by RancherMan
We’ve all heard this at one time or another. Maybe at the vet, maybe at the auction or even while helping a friend work some new cattle. Wild cow!
No matter how hard you try or how carefully you watch them come through the ring, once in a while you end up with one. And once you get them home it doesn’t take long to figure out that this cow is going to be trouble.
Professional Cattle handlers wrangling a wild cow for us
by Texas Homesteader
Yesterday we began touring our old barn. If you missed it you can see it here. Today we’ll finish our tour. Grab your coffee and come with me!
by Texas Homesteader ~
I love our old barn. As a matter of fact it’s the main reason we decided this was the place RancherMan & I wanted to settle in and start our new Homesteading life.
We looked at many pieces of property. And there were beautiful places for sale that’s for sure.
But as RancherMan & I stood there at the cobbled-together gate and gazed over the overgrown and neglected landscape, we envisioned how wonderful our lives could be living here.
And then I saw that old barn. That old, tattered barn. And I fell in love with it. We had a contractor repair the warn & missing skin in sections of the barn. But we asked him to leave the inside – the gorgeous original barn building’s inside – completely intact.
Many people have asked about the beautiful old barn so c’mon in – join me for a tour!
by Texas Homesteader
We raise registered Hereford cows as our primary ranch mission. But we also have stocker cows/calves that we keep on a shorter-term basis to make proper use of our pasture grass excesses. We feel good about the fact that the stockers that come here are treated kindly and are allowed to just be cows – grazing under that blue Texas sky and interacting daily with us and all their cow friends. Our clients have said they appreciate the benefits of a calm animal that’s been treated with kindness and respect. We think it’s just the right thing to do.
by Texas Homesteader
Life on the ranch is always busy. I’ve written before about how pointless it is to wonder what’s on the agenda today, the day has a way of filling up all by itself! When I was employed in the corporate world I used to get frustrated that my days seemed to blur together. I was being pulled in so many directions that I couldn’t enjoy any of it.
At that time I started making a conscious effort to stop and smell the roses. Funny that even if you live in the most beautiful place on earth doing something for a living that speaks to your heart and soul, you still have to make a purposeful effort to slow-er-down sometimes and enjoy life around you. Here are some things making me smile:
I love the subtle hints of spring I’m seeing now. After the long cold season, that first burst of life from the trees is something I look forward to every year. And it’s really hard to beat those blazing blue Texas skies!
by Texas Homesteader
We have several registered Hereford cows and we breed them using A.I. At a recent Noble Foundation seminar we attended, the presenters noted that A.I. typically results in a positive pregnancy only about 50% of the time, of course we already knew that.
Even with its reduced effectiveness It’s worth the effort for us, we’re a small homestead and would like to eliminate the expense of having a high-quality bull in our pastures yet we still want to maintain superior genetics in our herd. But the fact remains that this procedure will, in the best of circumstances, only yield a positive pregnancy about half the time. Repeat A.I. sessions are common and expected.
by Texas Homesteader
When we purchased this property we were told there was a home that was once located near the front that had burned down in the late 50’s or early 60’s. The story was that it was struck by lightening and had burned to the ground. The only thing that remained standing was the brick fireplace.
The burned-out house had laid in rubble for years, even decades. When the previous owner put the property up for sale he attempted to spruce it up a bit by having a bulldozer bury the old bricks and residual rubble, but it was still quite cluttered.
Of course when I first laid eyes on this piece of paradise I couldn’t get much further than that 1880’s barn. Even though both the barn and the property were in pretty rough shape I was fully enamored with it and we could see this was where our future lies.
RancherMan and I both stumbled over ourselves to get to the realtor’s office to purchase this beautiful property. And in 2000 we called it our own.
by Texas Homesteader
When I lived in the city I noticed that between the ribbons of highway clogged with speeding cars filled with people in a rush to get somewhere there were often beautiful blooming wildflowers in the medians between the sections of 8-lane highways with their large concrete overpasses. I noticed how beautiful these cheery yellow blooms were even though these plants were deemed to be “only weeds” by the powers that be in median maintenance.
How many times had I myself rushed past this sight without noticing the simple beauty? It was then that I began to try to purposefully notice beauty around me. It’s hard to beat the sight of a healthy heifer calf hanging close to mom. Looks like she’s being a typical little diva – striking a pose for the camera. (aaaaaand turn!)
