ranblings

It looks like my new calf's name is going to be Penny, but I'll give it a little more time.  Meanwhile I am calling her Penny.  
If it's a rainy year, I won't have to get rid of any of my cows.  If it's dry like last year, somebody will have to go.  I'm hoping we can keep all the cows at least until November.  If Cliff's brother decides to use our bull, that will be one less mouth to feed, which will help the hay situation.  
I will almost certainly sell Bonnie's calf, Crystal.  She is half Jersey, half Polled Hereford, and will never have to be milked... although she probably would produce enough that she could be milked and still have enough for a calf.  It's hard to tell, really, with a dairy/beef cross; they can go either way.  She would probably make some good beef for the table, too.  Best case scenario, I will sell her as a bred heifer.  That's IF we have enough rain this year.  
At this point, I would sell any of my Jerseys except for Bonnie for the right price.  Bonnie is worth a lot to me, but wouldn't be of much value to anybody else, what with her one blind quarter and another that's also been affected by mastitis.  Not to mention her displaced hip.  She has earned the right to retire right here with me and Cliff.  Now that I have someplace to buy Jersey or Jersey-cross heifers, the rest of them are dispensable.  OK, maybe I would have a problem selling Jody.  She is SO easy to milk!  Her limp comes and goes, so I'm guessing it's arthritis.  I think she'll last for years.  Right now she's walking without a limp.  
I'm going to get a few baby chicks and Cliff is going to turn my old cabin-in-the-woods into a proper chicken house.  
I really, really want to raise a pig.  The only reason I don't have one right now is the high cost of feed.  There was a time I had a couple of brood sows and a boar.  It was great fun.  Pigs have a lot of personality.  
I tilled up a small portion of the garden yesterday and planted onions, lettuce, spinach, radishes, and carrots.  Today Cliff plowed the rest of the garden.

    That old John Deere is his latest addition to the tractor collection.  It did a great job of plowing my garden.