Danielle Gariepy's Rural Roots - Winter Views
Here I am with two of our 4-H steers. The one on the left is mine and the one on the right belongs to my brother Richard. 4-H stands for Head, Hands, Heart and Health. It is a club that welcomes all kinds of agricultural projects. I have raised a steer, but you could raise rabbits, sheep, horses or a cow/calf pair. You could also do crafts, baking, small engines, sewing and even internet projects.
This is our family home. We built it three years ago. It sits atop a hill and overlooks the irrigation and the fields and the highway. In the distance to the south east, we can see the village of Rockyford.
I stood on top of the stock trailer to take this photograph. I love how it turned out. This is my rabbit shed—I keep all of my supplies here like: pellets, oats, water buckets, straw, hay, wood and wires, dishes and water bottles. The rabbits live in cages that are kept near the shed.
Sandy is very interested in what I am doing. She is a nine year old brood mare and she is curious about what I am doing. Actually she worries about everything—she is paranoid about every little thing! But Sandy is an excellent mother, she really is. I guess she is just always worried about the safety of her colts and fillies.

This is Grandpa's tractor. This equipment sits in the yard all winter. We use it to feed the cows—you can see the bailer hooked onto the back of the tractor. This tractor can scoop up a bail of hay, take off the twine automatically, and can shred the hay into nice piles for the cows to eat.
Again, I am up on top of the stock trailer looking at the round pen. If you look closely you can see my brother Richard is walking his 4-H steer in the pen. We train all of our animals in this pen; our horses and our 4-H cattle.

The roan horse, is one of our appaloosa's, and her name is Lady. She is pregnant now with a F-4 stud colt (this will be a very valuable colt). The paint mare Gidget, is just visiting. The horses through the fence are all quarter horses: Dougie (a 20 year old bay gelding), and Hoser (a 22 year old sorrel gelding), and Joe (an eight year old chestnut gelding).

Horses come in and out of the pens—we move them from pen to pen so that they don't eat all of the time. At night they go out into the pasture, and during the day, they come into the area where the food is.
My cat Lacie and Taz (Taz is an Australian Shepherd), are just being buddies, sitting on top of the straw bales out by the Quonset. Lacy has had five litters, but she is fixed now. Taz, we hope she has babies soon, because she is such a pretty dog.
4-H steers, Spike (left) and Codos (right) share a pen and are great companions for each other because they are the only two steers that we have. Spike is an Red Angus cross and Codos is an Angus/Semitol cross.
 I am standing beside the stock trailer. We can put the horses, cows, and sheep in there. (We don't put the pigs in there.) On top of it we can store the poles for the outfitter's tent and the straw and the hay. The outfitter's tent is used when we go camping. We need the hay and the straw, because of course, the horses come with us when we travel.
The house in the distance belongs to my Uncle Roger. My dad is running the tractor and the bailer. This is a job that we do every morning. This herd eats at least eight bales a day. You can see these cattle are following the tractor because they know it is breakfast time. (This photo was taken in the winter time—in the summer time, the cattle are separated and sent to the summer pasture.)
I raise rabbits. This is Bugs—she is really fat because I love to spoil my rabbits. I often take her for walks though, actually I take all of my rabbits for walks around the pens. They love to run and get exercise and they love to eat the fresh grass.

Troy Koester | Danny Cammaert | Danielle Gariepy | Erin Mortreuil | Kenzie Kettenbach