my favorite brand!

So I spent my long weekend with my family in Whitefish Montana. We had a great time catching up with friends, relaxing and of course, shopping!!! whenever we go anywhere my family has to stop at basically every western store along the way. I got some super cute clothes, especially some by my favourite brand Farm boy/Farm Girl brad. Check out some of the great stuff they have here at: http://farmboybrand.com/

Favorite Food Friday: Death by Chocolate

I am a self professed chocoholic, and this is my absolute favourite desert, here is how you make it:

ingredients:
1 pkg                     chocolate cake
1pkg                      instant pudding
2 cups                   whipped cream
1 pkg                     crushed Skor bits

Make up one chocolate cake, pudding and whipping cream

Crumble half the (cooled) cake and pack it in the bottom of a clear bowl

Put half the pudding on top of the cake

Next layer half the whipped cream and sprinkle half the Skor bits

Repeat the layers one more time

Chill and serve

Don't Steal A Farm Truck

 For all of those who have ever had to help us out and drive the old blue ford that is around our place you will definatly understand this little joke:
top ten reasons not to steal a farm truck:
10. They have a range of about 20 miles before they overheat, break down or run out of gas.
9. Only the owner knows how to operate the door to get in or out.
8. It is difficult to drive fast with all the fence tools, grease rags, ropes, chains, syringes, buckets, boots and loose papers in the cab.
7. It takes too long to start and the smoke coming up through the rusted-out floorboard clouds your vision.
6. The Jack Russell on the toolbox looks mean.
5. They're too easy to spot. The description might go something like this: The driver's side door is red, the passenger side door is green, the right front fender is yellow, etc.
4. The multiple levels of haybales in the back make it hard to see if you're being chased. You could use the mirrors if they weren't cracked and covered with duct tape.
3. Top speed is only about 45 mph.
2. Who wants a truck that needs a year's worth of maintenance, u-joints, $3,000 in body work, taillights and windshield.
1. It is hard to commit a crime with everyone waving at you.

hope you got a laugh out of this one!

Farming: More Than Just Crops and Cows

So far in this blog I have talked about the major types of farming and ranching in my area, I have mentioned beef cattle farms, dairies, the production of corn, wheat, canola, and hay but there is a type of farming that does not fit into these categories.  This is wind farming. Wind farming is the gathering of wind turbines in one location to produce large amounts of energy. Right now wind farming supplies about 2% of Canada’s total electricity (this is still enough to power over 1 million households) but is a growing industry. Because of their large size (see the video below, note how small the truck is beside it!)  there needs to be many acres to put up a wind farm, this is why wind farms are usually put up on farms or ranches.



There is a large upfront cost of putting up a wind turbine, but once it is up the main cost is maintenance, unlike crops it does not have to be replaced every year, and unlike animals it does not require daily attention. Wind Turbines use no water or fuel and produce no air pollution. One of the main concerns about wind farming is the high mortality rate of birds due to them flying into the blades. Although birds do die because of this more die by running into the windows of buildings!



some of the wind turbines around
our pasture



So here is just the basics on wind farming, I was intrigued when windmills started popping up all around our pasture so decided to check out more about them, for more info you can look at:

http://www.canwea.ca/farms/index_e.php

http://www.whatiswindfarming.com/

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/04/common_misconce.php





The Boy Scouts Are Coming!

If you have been driving through the country side lately you might have seen something strange out in the fields.  You may be seeing many orange and blue tarp tents. No, these are not (as my best friend and I once convinced her then 7 year old sister) boy scouts. They are actually bees! These bees are moved onto crop land (especially hybrid canola in this area) to pollinate the plants. According to the Canadian Honey Council over 80,000 colonies are needed to pollinate all the hybrid canola seeds in Alberta.  They also say that plants that are pollinated with bees have a 3-8 times increased production and this increased production is valued at over 2 billion dollars a year. So as you can see these bees are very profitable to have around. And although the ‘boy scout’ tents may look awkward and out of place on a big, open field, they are actually housing the busiest workers on the place!
info from: http://www.honeycouncil.ca/index.php/honey_industry_overview

Mythbusting Monday: Beef; A Healthy Choice

I’m sure that at one point or another we have all heard that red meat is bad for you. Weather it is the latest fad diet or some TV show it seems as if everywhere is encouraging you to give up red meat because it is ‘too fatty’ or ‘bad for you’ in some other way. I am going to share with you some startling truths about beef that just might have you thinking differently.

·         There are 12 cuts of meat that are leaner than a skinless chicken thigh

·         Beef is a great source of protein, phosphorus, zinc, iron, b-complex vitamins, selenium, and riboflavin (all of these are needed to maintain healthy body function)

·         1 serving of lean beef can contribute less than 10% of calories to a meal, but has over 10% of the required daily value of the 9 essential nutrients

·         It would take 3 cups of raw spinach to get the same amount of iron that is in one serving of beef,  

·         A fatty acid found only in meat (conjugated linoleic acid) has been shown to reduce the chances of cancer because it slows tumour growth.

·         Conjugated linoleic acid is also shown to help decrease body fat and increase lean muscle mass

·         One serving of T-bone steak has only 3 grams of saturated fat

So there you have it, if enjoyed in proper serving sizes meat is a very healthy addition to a diet!

info from: http://www.beef.org/
picture from: http://tipdeck.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/How-Long-to-Cook-Beef.jpg

A Busy Day

Yesterday was quite the hectic day around here. We are just starting to halter break (or teach to lead) the calves that will be shown as part of our summer show string. The day started off bright and early with my dad yelling up the stairs to wake both me and my sister up. After getting dressed we shuffled down stairs to join him for a quick cup of coffee before heading out the door.

Grandpa's Horse Jelly Bean

From then my mom, dad, sister, and I all climbed into the truck, hitched up the trailer and headed out to my grandparent’s house. By the time we arrived my grandpa had his old reliable horse tied to the front end loader of the tractor and was not-so-patiently waiting for us. As soon as we pulled in the yard you would have swore we were a pit crew with how fast my grandpa loaded up his horse and jumped in the front seat.  

After that we headed out to the Pasture on the other side of town. Once we got there we walked through all the cows, checking to make sure none of them were sick or hurt. Once we made sure everything was ok it was time to get to work, we found the two pairs of cows and calves that are coming to Olds in the next two weeks. We sorted out these two pairs and loaded them into the trailer and left for our place once again.

The cows came to visit when we drove up!

Upon arrival the cows were all outfitted with haulers and led into the pasture that would become their new home. This was quite easy as the cows had both been lead many times before. The more challenging part is working with the calves that haven’t been lead before. After only a few minutes of working with them the calves were doing surprisingly well! They even let us scratch them and would stand when they were tied to a post. After about an hour the cows and calves were turned loose in our pasture with grass up to their bellies. There is still a lot of work to do to get them ready for the show in two weeks but so far they are doing great!

Favorite Food Friday: Sour Cream Biscuts

Here is one of my favourite biscuit recipes, My grandma taught me to make them and I still go over there frequently to help her make a big batch for lunch, hers what you do:

Mix together:
2 cups                   flour
½ tsp                     salt
3tsp                       baking powder
½ tsp                     baking soda
¾ cup                    sour cream
1 ½ tsp                  water

Roll out and cut into circles, place on baking tray and bake at 450 for 10-15 minutes

How Do They Eat That?

The other day I was asked about cattle having 4 stomachs and how their digestive system works. This is a subject we cover a lot in many of my classes but just to be sure I pulled out one of my favourite text books (yes I’m a big enough nerd to have a favourite textbook) and double checked my information. Here is what I have learned:   A cow does not have 4 stomachs like ours; but one big stomach with 4 digestive compartments.

inside of rumen

After food is swallowed it first enters the rumen. The rumen is the largest compartment and is full of bacteria that allow cattle to be able to digest fibrous material such as grass and hay. The food that enters the rumen is not fully chewed; it is softened into round balls of ‘cud’ that is later regurgitated for the cow to chew later when she is resting. A cow does this so as to give the food as much surface area as possible for the digestive process to work on it.

inside of reticulum

Next comes the reticulum,  also known as the ‘hardware stomach’ because it has a honeycomb structure that is designed to catch any foreign objects that the cow may have eaten (for example wire, nails etc) and keep them from going through, and causing damage to, the digestive system. This is also the first step where bacteria is able to start to break down the fibrous components of a cows diet.

inside of  omasum

After that comes the omasum, this one looks just like piles of fabric folded over on itself. The job of the omasum is to take out nutrient and water from the food.

At the very end is the abomasums. This is the compartment that is most like our stomach. It is full of acid and secrets enzymes that allow the cow to properly digest her food.

So there you have it, all four digestive compartments of a cow stomach. I find this system very fascinating because it allows cattle (and other ruminants) to digest material that we as humans can not!



pictures from: http://courses.washington.edu
text book: A Veterinary Book for Dairy Farmers by RW Blowey

from: http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/beef/facts/91-066f2.gif

A Joke For the Day

I got this emailed to me the other day and it gave me a laugh so just thought I would share it with you:


My Resimay

To hoom it mae cunsern,

I waunt to apply for the job what I saw in the paper.I kin Type realee qwik wit one finggar and do sum a
counting. I think I am good on the fone and I no I am a pepole person, Pepole realee seam to reespond too me well. Certain men and all the ladies. I no my spelling is not too good but find that I Offen can get a
job wit my persinalety.

My salerery is open so we kin discus wat you want to pay me and wat you think that I am werth, I kin start emeditely. Thank yoo in advanse fore yore anser.

hopifuly Yore best aplicant sofarr.

Sinseerly,

Bubba

PS: Because my resimay is a bit short - below is a pickture of me.

 *Employer's response:*

Dear
Bubba:

It's OK Honey.. We've got spell check.

See you
Monday !

Amazing Animal

If you havn't seen this video already you should check it out, this is one talented cow!

Mythbusting Monday: There’s A Chicken in my Egg!

So I’m sure that everyone knows someone who at one time claimed they bought a carton of eggs from the grocery store and one of them had a chick in it. The truth behind this myth, it is absolutely impossible. (well unless you are buying farm eggs from places that are not large farms that produce only eggs for eating,  most, if not all eggs sold at grocery stores are from large egg producing farms)

from: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/


Although there are some breeds of chickens that are both good for meat and egg production most farms specialize in a breed that is good for one or the other. A large commercial farm that produces eggs for consumers buys their chickens from hatcheries; they buy only female chickens because roosters are not needed for chickens to produce eggs. The only way that an egg can have a chick in it is if it is first fertilized by a male. Since there are no male chickens on the premises of commercial egg producing farms finding a chick in your egg is impossible.

But this all being said, obviously if someone is to claim they found a chick in an egg bought from the super market they had to have seen something. What they most likely mistake for chicks are actually just deformities that happen when the egg is being produced. There is no way you can get a chick out of an egg produced on a commercial farm!

Happy Father's Day!

my dad with my fancy pink cowboy boots

 I have spent most of the morning today at my church helping with a Father’s Day brunch. It reminded me just how lucky I am to have such a great father. In our house there are three girls and my dad, even our dog is a female so as he likes to say it’s really lacking in testosterone. Because of this it will probably not surprise you at all to hear that most of our equipment we use when showing cows is pink. More than once my dad has had to go in the ring with a pink show stick, change his shirt because it would clash with one of ours in a picture, or help put up ‘girly’ stall decorations. He handles this all very gracefully.

When my sister and I were little dad was always the one who got us out of bed bright and early on show days to get cattle ready. And although the roles are now reversed and it is my sister and I dragging him out of bed to come with us, or getting tired of that and just leaving with the truck and trailer we really appreciate all the things that he does for us and are so thankful to have him as our dad

nice pink show stick!

So here’s to all the great fathers just like mine in the agriculture industry and all over the world, we may drive you crazy sometimes but really appreciate everything you do for us!

Family Bonding

So today I got to spend the day with my whole family doing something that we all love. No we did not go camping, hiking, to the zoo or anything else exciting like that. We helped my uncle round up all his cows and calves and vaccinated and branded the calves.

Now on first look this may not sound like much of a family bonding activity, but it’s the closest thing we get! All of us riders got up early this morning to have chores done around here and the horses saddled and loaded and ready to go. Six of us then climbed in the pickup and headed out to my uncles pasture. Once we got out there we unloaded the horses, met up with my uncle and some more helpers on quads and started the six mile trek to bring the cows and calves up to the corals.

The best part of the day comes after we get all the animals into the corals and the cows sorted out so that only the calves remain. My Aunt brings out a fantastic meal for all of us to enjoy while we sit and discuss what each of us saw while chasing the cows into the corals.

Even though I am now tired, sore, and sunburnt it was a great day spent with the family and I can’t wait till next year to do it again!

Favorite Food Friday: Aunt Rose's Butterhorns

So I am pretty sure I am giving away some deep dark family secret by revelling this recipe but this segment is supposed to be about my favourite recopies and this one defiantly tops the list!

Aunt Rose’s Butter Horns

Put 2 yeast cakes in:
1 cup water
1 tsp sugar

Allow to rise:

Dissolve ½ cup sugar
 1 cup butter
 in 2 cups warm milk,

Add:

2                              eggs
5 ½ cups               flour
2 tsp                      salt

Mix together with a spoon,
let rise 1 ½ hours
roll out ½ inch thick
spread with soft butter and cinnamon
roll up as you would a jelly roll
cut and place in pans
let rise
bake at 350

Ice and sprinkle with nuts

Rain Rain Go Away

I know that I promised I would stop complaining about the rain, but I heard something on the news the other day that I want to tell you about. According to the Canadian Wheat Board between 8.25 and 12.5 million acres of wheat alone will not be seeded this year because of the rain. This is an 18% decrease compared to last year! This means that farmers in flooded areas are looking at major losses this year. For rural communities that rely heavily on agriculture for their economy there will be devistation felt all around.

Info from: http://www.cwb.ca/public/en/newsroom/releases/2010/061110.jsp

Square Dancing

So I found this video that I thought was really entertaining, check it out!

Gueniverre

I would like to introduce you to my favorite cow. Her name is Gueniverre. 3 years ago I was out in the cow herd taking pictures of cows and calves one little baby calf started following me around the feild. I could not believe the personality of this little calf, she followed me through the whole herd but every time i turned to look at her she would turn away and start eating grass, or she would stick her tounge out at me

After seeing this great personality I knew that I wanted to own her. I went to my dad and bought her later that fall. Gwen was the last heifer I showed in 4H and has also won me a silver metal at the World Angus Forum and countless showmanship award because of her easy to work with, quiet personality. Right now Gwen is out in the pasture being a regular cow, but one day I hope to bring her out of retirement and show her again.

Mythbusting Mondays: Cow bites

So today I was asked if a mark on my arm was from a cow biting me and although this isn’t exactly a myth it is close enough that it is the one I am going to use today.

Cattle teeth are designed to eat grass and other plants that are not flat on the ground. They have teeth on the bottom of their mouth, but on the top is a tough pad of skin. So to eat grass cattle actually first wrap their tongue around it, then clamp it in between their teeth and the pad of skin, then pull with their head to rip the grass out of the ground (you can see this in the video posted below) After ripping the grass loose cattle will quickly swallow it.  It will then sit in their 1^st ‘stomach’ or digestive cavity the reticulum. Here the grass is softened and later regurgitated as cud for the cow to chew when she is not eating. It is clear to see that this type of anatomy is defiantly not designed to rip the flesh off of a person. I am not saying that if you were to stick your hand in a cow’s mouth they would not try to clamp down on it, they are just not going to go out of their way to take a bite at you!

Have You Thanked A Farmer?

So I meant to post this yesterday but once again my internet was not working, but it is today so her you go: Friday the 10^th was a special day, it was farmers day!!! This is a day set apart to thank farmers for all the amazing work that they do.

Without farmers, not only would we be hungry with no food to eat, but also we would be naked, and homeless because both the construction and textile industries use many products with agricultural backgrounds. So if you get the chance today make sure you thank a farmer for all they do to provide you with the life that you enjoy!

Favorite Food Friday: Popcorn Balls

Here is another one of my favorite recipies:

10 cups                 popped Corn
1 Cup                     sugar
½ cup                    butter
¼ cup                    corn syrup
½ tsp                     salt
1 tsp                      vinegar
½ tsp                     vanilla

Place popped corn into buttered bowl
Put all other ingredients except vanilla in a heavy sauce pan, cover and allow to boil for 3 minutes
uncover and cook until boiling a rolling boil
stir in vanilla
pour mixture over corn
form into balls

The Cow Calf Producer

The other day when I was browsing the internet I found this nifty little website that I would share with you. It is a website put out by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association that basically covers everything you would ever need to know about The Cow-calf producer. Since I myself am a Cow Calf producer I know firsthand of our commitment to animal welfare, the environment, and many of the programs that are in place. But for those of you who don’t know, here is a great place to give you some of the basic information. (There are also some super cute pictures in the photo gallery section!)
check it out at: http://cowcalf.cattle.ca/

It’s A Dirty Job

 It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it! Some days I feel as if that is my motto around the farm. I know I have mentioned the rain a lot lately and will try to quit that for a while. But I have to just do one more post about it before I quit. Trying to move cows in the mud isn’t always the most fun job. It is often hard, frustrating, and messy. But at the very end of the day when I got to see the cows and calves bucking and playing in the big dry pasture after being in the muddy corals for the past few days everything is worth it! Now if there was only some way to sort them to send them out to our many different pastures without coming out looking like this:

Show me your ID!

As Cattle breeders there are many different ways that we identify our cattle, and since I spent the last two days using many of these tools I thought I would take some time to share some of them that we use with you. Some types of identification are individual to the animal, and some are used just to identify the owner:



RFID button
(image from: http://www.canadianbeef.info/)



Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags: there are 6 types of these tags that are approved by the CCIA (Canadian Cattle Identification Agency) but most people I know use the button type. These tags are like a barcode for each individual animal and it is mandatory for cattle to have them before they can be moved to a different location. These buttons are 15 digits long with the numbers 124 at the beginning to show that the cattle are from Canada. These can be read with an electronic reader which relates them to a database to show where the animal came from, and about the time that it was born. These are to insure traceability in the Canadian food industry.  

Tattoos: I have mentioned before that we tattoo our calves. And no, it’s not some cool design but just a series of numbers and letters that goes in the inside of their ears. All purebred breeders are given an individual prefix. This is a serious of letters that represents your farm (mine is SJO) next comes the number of the calf and then the letter to represent the year (this year’s letter is Y, next will be Z then we start again at A) these tattoos are done using ink and a set of letters, numbers and tattooers (shown left)



our families brand shortly
after it was applied



 Brand: a brand is a way to identify who owns cattle. Each brand is registered with the government of Canada and is individual to the owner. A brand is the most permanent form of identification as ear tags can rip and fall out, and even tattoos are not 100% permanent if the cow’s ear is damaged. The brand is applied using heat and an iron that burns the animals hide



from:
http://southshadow.homestead.com/files

Dangle tags: on our farm we used green Angus tags. To use these, an animal must be at least 50% Angus. On these tags we put the calves number (same as what is on its tattoo) and in smaller letters we put its mom’s number and who its sire is. Our commercial calves that do not have to use a letter to represent the year that they are born just have their mother’s number on their tag so that we can easily pair the two up.  This is our system, but there are lots of ways to do it.

 (info from: http://www.canadaid.com/index.html )

Mythbusting Monday: Feeding the Hungry

First of all I would like to start out by apologizing for my absence from the world of blogging lately. I have spent the weekend at my sisters 4H show and sale and hauling cows out to pasture. The plus side of doing these things is that I have some new ideas for my blog that you will be seeing soon. But I would like to start this week off with another myth.

This week I have decided to cover a myth that is near and dear to my heart, the idea that by becoming a vegetarian you can help to feed the hungry. This myth comes to be because of the assumption that eating less meat (especially beef) would free up land to grow crops on, in theory these crops could more easily be transported, and are often what is lacking in diets of people below the poverty line people. Like the other myths I have busted this is also false.

One of our pastures that is too sandy
to grow other crops on

I have mentioned before that cattle are essentially living machines that turn products that are unusable to people into high quality protein. There is very little in a cows diet that competes with that in a human diet, even the grain they eat is a poorer quality than what we can use.  Especially in western Canada most cattle are raised on land that is unusable for growing crops (by being too salty, too rocky, too dry etc.) If this land were to be turned into crop land there would not be an increase in production. In fact this land would grow very poor crops that could not be used for human consumption. On top of that a valuable source of protein would be lost to the world.

Info from: http://www.animalagalliance.org/ http://cowcalf.cattle.ca/the-land

Favorite Food Friday: Chocolate Suprise Cupcakes

For today I have decided to do one of my favourite cupcake recipes!
Chocolate Surprise Cupcakes:

Mix together :
3 Cups      Flour
2 Cups      Sugar
½ Cup       Cocoa
1 tsp         Salt
2 tsp         Baking Soda

Add:
2/3 cup      oil
2 cups        water
2 tbsp         vinegar
2 tsp           vanilla

Fill Cupcake holders ¾ full and set aside

In a separate bowl mix together:

1 pkg          cream cheese
1                   egg
1/3   cup    sugar
¼ tsp          salt
3/4 cup       chocolate chips
 drop mixture 1 heaping teaspoon at a time into cupcakes
bake 30 minutes at 350°C

Online Farmer

So today I will be spending the day volunteering at my sisters 4-H show and sale, but of coarse I wouldnt leave you hanging! So I have found this super cool website that alows you to take a virtual tour of a farm!! check it out to learn all sorts of stuff about many of the different types of farming we have in Canada!
http://www.farmissues.com/virtualTour/en/index.html

4 Ranchers in a Pickup Truck

Although the above title may sound like the beginning of some lame joke, it is actually how I spent my day yesterday. With the deadline to enter into the Summer Synergy show fast approaching (12:00 last night) it was about time to go out and check my cows and decide which one to take to the show. Now usually I am way more on the ball that that and have my entry forms in early but that didn’t happen this time. So at about 3:30 yesterday My Grandpa, Dad, Sister, and I all loaded up into my Grandpas old Dodge and traveled out to the pasture to pick the show string. After  about an hour of playful arguing and a few harmless jokes the show string was chose and the 4 ranchers loaded back into the pickup and headed back to finally send in our entry forms.

One of the many pairs we had to choose from

Countin': Better Late than Never

early stages of building!

I had this post all writen up to go up on Sunday, but right as I went to push the button to publish it, our internet went down for the night, but my there is better lat than never so here is my post called Countin'

This Sunday was spent in the presence of some pretty good friends, but as most things around here go, they were not here for a leisurely Sunday tea.  We have spent the day finishing off a shop that we started building last September, and by the time you read this we will hopefully be all done!

With all the complaining I have been doing about the weather lately I was reminded today of a poem that hangs in our house. Having so many great friends in life that are willing to come out and give us a hand I am not able to dwell on the negative that long
here is the poem for you:

Countin’ (by Phyllis Kozroski)
We often get caught up
In the  Countin’ that we do
WE count cows, an’ bales, an’ acres
Bills- too many, bucks- too few,
Should more often count our blessings
Calves that lived, an’ hay that grew
Memories  shared, good times together
Friends an’ neighbours, tried an’ true.

Mythbusting Mondays: We All Milk Cows

I remember the first day that I met my roommate’s boyfriend. He seen on my table an alarm clock that was a trophy I won from our 4-H show and sale, he asked me if I was a farm girl then when I replied yes he asked if that meant that I got up every morning bright and early to milk cows. This, like many other myths about agriculture is false.

First of all to begin with some basic cattle knowledge. There are two broad categories of cattle, beef and dairy. Although dairy cattle can be used for beef and beef cows due produce milk they do much better if they stick to their own thing. This would be like having a math teacher teach biology and a biology teacher teach math, they both could probably do ok, but if they taught their own subjects it would probably make a lot more sense.  

A holstein Dairy Cow from:
http://carolvaage.net/images/cow5.JPG

Dairy cattle are the ones that people are most familiar with (the white ones with the black spots) This particular breed of cattle is called Holstein and although there are many different breeds of dairy cattle that don’t look anything like this Holstein is the most popular dairy breed in Canada by far.

Beef cattle is where things get a little more complicated. I have talked frequently about my Angus cattle, but there are many different breeds raised (such as Charolais, Herford, Limousine, Semimetal etc.) Each breed has a different advantage when it comes to meat quality, taste, temperament, adaptively to climates, and other features.



many different breeds of beef cattle from:
http://www.usask.ca/beefresearch/herd72.jpg



So to answer the question, no, I do not get up and milk cows in the morning; neither do most of the cattle farmers in this area. But people who own dairies do. they have to get up at certain times and milk cows on a schedule. There was a day when most farms had a dairy cow on their place to produce a little milk for themselves, but now a day’s most people raise either beef or dairy.

A Cat Named Sandwich

I was out at my grandparents today, and while cleaning out the barn we discovered a new set of kittens. This new catch of fluffy little critters reminded me of a cat we used to have whose name was sandwich, and yes the cat was every bit as odd as the name suggests.

Sandwich and her friends

Sandwich was black with white socks and a little bit of white on her head, she started out named Sylvester, but one day my sister jokingly called her sandwich and the name stuck. Although our cats live in the barn that is right beside the bull pen, most of them choose to travel only from the barn to the granary (to catch a mouse or two) and back without socializing with the bulls. Sandwich on the other hand loved cattle. .



Sandwich playing with some heifers



In the winter time when we would bed all the bulls down with fresh straw sandwich would run right along with the bulls to jump and play in it, then would curl up next to one of them for a nap. The only problem with this was the fact that to show how much they liked her, the bulls would lick her, which was fine when it was nice out, but when it started to freeze it was not uncommon to come to the corals to see sandwich with her hair stuck up and froze in every direction.

I think that sandwich had came to the same conclusion as the rest on my family seems to have: although being with cattle is isn’t always the most glamorous, and it sometimes results in the odd injury or too, we can’t help but love this way of life!

Favorite Food Friday: Orange Smoothie

picture from:http://she-fit.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/718orange_smoothie.jpg

Ok, I realize I cheated; a smoothie is not technically a food, but considering  that we haven’t seen the sun around here for the last week, can you really blame me for wanting a little taste of summer? This recipe brings back memories of my family sitting on our deck on a hot summer night after coming in from moving irrigation pipes
Orange Smoothie:
½ can      frozen concentrate orange juice
1 cup       milk
½ cup      water
1tsp         vanilla
¼ cup      sugar
aprox. 16 ice cubes

Combine in a blender and blend until smooth
hope you enjoy my little taste of summer!

My favourite Animal

The other day at work we were having a conversation on our favourite animals (yes, we are very interesting people!) One person said a blue whale because of their size, another said some kind of bug that is bright pink and can produce cyanide. I said Cattle. And although I got made fun of for this answer animal I still think they are really amazing, and although they may not produce any poisons or be particularly large in size they do have some very cool traits, here are just a few:

-          They have 4 stomachs (not all like ours, there are actually 4 digestive compartments that help them to utilize food that they eat)

-           They have legs that bend in only 1 direction (meaning they could walk up stairs, but not down them)

-          A dairy cow can produce 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime

-          They can detect smells in the air from over 6 miles away!

-          According to my grandpa you can use them to predict if a rain storm is going to last or not (if the storm is going to be a long one cattle will continue to graze, if it is going to be a short one they will all huddle together)

-          They are basically giant machines that turn things like grass and hay that we can’t use into edible materials like milk and meat.

-          Dairy cows can produce up to 125 pounds of saliva a day!

-          They can see almost completely around them, they only have one small blind spot directly behind them

http://www.ehow.com/about_5183366_amazing-cow.html

http://www.funshun.com/amazing-facts/cow-animal-facts.html

http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/facts-about-cow-1564.html