calving prep {this week on the farm}

Over 100cm of snow has fallen in south-western Manitoba this winter so far. We got home from our glorious southern holiday and have spent last month moving snow.  Literally 5-10 hours a day have been devoted to moving snow.  Every morning for almost 2 week the lane blew in so Ben would clear the lane in order for the bus to pick up the boys, then at 3pm again he would clear it for the bus to bring the boys home.   Thankfully the last 10 day have been quite warm and the snow has stopped blowing giving everyone a chance to catch up.

{no chance at taking to compost out,  also we hope the trampoline doesn't collapse}

{the boys are loving all the toboggan hills}

{had to move snow so the cows can walk around the pen}

{those are fence posts}

{each bale needs to be dug out}

{the snow is so deep it has filled our ditches and is now higher than the road}

We start calving officially on February 1,  although we have our first two already {you can always count on a couple mama's to be early}.   Normally calving  prep is pretty minimal, consisting of hooking up the cow camera and sorting the cow based on who is going to give birth first, and sending half the cows down the hill to the calving barn.  This year 4 days of snow removal   {including repairs to a destroyed PTO} had to happen before anything else could happen.  Ben wanted to remove the snow completely from the pen to avoid a swamp in two months.

 {I am standing on a bank where the road to the ravine should be}

{wheres is the road?}

 Finally Ben got all the snow moved, so I donned my chore clothes for the first time this year and Zane and I head out to help sort the mama's and send them down the hill.  The cow camera isn't set up yet, but it will be soon.  Bring on the babies!

{you can see Ben even had to clear a path for the cows to go down the hill}

{Zane rolling down the hill}

{trouble squared}

My Mom called just as I was heading out,  her and my Dad had a good laugh, that even after 15 years it's still odd to hear that I am heading out to work with cows.

LJH