We took possession of the five cows the other day. Neighbor lead them from his property across the road to our property.
They are settling in nicely and seem to like their new home, although they do seem to stand at times and look longingly back across the road to their old home.
We brainstormed the other night and came up with 11 new girl names. We went for an "e" sounding end to all the names. A few of the names are the same as family and friends, so don't be offended if yours appears in the list. We've used them lovingly. I don't know if we'll ever actually call them by their names, but at least we can if we can remember who's who. Maybe one day we'll get cute collars with their names on them.
Technically, we have 5 cows and 6 heifers. Guv'nor took photos of each one for me.
The Mama Cows
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| Bessie |
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| Elsie |
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| Nancy |
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| Nellie |
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| Trudy |
The Heifers
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| Bonnie |
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| Cassie |
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| Judy |
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| Lily |
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| Rosie |
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| Stacey |
Much to my surprise, we have had a cantaloupe vine growing along with the tomatoes. I planted cantaloupes in this same spot last year, but haven't planted any cantaloupes this year. So I guess it is growing from a dormant seed from last year. We have had four cantaloupes from this vine, so I'm calling them my free cantaloupes because I didn't have to do anything to get them.
Neighbor suggested we choose the five cows we were going to buy from him. So the other day we went over to his place and had a look. He had cleverly tagged the cows he'd chosen for us to look at with numbers ranging from 1 to 23. The cows are all Red Angus but were various ages, various sizes and various colors.
We chose out numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. It was hard to decide because they were all very nice cows.
He will separate them out from the rest of his herd before he can lead them over to our property.
We keep a few filled gas cans around for filling up the four wheelers, lawn mower and small equipment. The only problem is they are so big I can't pick them up and carry them around, much less lift it and control where the gas is poured. So Guv'nor kindly bought me some small gas cans. These are 2-1/2 gallon ones that I can handle.
The next thing I need to work on is how to successfully use the "safety" caps.
Now that we have a tractor, we needed to have a reliable supply of fuel for it. We can't just drive our tractor up to the gas station whenever we need gas, although I did see a tractor getting gas the other day.
So we decided to buy a diesel tank for our property. It was delivered on the back of a truck and then filled by a small tanker truck. They installed the hose and nozzle. The tank is gravity fed, so it won't have much pressure, but also doesn't require any power to use it. We chose an isolated, yet accessible, spot to put it and plan to paint it a darker color. And yes, we will put a padlock on it.
With our temperatures nearing 100 degrees most days, my poor chickens get really hot during the day. I have tried to provide shade and lots of water, but some days I still feel sorry for them.
So I read somewhere that they love cold water when it's really hot. So I filled up one of the waterers with ice and then added water. They loved it. Within a few minutes the cold water was gone.
Another thing I have tried is putting the water hose to run in the chicken area. It creates a wet patch that they love to scratch in.
As soon we we get some rain, I can move the fencing to a greener grass area.
