Archive for Wordless Wednesday

Miss Moo Miscarried – Wordless Wednesday

Yesterday Dr. M, one of our vets, was out to check Miss Moo to see if she is with calf……she WAS indeed pregnant but she miscarried. :(

FFR Miss Moo 10-18-2013

Warning contains some graphic cow anatomy details! Not so wordless this week, but that’s not really new.

A week ago Friday or Saturday evening a couple of the children came in from the barn saying Miss Moo had a bubble in her butt. By the time I got down to the barn the bubble had popped and she had a clear, mucous like discharge, not bloody, but indicative she could have miscarried. Believe me I googled every known term for “cow miscarriage”, except spontaneous abortion since I hate that term, to learn what I could about miscarriages in cows. Then I prepared B, just in case, because I didn’t want her to be shocked if the vet did announce Miss Moo had miscarried.

Yesterday when Dr. M checked Miss, she only had two thirds the fluid she should have and Dr. M could not feel the calf. We were half expecting it, but it’s still disappointing. Miss Moo should absorb (such an awful way to describe it) the calf in the next 10-14 days and go back into her heat cycle at which time we will try to AI (artificially inseminate her) again. The vet suggested we switch bull semen and instead of trying for a pure bred Guernsey to try for a cross breed. There may be some incompatibilities, though she has been bred to “Grumpy” before. So we are going to try our friend’s Dutch Belted (otherwise known as Oreo cookie cows black with a big white strip in the middle of their bellies) and see if the third time works. It will be interesting to see what the calf looks like, that’s for sure!

Loony Acres Neighbor's Dutch Belted cows collage
These are my friend’s Dutch Belted cows, she sold the heifer, the one in the background, if I remember correctly.

Here’s what my friend said about the Dutch Belted bull semen (like you all want bull semen education, but hey, it’s my blog and I’ll blog if I want to, blog if I want to! :) Extreme tiredness = silliness):

Your straw (or more, if it takes more than one try) will be from “Snappy”. Supposedly, Snappy sires “easy-calving”, vigorous calves, so we’ve used his stuff on two heifers now. Funny, the heifer that just went to C’s friend in North Carolina is carrying a Snappy calf, half-sibling to your eventual calf. :)

Dr. M and I thought it would be a good fit, because both of our heifers “took” on the first try with Snappy, and both kept their calves past the time when they could have lost an early pregnancy.

Good luck!

Miss Moo is finally up to her normal body condition after coming to us last April extremely underweight so the vet was impressed again by her weight gain. At his last visit he said she needed another 100-200 lbs, so that she looked good to the vet was good news. We knew she was doing well because none of her ribs are showing anymore, it’s just that confirmation is extra nice, you know? Hopefully her improved body condition will help her conceive this next time. We will be upping her minerals too. He said she isn’t a “fertile Myrtle”. Even if she isn’t we would never get rid of her. She’s a pet, as well as a food source. Besides now that her weight is up she won’t be anything to feed once she’s on pasture and we grow our own hay for winter so it’s not like we have to pay out a bunch of money for hay. I am going to hope and pray this next AI sticks.

Now, here’s to hoping for a fall calf!


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Winter Fun – Snow Forts – Wordless Wednesday

I think the photos speak for themselves! Winter fun is snow forts!

FFR Snow Fort

FFR Snow Fort_1

FFR Snow Fort_2

FFR Snow Fort_3

FFR Snow Fort_4

What are your kids’ favorite winter activities?


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Winter Wonderland – Wordless Wednesday

This is a photo of our friend’s pretty lane a week before Christmas. We went to her house to pick up eggs since none of the hens we have left are laying. Sniff. Sniff. Anyhoo….I just had to stop to take a photo of the winter wonderland.

FFR Pretty Winter Lane

It’s been bitterly cold the past few days. All the animals have been hunkering down in the barn.

How’s the weather where you are?


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The Way My Three Year Old Decorates a Christmas Tree – Wordless Wednesday

In Saturday’s post, I mentioned the way my three year old decorates a Christmas tree, well here are the photos to show just how he does it!

FFR Jr.'s idea of decorating the Christmas Tree

FFR The way a three year old decorates a Christmas Tree

Don’t be too shocked at the almost wordless Wednesday post! I am cheating to watch a TV show with hubby and because I am going out to lunch with fellow farmer friends today. ;)


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Chicago at Night from Willis Tower – Wordless Wednesday

In October I went into the city of Chicago for a business meeting with Moms.com and after the meeting we walked to Willis Tower. The photos below are of Chicago at night from Willis Tower. It was really cool.

FFR Chicago at night from Willis Tower

Willis Tower, or the formerly known Sears Tower, the tallest building in the United States. Sears was actually the company that built it to house all its employees in one place.

FFR Chicago at Night from Willis Tower 2

The Sears Tower became Willis Tower when a London company rented out a large space in the building and had the option to rename the building in its contract. And that’s exactly what they did.

When you visit Willis Tower you get to watch a little movie on the history of the building before you are escorted up to the Skydeck. On the Skydeck you can walk around, shop for gifts, look through the telescopes and walk out onto the “ledge”. The Ledge is a glass box basically and when you step out into it you can look down at the city of Chicago through glass. I was not brave enough to walk out onto the ledge, minding heights as I do.

I definitely recommend you visit Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) the next time you travel Chicago.


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Liquid Amino Diet Part 2 and Giveaway

FFR image for posts

By now you all know how much I struggle with any sort of diet to help me lose weight. Most of you know I have been trying the Liquid Amino Diet for the past few weeks. See my post on Liquid Amino Diet Part 1 here.

As a recap….


What is the Liquid Amino Diet?

Dr. Finsand developed the Amino Diet about 4 years ago after years of research and trials with his patients. The Liquid Amino diet is not about a quick fix, it is about a total and complete lifestyle change. The lifestyle change is accomplished through clean eating and ALL NATURAL homeopathic drops. Because of the healthy change in diet, you can expect to lose between .5-1 lb per day. Unlike other diets, the Amino Diet does not inject hormones for a total body shock, but instead focuses on teaching people how to eat clean without the shock of the system. This is one HUGE factor in keeping the weight off for extended periods of time.

Be sure to check out this video from a real Amino dieter who lost 85 pounds on the program.

Liquid Amino Diet Review and Giveaway

Taking the Liquid Amino Diet was a breeze. It has an odd flavor, yet it’s not unpleasant by any means. Letting it sit under my tongue was a breeze and I normally allowed it to go over 20 seconds. What I struggled with was remembering to take it 15 minutes before my meals. I also struggled with consistency.

In our busy household we do not like to make several meals for each of the three main meal times so I am very use to eating whatever the rest of the family eats. In terms of “dieting” I struggle with eating differently and what I’ll say to my children. If I say I am trying to eat healthier, that will leave them questioning if our family meals are truly healthy. 95-99% of our meals are made from scratch, made with mostly organic ingredients etc. With a houseful of growing children, we do eat a lot of carbs. Because of this I really did not experience the weight loss I could or perhaps should have. I do know that when I happened to take the Liquid Amino Diet supplement consistently at least once or twice a day it did seem to curb my appetite. That’s always a good thing, right?

Liquid Amino Diet drops_

I like the fact there is coaching available with the Liquid Amino Diet, but I only reached out to my “coach” a couple of times and when I did she did have encouraging things to say. I probably should have reached out a lot more, even on a daily basis to take full advantage of a “cheerleading” section. Who doesn’t want to do well when someone is quietly cheering you on in the sidelines?

I think anything is worth a try and for that reason I would say give the Liquid Amino Diet a try but be consistent and keep your calories within that 1500 range and see what happens to the extra weight you so desperately desire to lose. Add a little exercise and I bet you lose a few more pounds than you expected.

Me? I always have high hopes and high aspirations in anything but always seem to fail when it comes to weight loss.

Enter the giveaway below to win your own Liquid Amino Diet:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


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Silly Kittens! – Wordless Wednesday

FFR Kittens climbing wall_

In light of Saturday’s Top Five Laughs post, thought I’d share this photo of Freckles at the beginning of her climb and Selene as she looks on because I think they look adorable!

Today the kittens were out in the snow for the first time and they batted at it! Sadly, I didn’t get a photo of it.

The kittens climbing all over the garage and my husband says they think it’s their own jungle gym and I tend to agree.

This week’s Wordless Wednesday is almost….wordless!


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Yogurt and Blueberries – Wordless Wednesday

Yogurt is a yummy, healthy snack. Creating yogurt recipes is pretty easy when you keep it simple and I like simple. One of my favorite snacks is yogurt and blueberries. To spice it up I like to top it with almonds and pecans. I love eating just plain frozen blueberries too.

I was playing around with taking photos of food and took one of my yogurt and blueberries. I thought it turned out decent enough to make into a blog post.

FFR Yogurt, Blueberries and Almonds

For my yogurt and blueberries snack, all I did is poured vanilla or French vanilla yogurt into a bowl, added frozen or fresh blueberries, topped it with sliced almonds and/or pecans. We do this a lot with any of our favorite fruit. You could do this with plain yogurt too.

We also like to make smoothies….at least until our blender broke. :( Sniff. Sniff. Still have to figure out which part I need to buy since the last time I purchased the wrong part.

Something we have not made since getting Miss Moo is homemade yogurt. Amazing, eh? Whenever I buy yogurt to have the starter it always gets eaten before we get to it.

Do you eat yogurt? Do you do anything “fancy” with it? Have any yogurt recipes to recommend or do you make homemade yogurt?


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Sick Chickens – Wordless Wednesday

This summer our egg business really took off. We could not keep up with the demand for our eggs, even at $5 and $6 a dozen. We allow our poultry to free range as well as feed them certified organic feed making our eggs a “premium” product. To accommodate the growth in our egg business we bought a couple of batches of 6 month old pullets from two other farms. Bad choice. We knew the risks but wanted our egg business to keep growing and not drop off. Our intentions were good but the result was fatal to our egg business, as well as our entire flock of poultry.

LoonyAcres Broilers 09072013

Our laying flock was healthy. There was nothing wrong with them. Then we started to notice sick chickens. The ones that were sick stopped laying. They showed signs of being lethargic, sleeping a lot, coughing, wheezing and like they had a cold in the eye. The pullets we bought obviously brought an illness to our healthy flock because this illness showed up within two weeks of bringing home the second flock of pullets. :( We were very concerned for the safety of our customers, our broilers and our turkeys. No vets in the area deal with chickens so we had to go to a university veterinary lab. The closest one to us is the University of Wisconsin. Two hours away – one way. We took the vets two live birds to help them make a diagnosis. Live birds allowed for fresh tissue analysis and a more accurate diagnosis. My husband made the trip on a Friday in September.

Within a few days we had our answer. Upper respiratory infection. Sometimes fatal, especially to broilers who have a smaller trachea (or esophagus) than laying hens. Good news? This infection is not harmful to humans. The eggs and meat could still be sold. Bad news? Even when the birds recover from the infection, they remain carriers of the infection and can spread it to any new birds we brought onto our farm. Results? We have to cull (kill) our whole flock of laying hens and turkeys. Even our breeding turkeys. Our turkeys never exhibited any signs of the infection but since they were exposed, they are carriers too.

LoonyAcres Turkeys 082013_

We had sick chickens for about a month. The infection went through our flock quickly and usually lasted a few days. It was basically a “chicken cold”. Who would have thought, right? There was nothing we could do for them….other than separate the ones who were getting picked on. The vet told about an antibiotic but didn’t actually recommend it since the birds were now carriers.

This “chicken cold” has been devastating. Our egg business was to the point of buying all the feed for our animals, except our horse, dog and cats. We are hoping all our customers come back in the spring.

Our plan? We plan to start fresh with baby chicks in December and have eggs available in the spring.

We will buy more turkeys in the spring and choose some to keep for breeding purposes.

We will never, ever buy chickens from unknown farms again. And may this be a lesson for anyone considering purchasing chickens from another farm to add to your current flock…DON’T.


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Kittens, Kittens and More Kittens! – Wordless Wednesday

Ok all you cat and kitty lovers….I couldn’t resist posting an all kitty post after the photo shoot we did for the SHEBA post yesterday. I just kept snapping and snapping hoping to get some good, non-blurry photos of them! They are at such an adorable age. I don’t get to observe them like the children do but I love it when the children come tell me stories of all the antics and things they are up to. Like tonight, my son came to tell me that Badger is sleeping inside one of my husband’s old ratty running shoes! Why wasn’t the old ratty shoe tossed when he got his new ones? Guess they were meant to be here for the kittens! Too bad the garage is so dark or else I would have taken a photo of the kitty in the shoe!

FFR Freckles washing herself
Freckles washing herself.

FFR Sweet Kittens 110513
Sweet little kittens.

FFR Sev and Badger 110513
Severus is our Tom cat and you can see the resemblance between him and Badger, eh? Oh and Sevy is our only male cat now since all his kittens appear to be females!

FFR Badger with tongue out_
Badger licking her lips.

FFR Freckles 110513_
Freckles sitting pretty.

FFR Badger 110513_
Badger sitting pretty too.

FFR Selene 110513_
Selene sitting pretty.

Amazing that I got a shot of each one of them sitting so nicely. Full bellies helped! So remember that as a photography tip! These are their six week old photos.


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