We got the ice storm as promised. It didn't affect the trees or the wires but made a big, sloppy mess out of everything. We had to postpone the visit from the folks looking at the Lowlines. The weather then turned colder. We had to decide whether to plow all the mess off or leave it to freeze so we would have some traction when it snowed. We decided to leave it and it worked out well.

Thursday night, Jim and I went to the beef meeting over in the neighboring county. It was held in an equipment barn that had an unusual feature. Apparently the owner was a great supporter of 4H. They built a very nice meeting room right into the barn, complete with a kitchen and fireplace. It was a great venue for a farmer meeting.

The speaker dealt with DNA testing of cattle. In anticipation, we had sent in samples from two of ours and one of Verne's bulls. We were delighted to find out that they scored about as high as possible on feed efficiency and tenderness. There is another meeting this week from a different vendor on the same topic.

The hereford folks came on Friday with their three young boys. The boys were well behaved and obviously oriented towards the outdoor life. It seems like they might want to buy a few animals a little later this winter. We hope they do as I am sure they will be good caretakers for the animals. The wife fell in love with Peter the Brown Swiss. He has now grown to the size and shape and color of your basic bull moose. I just got my subscription to Rural Heritage magazine. It deals with oxen and draft horses. I am hoping to find someone who would like to put to work as an ox. I am sure he would be wonderful and enjoy it immensely.

Saturday morning, Jim and I took the plastic bale wrap waste to the Town dumpster. Apparently, there is no market for it to be recycled. Some counties have a mobile baler that they bring to the farm. We wish our county would. We know of some farmers who burn the plastic but that doesn't seem like a good idea.

In the afternoon, I drove Jim to an indoor track meet at a college about 75 miles east. His event wasn't until 3 so it worked out well. He won his heat which was even better.

Chores have been pretty routine. Both winter calves and their mothers are doing well. Now that it has been a steady cold, the whole herd seems to be enjoying the weather.

On Tuesday, we had a calf in the National lowline Sale in Denver. She did very well. We got her when we bought the Minnesota lowlines earlier in the fall. We decided to leave her in Minnesota and enter the sale. Her sister who is a year older but we don't own did extremely well. We have the mother here and she is bred to a great bull. So hopefully we'll have a fancy spring calf.

The weather man has been all worked up the last few days about Arctic weather. Yesterday was a decent day and a cold front came through with some snow in early evening. We have taken all precautions to give our animals extra bedding and access to the barns. They still seem to prefer to be out in the fields.

I made it to the diner this morning for the first time in a few days. Two of my buddies were just heading out the door to go swimming. One of them has had an artificial hip and then a knee this year. He swears by going to the pool at the high school. He has been working on my other friend to go and he finally agreed today. It will be interesting to get the report tomorrow. I think their is also an element of socializing involved here.

When we went to the Adirondacks to get the larch wood, we bough a used manure spreader. It came today and we got it put away. Zero days are not when you want to spread. We compost our manure but there comes a time when you have got to make room in the pile.

We have been having a little trouble with the yearling bulls going through the fence of their pen to join the herd. There are no open cows so there is no reason for them to do it. We checked the fencer and it seems a bit weak. I went over to the dealer and borrowed a new unit. It seems to be working somewhat but one of the five still went through. I'll probably have to fine tune the fence wiring so the bottom wire is not hot. A lot of it is covered by snow and I think it is grounding out the fence.

They are talking highs of around zero for the next few days so we'll see how it goes.