Catch Pen

Well, we had a busy and productive weekend!  Oakley got her first tooth last week!  You can barely see it but you can feel it!  Saturday, we went to a birthday party for a little girl at Oakley’s daycare and then we went to our friends’ housewarming party.  Before we went to the parties on Saturday, Andrew finished something he had been working on for a week or two, our catch pen!  When we get more cows, he can put all of them in the catch pen and it will be easier for him to work them.  The catch pen opens up into the barn and the pasture. He plans on putting his working chute inside the barn, and then if it rains or it’s really hot outside he’ll be covered.  Since we don’t have a tractor yet, Andrew dug every hole with a shovel and they were about three feet deep by one foot wide.  He cut down cedar trees around our property, which we have plenty of, and used them for the posts.  Then, he cemented them in.  I think he had between 13-16 posts.  It was a lot of work, but he’s finally done!

Maggie was staying in the barn because it was easy to bottle feed her in there and she was covered from the rain and weather, but she’s getting bigger and definitely needs more room.  She’s done being bottle fed, so the barn wasn’t really cutting it anymore. Our fencing is almost done but not quite, so in the meantime, we’re keeping her in the catch pen and she’s loving life!  She runs around and it’s not unusual to find the cats and chickens in there with her.  She’s warmed up a lot and lets Andrew pet her. Maybe I need to start feeding her so she’ll let me get that close…  Anyway, Andrew is super relieved to have his catch pen done and it feels like we’re getting one step closer to being able to get more cows.  Exciting things have been happening around the farm!