Cattle Domino Time!

This is Windy - yes it is spelled right.  She was born on a windy day in Oklahoma, so her previous owners named her Windy.  She is the sweetest donkey ever - and she watches over her cattle and nudges us for treats.   We often see her running like a maniac in the pasture, rounding her herd up to show them who is boss.  Windy is definitely boss out there.

We have found piles of crushed bones and tufts of fur from what 'once was'.  We can't even tell WHAT it once was - but it is gone now.  We presume from the fur tuft colors it is likely coyotes, but since it has been reduced to nearly dust, we aren't sure.  What we ARE sure of is that she protects her herd and we haven't lost a cow or calf yet.

This is the time of year we depend on Windy.  She is very careful with her newborn cattle.  From the moment they drop from mom, she sniffs, circles, gets to know them and valiantly protects.  She is as good of a watch dog as you can get.  

Only better.

Our momas are all getting ready to have babies!  This year we will have 5 new babies!  That is what farming is all about - spring time babies; calves, chickens and goats (Steph).  We sure do have fun seeing them born and getting to know and name each of them.  

These girls are getting HUGE!  

A couple of the younger calves (here a steer) like "Chuck" here are just hanging out... waiting to be next years supper... we love them until we take them to market. 

Here is Daisy who is just taking lessons from the older girls; she is just a year old - too young to calve, but next year she will be one of the girls calving...

This is Ashley, another year old heifer, so she not calving yet.  Ashley was named (by request) after one of my girl scouts!  Ashley begged me to name a calf after her.  

So here is our little wild-ish child!

Here is Elsie (first time mom-to-be) and Chuck again.  They are buddies:

Here is one of our original cattle; Hazel, due to have her 3rd calf with us:

And this is Maddie; 3rd time calver with us and more than ready... lol... 

but she is always eating!

I believe this is Sadie, but I can't see her ear tag.  She is a first time calver though if it is:

Why do we name our cattle?  Because we don't want to call them a number!  We would rather a name - if he says "Sadie is calving", I know who exactly who Sadie is, but if he says "5 is calving", I would have to whittle through WHO is calving... lol...

And we won't share pictures of T-Bone and Porter... they are at the butcher.  Our first ever fresh, home grown beef.  Did it hurt us?  Of course!  But that was always their destination.  To know exactly what food was treated with that we put in our mouth.  Ours were treated with good wholesome food, lots of laughs, respect, and pets (yes, pats on the heads) and lots and lots of love - and they never saw a stockyard.  Ever.  

And we can live with that.

This is Chelsea trying to look bigger than Jake:

But she is not bigger:  We figure Jake is around 125 lbs and Chelsea is a whopping 45 lbs:

And so we wait... for coming soon... CALVES!