Sad food news...good food news


Bad news:
As I stated in my comments in the previous post; Luke is a goner. The plant he is on was demolished by squash bugs. Yesterday when I went out to take his pic I noticed he was turning yellow. Another good idea gone bad.

Good news:
Here is a picture of more of my future food. Yesterday I picked and canned 7 quart jars of green beans. I took a picture of them, but am too lazy to download the photo. I did it all by myself this time; pick, snap, wash and can. It's time consuming but not hard; just hot and sweaty work. Not bad for my having been scared spitless of the pressure canner 4 years ago. Now it's a breeze. We have another larger green bean patch to do, hubby and mother in law will likely help. We will go down and help MIL do her beans sometime next week. It's more fun when you work as a team.


The other day I went out to take photos of the calves to update my heifer records. I photograph them for ID purposes. I went into the pen with two of the bottle calves. They are the most skittish calves I have ever worked with. Usually when you go into their pen you have to be on constant guard for your toes, they will come up to you and try and suck on your knees and hands and all. Not these two. I got a fairly tolerable pic of calf number 10, but calf number 11 had other ideas. She skittered around and found the slot I'd slipped through the fence to get into the pen. Out she went. I made a grab for her tail, but she was already all the way out except for her tail and left hind leg, which was kicking like mad. There was no way I could haul her back through without major damage to my anatomy.


So she got out. ARGH! Well, I fooled her and got a picture of her while she was out. Then we galloped back and forth along the fence a bit until she found the hole I'd opened for her and lunged back into her pen. Was I ever glad. Hubby wasn't at home so I was on my own. You never know what you are going to get in to just doing routine chores.

Comments

Amrita said…
inspired by you i am re-reading my James Herriot,John Holgate etc.Holgate is really very funny
July 4, 2008 at 8:50 AM
mreddie said…
Too bad about Luke, I have borer problems in my squash as we speak but have enough plants to get a fair crop. Good work with the canning, I have never tried that - I just freeze my stuff. Glad you got the calf back in, that was fortunate. Accidently stumbled on your blog - keep up the good words. ec
July 4, 2008 at 11:19 AM
Unknown said…
Yay for you for doing that without hubby being home! You are MUCH better than me!!! The calves never listen to me! LOL!

We let out our new Red Angus bull today to "service" the girls! It was the funniest thing ever! He's younger than the other bull we have (which is a Charolais) and the Red Angus bull was so excited, he was making the funniest noise we have ever heard! It wasn't like bawling or anything. It was more like yelling, "HEY, GIRLS!!! I'M ON MY WAY!!" LOL!

To make things funnier, when he was released from his pen into the pasture, he was running and bucking, and carrying on like a teenager! LOL!
July 4, 2008 at 11:02 PM
Calfkeeper said…
amrita-if I had time I'd re-read things like that too. I love James Herriot, he's funny. I have never heard of John Holgate, I will have to try his books sometime.

mreddie-we freeze quite a bit of garden produce here too. Thanks for stopping by.

c-well, generally the calves never listen to me either, this was just dumb luck. ha.
July 7, 2008 at 9:27 AM
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