Yesterday was Bright and Bold's 4 month birthday!

The steers got to pull something for the first time today. In the past I have hitched a pole between them so that they would get used to having something dragging behind them. When I hitched the steers to the tire, I was worried that one of two things would happen, either they would worry that the tire was chasing them, and try to run away from it, or they wouldn't like the feeling of something pulling on their necks, and would refuse to go. When we first started walking, they seemed a little jumpy, and afraid of the tire, but they soon settled down and were extremely well behaved.

trudging through knee deep snow.

Bright and Bold saw their first real snow yesterday, we have almost a foot now! The snow proved to be a huge distraction though because the steers would have liked to stand around and eat snow rather than walk through it.

Going for a walk in the snow.

I took the steers for a walk in the snow today. I only put  lead rope on Bright  and just put Bold in the yoke. It is really exciting that they are well behaved enough that only one steer needs to have a lead rope!

Bright and Bold's fur has recently become very fluffy because of the cold weather. I measured their weight again and they are both about 175 lbs.

I recommend that everyone read this article. It is about ox yokes and possible ways that they could be improved. I used some ideas from it when I made my most recent yoke.

http://www.tillersinternational.org/oxen/resources_techguides/ImprovingOxYokesTechGuide.pdf

Yoke Number 2

Bright and Bold's new yoke is finished. They got to try it on and go for a short walk with it today. It is a tiny bit big on them, but give it a week or two, and it will fit perfectly. The bows are made from 1/2 inch diameter pipe that I bent around a u-shaped piece of wood. Bending the metal pipes is much easier than making the traditional bows by bending wood. The yoke beam was made from a piece of 4 X 4 fir.

New Yoke

Bright and Bold have out grown their first yoke and i am now making a new one. I am almost done with the second yoke, and hopefully I will finish it tomorrow.

Working on the yoke. 

The new yoke.

Bright and bold go on a walk in the snow for the first time!

yesterday, we had about an inch of snow. I took bright and bold a out for a short walk. They seemed to enjoy sniffing at, and eating snow.

Happy Birthday Bright and Bold!

yesterday was bright and bold's 3 month birthday.

 Bold

 Bright

afternoon nap

I measured bright and bold's weights today. Bright is about 220 pounds, and Bold is about 230 pounds. Last time I weighed them there was a thirty pound difference between their weights. the fact that they are now only ten pounds apart suggests that my new method of having them tied up when they are eating their grain is working. By tying them up, it makes sure that they get the same amount of grain, which keeps them closer to the same size.

Everyday, along with walking the steers, and teaching commands, I brush them. This gets them used to people being around them, but also keeps them clean.

a quick update

Here is just a quick update on bright and bold:

they are now weaned, but they still seem to be a little upset that they don't get milk anymore, whenever they see you bringing bottles to other calves, they make a lot of noise. They are also just about to be too big for their yoke so i will need to make a new one soon. They are both now being tied up for each meal so that they don't steal each other's food, this is in an attempt to keep them about the same size. They are now almost too big for their winter coats.

Bright and Bold got to pull something for the first time yesterday! I hitched them to pole that used to be the handle of a pitch fork. They are certainly making progress and getting better behaved every day.

How it all Began

People frequently ask me how I ended up so interested in cows, so here is my story.

I was just about to turn seven when I started working in the barn with three of my best friends. All four of us were home schooled, and we were all lucky enough to have parents who were willing to help us work in the barn. We each had one calf to take care of; mine was named Tahiti, and she actually still lives on the farm.

We would come to the barn at five o'clock each night and clean our calves' stalls, feed them, clean their water, and of course walk and brush them. Every night as soon as we finished our chores, we would take the calves out and groom them. Some days we pretended that we were about to show the calves at the fair, other times we pretended that we were the vet and we had to give the calves a checkup, or cure a fictitious disease. Sometimes we even pretended that we were orphans who had nobody but their calves.

We had made up commands for everything that we wanted the calves to do. If we wanted them to turn, instead of using 'gee' or 'haw' we would say "churn like the butter." If a calf tried to reach down and snatch some hay off of the floor we would shout "hey no hay." 

Since we were so small, it took all four of us to move one hay bale, and it took two of us to move a bucket of water.

One day when we were feeding the bottles to our calves, one of my friends was standing next to her calf's water tub and the over-enthusiastic calf pushed her backwards and she fell in.

When our calves became too big to live in their small pens in the barn, and were ready to move outside, we held them a graduation ceremony.

After our first calves grew up, we took care of many more. In 2009, we took our calves to the fair for the first time. And in 2012, when the farm found itself short of workers, we began to work a lot more. That was when I learned to milk cows. It has been almost a year since then, and I have again found something new to try: training working steers. I had been thinking about oxen for some time, although, I had simply never had the motivation to start training them. When Beech had twins, however, I realized that this was my opportunity to have steers and I had to take it. Now as I start my way down a new path with Bright and Bold, all that I can hope is that it will be half as wonderful as my past eight years on the farm.

 Me feeding Tahiti, the first calf that i ever took care of.

Me and my three friends who did barn chores with out calves. From left to right, Marta and her calf Bora, me and Tahiti, Nora and avalanche, and Gretta and Morea.

winter coats

Bright and bold are looking handsome in their new
, bright purple winter coats!

bright and bold's 2 month birthday

On the right is bold and on the left is bright. Bright now weighs about 150 lbs and bold is about 170 lbs.

Uncle Phillip

A few days ago, my grandpa sent me this photo of his uncle Phillip, with his oxen. My grandpa thinks that this photo was taken around 1929. It is really cool to know that i am not the first one in the family to have oxen!

The Trailer

This trailer was built in 1947 (or so i'm told) and has passed through several owners before it became mine. I took on the challenge of rebuilding it last summer and am now just about finished. I have replaced all of the wooden parts and some of the metal as well. I also went ahead a painted it bright green because, well...who doesn't want a green trailer? I originally took on this project with the hope of using the trailer to bring cows to shows before Bright and Bold were even born. But it will be perfect for Bright and Bold since it is a two horse trailer and there are two of them! 

Above: A recent photo of the trailer.
Below: A photo of the trailer taken last summer shortly after i started working on it.

Jessie, who works at Cedar Mountain Farm, and her daughter Sawyer stand with Bright and Bold.

Bright and Bold's new friend.

Yesterday i finally met someone who was able share their knowledge of oxen with me. there were some people visiting the farm and one of them had trained quite a few teams of oxen. He helped be take Bright and Bold out and work with them each individually for a few minutes. It was very helpful to finally have someone answer the questions that i have been wondering about ever since i started working with the steers.

Twin brothers and best friends.

Bright and Bold's mother Beech had moved out of the pen with bright and bold to live with the other milking cows. Bright and Bold now have a pen to themselves, and are now bottle fed. Beech however is not so far away that she can't hear and smell them. She frequently moos to them and they moo back.

A new yoke.

 Instead of putting a lot of time, money and effort into making or buying a real yoke for bright and bold,  i decided to make them one from a 2X6 board and some 1/2 inch plywood. It wasn't too difficult to make and only took a few hours, and it is a nice to not put too much work into something that the calves will soon outgrow.

1 Month Birthday (9/23/13)

 Bright and Bold going for a walk on their one month birthday. I still haven't finished the first yoke, so they are currently both wearing halters, as well as collars that are attached together with a clip.

 Bold, one month old.

Bright, 1 month old.

First time walking together! (9/11/13)

I have been walking bright and bold almost every day since they were three days old. Today was my first time taking them both out at the same time. To my surprise, they were much easier to handle together than they were separately. They wern't frightened like they were when i took them out individually. I don't have a yoke for them yet though, so i guess making one is going to be my next project.

Beech and Bold.

Bright and bold were born on August 23, 2013. This photo was take when they were less than a day old. From left to right, Bright, Bold, and their mother Beech.