{"id":8483,"date":"2020-11-19T17:20:13","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T22:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=8483"},"modified":"2020-11-19T17:20:13","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T22:20:13","slug":"our-last-calf-has-just-been-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2020\/11\/19\/our-last-calf-has-just-been-born\/","title":{"rendered":"Our last calf has just been born"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have been expecting this calf to come any day \u2014 since last month! So we brought Lady into the training ring, where she would have a nice barn and we could watch her closely. Her bag got bigger and bigger and nothing<\/em>. Finally, Will went down to check and ta da! Done deal. Lady had already cleaned up the little girl, who we named Taffy, for her color, and the heifer was nursing nicely. We were so scared she’d wait until the temperature dropped to really cold or a blizzard came. Lady is in with her mother, Surprise, and her big brother (our butcher steer, Black Lightning). They’re all a bit Jersey, more Black Angus, but were all born Taffy’s tan color, changing over to nearly black with brown points and a curly “do” \u2014 tan curly bangs! Maybe we’ve started a new breed? They’re real cute, anyway.<\/p>\n

We’ve been super busy with our little seed business. Will has set up a table in the entryway and hand-stamps envelopes while I sit at another table in the living room, filling envelopes. I laugh when folks ask if we have machines to do that. Yep, human machines! Hey, we’re a small<\/em> seed company. It’s funny when I remember that it all started with our beloved Hopi Pale Grey squash, which we didn’t want to go extinct if something happened to us. No business plan, whatsoever. But in these trying times, it fills a need and we’re really happy to help folks grow big gardens. I know I’m already planning what and where I’ll be growing stuff, come spring.<\/p>\n

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Here’s our non-electric packet stamping “machine.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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And this is our seed packing department.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yesterday I cut up a venison shoulder into stewing meat and scraps to grind and canned that. Today I’ll be doing backstrap and tenderloin. But, as that was from a big, older buck, it’s likely to be tough so it’ll all be stewing meat \u2026 just in case. Bill already fried some backstrap steaks fresh and said he did have to chew a little extra \u2026<\/p>\n

As COVID is raging, Minnesota has started some lockdown procedures for bars and restaurants, gatherings, etc., as it must to get ahead of this pandemic. Nobody wants to see this happen. For heaven’s sake, I hate not seeing my kids and grandkids, giving big hugs to them and friends, visiting with people and having friends over for dinner. But I also want everyone to stay safe, not end up in the ER. Please stay safe and stock up on essentials. No matter what the news says, I’m thinking there are going to be shortages at the stores that surpassed what we saw at the very beginning of the pandemic. And remember, there will be an end to this so hang in there! — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have been expecting this calf to come any day \u2014 since last month! So we brought Lady into the training ring, where she would have a nice barn and we could watch her closely. Her bag got bigger and bigger and nothing. Finally, Will went down to check and ta da! Done deal. Lady […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,9,12,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8483"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8488,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8483\/revisions\/8488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}