Melting snow
Budding trees/flowers
Bugs
Mud
Butterflies
and birds
In the Fabricius household, signs that spring has sprung
upon us are:
my
personal favorite, CALVING!!
Farming
at Dry Lake
Fixing
fences
The first calf of the year was born on April 9, 2017. She’s a little heifer. 835 was the lucky winner who got to enjoy
birthing first this year. She’s come
along ways since last year. Last year
she gave birth to twins, and was one of the last ones to give birth. (This year’s calf number should be 783)
Usually I name the first calf of the season. (Others
too-especially if we become BFFs) I’ve been trying to think of a name for this
cute little calf. I’ve had Cleo, Ziva,
Tank and Houdini. I’m thinking that I am
going to name this one Aggie. I’ve
always wanted to name an animal Aggie.
Utah State Aggies…agriculture.. cows.. makes sense to me! When Miga (my parents dog) had puppies last
year, I fell in love with one of the girls and I named her Aggie. She went to the cutest man with some learning
disabilities. Devin has picked out a new
name for when we get a dog..and I love it.
If that happens, there will definitely be a blog post to come :)
I seriously love calving season!! Being able to see this new life come into the world, just as the rest of the world is waking up from winter, is so neat to me! I do absolutely hate it when we have to pull a calf.. ugh. It makes me shiver just thinking about it.
I remember one year I got home from work, Dev and I both went to do the rounds on checking for calves and I found one! Right in the middle of all the poop. Go figure. I had no idea where her mom was. Devin found a little sled for me and then he went to go try and find who that little baby belonged to. Calves are not like little human babies. They are A LOT heavier! But D helped me load it onto the sled and I pulled that little cutie out to the field so she wouldn't be laying in all that poop. It's kind of boring when you only have 1 or 2 calves that are born. It really gets fun when you have like 10-15 little calves running all over the place. They're usually pretty used to humans by now cause Jedd and Derik go and feed their mamas everyday, so you can sit and play with it and pet it. The calves that are born in Dry Lake..man they are their own kind of breed. They are the most skittish sons of guns you've ever seen in your life. Good luck petting one of them! Still cute though. :)
Okay I have another story too. There was this one time (I think it was the same year that I pulled a calf out on the sled) D and I had gotten home from a little mini vacation. We decided that since it was so nice and pretty outside -- ok lets be honest-- I decided that since it was so nice and pretty outside, we should go and check for calves! Devin walks down there with me and he sees this black thing. WHAAAAT?? Our cows are strictly RED angus cows. Devin thought it was just some other animal. He went down there and sure enough! There was a black calf with a white face. Man he was the cutest thing ever. We named him Blackie. Apparently when we were breeding the cows the year before, our neighbor who has the other part of Dry Lake, his bull got out and bred one of Jedds cows. Since his herd is a registered RED angus herd, we made him a steer and he was sold the next year with the other steers.
One last cow story and then I'll stop talking about cows. Our calves from 2016 - I made a BFF for life. Her number is 647. She's a heifer and I just love her. Well I did when she was little. Before she grew up to weigh probably 10x more than me, she would come and rub her head on my leg like it was a fence post. She'd let me pet her..and love on her. Until one day she picked me up off of the ground. I had to stop playing with her because she was getting mighty large without her really knowing it. I found her at the barn couple of days ago and sadly, she does not remember me. Still one of the funnest calves I've ever dealt with. Okay, enough about cows now! :)
Devin has started going to Dry Lake to help grandpa out with
the farming. It should be called Wet
Lake for how much freaking water is in the lake this year. Believe me, it ain’t dry!
I seriously love calving season!! Being able to see this new life come into the world, just as the rest of the world is waking up from winter, is so neat to me! I do absolutely hate it when we have to pull a calf.. ugh. It makes me shiver just thinking about it.
I remember one year I got home from work, Dev and I both went to do the rounds on checking for calves and I found one! Right in the middle of all the poop. Go figure. I had no idea where her mom was. Devin found a little sled for me and then he went to go try and find who that little baby belonged to. Calves are not like little human babies. They are A LOT heavier! But D helped me load it onto the sled and I pulled that little cutie out to the field so she wouldn't be laying in all that poop. It's kind of boring when you only have 1 or 2 calves that are born. It really gets fun when you have like 10-15 little calves running all over the place. They're usually pretty used to humans by now cause Jedd and Derik go and feed their mamas everyday, so you can sit and play with it and pet it. The calves that are born in Dry Lake..man they are their own kind of breed. They are the most skittish sons of guns you've ever seen in your life. Good luck petting one of them! Still cute though. :)
Okay I have another story too. There was this one time (I think it was the same year that I pulled a calf out on the sled) D and I had gotten home from a little mini vacation. We decided that since it was so nice and pretty outside -- ok lets be honest-- I decided that since it was so nice and pretty outside, we should go and check for calves! Devin walks down there with me and he sees this black thing. WHAAAAT?? Our cows are strictly RED angus cows. Devin thought it was just some other animal. He went down there and sure enough! There was a black calf with a white face. Man he was the cutest thing ever. We named him Blackie. Apparently when we were breeding the cows the year before, our neighbor who has the other part of Dry Lake, his bull got out and bred one of Jedds cows. Since his herd is a registered RED angus herd, we made him a steer and he was sold the next year with the other steers.
One last cow story and then I'll stop talking about cows. Our calves from 2016 - I made a BFF for life. Her number is 647. She's a heifer and I just love her. Well I did when she was little. Before she grew up to weigh probably 10x more than me, she would come and rub her head on my leg like it was a fence post. She'd let me pet her..and love on her. Until one day she picked me up off of the ground. I had to stop playing with her because she was getting mighty large without her really knowing it. I found her at the barn couple of days ago and sadly, she does not remember me. Still one of the funnest calves I've ever dealt with. Okay, enough about cows now! :)
I’m still working on our garden. My dad came and tilled the ground for
me. I’m so blessed to have both our
families close to us to help. I am so
grateful that spring has finally decided to make an entrance. Looking at the weather for the next couple of
days though, it could be a trick. It’s
supposed to be a little chilly next week, but hopefully winter is gone!! For
now..
Last night Devin and I took a big step with our house. WE MOWED OUR LAWN. We have a little push
mower but decided that our lawn is waaaayyy too big for that nonsense. I drove grandma and grandpa’s riding mower
down to the house and got done a lot quicker than had we just mowed with the
push mower! I’m so excited that spring
is here and I can’t wait to see what we will be able to do with our cute little
house!!
