Cows and other tidbits

The cows have arrived!!  On Saturday, April 28th, I borrowed a truck/trailer from Jen at iTolt Training Center and drove to Innisfree Farm and picked up 2 black angus calves.  One is roughly 6 months and the other slightly younger (and smaller).  They loaded beautifully into the trailer and I had no problems hauling them back to the farm.

That, unfortunately, is where the fun stopped.

Instead of fanagling them into the barn (they will be sharing the chicken room til the horses get used to them), I opted instead to put them in the front part of the pasture that I had taped off for them.  However, they had other ideas and within 2 minutes of them hitting the ground, they had run through 3 lines of my electric tape fencing and wiggled their way out of the 7 strand wire perimeter fence (that was not turned on as it had been grounding out). 

For the next 3.5 hours, and with the help of many friends, neighbors and strangers, we chased the 2 calves all around the property (and beyond).  I've now seen more of the fields and woods near the farm that I even though possible (even found a creek bed when the big guy was running through it).  In the end, the little guy was lassoed after 75 minutes loose by a good samaritan that happened to stop.  The big guy was tackled by my neighbor after 3.5 hours on the loose.  And while at the same time there were police and ambulance on my road, none of it had anything to do with the loose calves. 

They are now on a "barn time-out" until I can fix the fencing so it contains them.  I'm also using this time to get them used to me.

I'll post a better picture when I can, but this is the best one so far (the other had the flash on the eyes and made the little buggers look evil).

So meet Q (aka BBQ) and Mig (aka Filet Mignon)... latest residents of Serenity Valley Farm.  And with any luck, hopefully very content, quiet and cooperative (from here on out) residents.

All beef shares for this year are currently spoken for, but if you're interested, let me know and I'll put you on the wait list in case anyone backs out.

Along those same lines, I am still accepting deposits for turkeys.  I will be ordering the chicks this month and currently have 15 orders.  Remember I'm ordering both the Broad Breasted Whites that I did last year as well as the heritage breed Bourbon Reds.  A deposit guarantees* you a turkey although I will be ordering a few extra.

I still have an ABUNDANCE of eggs this spring!  $2 per dozen.  Willing to deliver or meet you somewhere if it's not too far away.

The garden is coming along.  Plenty of blossoms on the strawberries, the broccoli and cabbage look good and the gutter garden (seen below prior to planting) is seeing plenty of spinach and lettuce starting to pop up.  More will be planted on Sunday and I'll post more pictures later.

In other news, the first horse show of the season is upon us!  Catch me competing with iTolt's Chiraz at several DLSC Hunter Shows this summer... beginning tomorrow.  I am excited to not only show and hopefully qualify for year end awards, but to be able to help Jen school her many wonderful students as well.