Equipment Review: Barnyard Cat

Socks, Pasture Bad Boy.


One of the best things about living on a dead end dirt road is the lack of traffic. One of the worst things is people drop off their unwanted pets on our road quite often.  That's how this bad boy came to live with us. Of course I let him stay after my kids gave me the pitiful eye all day. He was weeks old and was nothing but skin and bones. My daughters nursed him and his two brothers back to health and I took them to the vet and had the whole bunch neutered. That little act must have really pissed his brothers off because they didn't hang around to see what I had in store for them next. He's missing part of an ear and he's had his hide ripped clean off of his back a couple of times, but he is durable. No matter what happens to him, he always makes it.  Notice I didn't say he's my cat, I don't believe anybody owns Socks. He's his own man and comes and goes like he pleases. He's 14 years old now and I hear that's pretty old for a cat that's never spent a single night in a house.  I will say this, he does a fine job of keeping the rodents and snakes out of my barn and feed containers, and in turn, I feed him. Here's how he stacks up on a scale of  1 to 10:

Rodent Control-10
Snake Control-7
Value vs Feed Cost-9
Hugability-10

On a more serious note, Shadow our new bull calf is doing good. He is getting more active everyday and he's a joy to watch as he runs and hops around the pasture. I'm gonna put him and his mom in with the big cows at the end of the week. His mom has a bad milk bag. The ligaments that hold her udder up are torn or stretched so bad that her bag hangs way too low. It would be very easy for her to scrape it and have it get infected. It breaks my heart but I don't plan on breeding her again, and that was the main reason I bought her. I think I got snookered.  I have read that it's a genetic thing and will be passed on to her offspring.  Next time I buy a cow, I'm gonna have to have some kind of Udder gauruntee. I'm gonna have a real equipment review soon. I just bought a motorized auger for fence post. I plan on using it on Thursday and then I'll tell you all about it. 

Shadow checking Bonnie out. 

He's filling out nicely.

I'm Blogging Again or alternate title " You Cant Handle the Truth!

I love that scene in A Few Good Men when Jack Nicholson tells Tom Cruise that he "CAN"T HANDLE THE TRUTH". That is so very true about so many subjects. We were having lunch after Church today with our friends and were asked what we were going to name our new calf. Our friend stopped there and said, " Oh yall are gonna eat it aren't you? I couldn't eat anything that I took care of and fed." Well yes we are gonna eat it, two years from now. But that little calf that I have named "Shadow" is gonna have an awesome two years before that happens. 

Shadow enjoying some fresh Mama's Milk.

Most people buy their meat from a chain grocery store and therefore are disconnected from the truth about where their meat comes from. It's sitting there in the counter all neatly wrapped and there is no evidence that it was once a living breathing animal. If that is you that's how you live, that's OK with me, but the hard truth that people really don't want to hear is you are supporting factory farming and that package of burger you're buying didn't come from any one cow, it came from the scraps of many cows. Those cows were not treated very well. There is antibiotics in your meat. Those cows had to have loads of antibiotics so they wouldn't die of disease in the conditions they are raised. Those cows never walk leisurely across a green pasture stopping to munch on some grass as they head down to the pond to get a drink. They stand in manure 24/7 with no shade and are fed grain by a conveyor or truck. I could go on and on about feedlot beef but I'll save that for another time.

Typical Feedlot operation. 

Let's get back to Shadow and his life, Shadow will outlive your beef by almost a year. During that time, he will run, play, and watch butterflies land on wild flowers. He'll enjoy many trips to the pond for a cool drink and he'll wade around in there every now and then eating lily pads. He'll always have access to shade and  he'll spend a lot of time laying in the shade of Hickory trees just like he is doing right this very minute as I watch him through my window.  He'll be with other cattle, but he'll never be crowded. He'll be rotated weekly through a series of pastures to make sure he has fresh healthy grass to eat at all times. He'll never eat corn, and he'll never be implanted with growth hormones. He'll never be injected with antibiotics. He'll be happy and healthy. As a cow's life goes, he's gonna have it pretty good. Don't think that we are terrible people because we eat our own beef. The truth is, We're much kinder than the millions of people that get they're beef from the store. 

I'm gonna be bloggin about raising your own food and buying locally raised food. I'll be reviewing some equipment, and telling you about things we do as we raise our own food. There will be some cool photography and some cell phone pics. I think I'm pretty funny so I'll be cracking some jokes. Check out my blog often. I am gonna make a real effort to post at least a couple of times a week.