New friends on the farm, Squashini

Norman is officially a grass calf. I had to go around and lower about half the insulators on the fence so the little weasel couldn't get under them. We did a lot of maintenance on the fence too over the last week. Trees, shrubs, brush, some downed branches, a few places where the wind had blown the braided wire into the old barbed wire fence. Each little spot was a power drain and made the fence hit not as hard. It's rocking 8k on the little light up meter now. When we first put Norman out it didn't zap hard enough to keep him from going under it. It sure does now though. The horses had been zapped enough when it was still really hot to not want to go anywhere near it when they had plenty of tall green grass to nosh on.

The two steers from last year finally got moved out to the front pasture. It was a total anticlimatical, non-event. I really expected to take down the fence over at Andrea's and have them run out, tails in the air and act like wild yabangies. They didn't. Andrea's steer did a little bolt, but I had Norman on a leash in front of him a ways, and he just followed us into the pasture. The other calf hung back, just outside the gate, and after walking Norman back, he followed with just a little pressure of someone walking behind him.

Andrea's weimer, Loki had to go check them out, and the silly cows let him chew on their little bud horns.

Norman does not like them. He doesn't know he's a calf. He thinks he's a pet that lives next to the house. He did a little bit of hollering the first couple nights. He runs when they come near him. I've had both Ben and Apache out with them. The lighter steer tried humping Ben. Silly cows. They hump anything.

After all the squash and zucchini I pulled out of the garden last year and didn't eat, I told myself I wasn't going to plant any this year. Scott talked me into one little pot of zucchini with four little sprouts in it. No yellow squash though. Yeah right. I was kicking the stuff open last year after the plants died to frost, so the chickens could eat the insides. Scott tilled everything up so nice and pretty for me this spring. I have a corner in the back where the corn is that is now over run with yellow squash and "squashini". It is the shape of a zucchini, but a very pale green. It has to be stuff that got cross pollinated with the yellow or the crooked neck squash from last year. It's tasty though.

The second batch of meat birds are well past big enough to process. It's just finding the time to do it. I'm working 6 and 7 days a week right now with summer shave down season, and helping the 4H kids get their dogs ready to the fair. I did three roos the Sunday while everyone else left for Pocatello to get the rest of Connie's stuff. Scott and I should both be off Teusday next week. I think we're going to have a marathon chicken butchering day. Andrea, Connie, and Liam can all help.