It's Been a Week...

What have I been up to on the dairy?

This morning we had a bit of a calf rodeo. These cows seem to come into season in clusters, like grapes. So I had about 5 calves to wean at once, (keeping in mind these are all the heifer calves, the bulls went down the road a a few days after their birth)and a hubby who is nursing a bum shoulder so we had to be original in our changing pens technique.

Usually we rope them, then push/pull/drag/shoo/gallop them from their bottle feeding pen to their tiny pasture out in the woods; hmmmm....a hundred yards or so. (I am terrible with distances) This time we decided to do this en masse. We opened the gate and carefully shooed them through. They went a few feet and stood nosing around a bit, sniffing unfamiliar things.

Then...BAM...the rodeo was on. They all five took off like rockets...flying past the gate they were supposed to go through. Hubby himself went galloping over to the 4-wheeler and chased them back towards me. Four of them went charging the OTHER way past the gate and took off across the barn yard several hundred yards the other way. One of them came mincing up behind me, looking around and wondering what was going on and where her pals were. I managed to get her through the gate and on down the road.

I turned and TWO of the other FOUR were charging back towards me, then they swerved and headed towards Ellen, who was sitting in her stroller laughing at the whole spectacle. Hubby vroomed around them and we got them headed the right direction and on through the gate.

We turned and there came the last two, straight for us. A bit of luck, that. Another vroom and a shoo and they were through as well. Hot diggity. Nothing like a good chase on a crisp morning to get your blood going. I didn't mention in this whole thing that I'd been running back and forth. But anyway.

*****

This past Sunday we had our annual church Thanksgiving/Christmas pot luck after AM service.

This is what I brought:



It is my take on the "Candy Bar Cake" recipe I got off the internet. The pastor's wife saw a slice of it on someones plate and commented that someone must have brought a bakery cake. I was flattered, but thought it funny. Can anything look LESS like a professional cake? It was all lopsided (I am not much good at positioning 3 layer cakes) and my decorations didn't make much sense. Those are mini M&Ms on top and rectangles of a 1.5 OZ Hershey bar on the sides. The frosting is yummy though, a cream cheese deal; 8oz cream cheese w/ 1/2 cup regular sugar, 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla...cream this really well, then fold in a tub of Cool Whip and chopped up candy bars...your choice of flavor. Delish!

Not for those dieting, but what cake is?

Those are the highlights of the past week.

Comments

jel said…
look like a prof cake to me :)
December 7, 2009 at 7:06 PM
The Lumberjack's Wife said…
Oh, I am terrible with distance, too! That cake is awesome! Nice job!
December 8, 2009 at 12:42 AM
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