The Red Poll Cattle In September

We've had comfortably cool, sunny weather and the pasture is growing faster than the cattle can eat it. Winston has grown so big that I need to make plans to sell him. That involves getting him into the barn and then trapping him there - but not before I have a buyer lest he refuse to ever go in there again:

 As you can see, these bovines have not been missing any meals and many are obese despite not getting any grain in about a year:

 But Rosella needs to be inseminated again and Scarlett needs to be separated from her calf so that I can tattoo the calf. Both jobs require that I get the herd to start coming into the barn again - and that means luring them with grain:

 The day before calving, Scarlett was lying down in the shade and her udder was huge:

Rosella is looking fit and ready to become pregnant for next year:

 These girls live a life of comfort and ease:

 The fly population is their only discomfort, and that will end soon - with the first killing frost:

 This is the view from the county road, what most people see as they drive by:

When Ruby was born, her mother kept her hidden most of the time (you can see her in the grass behind Scarlett):

 But little Ruby has grown bigger, stronger and bolder. Winston wants to hang out with her, but so far she hasn't been interested:

 But she sure is a beauty. Now I need to get her ears tattooed so I can register her:

Around The Farm In September

The days and nights are getting cooler. Autumn is in the air. I stopped by my neighbors' sheep farm to chat, and we were joined by two sheep, a ewe and a lamb, who have become pets and have no need to fear becoming mutton:

I only have five or six pears this year, but they look mighty good:

I walked far out into the field and then turned back and snapped this picture of the farmstead. From left to right: The hay supply, the house, the stock tank, the barn and my neighbor passing by on the gravel road with a wagonload of hay bales:

Autumn brings with it an abundance of crickets, but I haven't seen a closeup of a grasshopper in a long time. I was happy that this one held still long enough for me to get a photo:

The Rose Mallows began to bloom more so I went out to snap a picture of them:

Alas, I didn't see the hornet's nest which had been built just outside my front door (which I seldom use). I only got stung once but then began spraying it until they were all dead:

Wild Hyssop has sprung up in the pasture, just as it did last year:

I brought a sprig of Hyssop indoors for a closer look and got this photo of its tiny flowers:

And Boneset is blooming in the south field. It was once believed to heal broken bones because its leaves (on each side of the stem) were connected, kind of like a broken bone which had healed:

Pennsylvania Smartweed is also abundant in the south field and is just beginning to bloom:

 Lady's-Thumb Smartweed is much prettier than its relative, and it grows all around my back door:

 I knew it was autumn when the first New England Asters bloomed. This was all there was at the time, but more are now beginning to flower:

Lady's-Thumb Smartweed is much prettier than its relative, and it grows all around my back door:

It's A Girl!

Scarlett went one and a half days past her due date, then calved during the night. I went out early in the morning, while the grass was wet with dew and the rosy light of dawn made photography difficult, and found Scarlett and her brand new baby girl:

 Winston and Rosella, his mom, came over to see what the excitement was about:

 And then all of them began to move to a sunnier spot:

 Also, Scarlett was uncomfortable with me getting so close to her new baby:

On the second day, I found them on the other side of the field. The baby was already running and jumping:

 And again on the second day, Scarlett took her baby and walked away from me. I named the little heifer Ruby:

 Scarlett has a couple of extra big teats, but her calves grow so quickly that they soon are able to drink from all four teats:

 Scarlett is my only cow who hides her babies in the manner of deer, and I've spent many hours trying to find her babies because she's hidden them in the grass. But on the next day, a neighbor called to tell me that the baby was with the herd. When I got out there, I found them next to the horses' corral:

 I walked around to get closer and found little Ruby already tasting grass and learning about electric fence. Blue stood inside his corral and watched the activity (Remy ignored us all):

 With her baby three days old, Scarlett decided I was OK to get close, so I moved in to take more pictures:

 Little Ruby followed all the cows, not just her mother, and kept her eye on me:

 And then she walked behind a tall thistle plant. I snapped one last photo and then went back inside the house:

The Red Polls In Summer

Little Winston is looking great, and I've had more people stopping in to ask about buying him. Even after I say he can't be a herd sire because he'll be sterile, they still seem to want him - but it will have to wait now until he's five or six months old so I can get him into the barn and away from his mom:

Scarlett is due to calve soon and makes frequent trips in for mineral supplements and water:

And sometimes the whole herd lounges near the compost/manure pile:

They are a happy, healthy bunch except perhaps for the obesity of some of them and the pesky flies in the summertime:

But life is good, and the scenery is beautiful:

Scarlett and Rosella, mother and daughter, one pregnant and one making milk for her calf, need lots of water and often come to the stock tank together:

Winston often runs to greet me when I'm in the field, coming surprisingly close and regarding me with fascination:

They drink lots of water in this hot weather:

I began letting the stock tank overflow in order to clean out the algae and keep the water fresh. It worked well except that I developed a big patch of gooey mud. I had to stop the practice, or at least do it less often:

The cattle have created many dust baths around the pasture, this one right next to the horses' corral. This a place where they kick the sandy soil up onto their bellies in an attempt to chase away the biting flies:

Rosella on her way to the stock tank to refill her milk making supply of water yet again:

Winston wanted to sleep but the cows wanted to move on:

What's Happening Around The Farm

The little bantam hens are only laying three or four eggs a day, but even that is more than I can eat. I've begun bringing eggs in for a friend at church each Sunday, which so far seems to be a perfect solution:

I still don't let the chickens outdoors, though I hope I can do so in the fall. Though our fox population seems down, I now have seedlings and new plants all over - and I remember when I first got the chickens and the little hens raided my garden, first eating all the tomatoes, then eating all the plants:

The two baby fantail pigeons are amazingly healthy and smart. They jump down from their nest to join the flock and explore, then jump back up and peep for their parents to come feed them:

Their nest is on a ledge, just above the food barrel and someone else's nest on the floor. The babies frequently jump down and get friendly with the bird on the floor nest. I expected a defensive reaction from the adult, but so far everything has been friendly. The babies hang out with the nesting pair on the floor, then socialize with the flock, then hop back up on their ledge and call to be fed:

When I first moved here, there was a woven wire fence stretching halfway across the middle of the south field. It was dilapidated and of no good use, so I began removing a couple of sections each summer. This year there were only two left, but I hadn't had the energy to dismantle them. Then one day I was cleaning out the barn and saw there were only two sections of fence, so I drove the tractor over there:


Instead of the slow and careful dismantling I did previously, this time I used the tractor bucket to pull the fence and posts up out of the ground:

I got them all firmly held in place on the bucket and drove them out the gate and around by my work area:


I carefully removed the fence from the posts, then folded up the wire into two sections, put them in empty feed bags and dropped them in the trash bins. Now that awful, useless and potentially hazardous section of fence is gone forever:

The little garden I made where I'd removed most a giant stump was looking hopeless, but it improved a lot as the Yarrow and Chives began to grow. There appears to be some Globe Thistle coming along, and the Heliopsis, Delphinium and Veronica I bought at end-of-season sales are helping make my little garden look like it might work:

The stretch of Sunflowers is growing so fast that any photo I take is obsolete in a couple of days. Many of the plants along the fence are already over four feet tall. There are much smaller seedlings in the front of the strip, but they get the most sun and are therefore still likely to do well as the summer progresses:

And then one day, the first Daylily bloomed. I couldn't remember the variety name, so I looked up my last year's order. It is called "Chicago Arnie's Choice" and it appears as if there will be a lot of them. By the way, I've been calling them Day Lilies (two words), but it appears as if the correct name is Daylily (one word). I will try to remember to use the right word in the future:

What is this mess, you may ask. It's the northeast corner of the barn, where the traffic cones I used to use when the cattle crossed the road are nestled in giant Burdock and Ragweed. It's a good thing I don't have allergies: