More wood for the woodpile!

As we watch the thermometer plummet once again, we are quickly reminded how fast the woodpile is shrinking.  Farmer Rick spent the afternoon buzzing up a load after morning chores.  He's had to put chains on the tractor tires so that he can navigate down in the woods without getting stuck.  The snow is getting rather deep.  A pickup would never get through there now, not even a 4 wheel drive.  When you're working on the wood and throwing it in the old wood-hauler manure spreader, it seems like you're accomplishing quite a bit.  But once you get back to the woodshed, unload it all and survey your accomplishment, you realize that hardly made a dent in how much wood you really need!

So, it's back to the woods we go later today after chores.

We have two heifers and a cow that we're watching very closely.  All three are due about mid-February.  After losing both a cow/calf and 400 pound heifer last month, it would really be costly to lose any others.  The young cow that we were going to put in the freezer went to the sale barn last week to give us much needed $$ for property taxes.  It was hard to put her on the trailer, but we had tried to get her bred back for quite some time without any luck and she wasn't giving much milk anymore.  We have a nice big bred heifer that fit into her stall quite nicely, but it's still hard to let any of our cows go.

Just getting these three safely calved and their milk in the tank would be all the Valentine's present I would ever need this year.  (Except maybe a box of pink Peeps!).  We'll have to keep everyone updated on how all of the calvings go.  When you have a small milking herd, you have to watch every animal very close.  To lose one has such an impact on your cash flow and ability to pay bills, so there is quite a bit at stake with each and every calving.  Our heifer ratio has been over 80% for the last three years without even using sexed semen, so we have an abundance of heifers - and boy do they eat!  It has been such a blessing this last year to have a larger feed supply.  After 6 years of drought, it was getting rather expensive to feed all of these animals.  But Thank God - we have a nice supply of big round bales and silage for the heifers outside, and the horses have plenty of nice green grassy hay to fill their bellies to fuel that much needed energy to keep them warm this winter.