Yum ,Yum & Spring !

So in the last few days i have tried two new foods that grow wild here in West Virginia. One is "Morel mushrooms" the other "Ramps" ! The mushrooms we picked ourselves , breaded and fried them, boy where they good ! The ramps i ate at a " Ramp feast benefit dinner" , their like onions that taste like garlic, yummy! While i was shroom hunting i took some pictures of spring !

Hunting without a weapon ?

My buddy Gary has been telling me about going hunting without a gun. Yeh ok, so i went to his house yesterday to find out what he was talking about. So we start heading to the woods with two empty bread bags. I know the suspense is killing you, so , we went Morel mushroom hunting ! Man is it fun ! Between both of us we found about 30 of them. We are going to eat them tonight and i'll let you know how they were. He says they are as good as Portabella's , can't wait. Momma is really getting close to calfing , she's a late bloomer!

Addition complete

The last few days i worked on the addition to the barn . I can say " i'm ready for anything", until now if i needed to restrain momma for birth , i was s.o.l. ! Now not only do i have a headgate but the room inside to side step her if she resists. It cost me almost as much for the tin at Lowe's as it did for all the lumber from the local sawmill !!! Thanks Arnie , your asset to the community ! I still almost have enough lumber to extend the barn another 12ft. !

Headgate!

So momma's due to calf any day now. I broke down and bought a headgate , since i may need it for delivery. Also this spring i will need it to give shots and pills. I am also in the process of expanding the barn and installing the headgate. Lately i have started fencing in more pasture for expansion of our herd. My neighbor had a chance to cut me some lumber on his mill. He was very busy and fianally got a break so i asked him to cut some for the barn. It.s spruce and hemlock and will look nice when it ages!

So beautiful !

We had a snowfall while we were sleeping. I woke up to 2 inches of heavy , wet snow. What was so beautiful was it stuck to everything, then about an hour later, the sun came over the mountain. I have never seen such an awesome sight , everything was glistening, wow! Were still waiting for Momma to calf , my friends think she was bred late , so it could be another month. Odee's growing fast and is making a wonderful pet, well all but him waking up at 4:30am , i hope he grows out of that habit ! I bought more tee posts to fence in more of our pasture cause were gonna buy another cow for calving. That's about it for now.

We got stone !

We have put up with the mud long enough. So we bought stone today, 50 ton of it. The driver was able to tailgate it pretty well but there was alot of hand work too. I cut up a red oak tree that's been sitting for i year and split it. One of my friends predicted that Momma was gonna drop the calf in 2 weeks. Were hoping for a female so we can grow the herd.We are so fortunate to have good neighbors that all raise cattle are willing to help me at a drop of a  dime! Thanks to all , you know who you are.

ODEE !

Odee just got back from getting his shots. He is now 14 weeks old and 27lbs. ! Momma cow we found out that she was bred late and is probably a month away from birthing. To me she didn't seem to be big enough to give birth 3 weeks ago, i guess i was right.