Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Saving Animals and Jasons First Steer

I know we live on a Ranch and my husband takes care of 9,000 Acres of Ranches but we don't own a bunch of Steers or Cows. You see we moved to Adin about 2.5 years ago to take on this opportunity. It all started with the fact my husband was a Contractor and would come to the ranches to fix houses, buildings, roofs, Etc. He did that for a couple years before we finally decided to move to this little community because we all wanted to be together every night instead of seeing each other on weekends because it was 6 hours away.

To be honest....I did not want to move. I thought it would be like moving to the middle of no where (which it is) but be like solitary confinement or something. To my amazement....Its nothing like that at all. I am often TOO busy. I have good friends here now and we talk all the time. My kids are in so many sports its hard not to see everyone all the time. Its an amazing community. One full of life and one full of helping others. We may have a sign on our one little corner store that says "60 miles to the nearest Starbucks...our coffee will get you there" but it adds to all the charm of the town. You cant go anywhere without being stopped and chatted to which is great. Everyone waves at each car that passes.

Anyways back to the cows. When we first moved here I was so into the fact that we could have more animals than just dogs or cats that I wanted to save every animals alive lol.
Elvis our horse we saved before and 4 months after

Cassie and our Main Horse Leroy

Patroling the Properties (Ryan, Cassie and Jack)
Within our first year we ended up saving 5 horses, a bottle fed calf and numerous bottle fed lambs. I love bottle feeding them!
Josh with Baby Lambs one and two:)

Ryan feeding them grain as they are bigger
Its something that I feel is so cute....and relaxing. I like waking up early and trekking out to the babies to feed them. The lambs we help our friends with and give them back when they are bigger. Then there was Princess.....that's my bottle fed baby cow! She is the prettiest cow in the world and I get laughed at all the time when I talk about her (in a good way). I always tell our friends who are TRUE ranchers how wonderful she is and how she is the best thing ever!
My baby Princess. Cutest Cow EVER
She definitely is not a little calf anymore but rather a cow that we are hoping to breed. Then I will have mini princesses all over the place! A pasture full of beautiful cows ha! I think I am biased of course. I am hoping to have another bottle fed calf sometime this year too. I just feel like they are more of pets than the food we eat.

Side note: I name the animals by what they are to be later in life. Princess will not be eaten as she has a real name. Our pigs pork chop and Bacon were well....just that! Then we had lamb chops and a couple of her friends. So if it has a true name...its safe. lol
Pork Chop or was this one Bacon

Anyways back to the topic. What was the topic again? Oh yah.....our first steer. Jason our youngest is in 4H this year. Our other three did it two years ago but since we came late they learned more about animals than they showed them. We had pigs and rabbits and learned about sheep. This year we are all in so to speak. Jason is doing Leadership, Shooting Sports, Beginners Beef, and cooking. So we decided that for him to show and sell so we had to get a Steer. Again we aren't cattle owners. The land Ryan runs has tons of cattle on it but we lease the land for the REAL cattle ppl like our good friends the Albaughs. I don't even know how many head they have but they raise the BEST beef! If you are ever interested you can look them up at FROSTY ACRES because the Beef and Lamb is USDA inspected of course, Flash frozen and vacuumed sealed for highest quality AND its ALL NATURAL GRASS FED Beef and Lamb. Which is harder and harder to find. Plus if I am being honest they are the nicest most genuine people we have ever met. Seriously if you need the number put it in the comments and we will help you out. They would probably kick me for putting this on my blog but oh well.....Its too good not to share!
Jackson looking cool in front of herd

So we decided to buy our first young Steer from the Albaughs. Hey why not....He is the Beef Leader and also we know they have great stuff. Jason at the end of this will have to pay us back. Its not cheap getting a small Steer to raise. Couple thousand dollars and then feed and hay etc. Jason's plan is to raise it and show it at the first fair at the end of the school year. Then he will show and sell the steer at the end of summer at our big Intermountain Fair. I love that he has a steer. This will give him something to look after and care for himself. He can put pride into what he is doing and learn all about beef as we go. This is TUB TUB Jason's Steer. I honestly think Ryan might be a little jealous because now he wants to buy a couple for our household lol. Taking care of ranches he has down pat but learning about how to be a cattle owner we are learning everyday. Thankfully we have a lot of good REAL cattle ranchers that are teaching us the ways:) That's another thing I like about living here. Everyone treats their animals with respect and its not like this horrible farming environment. Its a human and kind way of treating their animals. THEY ACTUALLY CARE!
Princess all grown up and our first steer Tub Tub

So yesterday was the first time we got TUB TUB. He is a beauty too. I personally think no one will be better than my princess cow but hey I am a little biased. I cant wait for each day as he gets to know his Steer and Tub Tub starts to get attached to him. Its going to be a process but its going to be pretty amazing! We are all rather excited but mostly Jason is. Spring is around the corner. Hopefully I will be back to my bottle feeding lambs and calves. Its truly something really fun. I wish everyone could experience it.

Here is Jason with his steer. I will get better pictures as we go. I am excited for him!
Jason's Steer Tub Tub


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