Spring Sprung into Summer & Hobby Farming April 8, 2010

Has the weather been nice or what? We won’t complain will we? Not after the winter we had. It has been such great weather to get outside and get yard work done. We are currently working on putting our yard back to normal after all the excavating. The messes you have to make just to make something nice. Say that three times.

Our farm is growing and cattle are headed out. We had one loose. For all of you that have read my blog before and know about my Big Momma stories, she was not around to teach him this. As my daughter and I were heading down the driveway we noticed one of the smaller calves on the opposite side of the fence. We had both thought and said the same thing at the same time. “Hey, he is not supposed to be there.” I stopped the car so I wouldn’t scare him. I had gotten out and walked in a very big semi-circle around him and told my daughter to send him toward the gate. With me standing where I was he wouldn’t come my way.  I was hoping. She decides to take a different plan of action. She calls her father at work freaking out that a cow was loose. I think us hobby farmers can get him back in. (Read below why we are hobby farmers.) After she decides to do it my way, we get him in the gate. She proceeds through the gate and into the barnyard where she will then need to chase him through another gate into the pasture. She did…it worked…all is well.

We have moved two of the smaller cattle into another field. These particular two were the ones we purchased as babies and bottle fed. There is so much green grass in this field now that we  thought it would fatten them up a little better. I know we all know the saying “The grass is  greener on the other side.” Milkshake decided it was greener on the other side.  With just the two of them and the field we put them in they had plenty to eat. He decided to stretch his head under the fence and have a taste of the greener grass.

My explanation for calling myself a “Hobby Farmer”. There seems to be some people who just like don’t like what others do and they just can’t mind their own business.  According to this gentlemen, anyone that has a farm on the side and has a few cattle with a few little pieces of equipment is a hobby farmer and only registers as a business so they can claim everything on their taxes.

Ok, here is my reason for farming. My husband and I decided to raise cattle for our daughter. We want her to know what hard work is all about. We are not slave drivers. We do think that life nowadays for some of our younger generation is too easy. It is not easy keeping a farm. You do not sit down and place the order online for the cattle to be: fed, watered and medicated, manured moved, hay to be made, worrying about calves being born healthy, purchasing some equipment so you can be self-sufficient and I think you get the picture.  We also decided on farming to raise our own beef cattle. We do want to know what we are eating. Or perhaps, we may have to go back to the good ole days where we know how to raise and grow our own food. Another reason we found out later was us experiencing real quality family time. That is something that happens so little today. So excuse someone for wanting to be just a “Hobby Farmer”. By the way my husband went on his hobby tractor and plowed our elderly neighbors driveway. OOPS.

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