It has been really cold and snowy lately--can you tell? Well, we finally got our new heifers home and officially doubled our cow herd. They are due to start calving the end of February, so they have a few weeks to settle in before the real work continues (for us anyhow).
It was quite the adventure hauling the heifers home. The place we bought them from is about 40 miles from here, so we borrowed a 24' trailer from some friends and figured we could make it in two trips home. We were planning on hauling them last Friday, but we were supposed to get 3-6 inches of snow, so we figured we better try to get them before the snow set in. We went for one load after Luke got off work one evening and everything was fine until we got about a mile from home. We had to turn a sharp corner and then head up a pretty steep hill--we got about 10 feet from the top of the hill and spun out. The trailer (and us) went sliding backwards until it hit the snowbank on the side of the road. Thank goodness there wasn't more of a ditch or we would of really been in trouble. But...we were stuck, and it was dark and cold and the heifers were all at the back of the trailer kind of piled up on each other. Let's just say it was a REALLY bad situation. To make a long story short, we are SO thankful for our friends that were able to back another trailer up to the trailer that was stuck and unload half the heifers into it. That way, the trailer was light enough to be pulled up over the hill and home. Somehow the truck, trailer and all the heifers seem to be fine...whew!
Unfortunately, we still had to make another trip first thing in the morning. Luke salted and sanded the hill before we left and we only hauled half as many cattle and thankfully made it fine. What an ordeal! We had planned on trying to actually purchase some more, but after that situation...I think we will be fine with what we have now!
Since we've had the heifers home it has been cold and snowy every single day, so we have been pretty busy keeping everything fed and happy.
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