Mid-May to the beginning of June we were busy with seeding, turning the cows out to pasture and foaling. It was very dry in May with only a couple of small showers.
Mother’s Day started a very good day but when we went to check our cows, we discovered a cow stuck in a slough. We went home and put the JD 4450 on the flat deck trailer and took the Mack and trailer over to the pasture. We pulled her out without too much trouble but quickly discovered that she had broken her hind leg. Our plans then quickly changed and we went home to get a horse and the horse trailer. We were able to round up her calf and took him home to be raised by our milk cow. It was not exactly the Mother’s Day that was planned but at least we were able to save the calf.
On June 1 our last foal was born — a cute palomino colt. We ended up with seven foals this year after having a couple of late-term miscarriages and losing a foal a couple of days after birth. It was our hardest foaling season yet with lots of hardship but it is still rewarding to enjoy the foals that we do have.
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Seeding finished
The next day we finished seeding and on June 3 it rained 1-4/10 inches. Joseph wanted to put in a little garden this year and so he was able to plant it that morning and God watered it for him very well in the afternoon. It seemed like it came up almost overnight. A few days later it rained another inch.
The rest of June flew by as Gregory and John worked summerfallow and the boys helped me weed the garden and halter-train the foals. We are incredibly short of hay this year and so it is a bit of a challenge trying to have the mares and foals graze around the yard while the mares are being rebred but it seems to be working.
On June 16, Gregory’s birthday, he did a little dirt work with the skid steer to clean up some of the soil left over from our well projects in Landis while John worked the summerfallow. After Gregory was done, he took over for John and let John take the truck and skid steer home. It was going to be a later birthday supper because Gregory wanted to finish in Landis. He called later, however, to say he was driving the tractor home. He was almost done with the field when the hitch on the John Deere cultivator that John had bought new in 1977 ripped off. It was another one of those, “Well, we’ve never done that before” moments, but he drove home with just the tractor and we had a fun birthday supper.
The next day we went out to retrieve the cultivator. Gregory was able to rig up sort of a hitch which he wedged inside the remaining frame. He slowly and carefully brought it home while I followed. Now it is home and can be fixed up properly.
On Father’s Day, we were hoping to have a relaxing family day. Gregory ended up changing a tire for his cousin and helping the neighbour with a few things on his tractor. In the late afternoon, it started raining. The day started out busy, but we got another 1-2/10 inches of rain, so it ended up being a relaxing Father’s Day after all.
