New Crew

What a weekend! I am exhausted! The weather around here has been nasty (to say the least) for the past week! It has been either snowing or raining (or a mix of both) the entire time!!!!!!! Needeless to say that there is water and drenched snow EVERYWHERE!

Poor horses have a water hole as big as the barn that somewhat "prevents" them from going into the shelter.... I'm saying """prevent""" because Dandy will walk right into water of any depth to cross and go wherever she wants... but the old girls will not put a hoof in it! They are determined to not cross water of any kind and spend most of their time going around the water hole to get food and a drink. At least they get more exercise than before! LOL!

I HATE Spring, I can't stand it. I'm so miserable comes Spring that I could just sit and cry all the time! Everything is muddy or wet, the manure is starting to come out from under the snow and every square inch is full of it! Of course, I would clean it, but considering the amount of mud underneath, it would ruin a good part of our pasture... at least good pasture for late summer.

So besides from that, we've spent all day Saturday to a cattle auction. We are looking to expand our herd (since we only have one lonely cow) and we came home with 4 more cows, all in calf exept for one... I wasn't too thrilled about that, she was sold as "in calf" but there was a mix up in the pen and turns out she wasn't... I was POed and finaly dealt a better price on the open cow. We will have her bred as soon as we can. So here are the results of our spending spree!

This is the cow that is not bred and is also the cow that has the most flaws, see how her back isn't straight (OK, one flaw!). We wouldn't have bought her, but the cattle were sold in pairs usually a not so stunning animal with a stunning one. She did calve before, so there shouldn't be any problems.

Next one from the back is our First calf Heifer. She is 3 months in her pregnancy, we call her Speedy because she is so agile and quick! The one closest to me is the cow we bought with the one that is not pregnant, she is a gorgeous example of the breed. They are all Red Angus and Gilbvieh (spelling??) mix and are bred to Charolais.

And... last but not least... This is for sure one of the biggest cows I have ever seen! She is so thick that her belly is less than a foot off of the ground she is very calm and kept making faces every time I took a picture... hence the tongue! She is missing a bit of her tail and she is obviously the leader of the group. She is a bit darker in colour than her friends. I don't have their names, but they must be registered somewhere... I will look it up!

The new cows have not been out in the pasture yet, they are in quarantine inside until we know they are calm enough to romp with the crew, they are all vaccinated, dewormed and vet checked. They've all met Dandy and seem ok with her. The old mares didn't bother to make it over to meet them and will probably chase them a bit.

Sadly, I am thinking about giving those two away. As much as I love them, they do not get along with anything else but themselves, no cows, no Dandy. Dandy is pretty much always on her own and she is not allowed access to food until they are both done eating. I am not pleased with that... poor Dandy is so harmless that she is not even getting mad at them... she is the kind to try and still be part of their group. Even when we had 8 horses in the field, the two Standards never made friends with any of them. I would hate to have to part with them, but I am thinking about it. Makes my eyes water. :'( I love those two with all my heart, but they can really grind my gears sometimes! We might reconfigure the pens to have the horses together and the cows together, not mixed up, although they are still doing ok. I am really sad at the thought and it is going to be one heck of a hard decision to make.