Book Review - Lincoln

My latest finished book is Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald. This is a LONG book. It's supposed to be the authoritative biography on Abraham Lincoln, and I don't think this book could have been much more thorough, hence its length.

For the most part I enjoyed this book. I read through his childhood, but found myself skipping a lot of the pages dealing with his adult law practice and all the cases he argued. I was most interested in his presidency. Once I got there I also skipped a lot of the pages about the politics of the mid-19th century. His relationship with his cabinet, what the other parties were saying about him, how he dealt with Congress.....all things I found myself just thumbing through. You'd think I'd be more interested in those things, being a political science major and all, but I found them dry. What I gravitated towards and was most interested in was the war, and how he dealt with it. I'm an unabashed war history buff, but history in general interests me. I was also very interested in his personal relationships with his wife and children.

Here are the most interesting things I learned:

- He was a very "hands off" kind of leader, almost to the point of letting people walk over him. He would give very earnest suggestions to his generals, but go to great pains to let them know he wasn't telling them how to do their jobs. He picked a very politically diverse cabinet, a few members of which were anything but loyal to his policies. He didn't press his generals when they refused to divulge their military plans, even when things were going badly for the Union. He set aside 2-4 hours of his day, everyday, to entertaining visitors who wanted anything from the honor of shaking his hand to an appointment to some office or position. Much of this was a complete waste of his time but he did it anyway.

- He was a very involved father, but only later in life after he stopped traveling the court circuit. He would often babysit for his wife, a very unusual practice for his day, and one which led him to be labled "hen pecked" by many.

- He had surprisingly little security to protect him. This was common for presidents back then. He would sometimes have nothing more than one bodyguard, and sometimes not even that, accompanying him as he walked through Washington, traveled, or took carriage rides. It would have been extremely easy to assassinate him, as John Wilkes Booth discovered.

- He initially favored deporting black slaves to some country in the Carribean due to a widely held view that blacks and whites could never live peacefully in the same country if they were freed. He dropped this idea later after it became clear that the black community was not going to buy it.

- While a Christian, he did not associate himself with any particular church, and disliked organized religion. At the beginning of his life he was more of a deist, but came to have more faith in the God of the Bible after his son Willie died.

More than anything, this book helped to make Abraham more human to me. I always held him on such a pedestal, and in essence saw him as infallible. While I still admire the man greatly, this book helped demonstrate his weaknesses, fears, and shortcomings (i.e. - his human qualities) of which I knew little.

My next book is The First American, which is a biography on Benjamin Franklin my mother gave me. I'm only 20 pages into it, but it promises to be a good one.

Heat

As I pulled up to the gate yesterday coming home from work, I saw our cows out in the pasture acting a little weird. We know Pumpkin is due to come into heat soon as her cycle should be starting again after her calving. The thing to watch for is "standing heat", in that the cow in heat has to stand still and let the other cow mount her. Well, sure enough I saw it.

We marked our calandar and called our AI guy. He said he likes to come out within 12 hours of standing heat. He checked his schedule and determined he was too busy to make it over here today. He offered to give her a hormone shot which would throw her back into heat a week and a half earlier than normal. We opted to just wait until her next heat which should be within 18-21 days. The only problem with that is that he might be busy again when we call him. In that case we'll do the hormone shot so he can actually add us to his schedule.

We'll probably have her bred to a low birth weight Angus bull, like we did Chloe, since we'll be raising the calf for meat.

More Fun

I never thought I'd be able to say I had ever castrated an animal before, but this weekend I did it for the first time. Our bull calf Meatloaf needed the procedure done, so rather than pay a vet, I figured I'd give it a shot. We're learning to do a few of the easier vet practices here, like palpating, giving injections, drawing blood, and castrating. Since it costs $25 just to have the vet drive out here, we're saving a little on cattle costs. The procedure went very well. I opted for the bloodless band castration method. It's simple and less gorey. We locked mom out of the barn and tied Meatloaf to the calf pen. He struggled very little, and didn't even protest when I put the band on. I made extra sure I had both of "the boys" in there before I put it on, as I didn't want to have to call a vet out to fix my screw up later. I'm confident they're both in there. From what we've read, it takes 10 to 20 days to work, and it's a little easier on the calf because they don't lose any blood and are less prone to infection.

I can mark that off my list of farm experiences had. How many people can say they've ever castrated a bull? Sounds like a good ice breaker to me.

Another Homestead Experiment

Here at our homestead, we do things a little differently with our milk cows than a dairy would do. In fact, I do believe my wife's paternal grandfather (a dairy farmer) would think we were nuts. The biggest reason for the difference is that we do not raise these cows for profit. We don't wish to lose money on them, but we also are not looking to minimize costs and maximize income as much as a dairyman would. These are "family milk cows", meaning they exist to provide our only our family (and maybe a few friends who need it) with milk. That being said, some of the things we do are meant for our convenience, and can have an adverse effect on how much milk we get.

For instance, we leave the calf with the cow all day. This does a few for things us. We eliminate the added chore of feeding the calf by bottle, or the added cost of keeping a nurse cow around. Secondly, calves who stay with their mothers are healthier (this is debatable but there is evidence for it) because they get all the attention they need. Calves who are isolated and receive no attention do get sick more often. That's proven. Thirdly, it allows us to leave on trips, because the calf will continue to drink from mom's udder and keep it from getting engorged. This also prevents mastitis, which can be a serious problem in dairy cows. We don't get as much milk because half is being given to the calf, but to us its worth it.

In preparation for our Christmas trip to Georgetown, we experimented last night and left Meatloaf (the calf) with Pumpkin. We skipped our morning milking and will see how full she is tonight. We're not too worried as Pumpkin is not a huge producer and the calf seems to be keeping her from getting too engorged.

The Amazing Cow Heater

When I woke up this morning it was COLD! Not -40 below zero like some of my coworkers are used to up in Maine or Alaska. I'm talking Texas cold, which is pretty much anything below freezing. The homestead is so pretty when it snows or there's frost covering everything. I shivered for an extra 30 seconds opening the gate this morning just to admire how peaceful and beautiful our homestead looked. The crisp morning was so quiet and everything was covered in a thin white frost. Smoke slowly rose from the chimney as DW stoked a fire for the kids to sit by while she got breakfast started. (We do have electric heat, but with the firplace blower on and an good fire going, the heater doesn't kick on all day).

Cold on the homestead obviously has its drawbacks, like going out to milk at 5:30 a.m. when it's below freezing. I find though that once I get close to the cow and start handmilking, it's really not that bad. The three-sided milk barn we have cuts the wind out, and cows put off quite a bit of heat. Of course, it's not roaring heat like a fireplace would generate, but it's a gentle warmth that makes you want to snuggle closer. It makes winter milking more bearable. I found out today that cows also make good nose heaters in a pinch. My face is right there next to her flank, so why not use it to warm my nose up? Her udder keeps my hands warm, except maybe the last finger or two, and milking time usually rolls by pretty pleasantly.

It's not easy to force yourself to get up in the morning knowing you have to go out into the cold, but our barn's cow heater makes it better. I actually read about some European country where people used to build their houses over their barns so that in the winter the heat from the cows would rise up and heat their rooms. I'm sure the smell of "all things cow" would waft up there too, but they were used to it. Maybe if the power goes out in the winter we can bring the cows into the living room and snuggle up to them. I'll make sure to pass that one by the wife first.

Round Bale Update

The hay man delivered the hay this weekend, but only brought 4 round bales. He couldn't fit five on his trailer and told me it wouldn't be worth it for him to drive out with only one more. If I want it, I have to go get it with my truck. He offered to bring his big semi-truck with all five bales, but I didn't think it would fit through my gate, so I declined.

Still, the bales looked great, and we were able to get them off the trailer with minimal effort. I was afraid at first that we wouldn't be able to roll them up under the shelter but with the two of us pushing on it, it wasn't too bad. Turning it was a chore, but not impossible. I keep thinking how nice it will be when I have two strong boys to help me out with the manual labor around here.

After he drove off, it suddenly hit me that I had just purchased 2 tons of hay that I had no idea if the cows would eat. If they wouldn't, I'd have four 1000 lb paper weights sitting next to my barn. I wasn't too worried because I figured if they got hungry enough they'd eat it. I cut the netting off the bale and threw some into the feeder. To my delight, they dug right in. They don't eat it with as much enthusiasm as they do the alfalfa, but they're eating it fine. I'm still planning on giving them a little alfalfa every day because it still has good stuff in it they need and it's a nice treat for them. So far I'm happy with them.

I think with a little effort we can fit up to ten round bales under this covering. If we turn them face out, and wedge them side by side, it should be possible. The outside row of bales would be right on the edge of the covering and would still get kind of wet in windy rain storms and would get splattered by water falling off of the roof. The next time my father in law is here I'm going to have him help be bolt a few cross beams between each post and then screw some sheet metal to it to form an outside wall. This will further protect the bales from rain and prevent even more waste. Since my FIL has spare metal perline, and I have spare metal sheeting, the project will probably cost me nothing.

Teaching a Cow to Lead

Pumpkin, our recently purchased Jersey cow, was not "lead trained" when we bought her, meaning she essentially did not know how to walk on a leash. Most cows in dairies are herded where they need to go, and use an elaborate system of gates, pens, and chutes to get the cows into the correct areas. Most dairies deal with so many cows, they just don't have time to lead train each cow.

The problem we could encounter is if we ever wanted her to load into a trailer. Cows don't like enclosed spaces like trailers and, having no incentive to go in one, all the herding in the world will only get you in a wild cow chase around the pen. So, lead training is necessary in case we ever need to use that technique to load her.

So, I've gotten my first experience in lead training the last couple of weeks. I'm convinced this process would have been MUCH more difficult if Pumpkin wasn't as sweet as she is. I started by putting a halter on her, which looks like this:

She's never had one on before, and didn't want this weird thing clinging to her face. We had to lure her into the stanchion and lock her in to get it on. She danced and threw her head every which way, but we finally got it on.

After letting her get used to wearing it for a day, I chased her around the pen with the lead rope, trying to get it clipped on. That took a while. I finally cornered her in the barn and got it on. Her natural instinct is to pull away so she pulled me all around the pen until I got close enough to a fence post to tie the lead rope off. Then I stood back and let her fight the post for about 10 minutes. She pulled and danced and finally realized the post wasn't going anywhere. After she calmed down I turned her loose and called it a day. The next lesson she fought the fence less, and let me pull her around a little. The point was to get her used to stepping forward when I pulled on the rope. She'd take a few steps and stop. The next lesson she would take a few more steps before stopping, and I didn't have to pull as hard to get her moving forward. Each lesson gets better and better, and we're to the point where I can walk her, somewhat begrudgingly, around the whole pen. Eventually she'll get to where she knows that as soon as the lead rope goes on, she might as well walk where I walk. I won't even have to pull anymore.

We also started lead training Meatloaf, the calf. He had the same reaction as Pumpkin, but a 40 lb calf is a lot easier to control. He's getting better and better, but in the beginning he would get sick of being pulled around and just flop over on his side. It was pretty much the equivilant of a calf tantram. He then refused to get up until you take the rope off. It was pretty funny.

I really didn't want to have to lead train when we bought Pumpkin, but she's responding really well to it, and I'm gaining experience in handling cattle. Learning new farm skills is always fun.