Out on the ranch life happens and sometimes you have to find humor and lessons in what transpires.  So today we’ll look into the question of, “What came first the chicken or the egg?” Hints to the answer comes from one of Connie’s chickens who got too close to a dog so it became a science project and dinner.

Science Lesson of How Eggs are Formed

Here’s the science project part: Did you ever wonder how all those eggs just keep coming out of a hen?  

Well here is the up close exploration of the interior egg tract of a hen.  All those eggs are growing daily getting ready to come out.  Right before the largest egg yolk makes its final appearance as an egg, the egg white and the shell are added.  So the hen has from microscopic beginnings of eggs to the final product always growing in her egg tract. So amazing.

Chicken is What’s for Dinner

What do you do with the rest of the chicken that wasn’t used in the science lesson? Dinner. A Chicken Enchilada Recipe is coming another day.

Chicken or the Egg Humor

In the meantime, Connie was looking for the joke, “Why did the chicken cross the road?  To get to the other side,” and she ran across even more funny chicken jokes. Surely you find yourself clucking . . . err chuckling . . . well at least smiling.

Which side of a chicken has the most feathers?
(The outside!) 

Why do hens lay eggs?
(If they dropped them, they’d break!) 

How do chickens bake a cake?
(From scratch!) 

Why can’t a rooster ever get rich?
(Because he works for chicken feed!) 

What’s the most musical part of a chicken?
(The drumstick!) 

What do you get if you cross a chicken with a cow?
(Roost beef!) 

If fruit comes from a fruit tree, where does chicken come from?
(A poul-tree!) 

Chickens rise when the rooster crows, but when do ducks get up?
(At the quack of dawn!)

The essential minerals in salt act as important electrolytes in all bodies, both humans and animals. These essential salt minerals help with fluid balance, nerve transmission and muscle function. Some amount of salt is naturally found in most foods, but we also add salt to enhance the flavor of our food. Historically salt has been used to preserve food.

Ranchers and livestock managers provide salt for their animals in the form of a salt block which they lick.

On the Grieb Ranch we use Salt in Many Different Ways

Our Animals Need Salt

Our animals need it. If we have a sick cow or young calf we mix up an electrolyte solution containing salt then administer it as a drench.

Throughout the year we keep our cattle supplied with different types of mineral salt blocks which they lick free-choice. However, we need to be careful where we set the salt blocks as the area around the blocks gets trampled and the salt kills the vegetation immediately around it. Careful management of salt blocks is necessary.

Our Food and Conversation Need Salt

We enjoy many meals at our ranch table and we add salt to enhance the flavor of some foods.  While eating, we also involve each other in conversation. God’s word provides a guide for our conversations, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Colossians 4:6 

So how do we as Christians season our conversations?  The salt of our conversations is described in Philippians 4:8, “Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy think about such things.” Salt your conversation accordingly and have it be an outpouring of your thought life.

Water troughs are necessary to keep water available to the cattle roaming the hillsides of Grieb Ranch. Materials and construction of these necessary items have taken different shapes and forms over the years the Grieb family have managed cattle on Grieb Ranch.

Redwood Water Troughs

Fred and George Grieb, the original ranching brothers, put in redwood troughs to the catch natural spring water throughout the ranch. As the wood in these troughs aged, the insides were lined with metal. One of these original troughs is now in the Connie’s front yard being used as a planter.

Metal Water Troughs

Metal water troughs made of surplus tanks from the oil fields were the next type of material to be used. A few of these are still in use today. However, as the metal rots out Mr. P plugs the holes with his modeling clay. This usually holds the water until we can replace the trough with a cement trough.

Cement Water Troughs

We now have five cement water troughs providing water to the Grieb Ranch cattle and horse herds, in addition to the wildlife who share the territory. We keep goldfish in the troughs to take care of algae growth and insect larvae. So when we change out a metal tank to a cement one, we have to transfer the goldfish too!

The holiday season is always a wonderful time to give thanks where credit is due!  We are thankful for every one of you. The friends and family of the Grieb Ranch are one of our most valued blessings.  We would not be where we are today if it were not for each one of your amazing prayers and friendship poured over the Grieb Ranch Family and ministries. We want you to know how thankful we are for each one of you.

Covered in Your Prayers

We know we are covered in prayer during moments like this: A month ago I, Connie, received a phone call at 2:30am. The Grieb Ranch hills above our house were on fire!   It is dark but we grabbed the chainsaws (to knockdown flammable material) and trekked up the hill.  The fire was under control by 6am and all was well for a week, but then the fire flared again.  Even though the fire is put out, the clean-up will take time.  It is moments like these, where you realize you could lose everything in an instant, that you ask yourself what is really important.

It is not just the times of fire or the mud slide (in the past) or open heart surgery (for Andrew) we know we must keep on praying. It is through prayer that we have a great relationship with our heavenly father.

Merry Christmas from the Grieb Ranch

“Pray continually.” I Thessalonians 5:17 NIV

“Pray constantly.” I Thessalonians 5:17 Holman Christian

“Always keep on praying.” I Thessalonians 5:17 TLB

“Pray without ceasing.” I Thessalonians 5:17 King James

Fall calving season has been in full swing at Grieb Ranch, keeping us extra busy managing all the new arrivals.

The Fun Side of Calving Season

The first heifer calf of the season was born from Baby R’s heifer calf. All the grand kids at Grieb Ranch have a cow in the herd. This new heifer calf was named Reagy Hidder by Baby R’s brothers. Lil’ cowboy L’s cow had twin bulls which we named Lucky and Loggy. Baby calves born from the lil’ cowboys and cowgirl’s cows get names with the first initials of the lil’ cowboy or cowgirl. Seeing the new arrivals and naming the new calves was the fun side of our calving season.

The Not-so-Fun Side of Calving Season

Taking Care of a Blind Mother Cow

Stan rescues Levi Jefferson

Next we had a mother cow go blind in both eyes. She ended up in a ravine (getting feed and water to her was a steep adventure), where she calved a few weeks early with the  bull calf (Levi Jefferson) born through the fence and consequently onto the neighbor’s property.

Unfortunately, the mother cow did not have much milk and was not tolerating her calf.  So guess who was busy raising little Levi Jefferson as a bottle calf until a different mother cow needed him?  We fed the motherless calf a full bottle of milk replacement two times a day.

It was very challenging to walk the mother cow out of the ravine and load her in a make-sift corral in the middle of nowhere.   Have you ever tried to herd a blind cow on a steep hillside?

Untimely Death of a Calf

One little newborn calf was found dead and devoured within 24 hours. All that was left was the top of the skull, spine and one leg. That’s the reality of managing a herd of cattle.

A Happy Ending

A Motherless Calf Connects with a Calfless Mother Cow

Little Levi Jefferson my bottle calf has a new mom! Connie’s registered Angus cow’s newborn heifer calf dropped dead a few days after we had just given her the first set of booster shots.  This put Amy the mother cow in need of a calf. Good thing we had Levi Jefferson waiting for a new mom. In order for her to accept the new calf we needed to graft the dead calf’s skin to the “adoptee”.

Skin a coat off the dead calf.

So what does grafting a calf look like? The easiest way is to make a jacket for the calf you want to graft out of the dead calf’s hide.  We brought Amy the calfless mother cow into the barn along with her dead calf. We cut a large square patch of the dead calf’s hide off and then draped the “adoptee” Levi Jefferson with a cape of the hide.  We gave the new pair bonding time where Amy the calfless mother cow licked and licked her adoptee calf, Levi Jefferson, who was wearing the hide. Amy the mother cow was halter broke so she was tied up so while we helped Levi Jefferson nurse.  After being on a bottle for months it was amazing how his instinct took over and he went right to nursing.

Levi Jefferson the motherless calf gets a grafted coat and a new mom.

We made sure he sucked all four tits to get her milked out (it was nice not to have to hand-milk her).  We will see how the rest of the story goes…………..

I sure hope it is a HAPPY EVER AFTER ending!

We Have Much to be Thankful For

Even with a few rough starts to the calving season we are enjoying all the new baby calves.  We have much to be thankful for!