This is a video post. I have two videos for you to watch.
You can watch them in any order. If you are a cat person, you might enjoy watching mine first.
If you are a dog person, perhaps you might want to start off with viewing that one first.
Some of you may have already seen the dog video. It was circulating on Facebook. I thought it was extremely entertaining, and it is what gave me the idea to do my video.
Enjoy, and hope these help to brighten your day.
Warning, the first video contains pictures of some hideous green carpet that desperately need to be replaced!
The first time I ran across one of these I was totally fascinated by it! What a shock it was to reach into the nesting box, expecting to grab a solid egg but instead to grab a rubber egg. It freaked me out a little!
DAVE: You ready for that "you were in a car wreck feeling" again?
COUNTRY CHICKEN GIRL: Uh, no!
DAVE: Well, we're going to do it on Saturday. We'll start at 10 am. Can you come?
COUNTRY CHICKEN GIRL: Ya, I'll be there.
DAVE: How about Dan the Man, can he come?
COUNTRY CHICKEN GIRL: I don't think so.
DAVE: Why not?
COUNTRY CHICKEN GIRL: You'll have to take that up with him. Here I'll put him on the line.
DAVE to Dan the Man: Can you come on Saturday?
DAN THE MAN: I'll be in the fields on Saturday, gotta get this alfalfa corrugated. Sorry.
DAVE: No problem, just didn't want you to feel left out!
This event that Dave refers to as "you were in a car wreck feeling" is the annual branding of his calves. I got roped into helping (willingly) last year and when we were done I did feel like I had been in a car wreck. Although I must confess that I have been extremely blessed to never have been in a serious car wreck, but I can imagine what it feels like. It took me several days, weeks, months... to fully recover from last year's branding.
Those of you who have never branded cattle are probably wondering what in tarnation could be so physical about branding calves that you feel like you were in a car wreck when you are done. Well let me just tell you.
Even though these are calves, some of them weigh as much as I do. They also have four legs which have little hard hooves at the end that are perfect for kicking and if they happen to land a kick on your shin or thigh, you are going to get a bruise. If they happen to land one right on your kisser, you're going to get a bloody lip. They might even land one right smack in the middle of the back of your hand, that really smarts on your knuckles! These are feisty little creatures who have a pack with each other to give a good fight while they are being wrestled to the ground and are being held down.
Here's how it goes down. The "back man" goes into the herd and grabs the back leg of the calf and pulls him out of the herd all the while the calf is doing everything he can do to get away. The calf will kick and buck trying to break your grip on his back leg. Meanwhile you are doing everything you can to hold on and not let him loose. This often feels like your arm is going to get pulled out of it's socket. When the "back man" gets the calf out of the herd, the "front man" joins in on the fun and grabs the calf's front and then together as a team the "front man" and the "back man" gently take the calf down on it's side. The "back man" positions himself and gets a hold of those back legs of the calf so that he can't kick and the "front man" positions himself so that the calf can not move his head or front legs.
Note: Remember you can click on the pictures to see a full view of them. Just hit your browser's back button to return to the blog.
The "back man" going in for a calf. Notice the tongue action! This take great concentration so that you don't get kicked!
The "front man" holding down the calf.
When the calf is subdued, the "brander" moves in and brands the calf. Then the "vaccinator" moves in and vaccinates the calf. This only takes a few minutes and as soon as this team is done, the calf is released. Then the process starts all over again.
Cori filling up the syringe.
Cori as the "vaccinator."
Dave as the "brander."
We branded around 80 calves at one location before lunch and ate lunch before we headed over to the next location to brand the other 80 calves. Cori made submarine sandwiches for every one and we ate together. The sandwich, chips and Little Debbies tasted delicious and the soda hit the spot as we let our bodies recuperate.
I don't know why this is fun, but it is! I think it is just the comradery that takes place while you are working with other people in this capacity. Someone will get kicked and someone will say something like "ooo, that was a good one, you okay?" or "Ouch, I bet that hurt!" even "wow, I heard that one clear over here!" and "that's going to leave a big bruise!" After all the calves are done some of us even compare our injuries. But not all talk about their injuries, some don't mutter a word about any of their battle wounds.
When the calves are reunited with their concerned mothers, the mooing of the mothers calling for their calves and the calves calling for their mothers is deafening! What commotion and blessed happiness when they reunite and the calf is quickly comforted by their mother's utter!
If you've never helped with a branding, you don't know what you are missing out on. It's hard work, but it is also enjoyable. I was lucky this year and didn't have to wrestle any of the calves down. I took the easy chore and ran the gate! I also took lots of pictures and tried to stay out of the way.
It amazes me how many people show up to help. Dave posted on Facebook "Looking for a Nebraska branding crew this weekend weather permitting. Time for that old car-wreck feeling again!!!! I'm talking to you Lyman Volunteer Fire Department, Chicken Girl, Johnsons, etc......" and the call was answered. Dave even had an old friend come up from Cheyenne to help. This friend use to work for Dave's parents at their ranch in Colorado. Then come to find out, this friend of Dave's had recently married my sons' (Chris & Skyler) kindergarten teacher from when we lived in Laramie. What a small world for us to run into each other at a branding in the middle of no-where Nebraska!! We hadn't seen each other or been in contact for 10 years! It was crazy.
Gotta love days like this in the country. Wouldn't trade them for anything. This is the stuff that memories are made of. Don't tell me that one day in the country isn't worth a month in town! I do love being a country girl!
Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day along with a video.
Calves waiting their turn!
Don't know what was said, but it must have been funny!
I think this is my favorite picture of the day!
Is that dirt on your face Mr. Trouble or a 5 o'clock shadow?
Concerned mothers.
Boring...
Kids are the best subjects!
Gotta LOVE these boots!
Dude, that's gotta hurt. (This is what happens when a hoof connects with a chin.)
Notice Max playing with Lance's hat!
Max, do you think those boots come in my size? Maybe I could try yours on?
Hold on Michael! Don't you let go!
Man who takes his job seriously!
Victor, a REAL Marlboro Man!
No, you can not brand your wife's behind!
How's that tasting?
Can we still be friends?
Chris reunites with his "first love"(his kindergarten teacher from Laramie) Shauna!
Note: If you are having trouble viewing the video, try pausing it and letting it load for a while and then play it. If that doesn't work, you need a faster internet connection. (You know who you are!)
On Thursday, some guy, Dan the Man didn't get his name exactly, stopped by our house to let us know that he were going to be driving (as in cattle drive, you city sillies, not driving them in trucks!) 600 of his cattle up our road to their pasture about 7 miles south of our place. He wanted to see what sort of obstacles he might encounter on the way and thought that he might have a little trouble with our calves wanting to join up with his cows as they drove them past our place. He said he could send a couple of riders (you know... cowboys on horses) ahead of the drive and keep our calves back when the cattle went on by. Dan the Man told him that would be mighty right fine with him.
Anyway, I was talking to my sister on the phone this morning when they started to come down the road. I told her abruptly that I had to go, the cattle were here.
Well this is what I meant sis! Didn't mean to hangup on you so fast, but I wanted to get out there to make sure our calves stayed put and didn't cause any problems.
I was still in my pajamas when Dan the Man was yelling at me to tell me that they were headed up the road. I slammed down the phone and had just enough time to throw on a pair of socks, jeans, boots and a coat. I still had half my jammies on as I headed out the door. Oh well, that's how we do things here out in the middle of nowhere. I figured I was safe, I surely wasn't going to be taking off my coat for any reason. Beside, you see people wearing their jammies in town all the time, especially at Wal-Mart. I also said a quick prayer that went something like this... "Dear Lord, don't let anything happen to me while I am half dressed in my jammies. Please don't let anything happen that would involve the paramedics or me being rushed off to the hospital the way I am dressed for I would be eternally embarrassed if you put me in that kind of a predicament!" With that being said, I threw my camera around my neck as I sped out the door.
I'm glad I threw my camera around my neck. I might be getting addicted to this photography thing.
Heck, who am I fooling... I'm glad I live out here! What city dweller is gonna get to see a parade like this today?
I'm eternally thankful I didn't have to go to the hospital the way I was dressed!
Our calves behaved themselves and didn't cause any problems. Thank you babies, that could have been bad if you had misbehaved. The calves were very curious about the horses, they hadn't ever been around these things! And look, the humans are riding them!
Here is a movie I made of the whole shin-dig. Then I posted the photos again if you wanted a better look at them. Enjoy!!
NOTE: If you haven't looked at the previous post, please do. I need help deciding on which photos to enter in a cat photo contest! Thanks!!!
As always, for a full screen view of the photo, click on it. Hit your browsers back button to return to the blog.
Our calves watching their cattle go by.
Thought I'd snap a picture while I was down in the trees.
Not too much goin on here at our place. I have several stories in the "wings" waiting to be shared with you and now I'm just trying to catch up on them.
A few months ago, actually it was around the end of November, my neighbor Cori called me and asked me if I could come up and help her process some calves. Her husband was busy in the fields, corn harvest, and she had over 100 calves to do if I remember right. I had a few of my own chores to finish before I could go up, but I told her I'd be there as soon as I could.
We were lucky the weather was nice. By the time I made it up there, Cori and her girls had already got all the calves in the alleyway and had already done almost half of them. They had quite the system going and were quite capable of doing this chore all by themselves. Her daughters really know how to work those cattle! LeAnna and Laura have always been around cattle. Working cattle is the only life that those girls know and you can tell when you are around them. They are extremely hard workers. I think kids that are raised on a farm or ranch are just plain lucky.
I do think that Laura, the youngest, was a tiny bit happy when the "relief" showed up. She had been working really hard and was getting a little bored with her job.
We were branding them, vaccinating and pouring them all in one swoop. You should have seen Cori and LeAnne running their hydraulic shoot and head-catch. They ran the controls like a seasoned fighter-jet pilot, so fast and smooth!
You can see how the whole operation went down in the video. I also added some various pictures of the Country Chicken Girl living her life day by day.
I am one blessed individual living a blessed life here in the middle of nowhere with my wonderful husband and our boys. Oh and the cats, chickens and cattle!
I believe that this is a real problem with the corporate and industrialized animal farms! Especially those like Tyson, Pilgram's Pride, Foster Farms, and Cargill.
The conditions in which the animals are raised are putrid and nauseating! They, meaning the conditions, are fit neither for man nor beast. If the conditions were more sanitary and the animals were being raised the way God intended for them to be raised, they wouldn't need antibiotics.
Why are we messing our food supply up??
Why are we allowing huge corporations to take over our food supply and dictate how our food is raised?
Why can't we just have our food the way God designed it?
I'll have more to come I'm sure. Don't get me started!
Well, too late, I already am started on this rant.
Just remember, I'm not forcing you to read this blog if you disagree.
But don't go if you like the recipes, stories and pictures...
This morning as I was going through my usual morning routine of drinking my coffee, checking my email, seeing what was happening in "Facebookland" and watching the morning news, I caught this preview on "The Early Show" on CBS.
Katie Couric is doing a two part story on antibiotics in "factory farming" and the effect on future resistance in humans.
"This week, David Brancaccio talks with filmmaker Robert Kenner, the director of "Food, Inc.," which takes a hard look at the secretive and surprising journey food takes on the way from processing plants to our dinner tables. The two discuss why contemporary food processing secrets are so closely guarded, their impact on our health, and another surprising fact: how consumers are actually empowered to make a difference."
"After a brief lull a few years ago, we're seeing a sweeping increase in outbreaks of Salmonella, E. coli and other foodborne contaminates. There are many reasons for this ugly trend - businesses more focused on sales than safety, fragmented government agencies, inadequate inspection of foods, poorly educated food handlers and lack of consumer awareness, to name a few. The reality is that we now live in a global food supply and we need to come up with global solutions that leverage our scientific and technological capabilities to prevent human illness and death."
Check out the trailer for Food, Inc.
You can stream the movie directly from NetFlix or you can get the DVD from them as well. Try your local library, maybe they will have it. Watch it, you will be surprised!
Maybe you think that you can't afford to eat locally grown food. My question to you is, can you afford not to?
Maybe you think that you can't find local food where you live. My question to you is, have you tried?
Local Harvest is a great place to start your search!
I will have more to come on this subject I'm sure. Maybe you have something to share, well then leave a comment!!
A Day in the Life of the Country Chicken GirlJanuary 16, 2010
The Stack to be moved
Today's chore was to move a stack of hay from one place that we farm, known as Buzz's place, to our home place. Since the weather was so nice, Dan the Man wanted to get some hay over here for the calves before the next storm so we don't have to move hay in crummy weather. Actually, if it snows too much, we can't move hay because we can't get into the fields where it is stacked.
Loading three bales at a time
What I see from the truck driver's view
Dan the Man
Are we done yet?
At least the scenery is awesome! Two hawks in their tree.
99 bales of hay in the stack, 99 bales of hay, take three down,load them on the trailer, 96 bales of hay in the stack!
Wake me when it's time to go!
Strap them bales on!
I guess if I help it would go faster!
I have to tell you about the time that Dan the Man thought we really didn't need to strap down the bales. The dirt roads were really muddy and we were going to haul bales from Buzz's place to the home place which is about 4 1/2 miles away. He thought it would be best to go on the highway since the dirt roads were so muddy. He instructed me (the truck driver) just to take it slow and easy and I shouldn't lose any bales. And we probably won't see any cops. (It is against the law to haul bales without strapping them down.)
So I head out on the highway, nice and easy, so I don't dump the load. Dan the Man follows me in the tractor. Just as I am coming over a hill I see a state trooper turn onto the highway. "Great!" I think, "Maybe he won't notice that I don't have this load strapped!" We proceeded to get closer to each other and my palms were sweating! As we passed, I smiled weakly at him and give him the "head nod" that means "hey" from one trucker to another. After we had passed each other, I looked in my rear view mirror and he was already hitting his brakes and turning around.
When he started his lights flashing, I started looking for a place to pull over. "Man, that shoulder looks really wet! Wonder if I should pull off here." Meanwhile the trooper is on my tail with this lights flashing. I panic and decide I'd better pull over right now. So I take it "nice and easy" and ease onto the shoulder. "Oh, that didn't feel so good, felt like I sunk quite a bit!"
Dan the Man showed up in the tractor about half way through my conversation with Mr. Trooper. I don't remember how our whole conversation went, but I do remember him saying, "Well, I'm going to have to give you a ticket because you didn't strap your load" and me replying "Well, tell him!" as Dan the Man was walking up behind Mr. Trooper. So Mr. Trooper says to Dan the Man, "I'm going to have to give her the ticket since she was driving!"
Then Mr. Trooper proceeded to keep us longer by checking our fuel tank to make sure we weren't using farm diesel in the pickup truck, which we weren't and don't do. That too is against the law and carries a pretty hefty fine. Mr. Trooper tried for about 10 minutes to get his dip stick down into our tank, but couldn't get it in there so he finally took our word for it. Then he left.
Dan the Man looked at the truck and trailer and said, "You shouldn't have pulled off here." The tires were sunk in the mud about 12 inches deep. He was afraid to try to drive out because if the truck or trailer slid we would lose the whole load in the borrow pit. Luckily we had a tow strap in the truck that he could use to pull the truck and trailer with the tractor. He just said, "I hope the tow strap doesn't break." "Great!" I thought, "This is going to be fun... not!" And it wasn't fun at all, actually it was a little terrifying! My knuckles were as white as a ghost on the steering wheel as I tried to steer out of that mess as the tractor pulled me.
After a few death defying moments, we finally were back on the road, but not with the help of Mr. Trooper. We couldn't believe that he didn't stick around to at least stop traffic was we were trying to get out. We were taking up both lanes of the highway. So much for "to serve and protect." Guess lunch was more important for Mr. Trooper.
"Thanks for nothing Mr. Trooper!"
"Uh... just kidding Officer!"
Then there was this other time when Dan the Man was taking a load of round bales to Lyman which is about 4 miles away. I don't remember how he did it, but somehow (probably because he didn't have the load strapped down) he dumped half the load on the highway going around a corner. He unhooked the trailer, left the load in the road and drove home to get the tractor so he could reload the bales. When he got home, he instructed me to take the truck back to the catastrophe site so the bales wouldn't look like they had been abandoned and wait for him to come in the tractor which was going to take a while to drive all the way there.
I really wasn't wanting to go sit there by myself and look like an idiot, but what's a Country Chicken Girl to do when the boss says to jump! So reluctantly I drove there and sat by the bales and waited. Of course you can guess that everyone that I knew and their dog drove by and had to stop and ask me what happened. They all thought that I was the one driving the truck and I was the stupid woman driver who dumped the load going too fast around the corner and why didn't I have the load strapped down?! I quickly explained the whole situation to them, especially the part that Dan the Man was the one who was hauling this load. And those who didn't stop, I'm sure were thinking "Stupid woman drivers!"
I was mad at Dan the Man for quite awhile after that.
We now strap our loads ALL the time!!
Meanwhile back at the home place, we had to unload the bales.
Here comes help from the cows!
Meanwhile on the other side... more help!
Let me help you with that!
Calf standing on top of a bale.
And that's another day in the life of the Country Chicken Girl.
I grew up in a small Western Nebraska town, Mitchell. My stepfather was a piano tuner and my mother was a legal secretary. I feel like I grew up under normal circumstances, what ever normal is!
I have lived several places and have held many different occupations from my first job, working at a doggie grooming salon, to fast food joints, waitressing at a country club to family diners, ski lift operator, administrative assistant, restaurant manager, piano tuner, bank teller, para for SPED kids in junior high school, construction worker, to my husband's hired hand.
My husband and I married in 1996 and have four boys. Nick who is currently stationed at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico, serving our country in the United States Airforce, Colton who is currently attending South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, Chris who lives in Kearney and works for Charter Communications and finally Skyler who is a senior at Morrill High School. We own and operate our own family run business, Open A Bar 2 Ranch, LLC which is an all natural beef operation and a pastured poultry operation.
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