Feeding Time

We are about 1/3 done with calving.  We run just over 300 females, so have about 100 calves running around.  We have had 3 sets of twins.  They add extra work because we need to make sure both calves are getting to eat enough, make sure the cow has enough milk for both calves, and that she loves both calves.

The first set are still together with their mom.   The second set was born to a heifer (first calving).   It is hard on the cow feeding two calves so Brett fed them some milk replacer to supplement the cow's milk.  We then had a cow who's calf died so we moved one of these twins onto that cow.  Lucky for everyone, that foster project was successful.

Just a couple of days ago, Christopher took a cow to the veterinarian as she was having trouble calving.   It turned out that her calf was breech.  The vet got it turned around and delivered - only to find a second calf in there!!   Thus, our third set of twins.  This set is unusual as one is black with white face and the other is red with a white face.  This cow is a black white face (happens to be Black Angus / Hereford cross).  She was bred by an Akaushi bull.  This breed has both the black and the red trait.   So, obviously, this is how one cow had calves of each color.  They are all doing fine.

Just when Brett thought he might be done bottle feeding, he found an orphan calf.  We cannot find who the mom is.  The guys walked around the herd with no luck.  We finally decided it must be a twin and the cow just walked away from it with her other calf.  However, when you have 5-10 calves born in one day it is difficult to figure out the mom.   So, Brett has a new bottle calf.  Here is the little sweetie.

When Brett is going into the barn, this little guy starts moo-ing for his bottle!  It is so excited that it doesn't even want to quit sucking to breath!!  

Here Brett is feeding his little buddy.  The calf drinks so fast that some of the milk runs out.   Fluffy, the cat, has figured this out so is always nearby for a little snack!

Busy Night

3 AM, 22 March 2015 -  Temp:  23*, wind: strong and cold

Well it has been an exciting night here.  On my usual 3 AM check I found a cow in labor.  I go back to the house and wait for about an hour as I know it will take her a while yet.  I went out later and she had made no progress.  I call Brett (son) to come help me get her into the big, red barn.  In the meantime I try to get her to stand up.  She couldn't stand - at least not for long.  Her back end is weak.  So, Brett brings the equipment down to the pole barn so we can pull the calf there.  I call Christopher (other son, owner of cow) to come out to the farm - and warn him that we might need the pickup and stock trailer.  Brett does an internal check of the cow.  Bad news, the calf is backwards (coming tail first, legs down). Call Mark (hubby) to come and help.  (I have a love/hate relationship with my cell phone currently it is love.)  Good news, just as Christopher shows up, Brett got the cow up and she walked!   The 'boys' got her up to the red barn and I carried the puller, etc. back up there.  All four humans gather in the barn.  The cow is in a small pen with a head gate to hold her in one spot.  Brett puts on fresh OB gloves (shoulder length) and goes in for another check and explains to us what he feels.  Oh no, the cow sits down (like a dog).   Christopher releases her from the head gate and she rolls onto her side.  This is not ideal for assisting with delivery.  After both Brett and Mark try to get the calf turned enough to get the legs back, they give up.  (Note, they are attempting to work inside of the cow while she is have contractions.)  Christopher takes his cow to the veterinarian in Minot (about 45 miles away).   We don't know if the vet will be able to pull the calf out or if she will have to do a c-section.  

It is now 5:30 AM.  Brett takes the 4-wheeler up to check cows again.   It has only been a little over an hour since I was up there to check them.   He comes back home to get me and our calf sled.   There is one new calf and another should be born when we get back up there.

Sure enough.  We now have two fresh calves and cows to get back to the red barn.  We leave the newest calf for last so mom has time to clean and get to know it.  Brett gets the calf into the sled (large version of the sleds kids have).  We bring the pair back to the barn.   Brett puts the calf into the calf warmer.   This is a special space with a heater in it.  We want to warm the calf up so it doesn't get sick or freeze it's ears off.

We go back up to get the other pair and bring them back to the barn.

It is now 6:40 AM.  We are chilled and wide awake.   It is common that we have to sit up for a while after being out at night.  So, now we watch a bit of TV, play on the computer or just curl up in a blanket - and wait for Christopher to get home with a report on his cow and calf.

7:40 AM - Christopher just returned home from the vet.  Sadly, the calf did not survive.

The rest of the day will consist of continuing to check cattle and trying to get a few minutes for a nap!

Excitement in a Night Check? Some might call it that.

Sometimes those night checks are so exciting because we have lots of calves born.   Sometimes, they are exciting because no calves are born (especially on those stormy nights).  And sometimes those night checks are exciting and it has absolutely nothing to do with the livestock!   Such was the case last night.

The checks have been somewhat easy as I only have to walk out beside the barn to check one pen then drive up north.   During that drive I use as spot light to look for the 1/2 mile drive at the cattle in the pasture along the road.   It can be tricky but in the nearly 30 years I've done it I have not yet driven off the road!  I didn't last night either.  (Here is the image:  spotlight and head hanging out window of jeep driving slowly down township road.)

Last night however there were a few cattle up on the hill across the little creek.  I had to make a trek over there.   We had a little rain a couple of days ago so things are nice and sloppy out there.   I was nervous about going over there.  As it turned out I was right to feel that way.

I was carefully watching where I would step.  One foot got stuck.   I got it out.  So I continued on.     Carefully, carefully, ca.r.e.f.u.l.ll  Oh no.   I could hear the suction.  Yep, one foot got stuck.  I could not pull it out - well I could pull my foot out but not my boot. Try again.  Same result.  What to do?  Call someone for help?  Why?   So they could laugh?  (Heck, I'd be laughing if I weren't short of breath!)  After a few unsuccessful attempts, I took my gloves off, laid them on the ground so I had a place to put my foot.  I then tried to pull the boot out with my hands.   There was not way I could get that darn boot out.  Remember there are still those few head of cattle I am attempting to go check on.

Heck with them.  I shove my flashlight into my stuck boot.  (Looking back I'm not sure why.  I think it was to make sure my guys would find the boot later plus it would keep the cow manure out!) 

The flashlight and my buried boot

 I pick up my gloves and take off  back to the yard.  One boot off, one boot on, diddle dumpling ....

Good thing I wasn't wearing socks anyway!!

I still had to make the drive up north to check cattle.  Everything was okay.   When I drove back into the yard, I used my spot light to look at those cattle up on that hill.

Today Mark & Brett were out tagging calves so they got my boot and the flashlight.  Mark said it took some pretty good tugging to get that boot out.  They got the 4 wheeler stuck near that same spot too!

My salvaged Muck boot

the 4 wheeler stuck in about the same spot as my boot

Editor's note:   I was not able to upload this when I wanted to due to troubles with Blogger so I will add an update.   Brett told me of a better way to get to the cattle that are up on that hill.   I did that tonight and by golly it was WAY better! 

Busy week of deliveries

It was a week of nice deliveries.  I don't mean Christmas gifts either!

Brett purchased a Peterbilt semi about 10 days ago.  He utilized on-line bidding. The auction was taking place in Fargo, ND during a nasty storm.  He purchased it on a Wednesday.  Mark & I were heading that way that weekend so we were able to bring it home to him.  He was pretty excited - until he started to really look it over!  There are just a few things that need repair. 

A couple of looks of the semi tractor.  The second one shows a smiling Brett!

Getting things hooked up.

 

Mark & I purchased a different loader tractor last week.  It was delivered here this week.

We purchased a New Holland T6050.  It isn't brand new so it is just 'new' to us. 

 

Mark is backing up to help pull the 'new' semi that spun on the snow until it was hooked up to a trailer.  It just needed some weight for traction!

Both of my guys were up at the feedlot when they needed the tractor,

so I was asked to drive it up north.  My first time driving it. 

 

So, our last 10 days

Wednesday of last week Brett bought semi. 

Thursday - Mark & I drove to Williston to look at this tractor. 

Friday - Mark & I drove to Fargo to try to get Brett's semi (it was too cold to get it started) so we drove to Valley City were we had meetings and a room to stay. 

Saturday - we drove back to Fargo, purchased some supplies and got the semi to start.  We came home.  Thus starting the deliveries!

 

Well, that is an update of our last couple of weeks.  I got a new camera last week and it was used to take these photos.  So far I like the Panasonic FZ200 camera too.

 

Week 35/52: Yellow Field Pea Harvest

The grain harvest has finally begun at NoDak Herefords.  With spring planting being late, so too is the harvest.  Brett is a farmer through and through.  He did a majority of the planting, all of the spraying and now is running the combine.  (Hmmm, reminds me of the story of Chicken Little!)   Don't worry, others on the farm have kept quite busy too.  Christopher seems to be a full time rancher.  There are always cattle to check and fences to repair.  He is running here and there all of the time!  Mark has been swathing canola.  I am the "go-fer"  which means I try to help any of the guys when they ask.

I did get a few photos to share with you.

Andy thinks he can drive the big combine.  Brett is not so sure!

 

Here is a view of the combine.  It is in a field of Yellow Field Peas.  The plants look just like the peas you can grow in a garden.  We wait for them to dry down.  When the peas are hard and dry enough it is time to combine.  The front part of this combine has a special type of header.  It is called a flex head.  A flex head is designed to skim across the ground and be flexible enough to (hopefully) go over any rocks and just "scoop up" the pea plants & pods.  All of this goes through the combine.  The seeds end up in the hopper (holding tank) and the rest gets spat out the back.  If we are lucky, our cattle will get to come into these fields this fall.  They will love to eat the seeds that got away!  Also any green plants that will be there.  This is called "after grazing".

 

 

Brett had filled the hopper on the combine with peas so it was time to dump them into the semi.  Once the semi gets full it will be taken to a storage building (grain bin) on our farm.  The peas will stay in storage until we decide it is time to sell them.  Marketing is vital to running a profitable farm and is quite time consuming.  It is one thing that we always need to improve on.  We hope the peas are 'food quality' which means you could end up eating peas raised at NoDak Herefords!

Farm Centennial Celebration

WOW!!  What a weekend.  We were very busy but had so much fun.

We had grilled burgers and salads.

What's a party without the cake?

... and cake without ice cream?

Some of the visiting and story telling ...

Special guests from Hector, Minnesota

They are more photos of the day on our Farm Centennial FaceBook Page. 

Thank you to everyone who helped, attended and sent well wishes. 

Ranching is a nursery rhyme?

Today I felt like I was part of a nursery rhyme - specifically "There was an old lady who swallowed a Fly".  You know how it goes, right?

Well, here was today's version at NoDak Herefords  (minus the rhyme since I don't have that talent) ...

There was a herd of Herefords who were ready to move to the next pasture...

It was easy to move them.  Mark just had to open the gate and they eagerly moved to this pasture with grass up past their bellies and water almost everywhere!

The trouble was - the fence needed to be repaired to hold them in.  (We don't know why they would need out with all of this grass, but history tells us they will!)  We have had so much rain this spring that we are unable to drive around this pasture with our usual fencing pickup.  We also use our 4 wheeler for that job and have rigged it up to haul a roll of barbed wire along with a basket to hold supplies such as fencing staples and clips.  So, today Mark took off with the 4 wheeler to fence.  Brett used the loader tractor to haul fence posts and installed a few of them.  I was "on call" should they need extra help.

I don't know why he thought he could drive through this area ...  (guess he thought he could float)

Notice how the cows are in the background keeping an eye on him.

 

 So, he called Brett to bring the tractor to pull him out.  Brett in turned called me to bring out chain, rope and other "pulling out" supplies.  I met Brett along a prairie trail to get the supplies to him.  He took off across the field.  I noticed him spinning but he kept going, got on the trail and found a sodded area to travel on.  He got down to his Dad's location and got everything ready to pull when, oops...

guess it was a little wet there too!  Could it be because he was just on the edge of the same slough as his father?!

Sunk axle deep and spinning.  They had to call me again to bring a bigger tractor. 

I don't have a photo of the set up with the bigger tractor so I will explain.   The cattle are still watching this operation!  The 4 wheeler is tied to the loader tractor.  The loader tractor is tied to the big tractor.  Mark was stranded on the 4 wheeler (since he was surrounded by water).  I drove the loader tractor and Brett pulled all of us out with the big tractor.  What a sight!

 

SO, we drove the big tractor to pull the loader tractor to pull the 4 wheeler.  I don't know why the 4 wheeler thought it could get through the water.

 

 

Andy update - Weeks 19, 20 & 21 PLUS Sunday Stills

Wow!  I guess time must have flown right be me.  I did not realize I had gotten so far behind on my Andy posts.  With today's submission, I will be caught up on the 52 Weeks Photography project.  Coincidentally, another photo group (Sunday Stills) that I follow has a topic this week of multiple photos of one subject.  So Andy will be famous this week! 


WEEK 19:  Andy the Cookie Monster!

(Brett happened to like these cookies too!  They were soft sugar cookies with sprinkles in the batter.)

WEEK 20:  Ready to go to work





Andy is always in the camera bag ready to go to work. 

I guess that is one of the downfalls of being the photo subject of a full year!! 

Here he sneaks a peak at what else is going on!

WEEK 21:  Josh's graduation party

Andy thought he was a part of the centerpiece at this graduation celebration.

Spring finally Sprung! (and Week 18: Andy)

I am happy to report that we finally have spring.  We thought we might have slept through it!  We had about 5 good days in the field and boy were we busy!  Mark got all of our peas planted.  This is our first year of raising field peas.  We have about 200 acres of them. 

Yellow Field Pea Seed

After we finished the peas, we started planting canola.  Mark & Brett have taken turns running the air seeder.  There is plenty else to do.  Brett has a sprayer that needs to be fixed and gotten ready so he has spent quite a bit of time doing that.  I shared a little about seeding last year.

Once we started planting canola, I got more involved in the spring planting season.  It is my job to pull Anhydrous Ammonia (NH3) tanks to town to get them filled and return them to the field.  NH3 is used to add nitrogen to the soil. 

Andy waiting for the NH3 tank to be filled.

Christopher just finished breeding about 50 heifers using Artificial Insemination (AI).  He goes through about a three step process to get them all to cycle (come in heat) at the same time.  I helped him get the cattle in to work them but he had to do the inseminating.  I understand he wants to breed some of the cows too.  I don't think I've ever written about this so I should follow him around with a camera next time.  He will not like that! We artificially breed the heifers (female cows who have never had a calf) to better control the birth weight of their calves.  We AI our registered (purebred) Polled Hereford cows to help improve the genetics in our herd.

Our seeding came to a halt on Saturday due to fog and mist.  By Sunday morning we had a full fledged rain.  Since about 10:30 Sunday morning until this afternoon (Monday) we have had nearly three inches of rain.  It has been a beautiful rain for our pasture grasses.  We must now be patient for the soil to dry so we can finish seeding.

A day of sunshine and repairs

Our weather is finally getting better.  Today the temp was near 60 and the sun was shining nice & bright. 

This morning I took a 4 wheeler ride out among some of our cattle.  Mark had rolled out a big bale of hay.  This photo shows the calves even have an interest in hay - except for those looking at the dogs!

 

This afternoon I helped Mark & Brett "play" mechanic. 

 

Mark was UNDER a pickup changing oil.  I didn't help with that in fact I was probably more of an annoyance to the guys!

 

Brett was UNDER his high wheel sprayer.  He had to get the hydraulic wheel motors repaired.  Here he is hooking up the hydraulic lines.  I did help with this project.  The guys did the heavy lifting and I put the bolts in place when things were lined up.  This sprayer sits up so high & wide that we are sure someone could drive a small sports car under it!  This is the first project of many to get machinery ready for the spring planting season.

 

 

 

 

We had to JUMP  the batteries to get the swather started (moved) so we could get the sprayer out of the machine shed.  Well, technically we charged the battery but I need a photo of jump and this was as close to a 'jump start' as I got this week.

 

We need to hope the sun keeps shining so we can get the air seeder out of the snowbank/mud and get that ready too.  Planting will begin before we know it!!

 

 

As you may have noticed the words UNDER and JUMP have links.  They are both parts of a couple of photography groups that I am in.  Under is for the Saturday Photo Hunt.  Jump is for Fotos by Friends.  One of the main reasons I started this blog was so I'd have a place to post photos that I wanted to enter in various photo challenges/contests.  Andy is a part of a weekly challenge plus the two I mentioned here.  There are others too that I sometimes participate in.  I just enjoy the challenge of finding a photo to fit the various topics!

 

Calving 2013 (Part 1?)

We will pretend that I fulling intend on writing more about calving season and call this entry "Part One"!! 

I just don't think I have shared anything about calving this year.  It is basically the same every year, but still, it is our business so I should share something, right?

Today I was helping Brett with some of the chores so I snapped a few photos to share.

This little guy would "graze" inside of the bale feeder for a while then jump out to wander for a while and then go back in the bale feeder!  For a little while he even was chewing on the twine string that is hanging from the feeder.  It is fun to watch these young ones at play!  In a few months he will be quite big and we will have him for sale as a bull.  Maybe I will remember to post a photo when he is bigger and for sale - remember 0735A  (that is his number).

This guy entertained me for a while (it doesn't take much when one is running on little sleep!).  He kept grabbing his tail to chew on!  Calves have sharp teeth so I would have thought it might hurt, but perhaps it was more sucking than biting!  He should go find his mom to eat -  not his tail.

Here are two of the dogs that run around at NoDak Herefords.  Eli is the black one and Lori is the white one.  Eli belongs to Christopher and Paige but he spends most of his time at the ranch (especially during calving season because he gets so dirty & stinky!).  Lori is our White German Shepard.  She loves attention from anyone and everyone.  She has gone deaf in the past few months but still enjoys running around and playing - especially with Eli.

0520A was born just minutes before I snapped this photo.  This was the first time it had stood up so it was maybe 15 minutes old.  In this photo the calf is looking for mom's udder to get some of the very important first milk called colostrum.  Colostrum is vital in the newborn calf if it does not get any it likely will not survive.  Colostrum contains the antibodies the baby needs to grow "big and strong".

Well, that was a little bit about what happens on the ranch at calving time.  I don't take photos of the routine stuff - like putting bales in the bale feeder or feeding silage.  I suppose I should really do that sometime too.  If you ever have any questions about what we do here or something I have written about, feel free to ask and I will do my best to explain things to you.  Thank you for stopping by.  Be sure to leave a note so I know you were here.

Week 9/52: Andy & the blizzard

We have been warned about an incoming storm so had been doing things to prepare.  We tucked a young momma and her twin calves into the barn, put extra straw into the barns so there is a nice, comfy spot for the cattle to lay and tried to mentally prepare for trudging through deep, blowing snow.  (Okay, my guys did the first two things and I did the last!)

The storm didn't come quite as soon as expected but the weather folks were correct about the storm a-comin'.  By the time I went out to see if there were any new calves at 3 AM it was snowing and starting to blow.  When I went out again at 6, it was really blowing.  I had sent a text to Christopher and told him to stay home (he lives in our little nearby town).  He usually is out here at 5 or 6 AM to check cattle but today I asked that he stay put at least until daylight.  He & Paige came out later to tend to their horses and help with cattle chores.  The visibility actually kept getting worse.  Sometimes we can see quite a distance, but the ground drifting is terrible making the roads bad.  Plus, it is very hard to see the edges of the roads when everything is white and moving.  Brett had to help Christopher & Paige get "unstuck" a couple of times after they decided they had better get back home.  After Brett was back home, he said, "I watched for the fences to find the road."  He made sure he could see the fence in either ditch but even that was tricky sometimes.  Anyway, everybody got to their respective destinations safely.

Andy went to see the blizzard and didn't even get the screen door open when he found this.

Guess that is what happens then the wind is blowing straight at the door.  Lucky for us the inside door is tight!

I went to the other door and could hardly get the screen door open.  Here are a couple of photos from that door (I wasn't going out into this mess unless I had to). 



















 

The visibility in the yard isn't too bad right now.  Heck, we've had blizzards so bad that we couldn't see the barn. 

Rolling Feed

Our eldest son, Christopher, was able to purchase oats cleanout from a neighbor.  Cleanout (or Screenings as some call it) is the 'stuff' that is removed when we clean our grain to get most of the weed seeds, and other foreign matter, removed before planting.  The grain goes through a machine that shakes the seeds across various sized screens so, hopefully, only the pure seeds remains.  The rest is cleanout.    The oats cleanout that Christopher was able to purchase is great for feed to our cattle and those in the feedlot. 

Before we feed this we like to run it through a roller mill.  The roller mill cracks the grain making it more digestible for the animal.  We have also done this same process with corn and barley for the same reason.



The whole set up for rolling our feed

 We auger the cleanout (aka grain) from the bluish-grey building (grain bin). 

It goes into the roller mill. 

 

 

 There are two roller mills in my photo.  Yesterday the men tried the red one on legs.  Today, they are using the (formerly red) one that is hooked up to the tractor.  Both of the roller mills do the same job but it was decided that the one on the tractor was doing a better job of cracking the oats.  The one on legs runs with electricity.  The one on the tractor is run by the tractor's PTO (Power Take Off). 

 

Oats Cleanout

 Here is a fairly close photo of the Oats cleanout.  The long, narrow, oval shape is the oats seed.  There is also some straw (the dried stem of the grain plant) and other random seed.  This is what it looks like before it goes through the roller mill. 

 

 The top of this photo shows the grain going into the roller mill.  The bottom left hand corner is the rolled product getting augered away to the little white hopper bin (see top photo) for storage.  Just above the auger in the bottom corner is the rolled grain coming out of the roller mill. 

This is a closer look. Toward the upper right corner the rolled oats are coming out of the roller mill. The auger in the bottom left is taking it to the hopper bin.

 This is what the grain looks like after it goes through the roller mill. 

You can see how the grain is cracked open.  

Here is a photo of the tractor that makes the roller mill work.  Brett is sitting in the tractor making sure there are no problems.  Sometimes the top hopper (holding area) of the roller mill gets too full so he has to stop the grain from augering until there is room for more grain.  Yesterday he said he had to stop the auger every two seconds and wait for two minutes before there was room for more.  I guess it was better today!

 

Sharing with Farm Photo Friday

Merry Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas! 

our Christmas update:

     We have had a fairly uneventful 2012 and that is a good thing!

     Christopher & Brett are a part of our farming/ranching business.  Christopher has also added a feedlot to his business.  Brett would like to get into the farming enterprise, but has yet to find any land to rent.  It is nice to have them with us. 

     Christopher & Paige live in Donnybrook.  Paige works in Minot as Ward County Extension Agent focusing on the agriculture areas.  
     Brett lives with us, though he can’t wait to get rid of us.
     Annette’s parents are doing pretty well.  Dad turned 85 on the 18^th.  Mark & Annette along with a few other family members made some surprise visits to Arizona.
     Mark’s mom was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in 2011.  It was extremely hard on her knees.  She now has two new knees and we hope this will help her considerably. 
     That is about all for our year.  We look forward to hearing from you.

       Wishing you a healthy and wonderful 2013.

                             The Rockeman Family

Here is one of the treats that I made for Christmas goodies this year:

SWEDISH ALMOND-CHOCOLATE MACAROONS

Makes 2 to 3 dozen cookies.

Note: This dough must be prepared in advance. Pasteurized eggs are recommended for food safety reasons. The Swedish cookies are also known as Choklad Biskvier. Our 2011 winner is from Beth Jones of Owatonna, Minn.

For cookies:
• 2 (7-oz.) tubes almond paste, cut into small pieces
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 c. granulated sugar

For filling:
• 1 c. (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• 1 c. powdered sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 pasteurized egg yolks (see Note)
• 4 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

For chocolate coating:
• 10 to 12 oz. dark or bittersweet chocolate
• 2 to 4 tsp. vegetable oil or melted butter

Directions
To prepare cookies: In a bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed, beat almond paste and egg whites until thoroughly combined, about 2 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Using a small scoop, form dough into balls (or drop by heaping teaspoons) and place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Moisten the flat bottom of a glass with water, dip into granulated sugar and carefully press prepared glass bottom into dough balls, flattening dough; repeat with remaining dough. Bake until lightly brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool 5 minutes before transferring cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

To prepare filling: Line baking sheets with wax paper.
In a bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter until creamy, about 1 minute. Add powdered sugar, vanilla extract, egg yolks and cocoa powder, and mix until smooth (scraping down sides of bowl as necessary), about 2 minutes. Using a small knife, spread about 1 tablespoon filling on top of each cookie, making a rounded top. Transfer cookies to prepared baking sheets and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

To prepare chocolate coating: Break chocolate into small pieces. In a double boiler over gently simmering water (or in a microwave oven), melt chocolate. Whisk in 2 teaspoons vegetable oil (or melted butter), adding more to reach desired consistency. Let mixture cool for a few minutes, then dip tops of cookies into chocolate mixture, holding onto almond base. Return cookies to prepared baking sheets and refrigerate until chocolate hardens, at least 30 minutes. Store in refrigerator and serve chilled.
SOURCE:  Star Tribune  28 Nov 2012