An Adventure

Sunday it turned really cold here and we woke up to a good 4 inches of snow!!!  Crazy, but it is still winter so we can't really complain!  Saturday we knew a storm was to be rolling in, quite a severe winter storm.  Temperatures would drop and snow would fly!  It wasn't Jared's week with cows so he helped me around the house!  We loaded up all our garbage and the kids and headed to the dump Saturday and then into the church to shovel walks.  Only they had already been done for us!!  There was one little spot not done so the kids grabbed the shovels and got to work!  It maybe took them 5 minutes but they were happy to have helped a little!!

Sunday Jared stayed home from church with Calum, they both were under the weather and needed a little extra rest!  Still wasn't Jared's week with the cows but he would look out the window at them to see what they were up to and noticed they were out of feed.  He put his coveralls on and went for a walk through them to see if they were going to behave!!  The cows were all gathered around the bale yard wanting some food pretty badly, little piggy's they were just fed the day before!!  I think they were hungry because it turned cold and snowed and there was nothing visible for them to graze!!  So, Jared fired up the tractor and fed them, he didn't want to leave it until Monday in case they did break into the bale yard!!  It seems like cows follow their own schedule and not a set one we would like to have for them...don't they know better?!!
Monday Jared took over doing the water for the cull cows.  He got the semi lined up we got from my moms and used that to haul, only it wasn't good on the snow and he got stuck :( So he fired up the tractor again and went to get a bale to put on the back of it for added weight, which worked great!  Only the tractor quit because the shop ran out of fuel to heat it, so it sits in the bale yard until it warms up a bit!  So Jared fired up the old tractor, which runs like a dream, even in cold weather!  He got the water delivered to the cull cows and then wanted to fill the shop's tank with fuel so he could continue to heat the shop.  The only problem now is the fuel tank is on the back of the one ton and the carburetor has been removed because it is shot and the truck doesn't run.  Jared came in and asked if I could help him, did I mention that this all happened at 10pm.  So out I went into the blasted cold and got in the tractor to pull the one ton as close to the fuel tank as possible in order to fill it!  It took us two tries but we got it close enough...I may have cried a little!! It was cold and dark and I always forget how to run the old tractor!! But we make a good team.

Tuesday Jared did the water for the cull cows again, morning and night, and then at 9pm decided the bulls desperately needed their water filled.  It was getting pretty low!!  He didn't know if the bulls could actually reach the bottom of the basket thing with their huge heads!! The only problem was the semi has no working lights!! So I drove the van out ahead of him so he could see the edge of the road good enough to drive! Once in a while I would flash my brake lights so I could see him and I would feel better to know he was right behind me!! Thank goodness the brakes work good in the semi!!  We made it to the bulls and he backed the truck up and started getting everything ready to fill the bulls water!! The only problem now, the bulls were indeed very thirsty and came to investigate what was going on!!  As Jared filled the water tub one bull would just drink and empty the basket so Jared would move the hose and the bull would follow him to the next basket to drink!!  It took forever for the water to fill the tub, and it still isn't enough!!  So I'm sure we will be doing it again later tonight!!  Jared usually takes two loads of water to fill the tub to last a week!!

I know it is a good experience for us to have the cows but I still don't know if it is really worth it!!!  I keep telling Jared we should sell the herd and buy yearlings and just run them on our pasture and sell them in the fall.  No more baling or long cold winters of hauling water!! I would miss the calving but that too can be a pain when both Jared and Dave work during the day.  Oh well, it was an adventure...one not soon to be forgotten!!