We weaned seven of our nine foals at the end of October. We had a late foal this year due to a last-minute breeding decision, so we kept our Morgan-Quarter Horse colt with his dam to wean later with the younger colt.
After giving them some time to settle down, I started halter training them. While I was working with the foals, the kids were playing in the garden. They didn’t realize that they were an important part of the training process as well. It didn’t take long before the foals were quite comfortable with all of the kid noises and movements outside their pen.
On Nov. 14, the kids and I went to pick up our two-year-old stud colt. Willy from the Scott Hutterite Colony had put 30 days of riding on him for us. I’ve always liked this colt, and after we lost his sire this summer he became even more precious to us. He is a quiet but hard-working colt, and we are quite excited for his future as a sire.
On Nov. 17, Dan Mitchell from Kerrobert was able to come out and clean corrals for us. Afterward, he cleaned up an ancient fence line and some old junk that had been thrown into the bush years ago. Someday, we hope to be able to put up some fence again, but in the meantime, it should make it to where the summer fallow can be worked without an old piece of wire getting caught in the equipment.
Toward the end of November, it was becoming more evident that winter was coming. The temperatures were dropping lower at night, and the dugout water was beginning to freeze harder. On Nov. 22, we brought a group of cows home that relied on the dugout for water. The other two pastures of cows were able to stay out longer due to our wells. We left the solar-powered wells running so the water stayed open longer. That reduced the danger of the cows getting out on the ice and falling in.
On Nov. 24, Magic Environmental from Unity was able to come out and mulch the caragana and poplar trees that have grown in along the old fence line of a half section of farmland to the northeast of the home place.
When John had cattle, he always ran them on this half section called “Reinigers.” But over the years the moose have torn down the fence, and the trees have grown around and in it. Magic Environmental did a wonderful job mulching the trees that had grown up around the fence in the old yard and a couple sloughs.
We hope to be able to get the fence back up to graze the cows there in the spring so that our other pastures have time to grow.
Amidst all the farm projects and taking care of the animals, we also keep busy with schoolwork and projects. Joseph, who is in Grade 3, and James, who is in kindergarten, have schoolwork to do on most days. Fortunately, with the freedom of homeschooling we are able to do the school work around some of our other projects. That allows them to take part in different jobs and chores that they would ordinarily miss out on.
The two younger kids, Ian and Anna, are not about to be left out of anything and so they also have “schoolwork” to do, which usually means that they are playing together with blocks or playdough or colouring. They are very good at getting into mischief as well.
On Nov. 27, we brought another group of cows home. Their pasture was getting too short and we were worried that if it snowed, they would be out of feed very quickly. Also, due to the colder temperatures and the not-so-helpful wind, their water was beginning to freeze.
It happened to be Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., which we usually celebrate, so as a special treat for the kids, we stopped in at Karen’s Bar and Grill in Landis and had dinner before loading and hauling the cows home. On Sunday we celebrated Thanksgiving with John and Barb, Phil and Tish Ulrich, and Ron Hango. It is always good to take time to be thankful for all that we have and the good people that we are blessed to call friends.
