It’s time for recipe #2 in our Ground Beef Series.

I chose this recipe yesterday because I was facing down three school-weary and slightly-grumpy kids. Dinner had to be a crowd pleaser, it just had to be. Pasta seemed like the obvious choice.

I am happy to report that all of my family enjoyed this dish. You would not believe how blessedly quiet it was while they licked their plates clean! I served this with a plate of fresh veggies and let them choose their favorite dips.

This recipe took about 40 minutes from start to finish, but it was simple to make. I do plan to make this again for my family and next time I am considering changing up the cheeses…maybe fontina? Or gruyere?

Enjoy!

We have spent the past several days shipping yearlings. (And tending to the kids, who have each taken a turn with the first round of colds/flu for the school year.)

We shipped heifers today. These heifers spent the summer in northern Nevada on good grass and in cooler temperatures. They weighed up nicely and our buyer was quite pleased with them.

The cowboys bring the heifers up the alley to the scale where the cattle buyer weighs them.

Then it’s time to start loading trucks. As I turned a corner on my way to the chute, I saw my husband sitting next to our son and could hear him explaining the process to our two-year old.

Love that this little boy hangs on his Dad’s every word.

Love that his Dad takes the time to sit with him, even though it is one of the busiest days of our year.

Our days are getting busier. There are many things we need to accomplish in the next few weeks. Pre-conditioning calves is currently at the top of the list.

We worked this bunch of cows and calves at our neighbor’s corral. We are blessed with wonderful neighbors, have I mentioned that? Our neighbors realized that this group of pairs was closer to their corral than ours and they offered to let us use their facilities. Just like that.

When we pre-condition, we gather the cows and calves and bring them to the corral. After sorting the calves into one pen and the cows into another, we run the calves through the working chute and give each calf a couple of vaccinations. Then we turn them back in with their mothers and trail them to a new field.

We sometimes refer to pre-conditioning as “practice weaning” because the calves get an idea of what will happen on the day they are weaned. The main reason we choose to pre-condition our calves is that the vaccines are more effective if the calf is in a low-stress situation. Turning the calves back in with the mama cows is the best way to reduce stress in the calf.

The resident two-year old and I tagged along with the cowboys for a few hours. Our last job, before he and I went home for nap time, was to haul cowboys to the various pick-ups and stock trailers that were left at the starting point of the ride.

Of course, it is much more fun to ride those last few miles with Dad than with Mom. (Why is it that my kids are convinced everything is more fun with Dad than with Mom?)

Did you notice the cool breeze yesterday morning? Not cold, just cool. Cool enough to grab a sweatshirt as we headed out the door to do chores. I mentioned to the kids how excited I was that fall had arrived.

My eight year old son patiently explained to me that it is still summer, because fall does not technically begin for another couple of weeks. He’s right, of course, but it’s still my favorite time of the year.

Regardless of what the calendar says, these cows know it is fall. They have been slowly working their way off the mountain for the past few days. Over the weekend, we brought them down the last few miles to the fall range.

The red cows happily lined out and trotted down the trail. This was a pleasant surprise! Typically, it takes a little work to convince them it’s time to move to new country.

Do you know what I have discovered since sending our three oldest children back to school last week? One child is amazingly portable!  So much less stuff! One water bottle, one snack, one extra jacket. I can grab my two year old son and within moments we are in the midst of ranch work.

Speaking of ranch work, the cowboys are pre-conditioning calves today and this little boy and I are going to help!

Hi Everyone!

Working on changing things up here at Beef Matters. Sorry for the confusion and construction. New content up later today…after taking the hooligans to school and working a few calves.

Thanks for your patience.

First day of school for this band of hooligans. First day of Kindergarten for the little girl in in pig tails with the backpack as big as she is.

First day I get to spend alone with this little guy.

He and I spent our first day on our own doing very important things. Things like test driving the tractor.

I had forgotten exactly how much two year old boys love to pretend to drive. Complete with sound effects and a running commentary of precisely which road we are on and what we are doing. I am always the passenger on these excursions. The passenger with the keys in her pocket, to insure that we don’t have a runaway.

We also checked on the steers. Obviously, they were excited to see us.

They lined out along the fence, each jockeying for position to eyeball their visitors. We were able to get a good look at the steers…until the boy sitting behind the wheel (pretending to drive yet another parked vehicle) discovered the horn. The steers scattered, I re-gained the driver’s seat and the two year old grinned proudly from the backseat. Never a dull moment with a two-year old around, is there? It’s going to be a fun year!