Nothing But Rain

We’re still in the midst of rain.  That’s good for pasture and cropland and lakes and ponds and such, but we’re actually seeing some places flood with it coming all at once.  Luckily, I’m not in one of those places.  The only flooding here is the barnyard.

All that rain makes it hard to take the camera outside and find wonderful pictures for the blog.

So I’m thinking back to last Saturday when we had a pretty nice day!  The skies were blue with puffy white clouds.  The maple tree was enjoying the sunshine.

Instead of being closed tightly with lack of sunshine and pouring cold rain, the crocus were blooming.

The bovine are not getting hay now, so they are out wandering around the edges of the field and in the waterways and the old homestead yard to eat the grass.

Maxine and MJ

If I had known we were going to have no days without rain, I’d have made sure to get more of the fence in there last weekend.  The rain is supposed to end tonight which will give us a break to let all this water soak in, and then there are more chances for rain the beginning of the week.  I’d better take lots of pictures this weekend.

Linking to Thursday Favorite Things, Thursday’s Inspiration, Friday’s Fences, Skywatch Friday, Farmgirl Friday.

Sweet Sixteen

As I think about all the animals in my life, past and present, there is none that has influenced my way of living more than MJ.  He was born March 23, 1997, and I gave him his first bottle the next day.  It was the start of my love for him.  Don’t get me wrong.  He was a painful baby, about killing me because he would butt the bottle so hard.  I finally would put it against a fence post.  He would butt so hard, he’d make his mouth bleed and even broke the bottle once.

MJ

When I thought of him growing up and going to slaughter, as almost all steers do, I would be physically nauseous.  I couldn’t do it.  I bought him at market value and we’ve never looked back.

Texture

As I looked for a home for my son and me, I knew that I had to have a place with a barn and a pasture.

wavy fur on his face and side

Now he’s turning sixteen-years-old!  Unbelievable!  He is the sweetest most gentle creature you could ever hope to meet.  He’s also probably one of the biggest, weighing in around 3000 pounds.

His love for his companion cow runs deep, and he’s perfectly content to help raise her calves.  He’s a role model for any human.

I love his soft ears.

He’s also the one that influenced me to give up eating meat.  Now he’s getting white hairs around his eyes as he ages.

I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it weren’t for his giant heart teaching me so much.

Draw-an effect from befunky.com

Since I couldn’t find any way to work Asian into my boys’ birthday, you also get a picture of my Chinese goose.

Linking to Scavenger Hunt Sunday (Asian, Wavy, Draw, Soft, and Texture), Macro Monday, Weekly Top Shot, and Camera Critters.

January Thaw

We’ve had about a week of warmer weather.  Maxine and MJ are back to bare ground.

Maxine and MJ

There’s not much snow left on the back hills.

While I was up with the bovine, I noticed the windmill was turning quite a bit.  The winds are picking up.

The gravel roads are a mess!

Back in the barnyard, Coral just looked at me begging me to come love her up because she was not about to walk through that mud.

Coral

You know it’s bad when the geese are looking for a bit of hay to lie on.

Our January thaw is coming to an end, however, and we’re going to loose about thirty degrees for our high temperature tomorrow.

Those rapidly changing temperatures are enough to drive a livestock farmer crazy because it makes it more likely they are going to get sick.  Poor critters.

Linking to Skywatch Friday, Farm Photo Friday, and Camera Critters.