• Animal Tracks •

Tuesday's Child

Unless Cassie has a calf this season, we are done with calving. Friday morning Queen gave birth to a lovely heifer calf I'm calling Daisy. On Tuesday morning Venus had her first calf, also a heifer and I haven't settled on a name for her yet. That puts our herd currently at 12 animals. I'm going to slaughter Tucker for meat as soon as she finishes to my satisfaction. That will leave us with Cassie as my only pure Holstein cow, Charles as a Holstein/Hereford cross as our bull, Queen, Queen Mother, Princess, and Venus pure Angus cows all with calves at side, Erin a heifer mixed 1/2 Angus, 1/4 Hereford, 1/4 Holstein, and the four new calves all out of pure Angus by Charles two bull calves and two heifer calves. It has taken me years  to get to this point with building a herd of breeding stock and slaughter stock. Only Queen and Queen Mother were born off farm. All the other cattle have been born on farm. I am interested in maintaining a closed herd especially for the purposes of health and food security.               Nursery in the woods

The chickens are looking like badly used dust mops since they are beginning to fledge. The geese who were becoming quite the escape artists have finally been in their 96' X 95' yard all week. It took a while to find where they were getting out and to close the gaps with stock wire. I suppose they are in their teen age phase. They would get out and wander off. Do you remember from your nursery rhymes, "Goosey Goosey Gander, Where do you wander?" Let me tell you, I walked them up back to the little pond about 10' around and 8' deep and they ploughed right through the water and out into the field. By days end they were right back in the front yard. One day, on her way home, Lyn called to tell me that the geese were headed down the lane towards Rt 206. I sent Deliska out to find them and after about an hour headed over to the office and the geese were all congregated at the foot of the stairs. If  you have ever encountered Canada geese, you know what an absolute mess they make. My sidewalk looked like there wasn't a square inch of clear space with all the goose poop. On the insect front, the wasps are conspicuously absent. Normally, on the first few warm days we are living amid swarms of wasps going about their business. Not so this year. I can't help but wonder if they are suffering the same condition as the honey bees, yet not a word in the Ag. or science press on wasps.

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