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Baby Calvies!

April 19, 2020 / Monica Jacobson / 0 Comments

The calving season is underway on the MI Ranch! Soon it will feel like Andrew and I will be meeting ourselves coming and going!

Cute little British White calf! My uncle Fred mentioned to me that he thinks we live in the “Tabernacle of Heaven, except for those wind towers!” However, they don’t bother me like they used to … I guess a person gets used to the change in the landscape.

One of the greatest joys in ranching is going out to the pasture and finding a new bouquet of baby calves!

Hunting for gophers with mouse traps. Reports have been that the only thing caught was a 7 year olds fingers. 🤨.

Tried my hand at coconut macaroons, oh so tasty! But one has to get them off the pan quick otherwise they are very hard to remove! These almost didn’t make it to dessert time. Everyone here enjoys coconut, so these were given the thumbs up🥥😋.

These articles were sent to Simon since he’s been training his pony.
These are some old time pictures! We probably won’t be “earring our pony” down, that’s an outdated practice.

I wonder if she’ll ever realize how much joy she has already brought to us? Or is that something only God knows? I took this picture last week but never got it posted. She is rolling around like a whirlwind and she’ll get caught in furniture and let us know when she can’t move anymore so we move her back to the middle of the room and there she goes again! She seems very precocious. When she and Andrew are chatting at night it seems like she’s trying to talk to him. I think she’s a Daddy’s girl.

Simon’s egg business continues to thrive! I never thought I’d see the day when orders had to be put in days ahead or we wouldn’t be able to fill them! If this world doesn’t straighten out soon, we might have to think about doubling our flock!

My pandemic boots! This is the first pair of work boots I’ve ever gotten brand new! Usually I’m using worn-out old tennis shoes with holes in them. I’m excited that these work boots will keep the cactus and cockleburrs off of my feet! + Protect them when large critters hooves find my feet! 🤎. Andrew asked why didn’t I pick ones with laces on them, I told him getting four young people ready to do chores twice a day is an accomplishment, and if I took extra time to lace up shoes the mob would turn on me!

He likes to wear his new birthday boots!

Tagging calves. Andrew always reminds me of such a great white hunter when he catches them.

Andrew is a go-getter and learned about this strategy called cell grazing, ask him about it sometime. He purchased a mobile, easy to put up fence that he is using to divide our home pasture. It’s supposed to make grazing much more efficient and save a lot of grass/hay while at the same time providing the herd with plenty of green grass. If you zoom in on the picture you’ll see a bunch of black posts running lengthwise across the pasture. Andrew put them in over his lunch hour on Wednesday. He purchased some more of those posts and plans to put in more soon.

Watching Daddy change the oil, spark plugs, and put in a new air filter. Thank goodness Andrew knows how to do these things, that’s beyond my realm right now.

Ambrose loves stopping to say, “hello” to Speckles when we do our noon chores!

Please say prayers for the repose of the soul of Bill Schuh, his late daughter, Mary was one of my bridesmaids. My heart hurts for his family. A decade ago they lost Mary and now him. Mary to a tragic accident and he to cancer. Bill was an extremely admirable man who brought out the best in those he met.
Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Happy Easter🐣

April 12, 2020 / Monica Jacobson / 0 Comments

Jesus Christ is Risen Today!

Alleluia!

Christ is Risen Indeed!

Alleluia!

Happy Easter Everyone!💟

John Deere 70, 2 bottom plow, and Grandpa.

Planted potatoes on Good Friday! Gorgeous weather, 56 above and no wind!

Harrowing over the planted potatoes to seal the soil.

Schooling from home, Simon’s teacher asked if she could use this picture for the paper.

We moved the herd home early Friday morning.

Trimming Jet’s hooves. Every time I trim hooves, I have a newfound respect for farriers and sheep shearers. That is some tough work!

Coming in from collecting eggs & gathering the mail.

A moon picture taken by Andrew on Wednesday night.

We found out last Easter that this miraculous gift from God was on the way… now she is helping celebrate by dyeing an Easter egg!💗

Andrew and his silly comments on the eggs…can you find the 🌞, 🥕,and baseball?

The makings of orange and caramel rolls 😋 Easter victuals, yummy!🍞🍖🥚🍩🍽️💛

Caramel Rolls! I Thank the heavens above that Andrew is comfortable in a kitchen!!!

Blizzard and Birthdays

April 5, 2020 / Monica Jacobson / 0 Comments

We had a winter storm on Thursday. We also celebrated two birthdays this week!

The horses are standing with their backs to the cold wind and snow!

Brrr! It was a cold walk to the mailbox!

He turned 7 & we zoomed with the Montevideo Family.

The little man holding the cow turned 2 on Saturday!

She rolled back to front on Friday! & She’s working on teeth! 3 months, 1 week old on Thursday.

Since some of you may have extra time to read, my dad is having his articles run a second time in a local paper. If anyone is interested in one of his books, he has them for sale. I will post the first four articles.

Masterpieces

April 5, 2020 / Monica Jacobson / 0 Comments

We celebrated two of our children’s birthdays this past week! Made me think of a person who has helped me in many of my celebrations by providing amazing cakes! I thought I would share some of my aunt Anna Brown’s masterpieces.

Lucky & Speckles

March 29, 2020 / Monica Jacobson / 1 Comment

& Just like that farm life has gotten busy! Due to a neighbor’s bull jumping two fences last spring, our heifers have started calving one month earlier than expected! Never a dull moment out here!!!

Meet Lucky! Grandpa’s first heifer calf of the year. Sadly, Lucky’s mother passed away from a uterine prolapse… Likely because the bull was not a heifer bull 😞. But Lucky survived and boy is she a cutie!

This is Speckles and his mother! This pair is also Grandpa’s, she slipped on the ice last week and injured herself so now we have to lift her twice a day with the tractor using the hip hugger cow lift… Makes the day very full! Speckles was born on Thursday night. Since then, four more healthy calves and mothers are in the pasture!

This flock of chickens just goes crazy happy when I bring the kitchen garbage out to them, they are so fun to watch! Friendly hens🐔

Simon is busy keeping up with his first grade homeschool work and his brothers love being involved when he reads to them.

This sweetheart who just arose from a nap in this picture, decided to roll from side to side this week! She also turned 3 months old on March 26th!!!❤️

He’s so proud of the tower he helped build!

She joins us at meals in the high chair now. She doesn’t eat the food, but she’s so happy to sit with the crew.😊

With the fluctuating markets these days, his egg business is thriving!

Since Andrew and I are out here full-time now, we are figuring out our system. Last year we really appreciated having the heifers worked and out of the way before we brought the large herd of bred cows home to calve out. So, we worked heifers and moved them out to pasture on Saturday.

We’re going against the popular grain and raising some British White cattle, rather than Black Angus. We kept some steers in hopes that we get a better price for them this fall.

Andrew and Grandpa in the background working on a heifer.

He helped out by eating a good portion of the lunch before lunch time!😂 Got to love those toddlers!

Earned the best cheerleader award today! With three older brothers, she’s bound to wear boy clothes & that she did today 💙

God Blessed Us With These Amazing & Wonderful Boys! Grandma’s too hoity toity to use nature’s bathroom, so they walked her back to her house.

Started rounding up heifers at 9 am, and turned the heifers out in their new pasture at 7 pm…now back to night chores and then lifting Speckles’ mother.

There they go! Thank you God for another safe and happy day!💛

Friday evening was a gorgeous evening so we went out for a family walk. 💝 Treasuring these days of having young children and being able to spend so much time with them.💖

With Holy Week coming up in a couple of weeks, I found some of these ideas to be something I may try this year. So, I thought I would share this and the next sheet, in case you find something you would want to try too. God bless and keep you all! Have an inspirational 5th week of Lent!

Inner Peace

March 22, 2020 / Monica Jacobson / 0 Comments

“From Pestilence, Famine, & War: O Lord Deliver Us.” There’s an old Litany of the Saints Prayer book in our little old church that had this line in it that we used to pray. It rings much truer to me now! I remember being about 9 years old and asking my Dad what pestilence meant.

The chickens are really laying a variety of eggs. They must know Easter is on its way! We sure are going to miss attending the Easter Triduum in a church. But I bet Andrew and I will put our heads together and provide a prayerful experience for the children. It’s a blessing to have access to Mass using technology, but it’s still not the same.

There’s been a lot of book reading here. The heifers are eating happily in the background.

Bright eyed little girl! Social distancing is possibly down right pleasant when one has a Cutie pie chubby little chunk around to cheer up the whole family with her toothless smile!

Mint…one of my favorite parts of St. Patrick’s Day!

Tasty bacon from the Borup, MN cousins. I suppose we should invest in some pigs so we can have homegrown pork for sustainable agriculture.

Enjoying his free time after his homeschool work.

Andrew texted out,”Have cow. Found churn. Make butter.”

Andrew sure appreciates Grandpa keeping a milk cow around. Here Andrew is adding salt to the butter.

*Tidying up the garage now that he has some time for home projects.*

Happy 4th Sunday of Lent! May you have a blessed week ahead!

✝️Does anybody else miss going to Mass? I really rely on my Sunday routine and miss being in God’s house! We’re going to “have televised Mass,” with some hymns by Andrew, we’re really hoping the Bishop will allow us to use our little country church during this time.”🛐

Optimism

March 15, 2020 / Monica Jacobson / 0 Comments

Every year I hope for a 100% calf crop. On Monday we lost our first calf. It’s hard to start the year that way. My heart hurts for the mother. I’ve been told three things, “Once it stops hurting to lose a calf, get out of the livestock business.” A neighbor told me, “if you’re going to have livestock, you’re going to have dead stock.” Our 4 year old asked if the calf can come back to life? I had to explain that death is final. It was a tough day for the family, we grieved. The last rancher I talked to was on Friday, he asked how everything was going and I told him about our loss and he said, “well you can only go up from here!” I appreciate optimism.

This was found as my Dad is cleaning old boxes, I thought there were some good ones.

She tries to sit herself up when we lay her in her swing bed, so she’s enjoying the bumbo.

Grandpa gave my arms a rest, it’s good to have help when making Sunday brunch.

Two Wednesdays ago this kind lady came and helped me with a sewing project. She’s such a talented seamstress! In her life, she’s made 4 wedding dresses…her daughter’s, two sisters, and her own.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone on March 17th, I hope everyone is happy & healthy!

Summer Day!

March 8, 2020 / Monica Jacobson / 3 Comments

God gifted us with a gorgeous day with summer like weather and it’s not even spring on the calendar yet!

After a long hiatus, we were able to work with the ponies again!

Sunny, 67 degrees, not even a breeze,
walk!

Andrew’s friend gave us a ton of clothes for Mary, we gave them some beef, then they gave us some moose sausage. First time we’ve ever eaten moose!

We love our little jewel! Andrew and I have been so blessed that she has remained so healthy, so alert, and so strong. Any home can be a happy home when the Baby is healthy!

March is literacy month! These little fellows are so much fun!!! May they always have good, quality literature to read to accompany them on this journey called life.

“Crawl Little Mary, Crawl!,” says big brother 🥰

We went to support the local fire department and attended their fundraiser. They had excellent entertainment, the Little Blue Stems!!! Always a good thing to have a fire crew available!

The migratory fowl have really started to come to the marsh and surrounding fields.

Happy March ☘️

March 1, 2020 / Monica Jacobson / 0 Comments

Hope everyone’s Lent is going well. Today is windy!🌬️. But it appears Spring has Sprung weather wise in Haymarsh Valley with mild temperatures… will be interesting to see if March has come in like a lamb or lion?