#livingthecountrylife

[drewsix]

Repost @sweetstreamslavender ・・・ We are so excited to welcome back to the farm @DrewSix. If you have not heard him before you have to come by the farm May 8th between 11:30-2pm, you are in for a treat. No fee, no rsvp just come listen to some great music in the lavender field. We love sharing our farm with you. Be sure to tag us in pictures you take at the farm. #lavender #flowerfarm @flowerfarmer #kansas #sweetstreamslavender #midwestliving #kidsonthefarm #kansaslavender #farm #local #livingthecountrylife #lavenderfields #lavenderfarmer #lavenderfield #kansascity #seasonalflowers #flowersmakemehappy #farmlife #planting #farming #lavenderfarm #lavenderinspiration #lavenderflowers #lavenderlove #lavenderlover #slowdownandenjoylife #cookingwithlavender #gather #family #feelthemoment #music https://www.instagram.com/p/CN5v5-FpidR/?igshid=1nccbrvjxccdh

[bobstefko]

This week’s emailer. #editorialphotography #portraitphotography #smallfarm #livingthecountrylife #handmade #tearsheet #country #agriculture #farming #family #wonderfulmachine #smallbusiness #inthefield #countrygardensmagazine #redtwigfarms #peonies #flowers #lifestyle #ohio #newalbanyohio #peonies https://www.instagram.com/p/ByTOVYigrYd/?igshid=17gqk0vfg9g2k

[cheeseacresfarm]

Happy New Year’s Eve! Stay warm out there! #newyearseve #babyitscoldoutside #goats #farming #farmlife #countryliving #countrylife #livingthecountrylife #goatkids #goatlife #brrr

[thatssomeana]

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A post shared by BlackSavannah💙MEANAdventureCat (@thatssomeana)

I let Meana down to walk back up to the house, but she wasn't up for it today. No worries, shoulder surfing it is! Does your baby do something to show you how brave they are, or when they're scared? #shouldersurfing #shouldersurfer #shouldercat #shouldercats #shoulderkitty #piratecat #piratecats #piratecatsofinstagram #parrotcat #creekside #sweetkitty #sweetkittycat #sweetestkitty #sweetestthing #sweetestgirlever #sweetestcatever #sweetestplaceonearth #grayfoxranch #thesweetest #sweetestmemories #sweetestcat #livingthecountrylife #goodestgirl #bestkitty #bestkittyever #bestkittyintheworld #bestcat #bestcats_oftheworld #bestcatsintheworld #dtppod1 (at Seattle, Washington) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFsP50GJLdf/?igshid=1c2a31jfxzxst

[ultra-goat-girl-blog]

Calf Checks

How close does one get to a pregnant beef cow?

It is spring, well technically, and that means calf checks.  I have played with horses for as long as I can remember and worked with them my entire adult life in one capacity or another, this included checking mares for signs of imminent delivery.  Such experience should prepare me for calf checks.  Right?  You would have thought.  Sadly we were all mistaken.

A little more background before we get right into it.  My fiancé does cows, always has.They’ve had horses and he is good with them but has never been around a mare in foal.

Here is a lesson that being cowardly really can be good for ones health.

I have very enthusiastically jumped into cows with both rubber booted feet.  It has always been my dream to live on a fully functioning bonna fide farm/ranch.  Ever since leaving the hog farm when I was six I have been working my way back to farm life.  I’ve read cattle books and gone to cow seminars learning about everything from electric fences to bovine DNA.  I love to learn.  So it was my turn to check cows.  Everyone was busy doing something or other and the cows needed checking.  We were about a week in and had a number of calves on the ground with many more to come.  I fired up the little 4x4 truck we use for up at the ranch and off I went to the calving pen.

They call it a pen but to this horse girl it looks much more like a pasture.  Too large to be a pen.  I went through the gate, careful to close it behind me.  Apparently the cows are too lazy to run though an open gate.  It has to be closed before you leave but can be left open and mostly unattended for hours and they won't bother inspecting the other side.  I didn’t trust this theory and still don't.  Yes cows are not horses but are they really that different? Yes!! Horses would bolt for that gate before you could put the truck in park.  So I closed  the gate and proceeded to one end of the pasture to start checks.

I was nervous.  I don’t speak cow and have great difficulty deciding if they are angry or burping cud.  They seemed just as nervous.  I figured that was my fault and took a few deep breaths and tried to show my confidence, striding purposefully toward a group.  They were not pleased.  They moved away, mooing and became increasingly agitated.  

I am nothing if not determined.  I wanted to be a cow girl.  Not all that similar to the cowgirl I already was.  That space between those two words means a lot more than you might think.

So, I chose one I thought looked friendly and walked up to her shoulder slowly but with as little hesitation as I could manage.  I got nearly close enough to her that I could have tickled her with a particularly long peacock feather before she made a huge startling lunge away from me causing all sorts of terrifying confusion.  

My courage evaporated, and I mean poof.  I moved away from the group and phoned Murray (the fiancé) to ask why there weren't letting me close.  

I should mention at this point that I did ask how to do cow checks and the response I got was “I don't know, the same way you check horses”.  No!!! It’s most definitely not!!

I was checking highly trained well bred performance horses.  When I checked my ladies I would scratch the hard to reach places, feel their bags for hardening or heat, and move their tail to get a really up close and personal view of the goings on down there.

That my friends is not how you check beef cows.  No siree.

The boy adamantly told me to get back in the truck.  That the cows didn’t know me and I didn’t know them nearly well enough to be on foot with them.  Especially when there were already calves on the ground.  How was I to know that?  They walk through them.  And when my horses foaled I would have my hands all over those babies within hours of birth.

I now do walk through the cows looking for the signs I’m learning to recognize, with Murray as strict supervision.  Apparently checking cows is not all that much like checking horses.

However!  There was one exception to my horse rule.  One specific mare was a grouchy old lady who never let me near her foal.  Very frustrating as her foals were always beautiful and spirited so my boss understandably chose to keep her over my objections.

Interestingly I called her “The Great Cow”.  Do you suppose that was a sign?

[drewsix]

Repost @sweetstreamslavender ・・・ We are working hard to prepare our home and farm for the amazing guests visiting May 8-9th. Bring your mom, significant other and the kiddos for a fun road trip to the country. We are open 10am-4pm that weekend, no admission fee. Come out and take pictures in the lavender. We are excited to welcome back Drew Six for live music. He will be here May 8th 11:30-2:30pm and the Marigold food truck. See you soon. #lavender #flowerfarm @flowerfarmer #kansas #sweetstreamslavender #midwestliving #kidsonthefarm #kansaslavender #farm #local #livingthecountrylife #lavenderfields #lavenderfarmer #lavenderfield #kansascity #seasonalflowers #flowersmakemehappy #farmlife #planting #farming #lavenderfarm #lavenderinspiration #lavenderflowers #lavenderlove #lavenderlover #slowdownandenjoylife #cookingwithlavender #gather #family #feelthemoment #sheshop https://www.instagram.com/p/CNOl2RWJGG1/?igshid=rj7pwd6or7m4

[maxtedclothing]

Mood. Maxted. England. . . . . . . . . . #englishcountry #england #countryside #uk #countrylife #englishcountryside #country #travel #photography #nature #autumn #countryhome #travelphotography #englishcountryliving #equestrian #landscape #countryfashion #entrepreneur #womeninbusiness #livingthecountrylife #design #love #sunset #home #greatbritain #nationaltrust #beautiful #life #entrepreneurlife #landscapephotography

[bobstefko]

Nice story I shot a few years back on radishes in the new Living the Country Life magazine. #wonderfulmachine #commercialphotography #radish #editorialphotography #garden #gardenphotography #livingthecountrylife #livingthecountrylifemag #smallfarm #agriculture #vegan #vegetarianrecipes #organic #sunny #farming #stilllifephotography #summer #tearsheet #missouri #bakercreekseeds https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv1zC4yAAUE/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1gthsl360x6n4

[cheeseacresfarm]

The ducks decided they needed a little moonlight swim! #ducks #ducksofinstagram #farmlife #countryliving #livingthecountrylife #ruralliving #farming #moonlight #swimminginthemoonlight

[ultra-goat-girl-blog]

And the Cow Jumped Over the Moon

I consider myself a fairly intelligent woman.  Really I do.  But sometimes I really wonder.  Sadly I’m not the only one to wonder.

Case in point.  This year my youngest daughter decided to take up beef 4H.  Not having done 4H myself I asked a friend to help in choosing the perfect heifer, I decided we should start with a little girl that could go back into the herd after Jessi had fallen in love with her rather than a steer who would the become some happy families supper.  I can only imagine the tears.  I digress.  Yet again.

Miss Bernie, Bernadette, was put into Dandy the ponies pen up by the house where she would be easy to get at and tame up.  Wow was I mistaken.  Bernie having been a wild and free not so little cow until this point was not all that interested in being cuddled by Jessi.  This did not slow us down.  Not one bit.  Gave us extra energy if anything.  We got some help and put a halter and a nice long lead on miss Bernie.  Now we could catch her and real her in with treats and love.  I’m pretty sure I was laughed at.  Rather certain actually.

Needless to say, Bernie was much much stronger than both my girls and myself.  Put together.  She drug us all over the paddock wild pony style, on our bellies, or our bottoms or really what ever we decided to have facing down while we desperately clung to what we thought was our best hope for taming this wild and crazy heifer.  Didn’t slow us down.  We were determined.  

Until she got out.  Fine, not a problem.  We could put a herd of horses back where they belong with little difficulty, one comparatively little cow shouldn’t be a problem.  Right?  Wrong.  We chased and chased.  Finally we had her pinned!  She couldn’t escape!

Wrong again.

She jumped the gate.

The proper, nice, tall, solid high hog gate.  Did you know cows could jump?  I did not know cows could or would jump, and when I expressed my shock, Murray, the fiancé, said one thing.  Completely dead pan i might add.

“and the cow jumped over the moon”

If there was ever a moment when my palm should hit my forehead that was it.  I hate feeling stupid.  I would never have pinned a colt like that.  I know better but i truly believed she was stuck.  Thankfully she was now in the large horse pen so was fine for the night.

Amazingly the next day the puppy decided Bernie and Bella (the bottle calf who was living with Bernie) were not supposed to be in with the horses and moved them both up to the ranch with the other cows.  Such a smart girl my Rhythm.  we were able to put them into corrals where it was much easier to tame Miss Bernie.  I think we might break her to ride.

Stay tuned and I will tell you all about checking cows at calving time and you will further wonder at my intelligence.  Although I maintain that was at least partly Murray’s fault.

One more time.

“and the cow jumped over the moon”

Words to live by.  

[bobstefko]

Feature story I in the newest issue of Living the County Life magazine on Peonies flowers at Red Twig Farms in New Albany, Ohio. #editorialphotography #portraitphotography #smallfarm #livingthecountrylife #handmade #tearsheet #bodycare #tennessee #country #drone #agriculture #farming #family #wonderfulmachine #smallbusiness #inthefield #countrygardensmagazine #redtwigfarms #peonies #flowers #lifestyle #ohio #newalbanyohio https://www.instagram.com/p/BvrYQfRAFYI/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1voo8q5jazcld

[bobstefko]

Opening spread for a story I shot on Wisconsin cherries. In the newest issue of Living the County Life magazine. #editorialphotography #portraitphotography #smallfarm #livingthecountrylife #handmade #tearsheet #country #drone #agriculture #farming #family #wonderfulmachine #smallbusiness #inthefield #countrygardensmagazine #cherry #cherries #wisconsin #fruittrees #doorcounty #sunflare https://www.instagram.com/p/BvRvV2fg-4v/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1a6notbyeno2

[bobstefko]

Cover and feature story I shot on James and Eileen Ray’s goat farm and soap company called “Little Seed Farm” in Tennessee. In the newest issue of Living the County Life magazine. #editorialphotography #portraitphotography #smallfarm #goats #goatfarm #littleseedfarm #livingthecountrylife #soap #handmade #tearsheet #bodycare #tennessee #country #drone #agriculture #farming #family #wonderfulmachine #soapmaking #smallbusiness #inthefield #goatsmilk #countrygardensmagazine https://www.instagram.com/p/BvO9eBJAdEr/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=glregfotmdt5

[cheeseacresfarm]

Best idea yet for wrapping the foot to keep it dry. Cling wrap! It's not slippery and it stays on. Farmer Cheese has a good idea every now and then. 😉#clingwrap #Gracie #keepthewrapdry ##lablife #labsofinstagram #lovemylab #mydogsaremyheart #healingfromsurgery #livingthecountrylife

[cheeseacresfarm]

The chickens enjoying some warm grits this morning. Wait a minute....one of those is not a chicken! #warmgrits #sneakycat #WeezyB #chickenfarm #chickensofinstagram #chickensaspets #chickenjoy #farmlife #countryliving #livingthecountrylife #freezinginsouthga