Ever Feel Like You Are Being Watched?

Do you ever have that eerie feeling . . . like someone is watching you?



These days, I feel that way every time I go out to check for new calves. It's especially eerie at midnight.

I'm hoping it's the same feeling that the Humane Society of the United States is experiencing right now after the establishment of humanewatch.org. It's a new website designed to provide transparency into the wealthiest animal rights activist group in the world.

HSUS is a group that needs watching. By misleading people into thinking they are protecting abandoned pets and running shelters, using the "Humane Society" name that is linked to many shelters across the U.S., this organization has raised incredible amounts of cash. (Click here for more info.)

But the fact of the matter is that HSUS is not supporting shelters. They are not affiliated with your local shelter. This is an activist group committed to lobbying and litigating in order to end animal agriculture in the U.S.

I encourage you to support your local shelter if you feel so moved. I also encourage you to stop supporting any group or business that donates to HSUS.

Now I'm going to climb down from my soapbox and go check the cows.

Positive Thinking

Our first calf was born last night. Rather than choosing the pile of straw next to a windbreak, or the shelter of the barn, the first-time mama selected a pile of snow as her birthing bed. 


The calf was hastily relocated to a warmer environment, but the same scenario is bound to play out over and over again in the next few weeks. Snowbanks are plentiful, and cows with common sense are in short supply.


But I've never been one to dwell on the negative, so I thought I'd brainstorm some positive aspects of snow.





This snowbank has been the dominant feature of our backyard since early December. We have given up our attempts to shovel through it. Now we just walk over it. On the bright side, we no longer have to use our gate. We can just walk over the fence.





Another benefit to having your own personal glacier in your backyard is that the children no longer require a slide.





They don't even have to wait in line; the snowbank is so long that they can each have their own personal sliding area. When they are finished, they can spend the rest of the day tunneling into the bank to make their own igloo. Who needs video games?





Prolonged snowcover brings out the creative abilities of the children as well. Snowmen went out of style back in December. Now we're moving on to creations like this snow dinosaur.





Moving the snow so we can access our cattle chute and corrals is a crucial task, and as luck would have it, the resulting pile creates the perfect vantage point for taking aim.

Taking aim is especially important when your enemy is of the preschool variety. 

Those little buggers can be tricky targets.

What I've Been Writing

I'm not an HBO subscriber, but I made an exception this month so we could watch the film "Temple Grandin."

It was worth the $15.

Riley has watched it three times. He wants everyone he knows to watch it.

You can read my take on it by clicking here.

After The Storm

Just a few examples of why it has been a bit difficult to feed the animals lately.

The Details

I've often discussed the fact that the rewards of this lifestyle are not always monetary.

If there are monetary rewards, they quickly disappear into a newer piece of machinery, into the ground to be next year's crop, or into the upkeep of the place.

However, the rewards of this lifestyle are plentiful. You just have to look for them.

Sometimes, when it's below zero for days on end, you have to look a little harder.



Sometimes you only have to look to see what's right in front of you, just waiting for her next meal.

It is undeniably rewarding to care for God's creatures and to marvel at the details.