A Day of Confusion.....with Lots of Experts.

Today was a confusing day.  That's what my Farmer said when we got to the house this evening.  Let me explain.  During morning check on the cows, my Farmer found three new baby calves.  Two with their momma's and one all alone.  After looking around and not finding any cow looking for a calf, my Farmer assumed that one of the cows had had twins and she claimed one and not the other.  Not knowing which cow it belonged to, but knowing that neither cow could raise two calves anyways, he brought the lone calf to the corral figuring this one would have to be raised on a bottle. Really didn't want another bottle baby, but that's how it goes. First step was to give the calf some colostrum, which is vital to a new calf.  This is where the confusion started.  He would not eat.  Since he would not suck the bottle, my Farmer had the feeling that the calf had already eaten. (We have found that new born calves will not suck on the bottle if they have already eaten from their momma's)  At lunch we were discussing the situation and we decided it might be a good idea to check the herd again to make sure he didn't just overlook the momma.   When my Farmer got out to the herd, sure enough, he found a cow that was looking for a calf.  Yay!!  He went back and got to calf, took it out to the momma.  She sniffed it, then walked away.  Dang it!  Now my Farmer was thinking he confused the cow by taking her calf so he separated them from the rest of the herd, thinking that maybe it would help if they were by themselves.  Once in a different pasture, just the two of them, she once again sniffed it, even kind of acted interested, then walked off.  More confusion.  The pasture this cow was now in has lush green grass, which the other place did not, so all she was interested in was eating.  Now my Farmer started thinking that this cow was just starting to calve and was just looking for a calf, but had not calved.  Which sometimes they will do this.  This is where I entered the picture, adding to the confusion as best I could.  I had been fixing fence, which I was on my third day of doing all by myself, which I am not very good at, which I was getting very tired of doing, which is why I decided to quit early, knowing my Farmer needed my expertise.  Ha!  I was excited when I drove up and seen that he had found the momma!  Then he tells me he thinks its not the momma.  I say, being the expert that I am,  I think her bag has been sucked on and she doesn't look fat enough to still have a calf in her, so I think its hers.  My Farmer says, being the expert that he is, it is not hers.  However, with my little input, it makes him question himself.  Yep, that's my job.  More confusion.  We decided to run her to the corral and help her to love her calf, cuz we are all confused, remember!  Once there my Farmer wonders if we should go ahead and run her in the chute and check to see if she has a calf in her.  Wow, now that is an idea!  I second that.  That's what we do.  And guess what, we helped her find her calf.  In the birthing canal!  Yep, she was calving!   Believe me, she had not been showing any signs of being in labor, except for the looking for a calf part, (and chasing after the dog).  We went ahead and helped her calve....and life is now good for them.  She found her calf.  The other little critter, well she is my responsibility now.  And getting her to suck on a bottle....yea, I was able to do that.  You just have to have a little motherly experience and a lot of patience.  And I am an expert on that.   That's livin' the life......The Farm Life that is......

When the Pressure drops.....the Calves drop....

I believe this to be a true statement.  When the air pressure drops, we can always count on lots of babies to be born.  And the other day was no exception.  The weather here went from sunny and hot one day to cold, snowy, rainy, and windy the next.  On the sunny day we had 3 calves born, which has been about our norm.  All jumped right up and took to eating with no problems. The next day, the cold, rainy, snowy, windy day, we had 8 calves born.  And since it was cold, they are slower.  4 went to the corral and two got to spend the night in the calf house to warm up.  The others did get up and eat on their own but it took them a while to do so. (When I say it took a while I mean over two hours, because if conditions are right, a calf can be up and eating within an hour or less.)  This makes for a long day for my Farmer (well, and me of course).  My Farmer and I have a system when it comes to bringing the calf and its momma to the corral, and usually it works pretty smooth.  He puts the calf in the ATV trailer, which he built sides for,  the calf can stand up, but can't jump out, and the momma can see it and sniff it, which usually means she will follow it all the way to the corral.  Usually.  And this is a one man job.  It seems if I go out to help, the momma freaks out, thinking its a trap, and she will not follow.  So my job is to close the gate at the corral as soon as she goes through it.  Sometimes, once the cow realizes that she has been lead through the gate, she will freak out and try to turn around and run, not caring whether you have her calf or not. So shutting of the gate is a very important job (well ALL my jobs are very important, right?!? Haha).  I have to hide so she can't see me and then leap into action once she is through the gate.   The other night, as I was sitting in my hiding position, I was admiring the beauty of my surroundings.  The sky was incredible. Picture perfect.  I was suppose to be very still as not to spook the momma, but I just HAD to snap a picture!  To share it with all of you, of course.  And I did.  I was sneaky enough, momma didn't spook....Thankfully!  But don't tell my Farmer, we need him to think he had my full attention.   And he did, of course.....kind of.
Hope ya like the picture cuz .......This is...... Livin' the Life......the Farm Life that is. 

Layer on....Layer off....Strip tease Act

As many of you know,  when we are feeding cows, I usually drive the tractor and my Farmer throws off the hay.  There are a few times when I will "give him a break" and let him drive while I throw the hay off.  Tonight was one of those times.  He was already in the tractor, the sun was shinning (remember I am only a fair weather farmer),  so I thought, what the heck, he can just stay in the tractor and I'll toss the hay this time.  Now you have to realize that we are having spring in the mountains right now, which means it is cold one minute and warm the next, which means you dress in layers and it is a game of on/off all day.  Well just before we fed, it was cold, so I was layered.... winter hat, snow pants, heavy coat, snow boots....yep I was pretty much bundled up.   As we headed out to the field, the wind stopped and the sun was warm....it was just plain beautiful.  As I got about half way through the first bale, I started to get rather warm, so off went the coat.  Then the hat.  Then the snow pants. Then the vest.  Then I realized,  if anyone was watching,  it probably looked like a strip tease act!  On a hay wagon! That made me laugh.  I kind of wanted to keep stripping off layers just to see what my Farmer would do. That really made me laugh.   After all, it is all about livin the moment and keepin life exciting right?  But then that would make this blog x rated and well, we can't let that happen now can we.  Haha!  But ya know.......Thats livin the life, the farm life that is.   And I'm still lovin it.....all bundled up. 😊