New Opportunity?

It has been a long while since I blogged last and a lot has happened in the last month. Thanksgiving was wonderful. First we went to Kyle and Misty's for Caseys side of the family. After eating way too much, we drove seven hours to get to the Panhandle of Oklahoma where my family is at. Surprisingly, Tessa handled the way there really well. But I think all of us, especially Fritz, were happy to get out of the truck. Our stay was too short. But after lots and lots of food, We headed home on Sunday morning. Tessa wasnt so great on the way home. She screamed for about five hours strait. She wasn't mad or hungry or uncomfortable, she just wanted to scream, so she did. Casey and I both had splitting headaches about an hour into it and had to stop to get some BC Powder and IBprofen. She finally fell asleep between Enid and Tulsa and the rest of the trip went really well. I enjoyed the time with our families, but it was really good to be home. Our nieghbor took great care of our animals while we were gone, which we were very thankful for.

Monday started out as the typical Monday. We did chores and the day just seemed to get longer from there.  It was really cold, so after feeding, I decided to take Tessa in the house. She already had a little bit of congestion and I did not want her to get any worse. So Tessa and I attempted to clean house, but everytime I started doing something that did not involver her, she decided that I needed to redirect my attention to her. So I didnt get much accomplished besided watching a movie on the internet while Tessa slept. And she did sleep a lot. She must of been really worn out from our drive home. I didnt want to move her though, because she needed the rest. Casey had a really long day and still did not get done until way after dark. His cows had been taken care of on friday and saturday but not on sunday. So all his pastures were out of hay. Someone also broke into the other house that the boss owns and is re-doing. They ripped the wires out of the breaker box and well, but they didnt take anything else. Casey called the police and had a report done but they couldnt do anything about it. The report was mainly for insurance purposes, i think.

And now for the new opportunity =-)

Yesterday, LaGayle came up to watch Tessa for us. I had to take our calves to the sale and I watched the sale to watch them go through. Casey had a load of heifers that he recieved and a load that he shipped. Then he had to meet with the insurance adjuster to look at the damage done to the house. Then after that, LaGayle, Tessa and I did chores together. Tessa had been in the house for most of the day, and the time outside really helped her. She always seems to know when it is time to do chores. And she never wants to be left behind. We finnished the chores and it was about five oclock. We had a meeting with a couple near Stockton at 6:30.

So we left Tessa and LaGayle to have fun together and were off to meet with the Buckners once again. The Buckners own a dairy. They run about 200 cows and are trying to go seasonal. So in another year or two, they will milk for 10 months out of the year and have 2 months off. They are looking for a young couple to come in, put cows in the barn, and milk for them. They want to make a partnership out of it. Mostly, I think  that they can't run the dairy by themselves and they want someone to work as hard as they do on thier opperation. They are tired of hiring hourly hands that do not care about thier cows and thier equipment - which we can completely understand. We talked last night about ways to make it work for both of us. But we cant leave until we get our taxes done in february. So we are going to spend some Sundays at their house learning thier opperation and how they handle their cows. This way we can get to know each other before we jump off and buy cows, move, and change our entire life before we know if we can all get along.

We didnt leave their house until about 10:45 and we pulled back into the house around about an hour later. LaGayle had Tessa asleep and said that they had a wonderful evening. LaGayle stayed with Tessa all night last night and I had the most wonderful, restful night. I havent slept that hard in a long time. And even though Tessa sleeps well at night, she still wakes up a couple of times when she loses her passifier or if she rolls over and gets stuck on her tummy. Last night, I didnt have to get up a single time. I really appreciated LaGayle coming to see us and taking care of Tessa. I think Tess had a great time. She is still in a wonderful mood =-)

I really hope this opportunity works out for us. It will be a way for us to finally do something for ourselves instead of working for somebody else. I think Casey is super excited as well. I just wish that we could get the ball rolling sooner than February. But I guess the best things time time.

Casey Bloging

Well things at the McCarty house are usually pretty busy.  7 days a week we have cattle of the bosses to take care of now we have cattle of our own to take care of which may be the only thing that keeps me from loosing my mind.  Between feeding the bosses little heifers, big heifers, little bulls, big bulls, chronic cattle, checking bred cows in three places and feeding hay it  leaves very little time to get anything done. But its part of the job and things I think are getting done the best way I can do them.  I could not get as much done in a day as I do if it weren't for Sasha helping out and Tessa to smile at me when we get done tagging a calf that is bawling at her cow that is standing 6 inches from us blowing snot at us and getting in the truck only after checking your pants to make sure the cost is clear. 
Tessa is a little worker.  She hates being in the house, and it used to be that she could just ride in the truck and be cool, but now she realizes that the action is outside the truck and she doesn't want to miss anything.  So now checking cows in the pasture means standing her up in your lap so she can see whats going on.  If I can keep her this motivated to stay busy, I will be set when she gets old enough to mow. lol
All in all things are going pretty good for us.  We are slowly building up a herd of calves that hopefully one day will be a set of cows that we can make money on.  I catch greif from people sometimes about the way we are going about aquiring our herd but if the only way to get to England is in a row boat, then I guess give me a paddle.  We have come to the conclusion that although it may be faster and alot easier to get there in a motor boat, if you don't have the cash for gas then you get nowhere.  So instead of sitting on the shore complaining about how we wish we were there, we are setting sail the only way we can.  Of coarse before people think that we are moving to England I guess I should clear things up that what I am talking about is that we are buying little bottle heifers and raising them one day at a time from the time their are little calves till the time they are cows.  (may have been known by all, just thought I would clear that up).  But we have alot of fun with the calves and Tessa has somehow, without being able to speak yet, talked me out of one of my heifers, her mom out of one of hers and talked both of us into buying her another.  So out of the 9 head we have so far, Tessa lays claim to three.  All the calves are named and most are pretty freindly.  Tessas cattle are Pipsqueek, Clara and Tessas Darlin.  The rest are Slu-foot, Daisy, Mira, Sookie, Peaches and Night.  Peaches im not sure realizes she is a calf and thinks of herself more of a dog.  She is funny to watch and will stand there and eat while we put Tessa on her back and let Tess pet her. 
Between the 400 head of cattle for the boss, 9 calves, 4 dogs and a fritz, raising an infant and trying to continue our social life at the feed store we have decided to add two goats to the picture.  Never a dull moment around the McCarty house.