Working together

This time of year is the Farmers down time for most but my Farmer its the opposite due to our cows. We have a cow sale in March that we sell our cows at and it has gotten bigger and bigger each year. This year we have more cows than we have ever put in there and so that means double the work. Nick and I are fortunate that we can work together. I think it is because we don't mind being around each other days on end. I mean lets face it we are hardly ever apart. We have been getting our cows ready and sending in paper work, catalogs passing out, advertising, updating our own H5 website, making brochures, taking pictures, getting tables and tablecloths ordered for our H5 table, making gift bags for our buyers, designing and ordering hats, pens, and koozies, and that's just a small bit into out "cow sale" ready life lately. We still have a lot more left to do but we are making progress and checking it off our list. We still have tons of work left to do on the website but we are slowly coming along.

March 12, 2016 Catalog (PDF)

We have also been artificial inseminating some of our heifers. This is our first time dealing with A.I. It's been an interesting last few weeks to say the least. My whole schedule has been around the heifers. I had to reschedule some appointments due to these heifers having to be given shots at a specific time. Nick and I have learned so much and I will say it wasn't without a lot of laughs and I hope I'm doing this right with a few cow in heat jokes here and there.





 

We were talking while one of our lunch dates about who would of thought in 2004/2005 when we talked about how we would love to get a few cows as a hobby and how that few grew and as we grew even more and found our true love in the cattle industry: Registered Black Herefords. In 2011 that's when we sold our herd and went head registered black hereford only. It's crazy to think we went from 1 child building a fence for a few cows we had dreamed of having as a hobby to now 3 kids and a full time cattle operation. This is why I tell my kids anything is possible with God on your side and ambition to go for what you want.  

 

 

 we all know the girls and I couldn't have just a black and white plain jacket...





H5 happenings lately

Thanksgiving day I'm in my room making the bed and I her Mauri and Rhett all excited and in amazement saying... Can I shoot him up? Daddy I want to give him a shot with that needle can I? I had to come to the kitchen to see what was going on and walked in to this

Mauri shooting up the turkey with guidance from her Daddy

 

 

 Rhett had a turn also

these two were in amazement of this process

 



Smoked turkey coming off the Traeger



 

Daddy and his girls

this picture warms my heart and talk about thankful

 

Mauri and I being silly

 

I took this little boy hunting and oh my he cant be still to save his life,

quality time I tell ya

 

Mauri is finally old enough to play pee wee basketball and she loves it,

Her first game was Saturday and she is already asking when the next one is

Shooting her 2 free throws from drawing in a shooting foul

 

She was focused and determined it was so much fun watching her play.

Even though she doesn't have size it doesn't stop her hustle

 

 When she wasn't on the wing she was point guard

Her smiling from ear to ear while on the court melted my heart

 

When you live an hour away from town its a must that you take full advantage in your trip

so Starbucks salted caramel frap it was. Hair day and coffee = a good day.



Getin Ranchy wit it

The Famer has been trying to teach me how to rope and this weekend he put me to the ultimate test.
                                                        Here is a sneak peek
                    

You probably remember Maverick from here. He just finished 3 months in Natchez MS with  David Carter getting trained for being a cow horse. He knows how to do it all and did great. We got him home last Friday so this weekend I couldn't wait to try him out.
I am left handed and learning how to rope from a right hander was just to crazy to Im learning how to rope right handed. Now I will be the first to say oh slinging the rope will be easy so I can do it no problem. Well I was WRONG! It took me forever to get the hang of not moving my arm or elbow. Im still learning. I haven't even began to rope and ride yet Im learning on the ground and sitting horseback.

I'm going to keep practicing and hopefully I will get it in no time. It is so much fun and I cant and will not be showed up by my kidos so I've got to get ahead start.

 

Now on the other hand only if I could get as good as the Farmer

Instead of buying a fancy contraption like these that can cost2grand and up we put together our own and lucky for us it worked out perfect.

I'm ready to give it another try and I'm going to work on keeping my hand flat and down and throwing with my pinky and putting Trevor Brazile paint it twist with it/

Whats happening Wednesday

Rhett's hair is getting shaggy and I just love the shaggy look but I guess Rhett isn't digging it because he has been wanting his hair cut and I would put him off but he has asked so many times I figured if I took him and just get it trimmed it would satisfy him but nope he wants it short I on the other hand do not so as of right now while Momma can still make decisions I am going to. Although I don't know for how much longer he is starting to work my nerves with his hair. He wants a faux hawk like he had when we was a baby and also last summer.  

 

Vegas has just been hanging out and getting fat and lazy.

Yes he has thumbs

 

Well I just thought I was going to do a Home Tour I painted my kitchen and all of a sudden it just start falling off. I have never heard of paint falling off I have chipping but not falling. It was like taking off wall paper. We thought that is was probably the red was oil based and tan was latex but nope red was latex. No I don't use primers never have and this house I have painted each room at least 3 times and I actually sure some have been more kitchen I know had had 6 colors in 12 years. So I called a local painter and got him to come out and it was cheap paint old paint so thanks.Now I have always did my painting myself but this time around I gave him the job so he is coming in a week to redo the kitchen mess, living room, Rhett's room and laundry room. So after that I will do a home tour. Not to mention Monday I had to call a plumber because my bathtub wouldn't drain and the washing machine was leaking everywhere. He discovered that some of my pipes were not hooked together and had to fix all that mess so lately I have felt overwhelmed in all this house business

 

Sweetness is just loving the kids and she comes running everyday when we take her milk to her

 

This is my yard so I know its starting the 2013 farm season OhJoy :(

Here is a little something before I go



                           

 

This little girl fits in well around here we all like to eat

                            


Also I plan on doing a Q&A so if you have any question you would like to ask email me or get them to me and I ll answer them and like I said before nothing is off limits Im an open books to ask away I dont get offened. Also Im not going to blog who asked the questions so dont be scerred

 

 

Hunter Boots Give Away

 

Orphan Update

I have extremely good new to report...Both little orphan calves are doing great and one of them is no longer an Orphan.

The bull calf that was doing the worse has come around and making improvement every day. When we went out to check on them and feed them both a bottle he wouldn't take a bottle and so we tried to get him up and move him around and watch him walk to see how he was doing and to our surprise he walked right on up to his Momma and started sucking. We were so happy because this means it gets better quality milk.

 This is our bull Woody {Rhett named him..ToyStory addict}

He is peeping in to see how is son is

 He is loving getting him some titty milk

He sucks every morning and afternoon and is walking around just fine. In about a week if things still are going this well and Im sure it will then we will let both the calf and mom out of the stall and into the pasture.

Her Momma is wanting to mess with this calf but this little cutie pie don't really like cows she loves people. 

So it looks like bottle for her.

My Sister in Law came over to take a peek at these lil suckers and we quickly put her to work. 

She was right in there and loved every minute of it. 

This little girl so so hyper she will jump and buck and follow you everywhere. 

 We weighed both of these calves and I cant remember for sure but they were both in the high 60s

I wish we would of weighed them when they were first born like we do all the others but we didnt' want to stress them anymore than they already were. 

 She was jumping out she was a handful to get weighed

Thats a wrap for their check up I will continue to update and thanks for all the concerns and nice comments. It means alot to our family.

Quick Little Notes

1. Im going to do a fun little Q&A so if there is anything and I do mean anything...Im an open book please feel free to email me the question and I will do a Q&A day blog post. Don't worry Im not going to put your name by the question.

2. I've also been contacted and am hosting a GiveAway coming up

3. Im also partnering with 2 cool gals ands working on a link up

When it rains it pours Calves

When it it freezing and the rain sets in while in calving season it isn't pleasant at all. In the South we usually don't get snow and hardly ice but when we do it is bad. While coming home from taking the kids to school and the gym it started looking like this. When I got home the Farmer needed me to help move the cow heard up to some dryer pasture due to it raining non stop almost 10 inches.

He had stopped by a Farm Supply store and got us rain slicker suits so we headed to the Farm office and put them on. Thank goodness for the fireplace in here it made it cozy. He also got me a pair of Muck Boots that came in handy in all this freezing wet nasty junk.
As you can See he got a pretty rain suit while.....

Mine not so much...It looks like the cheap camo look which I HATE he said that is why he got me this color because he knew I hated it so badly. Isn't that love? He just loves me to pieces! Under all this garb I had on a pair of thick lounge pants and sweatshirt and Drake Bibs with the Drake Jacket to go on top of all that plus this ugly rain suit and gloves. Everything but my feet were freezing those Muck boots should make clothing because they were so warm.


We are off trying to get this baby calf and mom to this dryer pasture and while she is right by its side now she will not have anything to do with it once we moved it. If we didn't move it then it would of died from the freezing cold so its a damn if you do damn if you don't situation.

Maci came to help get them to the barn so we could offer some milk to the calf being it hasn't sucked and wont even try. I don't even know if the mom would even let it.

We took her in to get we dried off and bring her temp back up.

 She was so cold and weak from shivering. The kids were a big help in this process.

 I love having a huge Laundry room and this is a reason why.

After the towel we used the blow dryer and got her completely dry

From the we knew it was time to feed her.

We knew she was to weak to even try to suck a bottle so we tube fed her

 and made sure she got colostrum.

As you can see that colostrum made a big difference and she is up and bellaring loud.

 With her doing so good we took her and put her into a stall in our barn for the night.

The next day while doing ranch work we made another discovery that we had another calf born and it was pouring ice down and we knew this lil man need to be brought in and warm back up. He wasn't doing so hot and we worked with him the rest of the day. We found him at 12:30 and at 8:00pm he was barely moving and wouldn't pick up his head or make a loud sound and was so weak his eyes would begin to roll back. The Farmer and I kept looking at each other and thinking how much longer because we knew he probably wouldn't make it but we don't give up. We kept at it and tube fed him also we knew he needed every little but he could get. Around 8:15 he made a tiny progress and so we put him in the bathroom and I wen to work on Google and I came across Severe Hypothermia. How did I miss this? Yes he has this and that is why he is like this. I knew then that he was going to be okay as soon as his brain cells got warm. It takes a long time and sometimes even days. We put a small electric heater in the bathroom with him shut the door and around 3am we checked on him and he was so alert and our hearts melted. The downside was now he has the no fun runs. I cant clean up puke or I puke and I went to gagging and that's when I knew I couldn't do it so the Farmer was on his on. I did hand him paper towels and Clorox wipes. We got back up at 6 and same thing so we threw the calf in the shower washed him off and got him back dry and nice and warm and took him to a stall in the barn back with his mom. His mom is having alot to do with him now but calf is still a little weak. We are tube feeding him and going to try to bottle feed him this afternoon.

This is him so weak and almost lifeless it saddens my heart.

This is at 3am as you can see he is picking up his head and more alert. Thanks goodness

We still have a long way to go and the fight isn't over by no means but thankful things looks better than they did.

Holy COW

This is not for the weak stomach what so ever so if you are squeamish this isn't for you.

This time of year our baby calves start hitting the ground on the H5 Ranch. Thanksgiving morning we get up and doing our daily cow check and this is what we came across so since I had my camera I thought this would be a good time to document the whole process. And as you know since I had my camera Bonnie  just had to give birth in the junkie spot of the pasture. So please excuse the Redneck Chicken coop in the background.  The Farmer doesn't haul stuff off it goes strait to the junk spot in the pasture and now look Ive got this beautiful moment of bringing a new life in with an ugly background.

Bonnie pushing and cows come out front feet first as you can see

 

and the head is out

 

now we are getting somewhere

 

almost there ....Just a swinging is what first comes to my mind

 

licking her baby clean

                                             and that is how a baby calf is born

Yes my child did go to school and tell the whole class about and yes I did get a phone call.

                                               little to graphic for pre-k


Totally way off the subject but I need a really good book and since Ive already read 50shades like 3 times I need something new. Any suggestions I like all kinds of books my ADD doesnt allow me to stick with one certain type