Anna

What a wonderful day to be born, Earth Day.

Penny had her calf a little girl whom we named Anna, as you can see from the pictures she is all white, has blue eyes and LONG lashes.

But Anna didn't know about the electric fence and she got out...FOUR times in one afternoon, I put her in FOUR times, on the fifth time I carried her 100 yards to our holding paddock that has Cattle Panel.

Her Mother whined and I felt bad so I put Anna in a wheel barrow and took her back, out she came again and again I carried her the 100 yards to the paddock.

Well now Anna is staying there and we have the delightful experience of bottle feeding her. What a joy this is and we are really bonding with her, she didn't even know how to suck at first and we had to teach her.

Now she runs right up to me and wants to eat. We eat and then we run around and get a lot of rubbing and scratching. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Cheers,

Craig

Processors and improving business

Yet another problem...Litchfield Locker is STILL waiting for labels for SIX weeks they have been waiting for them, I guess they ordered them and then have to wait to get USDA approval...Damn government.

Meanwhile the six pigs we took to them have been cut wrapped smoked ect and sit waiting for stupid labels.

We have heard of a group in RI called Rhode Island Livestock Association, you take your pigs to Johnstown RI and then they truck it to Westerly Packing to be cut and wrapped under USDA.

This dispite the $100.00 trucking fee sounds wonderful as it is close, I have been to Westerly packing many times and they have a great facility and the man there who is Bruno sounds like he is really in to customer service and personal care.

So when the next pigs are ready to go we will try them.

So thus far Hilltown pork screwed up four kinds of sausage from one pig and said..sorry

Litchfield locker screwed up one whole pig but was honorable enough to pay for it with a check

Now we wait for labels.

What's next, oh yeah add to the issue of the 146 chickens that died last year that are still here which we won't sell except for soup birds as we think they may be too tough.

Ct Dept of Ag called me yesterday and they want me to be on the radio in Hartford for an hour, I really hope I get a chance to discuss processors...

Not wanting to bother people I tend to not call and up date them, after the experiences above, especially with the pork I thin kI need to call customers once a month while they wait for their pork so they know where we stand.

One last note I have been trying to up load pictures of our latest calf and have had no luck...

But on a good note we borrowed a seed spreader (3 point hitch) and after buying a disc harrow we spread seed in our pastures and them raked it all in and they look the best they ever have.

We got 3 more acres fenced in, in the ox pasture and the cows are in heaven.

Cheers,

Craig