Hoten Holler!

26 February 2021 – sunny and 34

Here we are in the last week of February, the longest, shortest month.  This year is a little longer, though.  Thanks, Leap Year!  I guess we should be grateful for an extra day to get things done, but I think they should move Leap Year to August.

We made it through the horrendous cold temperatures that would not seem to go away, and now when it is 20 degrees out it feels like shorts and flip-flops weather.  The cattle definitely seem to appreciate the warmer temperatures, and while they hid out in the shed during the cold, cold nights, they still want to hang out there in the 30 degree sunshine.  We finally had to lock them out because they will just lay around in there all day and it becomes a giant stinking cow toilet.  We are trying to keep it clean and dry for calving season which is just around the corner.

The girls are getting so big and round, and in preparation for calving season, Dave and I have been going through our supplies.  We make sure we have extra colostrum, some clean bottles and milk replacement just in case, and iodine for sterilizing umbilical cords, clean towels, electrolyte supplements and other assorted medicines.  We are still relatively new to the cattle game, so we have been watching Youtube videos about pulling calves in case there is a problem, and we read up on the best way to help if we have a cow in trouble.  I swear if you read enough about heifers calving it will make you completely paranoid.  We have four heifers this year so we are praying everything will go smoothly.  Beyond the prayers, we are trying to educate and prepare ourselves for the worst case scenarios just in case.  

We have also been busy getting more firewood, as we burned through quite a bit during the polar vortex.  As long as we don’t have an extended period of below zero again, we should be good for firewood and for hay for the rest of the winter. Of course, we’ve said that before. Sometime in March we will have to get the hay down from the hay loft as we are almost out of all the hay that was covering the barn floor.  That’s good though, in case we have calves and it’s really cold out, we can push them into the warm barn.

Now that the temperatures have increased, we have our winter river running through the south pasture.

That’s about it for February.  We hope everyone out there is doing well and surviving the cold winter.  Spring is just around the corner, right?  

I have to mention how sad we are about the passing of Rush Limbaugh.  We listened to Rush as often as possible and he will definitely be missed out here on the Holler.  RIP Rush. You were a great American.

God Bless you all and hang on to your liberties out there in the real world!