Heifer and bull calf. The heifer’s mother is off camera. She was running a fever last week and has lost a lot of condition. We are really worried about her. The vet took care of the little bull calf when he was out. Lots of things going on in that video not the least of which is ringworm. On top of everything else. Ringworm. It has been cool and wet for a few weeks here. Very little direct sunlight. And we’re feeling the pain.
@SSF –can’t you read bovine lips? Flora is a back up singer for the Grass Fed Anthem song – Oh Happy Day! Put the song on while you watch the vid of Flora and you will see what I mean 😉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfGDvDGE7zk
(No religious offense intended I Love this uplifting song and Grass Fed is such an uplifting Happy Day on so many fronts!)
@HFS – When I see your recent vid and pics my Cdn Prairie brain automatically places these as older picture from a few mths ago before it snowed. I just read elsewhere from a lady in IL that they virtually had no snow yet so am rethinking these pics as more or less current. It would be interesting to read a current Walk thru the Pastures and see what is happening and with your Tall Fescue you taught me about this spring. Also wonder what a Week of Work for HFS on the farm looks like these days. I reckon it is dark when you leave for work in the morning and dark when you get home. Do you have a really good headlamp or how does this all go down?
We had a couple of inches of snow at Thanksgiving. We have had several warm and cool cycles since then. Right now it is below 30 and snowing lightly but the ground is a little muddy. We seem to be stuck in this not-quite-frozen pattern and it’s awful.
I’m at my worst right now. The sun rises at 7:15 and goes down at 4:30. I rarely see it. Short days put me in a funk every year as you can tell by blog frequency. Also, Julie and I have had a hard time getting out of bed on cold mornings in a cold house. The routine is much the same but she and the oldest boy get evening chores finished before I get home. Sometimes I get home late…grocery shopping or last-minute Christmas gifts. So I may carry feed or hay out but Julie runs the farm. My evenings are spent reading with and to the kids near the fire and staring at the clock hoping bedtime will finally arrive.
Ringworm? That sucks. We had issues with that here when I was a kid, and I remember my Mum picked it up from the cattle. I don’t remember what the treatment was back then, but I do remember we were constantly disinfecting everything – which is just what you need – more stuff to do in your short days.
@Kari – yup, the music fits all right, but if he trained the cows to chew on command, they could do any song he wants :).
Was your mom’s ringworm cure toothpaste? My ex’s family had a 750 head Hereford ranch (traditional pasture not feedlot) and they all swore by the Colgate toothpaste!
Some folks put iodine on to clean up show cattle quickly. We usually just let it run its course but Julie makes a lotion for the dairy cows with tea tree oil and who knows what else. You’ll have to ask her.
I am almost glad to hear about your funk being the cause of less frequent blogging I was starting to think you didn’t luv your blogging family anymore and was starting to brace for you to take a blogging hiatus! Good news is the first day of Winter is on Sunday and the days will slowly start to get longer. It had been a gloomy fall/winter on the Prairies too – seems we only get maybe one day of sun a wk lately and we are used to a lot more than that but the winter has been milder lately so we hate to complain.
You sound like a Canadian eh with the Winter Blahs and need a Vitamin D supplement! Check out this news features from one of our main Cdn TV stns. (She does not really come out and say it helps – in Canada vitamin and natural health companies cannot make claims without scientific proof or something like that.) The lady says due to the angle of the rays of the sun our bodies cannot make Vitamin D btwn Oct to May!! She shows how much food you would need to eat daily to get your Health Canada recommended dose of 600 iu/day = 20-30 eggs/day (conventional not grass fed I am sure!), or 5 tins of tuna/day, or 6 glasses of milk/day. Assuming 600 iu’s is enough. I test low in Vitamin D and my MD has me take 5,000 iu/day – I take D-Drops and health food store pills to get this daily dose. You likely have a Vit D double whammy of no sun and your milk cows are out of the dairy now ? so you are not getting your big daily dose of Vit D in your milk anymore right? Go for a simple blood test or if you are one of those guys who don’t go to the doctor period, just pick up a bottle and see if it helps you. I am sure with Julie’s doTerra background you know natural supplements need to be taken long term for proper results vs taking a Tylenol for an instant headache cure. Check it out!
I haven’t been taking my supplements. Or eating well. Or eating much at all. Julie packs my lunch and breakfast and (can you imagine?) gets upset if I don’t open my lunchbox all day…like…every day.
Being granola crunchy West Coasters, we give this winter funk a name and a syndrome all it’s own, because most of us live in damp, drizzly, dark gloom all winter long – we may not freeze, and it may just rain a lot but, man, mud and socked in grey sky gets depressing. So we call it SAD. Pretty good, huh? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder. And you won’t be surprised to know that light is what you need, Bright light. And maybe some melatonin.
I have heard about S.A.D. lights for yrs but don’t know anyone who has tried them – do you? I agree that light plays a big role. I recently took a wk long Auto Immunity Summit webinar with about 40 lecturers mostly Functional Medicine MDs, NDs, Chiro, etc of some fame, many of them also authors and some of them recommended a free computer program that changes the light on your computer and devices to dim the light at night though. You can download f:lux for free, google it- lots of articles about insomnia, Dr Mercola who has interviewed Joel a number of times has a few articles about this too. You can adjust the brightness while you get used to it. https://justgetflux.com/
That’s good you have flux installed already then your screen time is not interfering with the normal nighttime release of melatonin or your circadian system. Not that it will beat the winter blahs but hopefully you are at least sleeping better.
Chism Heritage Farm 
LOL!! She’s pretty! Two boys, or, just the one? How old are they? I am wanting to find a Mini Jersey cow so badly!! I guess I’m just too picky. lol
Heifer and bull calf. The heifer’s mother is off camera. She was running a fever last week and has lost a lot of condition. We are really worried about her. The vet took care of the little bull calf when he was out. Lots of things going on in that video not the least of which is ringworm. On top of everything else. Ringworm. It has been cool and wet for a few weeks here. Very little direct sunlight. And we’re feeling the pain.
Nice, though with more practice, maybe you could get them to chew in better unison, then put it to music…
Hmmmm. Music. Hmmmm.
@SSF –can’t you read bovine lips? Flora is a back up singer for the Grass Fed Anthem song – Oh Happy Day! Put the song on while you watch the vid of Flora and you will see what I mean 😉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfGDvDGE7zk
(No religious offense intended I Love this uplifting song and Grass Fed is such an uplifting Happy Day on so many fronts!)
@HFS – When I see your recent vid and pics my Cdn Prairie brain automatically places these as older picture from a few mths ago before it snowed. I just read elsewhere from a lady in IL that they virtually had no snow yet so am rethinking these pics as more or less current. It would be interesting to read a current Walk thru the Pastures and see what is happening and with your Tall Fescue you taught me about this spring. Also wonder what a Week of Work for HFS on the farm looks like these days. I reckon it is dark when you leave for work in the morning and dark when you get home. Do you have a really good headlamp or how does this all go down?
We had a couple of inches of snow at Thanksgiving. We have had several warm and cool cycles since then. Right now it is below 30 and snowing lightly but the ground is a little muddy. We seem to be stuck in this not-quite-frozen pattern and it’s awful.
I’m at my worst right now. The sun rises at 7:15 and goes down at 4:30. I rarely see it. Short days put me in a funk every year as you can tell by blog frequency. Also, Julie and I have had a hard time getting out of bed on cold mornings in a cold house. The routine is much the same but she and the oldest boy get evening chores finished before I get home. Sometimes I get home late…grocery shopping or last-minute Christmas gifts. So I may carry feed or hay out but Julie runs the farm. My evenings are spent reading with and to the kids near the fire and staring at the clock hoping bedtime will finally arrive.
You want fescue? Oh, I’ll give you fescue. Just you wait.
Ringworm? That sucks. We had issues with that here when I was a kid, and I remember my Mum picked it up from the cattle. I don’t remember what the treatment was back then, but I do remember we were constantly disinfecting everything – which is just what you need – more stuff to do in your short days.
@Kari – yup, the music fits all right, but if he trained the cows to chew on command, they could do any song he wants :).
Was your mom’s ringworm cure toothpaste? My ex’s family had a 750 head Hereford ranch (traditional pasture not feedlot) and they all swore by the Colgate toothpaste!
I honestly don’t remember if it was toothpaste. That is weird, I wonder what was in Colgate that made it work…
The best cure is sunshine. This is my sad face.
Some folks put iodine on to clean up show cattle quickly. We usually just let it run its course but Julie makes a lotion for the dairy cows with tea tree oil and who knows what else. You’ll have to ask her.
I am almost glad to hear about your funk being the cause of less frequent blogging I was starting to think you didn’t luv your blogging family anymore and was starting to brace for you to take a blogging hiatus! Good news is the first day of Winter is on Sunday and the days will slowly start to get longer. It had been a gloomy fall/winter on the Prairies too – seems we only get maybe one day of sun a wk lately and we are used to a lot more than that but the winter has been milder lately so we hate to complain.
You sound like a Canadian eh with the Winter Blahs and need a Vitamin D supplement! Check out this news features from one of our main Cdn TV stns. (She does not really come out and say it helps – in Canada vitamin and natural health companies cannot make claims without scientific proof or something like that.) The lady says due to the angle of the rays of the sun our bodies cannot make Vitamin D btwn Oct to May!! She shows how much food you would need to eat daily to get your Health Canada recommended dose of 600 iu/day = 20-30 eggs/day (conventional not grass fed I am sure!), or 5 tins of tuna/day, or 6 glasses of milk/day. Assuming 600 iu’s is enough. I test low in Vitamin D and my MD has me take 5,000 iu/day – I take D-Drops and health food store pills to get this daily dose. You likely have a Vit D double whammy of no sun and your milk cows are out of the dairy now ? so you are not getting your big daily dose of Vit D in your milk anymore right? Go for a simple blood test or if you are one of those guys who don’t go to the doctor period, just pick up a bottle and see if it helps you. I am sure with Julie’s doTerra background you know natural supplements need to be taken long term for proper results vs taking a Tylenol for an instant headache cure. Check it out!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/life-video/video-avoid-the-winter-blahs-by-adding-vitamin-d-to-your-diet/article5566903/
I am on standby for more Fescue – lol!
I haven’t been taking my supplements. Or eating well. Or eating much at all. Julie packs my lunch and breakfast and (can you imagine?) gets upset if I don’t open my lunchbox all day…like…every day.
HFS! I am with Julie on that! I am gonna ask Santa to bring you a few of your favorite things – some piglets to snap you out of your funk 😉
Being granola crunchy West Coasters, we give this winter funk a name and a syndrome all it’s own, because most of us live in damp, drizzly, dark gloom all winter long – we may not freeze, and it may just rain a lot but, man, mud and socked in grey sky gets depressing. So we call it SAD. Pretty good, huh? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder. And you won’t be surprised to know that light is what you need, Bright light. And maybe some melatonin.
I have heard about S.A.D. lights for yrs but don’t know anyone who has tried them – do you? I agree that light plays a big role. I recently took a wk long Auto Immunity Summit webinar with about 40 lecturers mostly Functional Medicine MDs, NDs, Chiro, etc of some fame, many of them also authors and some of them recommended a free computer program that changes the light on your computer and devices to dim the light at night though. You can download f:lux for free, google it- lots of articles about insomnia, Dr Mercola who has interviewed Joel a number of times has a few articles about this too. You can adjust the brightness while you get used to it. https://justgetflux.com/
I install flux on just about every machine I touch. But I also try not to spend a lot of time on a computer in the evening.
But that, I thought, was mostly about ensuring quality of sleep. Similar to dimming the lights in your house in the evening.
That’s good you have flux installed already then your screen time is not interfering with the normal nighttime release of melatonin or your circadian system. Not that it will beat the winter blahs but hopefully you are at least sleeping better.