shelley
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