Just got the camera talking to the computer again, so here is a picture of the last calf born. He was born out on pasture and everyone had to check him out!
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Everything is getting so green, and the weather is absolutely beautiful. The calves are out romping in the field and the chickens are chasing bugs. This weekend the alpacas are scheduled for shearing. The girls are registered for the Girls On The Run race in Grand Junction Saturday, and we are off to a great start to spring! Life gets busier this time of year, with the irrigation water starting to flow and planting the garden, and the kids getting out of school soon, but it is such a wonderful time. Happy Spring to all!
Last Wednesday, Tori, Gus and I came home around 6pm to a still-wet little calf out in the field. Our last heifer finally calved, and it was a good sized bull calf. The kids and I came in and got some towels because the wind was picking up and it was cool out. We helped dry him off while his mother closely supervised. It was neat for Tori to be able to help. Shortly after he stood up and started nursing. When it was getting dark and time to come in from the field, he couldn't walk that far. It took both Jeff and I to lift him and bring him in to the pen. Starlette, his mother, was eagerly looking for him, and has turned out to be a great mom. The next day he went running and bucking out of the night pen, and now we can't even catch him. No more new calves til next summer!
Just over a week ago we got a Great Pyrenees puppy named Buck. He will be a kid and livestock guardian dog. He is super friendly, a fast learner, and rather large for a 5 month old puppy. He weighs in at 68lbs right now, and is about the same height as Gus. Which makes for convenient face licking! The girls have been working with him on the leash, and he has fun with them. We will be learning right along with him about how to train a livestock guardian!
Whew, been busy and neglecting this area of our farm. Today Tori(7), Alex(5) and I were feeding the cows and calves. The little heifer calf is a sweety, and so curious! She was licking the girls' hands, arms, pants, anything she could get at, while they fed her and the others. So we got a little halter out, put it on her, I pushed, Tori pulled, and she had her first lesson in a halter. She did great! And we had fun. She is probably pushing 175# now, but super gentle. The afternoon clouded up and got windy. I was sure winter was over when it started raining, but then it turned to sleet and then snow. So much for the mud drying up! Jeff was marking one of the fields down the hill all day, but got home pretty quick once the sleet and wind made their appearance. He is halfway done anyway(and will probably dream tonight about a tractor with an enclosed cab)! The girls went to a movie afternoon with friends at our church, and we had company for dinner. A great end to a perfect day in paradise...
Today we took the bulls down to a friend's place in Delta to have them ultrasounded for meat quality. It was our day off, and we were planning on getting there around noon. About 10:30 I received a call that they were ready for us. So I finished up the girls breakfast prep(they had slept in and I had already been down to work to catch up on a few things), and ran out to get the trailer on the truck. Everyone including Gus wanted to help, and Jeff was conveniently gone in Grand Junction. So I hooked up the trailer and got it lined up with the bulls' pen. Now to load them... I grabbed a couple of buckets and some pellets, and put those in the trailer with much rattling and fanfare. I opened the door of the trailer and the gate to the pen, and walked away. I went to go get the herding sticks(sure there is a better name for them that I don't know!) and came back to two bulls eating happily in the trailer. I closed the door and we were off. We arrived just before noon, and no we weren't late(a rare event for me). There were several other breeders there, all Angus. It was an interesting process, and we should receive the results in a week or two. The only problem was the bulls not wanting to load back up, I should have brought extra pellets for the ride home!
We have been keeping busy with the clinic up and running, which is a good thing! The girls have been out of school this week, and have had fun entertaining themselves by inventing new games, playing with Barbies, and sledding in the snow. They have also helped out by cleaning up the house! We finally gathered all the Christmas decorations, and the only thing left is the tree...Maybe tomorrow! Two yaks went to the locker plant this week, so we will have meat to sell in a couple weeks. A second calf was born the day after the first one, so they each have a buddy to play with. The girls have their last Buddy Werner race of the season on Sunday. My, it went by fast! And Girls on the Run starts next week... I guess Spring has almost sprung!
After several more days of waiting, Becky finally had her calf on Jan. 24th. She was born at 5;45 am, with an uneventful delivery. What a pretty little girl! Then the next afternoon we arrived home from the clinic to find that Lina, another of the cows, had a calf out in the pen as well! This one is a little bull calf, and both are doing well. What cute little buggars!
Becky, one of our Pinzgauers, was due to calve on the 14th of this month. Since then we have had beautiful days of 40 degrees, still no calf. I thought for sure when the temperature dropped and the snow started flying it would be born, but still no calf. Here we are, 8 days later, mud, cold and snow everywhere, where is that little girl?
With Jeff out of town for a few days on business, of course there will be hiccups. The most recent being yesterday when I came home from work to find water running out the bottom of the air conditioner in the garage. There was a layer of ice on everything, and I was dumping water out of boxes of Caprisuns. What a discovery at 6:30 pm with 4 hungry kids to make dinner for!
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AuthorSusie (and sometimes Jeff) Hirsch, parents, vets, small scale ranchers, and regular people, who must have a sense of humor to survive! Archives
January 2015
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