Summer vacation means two months of four kids, all day, every day. I like this. It means I get to have some helpers when I‘m out laying water pipe or fencing. Here are Lucy Jean and Clémentine helping out in their best farming dresses.

In the foreground below are 5kg of 1.8mm steel wire and 50m of water line. The dangling orange gate hook is for the permanent dividing fence in the Colorado paddock that we’re wiring. Now Lucy doesn’t do much actual farm work but she does do cartwheels.

Elfie the Mirandaise wanted her photo taken. She has a fly on her nose.

She’s now two years old and like the rest of the 2yo Mirandaise is ready to meet a bull. I’m hunting for a Salers bull, a short but stocky guy. That means the Mirandaise will be crossed with a Salers for their first calf, which should give some of the great Salers flavor to the meat and give a small calf. This will help the M-girls as they will be first-time birthers and will have an easier time with a smaller calf.

In later years I’ll likely AI the best of the Mirandaise to get some pure-bred animals. I’m not going to go through that process until they prove themselves good mothers. Time will tell.