It's Here.

January that is. The snow has blown in along with sub zero temps. Our cows don't mind the cold. They actually stay pretty warm in the barns. This week was the first time the manure in the barns froze solid. The calves are usually the ones with problems. So far our calves have dealt with the cold pretty well. We've had a few newborns in the last week, but our new maternity barn gives us a nice place to let them dry off before we have to move them outside. We've had one staying in the maternity barn the last few days since it's been so cold.

A few years ago we had a lot of trouble with calves. It seemed like they were fine, then they'd go off feed, we'd try everything, and they'd die. What was happening was they were actually starving to death and we didn't know it. They just weren't getting enough calories from the milk replacer they were on. Adding more milk replacer added more protein, but that just gave them scours (diarrhea). When we finally figured it out, we started adding an energy supplement when the temps dipped below freezing. We haven't had a problem since. Working with animals is kind of like working with babies. They can't tell you what is wrong. The difference is there are a lot more diagnostic tools for humans than animals. But we don't give up even when we are stumped.

Side Effect Central

The curse of red hair has struck again. I've been told that red heads have a different chemistry than the "normal" population and we react differently to things. That has certainly been true for me. Anesthesia, cold medicine, you name it, I have side effects. My pregnancy has been going well. The progesterone shots seem to be doing the trick and keeping baby inside. However, the last few weeks of shots have given me a horrible itching welt the size of a softball. Each week is a little worse. Turns out, I'm reacting to the shot and if it keeps getting worse, I will have to stop them. I only have 7 more to go, but my doctor is afraid it could affect my breathing. Fantastic! As much as I *enjoy* them, if they keep this kid in longer, I'll deal with the itching. I am so not

ready for this baby to come. We are in the process of remodeling the boys's bedroom. We tore down plaster and lath on Monday, rewired on Tuesday, insulated yesterday, and started sheet rock today. We are now at a stand still until the wiring inspector shows up. This is creating a problem as our sheet rock/mudding/taping guy is heading back south on Tuesday. I can't do anything in Baby Girl's room until the boys are back in their room and that will require trimming, carpet cleaning, and painting (not necessarily in that order) first. I did finally break down and order some new pump parts. I figure if baby does come early at least I will have that ready to go (providing I can find my pump). Although, I think after 6 years insurance may buy

me another one. The one perk of having a preemie! I've been tempted to dig out the changing table so I can figure out what gear I have and what gear we'll need to replace. We did get a new car seat for Christmas (it's PINK!) and I have a handful of clothes. Pat and I are heading to a grain convention early in Feb. which means meetings for him and shopping for me. I probably need to know what we are missing by then. Aaack! I'm overwhelming myself. Must be time for a nap. I will leave you with these:

The blob over her mouth is the umbilical cord. She is holding her foot up on her forehead. She certainly didn't get her flexibility from me.

January???

Sorry for the bloggy hiatus. I can't guarantee this is the end of it, but I'll try harder!

We had a brown Christmas. To be honest, I would've liked some snow, and so would the boys. However, highs in the upper 50s in January? I'll take it! Yesterday was gorgeous. Normally this time of year it is miserable out, but there are still things that have to get done. Yesterday, Pat and I spent the morning moving and vaccinating heifers. Normally that job would have waited for a rare 20 degree day in January. Instead we were out there without coats, hats, and gloves. It was wonderful! We also weaned some of my baby calves out of their huts and into group housing. I was glad to be rid of them. Our calf huts have seen better days, but are still functional. The fronts slide on and off being held on with joist brackets. Over time, the wood fronts have worn down the the brackets have bent with use. A couple of years ago I replaced a bunch of the brackets, which helped, but because the wood is worn down so much, it still didn't solve the problem. When the calves get bigger, they can lift up the fronts and push them out. We've lost calves a couple of times when they've made their escape (they always come back). One of the huts was so bad that the calf could just push on the front and it would come free. He got his legs and head caught a couple of times and did some somersaults. If you've never seen calf acrobatics, it's pretty amusing. With the weather being as gorgeous as it was yesterday, Pat spent the afternoon fixing my huts! Almost all of them are fixed now, except for 5 that are currently in use.

Which brings me to my next point. I am down to 6 calves! This is the lowest I have been in a long time. Normally this time of year we seem to have about 20 or so. The reason is that we calved heavy in November and only had 4 in the month of December. Weather plays a huge role in reproduction. If you go back 9-10 months, I would guess that February was cold and miserable and January, not quite as bad. I expect our spring calving (April/May) to be light also due to the miserable heat in July. It always seems to go in spurts, but we never seem to run out of calves, or chores to do!

The Best Response to PETA

I was paging through the Progressive Dairymen the other day and came across their top 25 Most Read Articles. #2 really caught my eye. The article was about PETA's new welfare standards for dairy animals. PETA was proposing an effort to end taildocking and dehorning. The favorite reader response was this: "It would give me great pleasure to place Amber Driscoll (PETA's corporate liaison) in a holding pen with a herd of Ayrshire cows with their long, sharp, horns."

All I have to say is me too!

Santa: Part Deux

We didn't go see Santa on Sunday. We would have, but I was sick, Pat didn't really want to go, and his parents were gone for the afternoon. We hadn't mentioned it at all to the boys, but I think Grandma did on Sunday morning. They didn't seem to care too much that they missed it.

I've been trying to figure out where Cole stands on Santa. He told me he knows Buddy the Elf (Elf on the Shelf) doesn't go to the North Pole because he isn't real. I asked if Santa was real, and yes, he thought Santa was real. But, if you ask him who fills his stockings, he answers that I do. So I don't really know if he thinks Santa brings him presents or not. At this point, it doesn't really matter. I'm not going to push a lie on him for a couple of years of "magic" at Christmas.

I was chatting with a friend the other day. Her family never did Santa, so for her, she doesn't really get the hype. For me, my first grade teacher sat us all down in the front of the room and told us all that Santa, the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, etc. weren't real. I'm fairly certain she made it clear we weren't supposed to tell anyone we knew the truth because I didn't tell my parents until I was in 4th grade. She was kind of a manipulative person and none of the kids liked her. Anywho, so I don't remember being overly excited about Santa, just the presents.

For those of you wondering about our Christmas chain, here are a few sites with Bible verses. Since we didn't start ours until a few days ago, I kind of pieced a bunch of verses together. We just made a simple one out of construction paper. I let the boys cut the red and green strips, so it definitely has a "homemade" look to it :)

This one has very short and sweet verses each night, which would be great for younger kids.

This one has longer passages.

This one is my favorite. It doesn't have the verses listed, but I may attempt to make a fabric chain for next year.

If you simply google Christmas countdown chain or Advent chain or attach the words Bible verses to the end of your search, you'll come up with tons of them. There are even some ready to print for you.

Santa

I'm not a huge fan of Santa. *Gasp* I know. I mean, the guy's got all the fun stuff. The fun songs, the cute decorations, and of course, the presents! But he isn't what Christmas is about. We do Santa, but my kids don't really buy it. Not that they aren't gullible enough (Cole still occasionally calls Long Johns, Long Bobs), but we apparently don't sell it hard enough. I wanted to just skip Santa all together, but Pat claimed we do all "my" traditions, so he gets Santa. I relented. We decided that Santa would fill stockings, but the big stuff under the tree comes from us. We try not to go overboard on our kids either. This year, I think they are each getting 4 gifts from us and a few little things in their stockings. I digress.

So what's not to like about Santa? I think he hides the true meaning of Christmas. We try to teach our boys that Christmas is Jesus' birthday and why he had to come as a baby, but they are constantly bombarded with Santa movies, Santa stories, and toys, toys, toys. Suddenly Christmas is about what they want and not about the Baby in the manger.

I'm also a hypocrite. Tomorrow we will take our boys into town to see Santa and I'm sure I'll even post a picture of them (Cole anyway) sitting on his lap. We also do the Elf on the Shelf, although my boys don't buy it. For them it's just a find the elf game every morning. That's fine with me. They have fun finding him and if I forget to hide him the night before I get to hear "Mom, you forgot to hide Buddy!" They don't think for a minute that he's real. I'm honestly not really sure what they think of Santa. Cole started saying things like "that doesn't look like the Santa we saw before" or "how can Santa be over here and over there?" Magic doesn't answer the questions either because magic isn't real. When people ask them if Santa is coming to their house, the boys give them a look like they're crazy and have no idea what they are talking about. I'm ok with that.

I am trying to find ways to phase Santa out and Jesus in. Every year we make a Christmas countdown. This year I added Bible verses to read each night. We are starting with verses from the Old Testament and we'll read the story of Jesus birth closer to Christmas. I didn't start it right away on the first, so I'm improvising and the first week we are actually working on their lines for the Christmas program at church. What kind of things do you do to make Christmas about Christ and less about Santa?

The Chicken or the Egg?

Raising chickens is not pretty. Anyway you slice it, chickens are dirty birds. A few weeks ago McDonald's and Target announced they were dropping Sparboe Farms as their egg supplier. Why? Well, Mercy For Animals launched an animal cruelty campaign against them. My problem lies in the reasoning McDonald's and Target dropped SF. Do they honestly believe SF is treating their chickens inhumanely? Probably not. If abuse was the norm and not the exception, they wouldn't be one of the largest egg suppliers. Frankly, if their chickens were abused so badly, they wouldn't produce that well. So they dropped SF because Mercy for Animals says they are abusing their chickens and has video proof! Then the media comes in to play and suddenly you lose consumers. You can't believe everything you see on youtube. If Mercy for Animals is really out there to stop animal abuse, why is their agenda so political? Why not report the abuse to the higher ups in the company and then come back to see if anything has changed. If nothing has changed, then sure, release your video. Instead they videotape livestock producers for months, gathering footage, and then smear the companies name. How is that helping the poor chickens, pigs, and cows on the farms they are taping? Suddenly the company has no market so where do you think the excess goes? Not to some rescue farm where the animals live out a happy life roaming a pasture in the sun. No, the excess probably goes to slaughter.

Ugh! I'm so tired of animal "rights". We have to have licenses and permits and inspections for nearly everything we do, but my drug addict neighbor can have gobs of children and no one bats an eye at the squalor they live in (my neighbor is hypothetical by the way). I want to know that my food supply is safe, but we waste millions of dollars on useless programs because of these "humane" organizations. We have to fight for our right to produce America's food supply. These groups don't care about animals. They care about their pocket book. They care about their agenda. I guarantee that the leaders of these organizations have never taken a moment to ask the question "why?" Why do you dehorn cattle? Why do you clip pigs tails? Why do they debeak chickens? It's not fun. It's not pretty, but there is a reason. When it comes to animal production it's not about cruelty, it's about practicality. We don't do unnecessary chores. We've got enough to do without taking time to figure out new and unusual ways to hurt animals. We can solve our own problems. If people would be willing to spend more for locally raised products instead of the fastest and cheapest it would lessen the need for corporate farms.

My parting thoughts. Do you know what free-range and cage-free really mean? Free range: USDA regulations apply only to poultry and indicate that the animal has been allowed access to the outside. The USDA regulations do not specify the quality or size of the outside range nor the duration of time an animal must have access to the outside. You may now dispel any image of chickens running around happily in someone's yard.

Cage free is simply that, they aren't kept in cages. It does not mean they are not packed just as tightly or even tighter into a barn to produce eggs. This is often why chickens are debeaked, so that they cannot peck their cage free neighbor to death.

My final thought: think the HSUS and Mercy for Animals aren't connected? I found this post interesting.