The shortlist of 34 photos in consideration for our 2025 calendar just became 12. As always it was hard for me to choose from his shortlisted photos. Each photo elicits memories for  me and the memories can impact my choices. So this year I got help from a few family and friends who voted for their 12 favorites. There was unanimity on several photos, including 2 that I had not chosen for my final 12, One of the Cotton Patch Geese and sunset and one I took of our cow Rosie in the forest, looking at the camera with a mouthful of privet.

With the help I got, it was easier narrowing the selection down to a manageable number this year. Choosing 12 photos that meshed together for the calendar was not quite so easy. I had my heart set on several from the shortlist that just didn't fit the flow of images on the calendar. I ended up choosing 3 new photos that were not on my shortlist that fit the general look and feel of the calendar better. The first was of our Pineywoods steer Little Dave at sunset for May, the second of our Pineywoods Bull Uno in the forest while the sun rises through the trees for November and the third of our Pineywoods Cow Rosie lying in the pasture with clover on her nose for December. Although they were not my favorites individually, these three were much better choices for the overall calendar. See the final selections below and purchase your calendar on Printify.*

Thanks to Marcus, Sue, my mom and my friend Carl for their help selecting the photos.

*Note that we have no control over the estimated shipping price on Printify. You will get a more accurate price after entering your address. Customers in the United States paid on average $10.59 for shipping for the 2024 calendar. The cost per calendar for shipping decreases dramatically when ordering multiple copies.

Happy New Year! We partied and raised hell until 3am New years Eve, then got up 4 hours later to let out the birds as always...and rake up all the silly string from the celebration, those birds will eat anything!

Almost 100 people voted in each of our 5 categories of our annual Best Photos, and one winner in particular stands out. The categories were:

1. Pineywoods Cattle
2. Geese, Turkeys and Chickens
3. The Sun, The Moon, The Rainbow
4. Sue, Mike & Animals
5. Nature

Scroll down to see the winner in each category and discover the stand-out.

Sometimes the story behind the photo makes it a bit more special for me. This is especially true for the selfies I attempt to get with our farm animals. The selfie above of Sue and I with our neighbors camel Sandy was to be the first of many. Being affectionate, it was actually fairly easy to get a selfie with Sandy, but that's not the case for all farm animals.

Some of the animals at Ozark Akerz, like the Cotton Patch Geese, are particularly easy to get close to. The goslings were only a few days old when we brought them to Ozark Akerz and they have firmly bonded with us as their parents. On the other hand, the Pineywoods Cattle are much more varied.  Some will allow us to scratch them (a perfect opportunity for a selfie when they approach us), others want us to stay at arms length and will swing their horns to warn us not to get too close. And yet Dave, the Pineywoods that loves a scratch more than the entire herd put together, has proven the hardest to get a selfie with.
 
The selfie challenge with Dave is that he's pushy. He will push us around and headbutt us with that big head of his to let us know he’s ready for a scratch. Once the scratching commences, his pushiness stops, but as soon as we stop scratching the pushing starts again. If we try to walk off, he’ll follow us around; more pushing and headbutting. He's not aggressive, but it's hard to concentrate on taking a photo when you're trying to keep from being inadvertently trodden on by an overly friendly 1000 lb animal!