Hay? Did We Make A Tactical Error?

With apologies to the real nursery rhyme author ...

Rain, rain, come today!

And come again another day!

A few TV meteorologists lament that rain may ruin weekend plans, and I talk under my breath as if they could hear me, "Oh, please let it rain this weekend!"

It may disrupt someone's golf game or trip to the park, but we need rain in Central Kansas. Some Kansans were lucky enough to get some rain earlier in the week, but it missed us again.

This week's drought monitor shows we are in moderate drought, and much of the rest of the state is abnormally dry. So if a golf game or outdoor cookout gets canceled this weekend because of widespread rain, forgive me while I celebrate!

Since we are totally a dryland farm, we haven't planted any corn yet because of the dry conditions. And this week, Randy started worrying about having enough hay for cattle. He had already contracted to sell two more semi-trailer loads of hay to a feedlot near Larned. As the guys loaded the second truck this week under sun-filled skies, he began second-guessing his decision to sell.

If it doesn't rain, we will have to delay moving cattle to summer pasture. We don't have a lot of this year's alfalfa bales left. So, if the cows have to stay home for awhile, they will be eating leftovers - leftover sudan bales and leftover silage. Let's hope they like leftovers!

After lamenting the possibly premature hay sale, Randy decided we'd move some cattle today and tomorrow, "ahead of the rain."

Oh, there's my resident optimist! He was only momentarily absent. 

Seeing the Light

It was almost as if the sun transferred its color and light to a Kansas farm field. Yesterday afternoon as I drove toward an appointment in Stafford, I again saw the riot of yellow "sunshine" to the south of the highway. As usual, I hadn't built in time for a sojourn off the road.

But, on the way home, I decided my groceries would survive a few minutes and my going-to-town shoes could be dusted off later. So I took a brief "recess" from my to-do list.

The canola is in bloom. It's not a crop we've ever grown, and we don't see a lot of it growing in our part of Kansas. (To the farmer: No canola was trampled in the capturing of these images.)

Though the busy highway was only a few hundred yards away and vehicles hummed over rumble strips, I could hear birds singing in the trees around the adjacent farmstead. Insects danced among the yellow blossoms, not tarrying long enough for me to get a photo.

 

But I did tarry, standing in that canary yellow field under a cloud-dotted blue sky, drinking up the beauty of sunlight and shadow,

There is beauty all around us. And it's there whether we take time to notice it or not. Sometimes, it requires a stop along a busy highway.

Sometimes, it requires only a trip down a quiet country road at just the right time.

A Time to Think

In daily life we must see 

that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, 

but gratefulness that makes us happy. 

–Brother David Steindl-Rast
(from Guideposts' devotional email)

A Lot of Bull

Now that's a lot of bull. Probably 4 1/2 tons worth, in fact.  (That's about 9,000 pounds for the math-challenged like me!)

Soon, they will be put to work, so to speak.

We started the morning on 4-wheelers. But when the big guys didn't want to move, we hopped off and encouraged them to keep on moving toward the corral.

There was a hay bale in the lot. They ended up looking like toddlers with food from head to foot ... or head to hoof, in this case.

For their chauffeured ride back to the farm, we needed to separate them, one by one. It reminds me of separating a couple of feuding siblings. During a dispute, you send one to sit in the living room and another to sit in the dining room until they realize they can be friends.

It's kind of like that with bulls. Most of the time, if the ladies aren't around, they can coexist quite well. But in close quarters like a cattle trailer, it's best to keep them separated.

These three were patiently waiting their turn to the limousine (AKA the cattle trailer). One of our trailers can be separated into two compartments. The other has room for three to be kept apart.

All was going well until only the Hereford bull was left. I guess he didn't like it that his buddies left him behind, so he jumped a fence. Since I was supposed to stay out of the line of sight, I didn't get any photographic evidence of his misbehavior. He's now pleading the fifth.

However, the second time was the charm. Randy and Ricky got him caught again, and they got him loaded into the back of the trailer.

The bulls will have a little over a week with a buffet of hay and silage before they are to begin their job.

The veterinarian will come this Friday for their annual "job interview." The four Angus bulls will be  turned out with the heifers on April 19. The Hereford bull will begin mingling with the cows on May 2. His buddies will join him with the more mature ladies at that time.

We hope they will have an excellent track record with their "job," resulting in a brand new class of County Line 2017 calves beginning in late January next year.

Same Recipe: More Options

I would rather brown 3 pounds of hamburger than a pound ... no matter if I only need a pound for the recipe. I have a skillet just the right size for the job, and I know there will be less mess and less time invested in the next meal or two if I do a little extra initially.

I have long utilized the same principle when making drop cookies. I triple a basic cookie dough recipe. I divide the dough, stir in some add-ins, and it looks like I've made three or four different kinds of cookies. (Randy is not the only one who does amateur magic around here!) It's a great trick for cookie platters. I still make a few other kinds, but having four to six "different" cookies as a base speeds the process!

But it's been only recently that I've used the same principle when making banana bread. We like plain banana bread. But I've also been mixing in various add-ins for some variety to my tried-and-true Byers Banana Bread recipe.

Depending on how many bananas I have, I can double or triple the recipe. Then, just like with the cookies, I divide the batter and add different stir-ins to each portion. These could include dates and nuts, peanut butter chips, cinnamon chips, mini (or regular) chocolate chips, Craisins and white chocolate chips, brickle chips ... the possibilities are endless. I pour the batters into mini loaf pans. To make sure I know which "extra" is inside, I sprinkle the tops of the loaves with more of the add-ins.

The banana bread freezes well, so it's easy to pull out when we have visitors, during a busy time on the farm or on a day when you just "need" a little banana bread!

I've tried a lot of different banana recipes, but I inevitably circle back around to one found in my well-used Byers United Methodist Church cookbook. 
It  probably wins the prize for the most battered and stained in my whole cookbook collection (and I have an impressive collection).

It takes a rubber band to hold it together these days. On the inside cover, it reads:

A Book of Favorite Recipes
Women's Society of Christian Service of
The United Methodist Church
Byers, Kansas
1972

My mom inscribed: To Kim from Mother, April 1972

The Byers UMC was my childhood church, so I love seeing the names of all the women I remember who shared pews and potluck suppers.

Banana Bread

3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped (optional)

Cream together oil and sugar. Add mashed bananas, eggs and vanilla, mixing well. Combine dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to the banana mixture, alternately with buttermilk, beating after each addition. Add nuts, stirring well.

Bake in large loaf pan or two or three small loaf pans at 325 degrees. The large pan takes about an hour to bake, the smaller ones, around 25-30 minutes, depending on your oven. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.

This freezes well.

Recipe Notes:

• The bananas in the photo aren't ripe enough for this recipe. They are just for decoration!
• You can leave out the nuts. I always had to leave nuts out of part of it for Jill.
• If you don't have buttermilk, you can use 1 tablespoon of vinegar, then fill the measuring cup to 1/2 cup. Let sit while you are preparing other ingredients.

***

Today, I'm linked to Weekend Potluck. Visit the hostesses and see tested recipes from across the U.S.

• The Country Cook~ Brandie
• The Better Baker ~ Marsha
• Sweet Little Bluebird~ Mary
• Served Up With Love ~ Melissa
• Mommy’s Kitchen~ Tina

Morning Drive Time

The big-town radio stations talk about morning drive time. They'll play a mix of music to get commuters from suburbia to their downtown office jobs. It's where the stations sell their best advertising space, since it's when the drivers are held captive by bumper-to-bumper traffic. Or so I've been told.

I don't know about that kind of morning drive time. I do know about another kind of drive time. It was what Randy, Jim and I accomplished one morning last week as we "drove" mama cows and their babies from the Peace Creek pasture to the corrals a half mile away.

 

It was time for another round of well-baby checks. Just like we took our own children to the doctor for vaccinations and care, the baby calves have their own appointment to keep them healthy and growing.

I stayed back in a corral while Randy checked the pasture, and the baby calves curiously checked out the lady on the 4-wheeler.

This was taken another year, when my job was the pickup driver. 
I was too busy driving the 4-wheeler to get many photos this year!

Our version of a "traffic jam" came when the cows wanted to detour for a snack on the lush green wheat fields. Since the 4-wheeler accelerator is on the righthand side and my camera also requires a righthand click, it's no wonder there aren't many photos of the process. I was too busy trying to chase mamas and babies and get them moving on their way toward the corrals.

Once there, we separated the mamas from the babies so we could "work" the baby calves.

The "doctor's" waiting room was full of patients.

This little guy wanted to check out his compatriots on the other side of the fence. I doubt he wanted to go through the chute again though. Only one set of shots per customer, please!

For the return trip, we loaded the babies into a trailer. We hoped the cows would do what good mamas do - follow their babies.

After some forays into the wheat and an alfalfa field, we eventually got them moving toward the Peace Creek pasture.

Once they got over the bridge, they could see the pickup down in the corral.

Then the morning drive time tune shifted to "Anticipation" as the guys prepared to open the trailer. "Anticipation. Anticipation is making me wait."

 

Every time we return babies to their mamas, I mentally sing "Reunited, and it feels so good." Really.

The search was on for the right baby.

A snack is always good after a doctor's appointment.

Synchronicity Heifer-Style

Have a little synchronicity with your breakfast, ladies!

From March 18-31, our 25 yearling heifers have had their silage topped with MGA. MGA stands for melengestrol acetate, which suppresses the ovulation cycle for the heifers. For 14 days, Randy added the MGA to the silage and fed the equivalent of 1/2 a pound per head per day.

This is the first step in getting  the heifers to come into estrus (or heat) at the same time. These young ladies were born in early 2015. In 2017, they will become mothers for the first time.

Later this month, Randy will give each heifer a shot of Lutalyse, which makes the heifers come into estrus (or heat).

So why do we try to synchronize the heifers' cycles? We do it to shorten the calving season for the heifers, which saves labor at calving time. (Well, it saves some labor for the humans - not the mama cows.) Because heifers are first-time mamas, we check them frequently in case they are having trouble calving.

I was the feed truck driver on a recent morning and again got a bird's-eye view of the process. They seemed to belly up to the feed troughs just fine, so it must taste OK.

Being in the feed truck always provides a new point of view.

Fill er up!

We also fed regular silage to the mama cows. It looked like a hot breakfast on a chilly morning, with the steam coming off the feed.

Spring Bouquets: An Anniversary Trip

Photo by Stan Reimer, Pratt; Flowers by Lou Lynne Moss, The Flower Shoppe, Pratt

For my wedding, I chose spring flowers to wind through the candelabra and for bridal bouquets. They've always been my favorite.  And 35 years later, spring flowers were again part of our special day. Randy took me to Botanica on our anniversary, part of a short Wichita getaway. 

Even though I've seen Botanica more beautifully "dressed" in floral designs, there was still plenty of blossoms to be found along the garden paths. 

For this collection of some of my favorite images of the day, I found some quotes to accompany them. This visit to Botanica was better than any bouquet Randy could have given me.

 Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made

 and forgot to put a soul into.

- Henry Beecher, Life Thoughts, 1858

Earth laughs in flowers.

 ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"

Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.
~Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Afternoon on a Hill"

 

Flowers don't worry about how they're going to bloom.

 They just open up and turn toward the light 

and that makes them beautiful.

 ~Jim Carrey

The flower offered of itself
And eloquently spoke
Of Gods
In languages of rainbows
Perfumes
And secret silence...
~Phillip Pulfrey, 

from Love, Abstraction and other Speculations

 

Springtime flowers bloom

 like colorful arrows piercing their way to the sun. 

~Terri Guillemets  

A flower's appeal is in its contradictions —

 so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance,

 so small in size yet big in beauty, 

so short in life yet long on effect. 

~Terri Guillemets

Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil. 

- Bishop Reginald Heber 

Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"

-Robin Williams

I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose

 I would always greet it in a garden.
-  Ruth Stout

***

For more photos from our wedding (many, many moons ago!), see my Monday blog.