Tangle Tree Ranch

Yep, I need to milk Daisy and #25 once a day, they both give a 1/4 g together, so not bad. I freeze it in until I have a couple of gallons, then I make my cheeezzze. I like my home made cheese, so do others, I have a waiting list. Not bad, but I wish I had more time, but I guess we all do, so I might as well do the best I can with what i have. 

17 Mai is Norges Nasjonal Dag, and I miss Norge on days like today. You just have to get used to it, I mean not being there, but it does not mean I like it. I try not to wast time on wish I was there, but some times..... 

This weekend we will plant berries, and more berries. So if you got nothing to do, come join us. 

I do not have enough  time in a day, so should use the night????

Naaah, I do not think so, since I neeeed lots of sleep. Baby is sleeping all night, so that helps. 

I just have to ask for help, I am not good at it, but maybe I could try. I have to think about it, so I will keep you posted.

TinkerBell had a heifer calf, so we named her Tangle Tree Ranchers' Minni TinkerBell, Minni for short. She is our smallest calf, but cutest, so our children will have much fun with her. I am sure she will grow as a calf should.

I have been putshing with the thought to pick her up every day for the next year. Maybe I could enter in weight lifting or worlds strongest woman or something like that??? Look out world here she comes, and nothing can stop her!!!! Naaah, better not, I might scare neighbors, and others. 

I guess some one in our hood, has voiced their opinion about us, and our baby, they  did not think we needed another child. I am so happy that we can keep people talking, because that forces their brain to think, without them knowing it, and there by burn calories. See I can help them loos weight.

Sometimes I wounder if we live out in the country in North Dakota, among farmers, or if that is an figment of my imagination. You know; just like that I am a smart, BLOND woman, that is to some people a figment, but not to me. I know I am smart and blond, my passport says so. 

I had cow and ponies out last night, not fun, since our neighbor likes to call the Sheriff when they are out. But I got most of them back in. Then once that was not in was Tinkerbell, Noel and #¤###the Jumper. Bob got ##¤#¤the Jumper in a barn, so she can no longer get out. I cried when he told me, what a relief. 

I have only one child home to night, the oldest is with friends, and she gets to go swimming tomorrow. I get to haul horses to a sale, and go shopping!! At Menards, Fleet Farm, and other quality stores for a farmer. I have to find a white shirt for our youngest, so I actually have to stop at the mall. Not fun, but I will do it.

Ramona calved today, a nice heifer calf. So now I waiting for Tinkerbell. I checked her udder, but it is not filled up enough, or swollen enough, yet. If we get some bad weather in, she can switch her body around in a short time. 

When Tinkerbell calves, the plan is to milk her, so we can have fresh milk, not store bought. We just have to milk a quart off once a day, so she will stile have enough for her calf. Can you tell I like farm animals???

Our deadline for our CSA is coming up, and we hope for a few more than last year. We always have room for more, and improvements. 

The garlic is coming, and so are some of the other fall planted or preanual crops. I was hoping to move our aspergus plants, but no such luck yet.  Spell check is not helping me tonight, so you just have to think Norwegian and read English.

Thank you for following us, if you fell  letting us know where you live, that would give our children a map lesson.

Today we had a stand or booth at the craft show in Devils Lake. We did the same thing last year, but did not get any orders from it. But it is reasonably priced, and sometimes you get interviewed on the local radio station. I did, so now we will see if we get some more orders. We had a few stop by afterwards, like 45 min later, and told me they had heard it on the radio. Some where interested in the grass fed beef we have for sale, at $4.50 per lb, some for the produce, and some for the poultry.

But CSA is a new concept in these ends, and since some of these people are of Norsk descendents, thing takes time.  So, maybe next year, or I do not know if we would like farm raise chickens this fall, it is sooooo fare out there, these are some of the excuses I heard. So I guess they do not make good farmers, since we have to plane 6 to 8 to 12 months a head of us.

We have 4 healthy ones on the ground, and the 2 last cows need some more time. 

Anabel, our tame highlander, not the tamest one, that is TinkerBell, has Browner, as our child named him. But she is also a extra mom to April, the calf that one of the wild highlander had. The mother cow does not care for her calf, so she is going down the road.

Both Browner and April smell hair spray right now. That way Anabel can not smell which is Browner, and who is April. Maybe is I am lucky, Anabel would let both nurse.  But even if we have to feed April, if Anabel would protect her, that would help. It is easier for April to copy cattle behavior from a cow, that me. Don't you agree...........

Well, I should have followed my gut feeling this morning, and I would have found a brown heifer calf. She was laying between some horses, guarded by Gandolf, our guard dog. But after alot of !"###//&% Our neighbors and Bob got mother and calf penned up. This cow is a bit independent, and this is her first calf, so this can get interesting.

I got her and calf in the barn, locked up, with hay. I hope the calf will suck, but I am not sure. 

So here is the plan, nope we are not just doing it, we are planing: rope around horns, long horns, tie her to a door post in barn, get calf to suck. Sounds easy...........

Well, we are going to try, when Bob comes home from work, at 2:30am. So I will let you know how things went, or maybe you would like to help??????

Take care, and thank you for reading our blog.

Gertrud and Anastasia have both calfed, and doing good, both mother and calf. I hope this is a sign of the times.

Did you know there is a reason for the safety valve on pump sprayers??? I know why, now, after washing our bathroom floor, due to my own ........

So life is never dull back, at least not here.

One of us has a back, that is telling its owner where to stick it, the other one has a foot that is not good to walk on. A cow needs milking, barns need bedding, plants need watering, life's normal, or................

Our big cow calved, but her calf was deformed, due to spraying from the neighbors just as she was in her first trimester???????

Well, I am wondering, and I sometimes think they do it on purpose, you know spray us. Who cares about us, and our non spray approach to agriculture?? For sure not our neighbors. I am not sure how to deal with this, so if any of you have some suggestions let me know.

A machine that goes behind the tractor, and 1 person steers the tractor, the other person controls the weeder machine.  1 acre done in 1 to 2 hours, is it a need or a want??? You think about it.

Who has time to visit the neighbors, bake all the bake gods our family needs, do all the things that needs to get done around here???

Sounds familiar??? I am sure that we are not the only family who struggles with this constant battle.  I know that our daughter should have been enroll in dance, Sunday school and ALL the other activities out there.

But, STOP, my day have 24 hours, I neeeeed 8 to 9 hours of sleep, I have almost 2 hour commute to work, 5 days a week. I work 8 hours 3 days and 9 hours 2 days a week.

So the rest of the time I want to have a bit control over. I like visiting our friends and family, but we do not do enough of that. I am sorry for this, so that is some thing we will do more of. I like to bake, I am good at it, and I skimp on the sugar, without loosing the taste. I like the farm work, the chores, raising our children and our animals. So I have 30 days left of paid work outside our farm. Good and scarey.

Time to spend time on our money tracker, so we can make ends meet. Time to advertize our CSA for full steam, time to sell down some horses, lambing and kidding time and TIME for us. Since we work opposite schedules, I think we need a few days here and there on us, and our farm.

So time is coming, or is it going????

To next time....stop and see a neighbor.

Marte

Have you ever gone into a store, and come out with more that your shopping list????

Well, I did, only 70, week old pullets of different breeds of chickens. I was kind of thinking, but the price was right, and I can make most thing work, so I bought them. Does anybody recognize them self?????

I called Bob, to tell him of my bad shopping, he said: "I was afraid of that, you only needed dog food".  I bought 3 bags of dog food, too.

Well, we put our heads together, over the phone, and it only took 45 min, from start to finish, for our new comers to have a good home. Stock tank in the turkey barn, with heat lamp, food and water dish. I like it when a plan comes together.

Now if we can get our ditch plan to come together, life would go on.

By the way, how much weeding can you get done for $5,000???

I hope I can give you a good answer on this hard questions during this spring and summer.