These Boots Were Made for Watching

These boots are made for "watching"

And that's just what they'll do.

One of these days these boots

Are gonna help sort cattle, too.

Last week, I sent out my apologies for appropriating Bryan Adams' Everything I Do, I Do It for You as my Barnyard Ballad of the Week. Today, my timeless tune is Nancy Sinatra's These Boots Are Made for Walking.

These boots, however, belong to Miss E, our sometimes cattle helper. And her boots were made for watching as we gathered, sorted and hauled cow-calf pairs last week.

These boots were also made for running ...

 

For climbing ...

And for counting baby calves ...

Miss E's boots got to witness the arrival of baby calves and their mamas to summer pasture. Her trailer included the little brown calf she had claimed as her own. Here was "her" baby when Miss E helped us work the calves on March 20 ...

... and as it arrived at the Rattlesnake Pasture on May 15.

Those boots stood by as the mamas, babies and bulls came out of the pens and took their first look at the pastures where they'll spend the next few months.

Miss E's boots also got a piggyback ride or two.

Can you tell that my tennis shoes were not afforded that same luxury?

 

Instead, they walked through that mud puddle, where Randy had to come and rescue me from sinking. (Yes, he told me I should go over the fence. I should have listened.)

But my "cattle shoes" lasted through this tour of duty. We got all the pairs moved last week to three different pastures. The cattle's arrival at the Rattlesnake Pasture was delayed by design. Most years, we move cattle to that pasture May 1. Because of the drought, the pasture's grass reserves have been depleted. So we took a third fewer pairs to pasture and also delayed the transition by two weeks to give the grasses a little more time to grow. 

My shoes were made for walking

And that's just what they'll do.

One of these days these shoes

Are gonna be too trashed to use. 

 A little equal time: Arrival at the Ninnescah Pasture

Everything I Do, I Do It For You

As Mr. Bull looked longingly over the fence at the "ladies," a sound track looped through my mind. With apologies to rock crooner Bryan Adams and his Everything I Do, I Do It For You, it became the Ballad of the Barnyard, at least in my mind.

Look into my eyes, you will see

What you mean to me

Search your heart, search your soul

And when you find me there

You'll search no more ...

And, as the bulls fought for supremacy while we sorted mamas and babies before their respective rides to pastures, the verses just kept coming ...

Don't tell me it's not worth fightin' for
I can't help it, there's nothin' I want more
You know it's true
Everything I do, I do it for you, oh yeah.

The bulls got their own private limousine (well, trailer) ride apart from the ladies and babies. Kinda of like rock star status. (Eat your heart out Bryan Adams!)

When we arrived at the pasture to the south of our house, Randy pointed the way to Mr. Bull's harem. (When I posted this photo to Facebook, a non-agriculture-based friend asked if pointing is how we get cattle to go the way we want. It's a very good question. I wish it were that easy. Nature does the pointing when you're talking bulls and cows. But this was just a case of Randy attempting a little humor after a morning of sorting cattle.)

 

Anyway, all imaginings of a sexy crooner immediately got left behind in the poopy trailer as the bull began his own song. With his high-pitched call, Our Romeo ended up sounding more like Peewee Herman instead of a seductive, smooth-as-silk bass like Barry White and his Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe. 

It was the same high-pitched call for the bull who arrived at the Ninnescah Pasture. I wanted to tell them both that I thought they'd have better luck attracting the ladies if they went for a more robust sound, perhaps emulating Luther Vandross and his Always and Forever.

It seems to work for them though. Or it better. We want lots of little baby calves running around next winter.

Sometimes, Barnyard Lotharios leave behind their calling cards. We don't have a Charolais bull. But a neighbor does. This little guy doesn't look much like his coal-black mother, does he? I suspect he's the spitting image of his Daddy, who is now long gone. However, we don't have a purebred cow-calf herd, so he's joined his contemporaries in the pasture.

In recent years, we've had one Hereford bull and four Angus bulls. Each year, the bulls go through a version of a "job interview" with a check-up from the veterinarian to make sure each is able to perform his appointed duties.

When Randy is looking for a new bull to add to our herd, it's not just a beauty contest, though looking for correct conformation for each breed is one factor in the decision-making process. Randy also looks for bulls that produce smaller birth weight calves, but whose progeny have higher 205-day weaning weights and yearling weights.

 

Yesterday, the little Charolais calf and its 2013 "classmates" returned to the scene of the "crime" at the Rattlesnake Pasture. Let's hope his Daddy doesn't exercise his visitation rights again this summer.

Bananas Foster Bread

I am picky about the bananas I eat. I prefer a little green tinge to the bananas I consume for breakfast or a snack. Randy is less discerning. (Read less picky, if we're honest.)

But, I still seem to end up with bananas ripening on the counter, 90 percent of the time. So I'm always in search of new ways to use ripe bananas. Is it any wonder that banana bread recipes seem to jump out at me on blogs? I don't think so.

I saw this recipe on Ashley's Kitchen Meets Girl blog. She's the Wichita blogger who hosts What's in Your Kitchen Wednesday, and I've never found a "dud" when I've used her recipes. (That's why I am so particular about the recipes I share on Kim's County Line. I don't want someone who tries something from here to have a bad experience. If the recipe isn't good, I don't share it here.)

This recipe also appealed to me because it has flax seed. Now I'm not one to believe in "miracle" or "trendy" ingredients, but a little extra nutrition in a sweet quick bread can't hurt, can it? I also substituted white, whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour in this recipe.

Ground flax seed. I purchased mine at Smith's Market in Hutchinson, but it's available at a bulk food store or health food store, as well as larger grocery stores.

The recipe also called for Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt is the new "IT" ingredient, but I didn't have any in the fridge. So I just substituted light banana cream pie yogurt, and it turned out great.

Enjoy!

Bananas Foster Bread

Adapted from Kitchen Meets Girl blog

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 medium)
1 cup brown sugar, divided
6 tbsp. butter, melted and divided
1/4 cup dark rum, divided (see below)
1/3 cup banana yogurt (or Greek yogurt)
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
1/4 cup ground flax seed
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground allspice
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray loaf pan(s) with cooking spray. You may use one 9- by 5-inch pan or three smaller loaf pans, depending on your preference.

Combine banana, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 5 tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of rum in a non-stick skillet. Cook over medium heat until mixture begins to bubble. Remove from heat; cool. (If you don't cool it, you could end up with scrambled eggs when you do the next step.) Place banana mixture in large mixer bowl. Add yogurt, remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar and eggs. Beat with mixer at medium speed.

Combine flour, flax seed, baking powder, baking soda and spices in a small bowl. Add flour mixture to banana mixture; beat just until blended. Pour batter into one 9- by 5-inch loaf pan or three smaller loaf pans which have been coated with baking spray.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour for large loaf or 25-30 minutes for smaller loaves. (Be sure and check the loaves to make sure they are done. A toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf should come out clean. All ovens are different). Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes in pan on wire rack. Remove bread from pan and place bread back on wire rack to cool completely before icing.

For icing: Combine remaining 1 tablespoon melted butter, remaining 1 tablespoon of rum and powdered sugar. Stir until smooth and well blended. Drizzle over cooled bread.

Note:  I know some people would prefer not to use the alcohol and that's fine. You could substitute 3 tablespoons of milk and add some rum, butter or vanilla flavoring. FYI: In the bananas foster mixture, you are heating the mixture so that the alcohol cooks off and just the flavor remains. In the icing, you may substitute rum, vanilla or butter flavoring.

***

I am linked today to Ashley's What's In Your Kitchen Wednesday. Check out all the other yummy links for tried-and-true tested recipes.

Here are some of my other favorite ways to use ripe bananas:

 Byers Banana Bread

This recipe is my go-to banana bread recipe. I've made it dozens of times, as my tattered Byers United Methodist Church recipe book can attest.

 Coconut Banana Bread

 Reese's Peanut Butter

 Banana Bread

It's a Bird ... It's a Plane!

I have a heads' up for you on the 2013 wheat crop.

Really, the heads are up.

That's not the only thing that was up this weekend. So was a cropduster, who sprayed our wheat fields with fungicide Sunday morning. We were on our way to church, so I didn't have time to stay and watch for very long. The pilot probably didn't need an audience anyway.

It would not be an occupation for me. I like a little more space between the plane and the ground, thank you very much.

The pilot was applying Tilt, a fungicide, to our wheat crop. Usually, we have the Kanza Co-op apply it with a ground rig, but this year, the ground was too wet because of our recent rains (another 0.70 inch total last week on top of 1.60 inch the week before. Just so you don't get the wrong impression, we are most definitely NOT complaining about the moisture!). The co-op contracted with a cropduster to make aerial applications.

The fungicide provides good protection against leaf rust and stripe rust, which decrease yield. It's a preventative measure - applied before there's a problem - rather than a curative application.

In several years of field trials at Kansas State University, the application of fungicides between the flag leaf and flowering stages of wheat development resulted in a yield boost of 4 to 14 percent.

It's kind of a calculated risk: Will the cost of the fungicide pay off with a better crop? Only time will tell. After some calculations, Randy thinks if the fungicide saves 2 bushels of wheat per acre, it will pay for itself.

A foliar fungicide application will not make a 40-bushel crop into a 60-bushel crop, but it will prevent a 60-bushel crop from being reduced to a 40-bushel crop by foliar disease.

Bob Hunger, an Oklahoma State University wheat disease specialist,
and Jeff Edwards, an OSU Extension wheat specialist

So, is your bag of flour safe after farmers spray fungicide on the developing crop? Yes, as long as farmers follow the restrictions on when to apply it and how long after the application the crop is harvested.

Believe me, farmers and their families want a safe and affordable food supply, too. We buy bags of flour at the store. We buy that loaf of wheat bread and feed it to our families.

There is still a lot of time - and uncertainty - between now and harvest. We've probably already had some yield loss from freeze damage. Weather, hail and disease could conspire against us, too. But, as usual, my farmer is a glass-half-full kind of guy. So, he's betting that the investment will pay off.

(For larger photos of the cropduster, click on the photos.)

Wanted: A Left-Handed Camera

I am ambidextrous. I write left-handed. I eat right-handed. I shoot or throw a ball left-handed. I prefer using right-handed scissors.

I am fortunate because I can use both hands fairly interchangeably. But let's face it: The world is designed for right-handed people. 

Most days, I don't even think about the fact that a camera is designed for right-handed use. But when you want to use your right hand to click a camera at the same time you're using the throttle on a 4-wheeler, it just doesn't work.

Go ahead: I'll wait. You try holding a camera (or your camera phone) and taking a photo with your left hand by clicking the button on the right-hand side of the camera.

So ... true confessions. I had to come to a stop on the 4-wheeler to take a few photos of the cattle drive the other day. Don't tell the boss 'cause I don't want to lose my sweet job on the "Japanese horse." I am usually the blocker at the road, getting the cattle to turn the right direction.

My usual view from my usual cattle-turning post - Photo from another cattle adventure

It is definitely easier to take photos with that job. But it's not as much fun, especially when the hubby does the harder part - like getting off the other 4-wheeler and walking around the feed bunk to get the mamas and babies moving in the right direction and so we didn't get stuck in the wet corral. 

In an ideal world, cattle would just head down the road and stay there. But, just like humans who are tempted by tasty goodies, the cattle head off for the yummy stuff - at least in their eyes. Those fields of bright green wheat were just too hard to resist - kind of like frosted sugar cookies for me. 

It took some vigorous "hey, hey, heying" and "tailgating" to get them to leave behind the tender morsels and head for the corral at Jake's house.

I don't have photos of the actual sorting. It's impossible to take pictures and get the mamas and babies separated. It's even harder than taking photos with your left hand! So, once we got them separated, we loaded mamas ...

... and babies for their separate ride to the pasture.

They arrived at their destination - a pasture near the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. Hopefully, they won't want to become tourists and leave their "digs" for a look at the neighboring wildlife.

A Father With a Mother's Heart

Thanks to Morgan Hildebrand for allowing me to use her chick photos from Priority Ranch, Stafford, KS. Check out her blog, Priority Ranch and see more photos of the chickens and other animals they raise on their farm.

... How often I have longed to gather 
your children together,

 as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings ...

Matthew 23: 37

The animal kingdom at our farm doesn't include hens and chicks. But as I read those words from Matthew 23, I think back to my grandparents' farm. Each spring, they would purchase baby chicks and put them under heat lamps in the brooder house until they grew big enough to survive without the extra pampering. When I was a child, I loved seeing those little balls of yellow fluff huddled together. I loved touching their downy feathers. They weren't nearly as cute when they grew up to be hens, and we had to move them out of the way to get to the eggs in the hen house.

Photo by Morgan Hildebrand, Priority Ranch

But even as I remember the pecking and racket of the hen house, I think about it a little differently now as a mother and grandmother - and I as read the words from Matthew. 

While most often we hear about "God the Father," the Matthew 23 verse gives us that maternal essence of God.

The birthing process is God’s idea. He’s maternally given birth to the universe, birth to our planet, and birth to us. Most importantly He’s given us re-birth. Simply stated, He is Father God with a mother’s heart. Waiting to wipe every tear; sitting up with us through the night; and listening to our troubles—solving them while we are yet speaking. 

Christian Author Susan Watkins

Each year, I am mystified by motherhood as we work with our cow/calf herd on our South Central Kansas farm. When we move the cow/calf pairs to different corrals or pastures, we separate the mamas and their babies to keep the babies (and the humans) safe.

The mamas don't realize we are doing it for a purpose. They protest - LOUDLY - when they are on one side of a fence ... and their babies are on another.

They bellow at the barn because they know their babies went that direction on the way to the trailer. Then they move the protest to the fence and watch as the trailer leaves them behind.

It's always amazing to me when it's time for the mamas and babies to reunite. The babies barrel out of the trailer in search of their mamas. 

It doesn't take long before the "lost" is again found by each mama and welcomed home for a nuzzle and a snack.

And isn't that how God seeks us? Our Heavenly Father has a mother's heart.

He seeks us when we're lost. (Luke 15: 3-6). He numbers the hairs on our heads (Luke 12: 6-8). He rejoices over us. His thoughts about us outnumber the grains of sand (Psalm 139). Isn't that just like a mother?

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom ...

Me and my mom, 1957

and to my daughter. She did the important job of making me a grandma.

 

It's a pretty wonderful job description! I think there's a little Grandma in our Father God, too!

Kinley & me at the Topeka Zoo - April 2013

***

Since 1988, I've shared Mother's Day weekend with Brent's birthday. Happy Birthday today to Brent! He's celebrating today by working a Morehead State University baseball game. As far as I know, there won't be any Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle-inspired cakes in the press box. But he did get homemade Chex mix in the mail from me.

 ***

Be sure and check out Morgan Hildebrand's blog, Priority Ranch. Again, I thank her for allowing me to use her chick photos. We have our share of cattle and cats here on our farm, but you'll want to see the menagerie of animals that live at Priority Ranch and the people who care for them. Click on the link to "visit."

***

This is a version of my Food for Thought blog on the Lovely Branches Ministries website, where the theme this month is "The Mystery of Motherhood." My friend, Suzanne, talks about the power of a positive Mom on her blog, Heart and Home Matters.  

If you're anywhere near Stafford, you'll want to visit the Taste and See Coffee House, also a ministry of Lovely Branches. Click on the link for hours of operation.