My parents, grandparents and uncle at GriggsDakota now have fresh fallen snow but we remain snow free in our corner of the “southern” North Dakota prairie. Before we drove home yesterday morning from the farm, the girls went with Uncle Jim to say farewell to the two calves, RedBear and Buck, they helped bottle feed last spring and summer.
It’s been a journey since the girls started in the calving barn last March to find their “inner cowgirl”. But thanks to the consistency of my cattleman Uncle Jim, we have 2 year old and 4 year old cowgirls that learned the process of life, loss when RedBear and Buck’s mama cows were lost in flooding this Spring and survival as Jim fed the calves bottles all spring and into the summer.
I was an anti-farm girl most of my childhood. But my Uncle Jim didn’t care. He just put me in the bull pen with a stellar cow dog by my side and told me to watch the gate. Because of that life experience, it’s imperatively important to me that our kids know livestock, are raised around it, see how its cared for and raised and ultimately have a strong understanding of where their food comes from.
As the girls watched the pen of “calves” yesterday…now steers, bulls and heifers, Miss E told Uncle Jim “beef comes from beef cows and milk and cheese come from dairy cows and bacon and ham comes from pigs”, I smiled from behind the camera. Miss A asked for a new calf to bottle feed. Uncle Jim said “only if I have bad luck again will we have bottle calves again in the Spring.” She didn’t quite understand but she was pleased and pointed, “RedBear is big now!” Mission accomplished thanks to a caring cattleman and a little side “help” from two young cowgirls.
Awesome lessons are being learned on the farm. Good job Mom~! Happy New Year!
this is great! i knew about the bottle calves, but didn’t realize it was because their cow moms had been lost in the horrible flooding! i hope you don’t have any more of that in 2012! at least not to that extent! (hubby still working on that disaster…)
Very sweet, those girls are adorable!
You have two sweet young ladies. Nice to see that they are getting some real life experience.
I love it! It is so important to know where your food comes from, and for your girls to learn at such a young age, it will be second nature to them – something they will absolutely pass on to their children. Cheers to the New Year!
🙂 happy new year!!!!
I have finally found little girls at least as cute as my twin daughters….What a great post! Hope your holidays will continue to bless you.
Hey Katie,
You are the My Memories winner from my giveaway. Please send me an email and I will send your software code to you!
Michelle
mkfarmchick104@gmail.com
Beautifully written…wonderful pictures.
Just getting back into reading blogs again after the first of the year…I’m so glad to hear I’m not the only one teaching those things to my kids (I knew that others must be, but never really hear about it). My oldest is working on learning the difference between beef and dairy cows now. He corrected someone over the holidays (I don’t remember who), when they asked him to go milk a beef cow. It was hilarious!
Just getting back into reading blogs again after the first of the year…I’m so glad to hear I’m not the only one teaching those things to my kids (I knew that others must be, but never really hear about it). My oldest is working on learning the difference between beef and dairy cows now. He corrected someone over the holidays (I don’t remember who), when they asked him to go milk a beef cow. It was hilarious!