Kim Jo Bliss - Moo's From The Herd

With Friday being a P.D. Day, I decided to book off from work and prepare for sheep shearing as well as spend the day with Maddie and Marlee.

When I booked it off, I didn't realize I would be nursing two bunnies and bottle-feeding a few lambs. My mom has been taking care of the lambs but they were off to a country music show.

They had a little lamb living in the house so she was sad they were away. My dad was sure they could take her along but I told him I was pretty sure they would have to leave her at the border.

That was a long weekend hard to beat! The much-needed rain came before most of us started our weekend and then we had sunshine for the rest of it.

Unfortunately, dampened the Rainy River First Nations' annual fish fry but the meal still was top of the line.

Cliff Westover was the lucky winner of the weekly “Catch the Ace” draw, pocketing $400. But Cliff choose envelope # 8, which contained the queen of spades, which means the progressive pot will be roughly $4,500.

It was a great week at the Emo Agricultural Research Station with Claire and Nick!

Working with summer students every year keeps me young; at least at heart.

We are ready to plant but, of course, we have a tractor breakdown. Funny thing, the tractor was put away last fall working, sat all winter, and then we pull it out to go and there is a problem.

Yes, we have two brand new John Deeres but we need to use our older, smaller tractor for planting.

Congratulations to the committee that worked so hard to stage the “Gold Rush Gala” on Saturday night at the Emo-La Vallee Community Centre.

The event was well-attended and supported by many across our district. It was great to see.

I think everyone had a great time and we all hope you generated some dollars that will help rebuild the tired structures that exist at the fairgrounds in Emo.

One of the guests mentioned to my parents that it's unfortunate events like this haven't been happening more frequently so we could keep our community structures up to date.

Here's hoping the Easter Bunny found everyone and he wasn't froze out or blown away!

This weather certainly is keeping things from being too messy around the farm yard anyway, though I'm hoping things warm up for those who are going to start calving soon with little or no indoor facilities.

Our lambs are coming a little later this year and that might be a good thing with this wind blowing (even the barn is none too warm).

The sun is great, and eventually the mud and fun will come.

As you may have heard, Gerry Allan “caught” the ace of spades during Friday night's weekly draw at the Emo Legion and went home with roughly $16,400!

Gerry selected envelope # 8 and that is where the ace of spades was hiding for all these weeks.

Although we are happy for Gerry, our raffle committee gets very sad when the latest round of “Catch the Ace” is over.

Some committee members feel they would like a break from the weekly action but others are willing to continue on, so we will take this week off and then start with Round #4 next week.

Well, Monday was my official first day back at the Emo Agricultural Research Station (EARS) though I am out of town most of the week so you won't likely catch me there until next week.

Still, seed already has been coming in—which is likely the earliest I have ever seen that. There remains a fair bit of snow around and with a bit cooler temperatures for the week ahead, that might not change too much over the days ahead.

The slow melt is much more beneficial to our land, though, so we should not complain. Spring and summer will arrive!

Not sure about the rest of you but I am not a huge fan of the time change.

I thought at one time it was mentioned we were going to just leave the time alone-and I vote for that. I do enjoy our long sunny days and evenings but now when I am getting up, I need to turn the lights on.

My biggest issue is losing an hour of sleep on my already short sleeping hours.

On the bright side, our recent weather has been fantastic! The snow slowly is disappearing, and these sunny days and cool evenings are keeping things near perfect.

It is sounding like we are quite fortunate that we missed some of the heavy snow that many received around us over the weekend.

Normally I would complain about this wind but truthfully I'm not going to because we will take the wind minus the snow.

It is great that our nights are staying cool enough that the cattle are staying pretty dry and clean. Most of the calves have figured out the calf shelters so they can eat, exercise, and then rest away from the herd and out of the miserable weather.

My cows didn't fail me. Two calves arrived on my due date on the 15th and as I write this, I am up to 11.

Alas, it seems like many of them have been arriving during sleep hours.

I was certain our “Maria” cow was going to calve on Monday night and because I have been getting up every two-three hours for a while now, when I do get to sleep, I sleep hard (one of my favourite features of my smartphone is the fact you can set multiple alarms).