Life on the farm

I had to laugh when I was out checking the cows out today I could hear this banging noise coming from the barn and when I turned to look what it was – well I saw this 

It’s Reno standing on her back feet just watching me in the cow yard with the new calf. I’m thinking that the dogs are feeling a little left out or something with the new baby calf in the yard.  Whatever the case is, this dog is looking a little pathetic and needing some love. 

Then when I was walking through the yard, these two little kitties caught my eye. They’re just hanging out in the hay loft just watching what was going on in the farm yard today. 

You would think that living on the farm it’s kind of boring, but there’s always something going on and there is always someone watching you 🙂

Isn’t she about the cutest calf that you’ve ever seen? So far she’s been pretty tame, so I’m hoping that she’ll stay that way. 

No Ears still isn’t out of the woods yet Daryl said, but I do know that she’s been eating and drinking so that’s good. We’re thinking that she might have still a fever so we’re going to watch her over the weekend and call the local vets if she still seems a little off. 

But for now I know that No Ears is enjoying the morning and afternoon treats of fresh apples!

I just knew that there was something wrong with No Ears. 

Now I don’t know if it’s a gut feel or more of a Mom’s instinct when someone is sick, but when I saw No Ears yesterday I just knew that there was something very wrong with her. 

So when I woke up this morning I was anxious to hear if she came up for the morning feed. Well no news during the morning on what was going on so I beat it home on my lunch hour only to find the local Vet truck sitting up by our shed. WHAT!! 

OK, don’t panic. But instantly my stomach started to churn and then the two Vets came around the corner of our back grove with smiles on their faces. OK, now I’m confused. Was  No Ears sick? If so, is this seriously something to smile about? I’m guessing that it’s NOT. 

But trying to act cool, I said something like, ‘hey what’s going on?’ 

They proceeded to say that No Ears had a baby girl calf and the calf is fine. They also said that No Ears had milk fever before she delivered the calf, so when they got to our farm they decided to help the mom by pulling the calf. No Ears water was broke anyway, and with her fever and not feeling so well, it was in the best interest of both of them. 

OK, that all sounds good with the exception of the milk fever comment. They said she couldn’t get up so they gave her some calcium and if she isn’t up later tonight to call in the morning. Well the air temperature dropped to around mid 70’s so that was good. See No Ears was up in the pasture just hugging the fence line and was exposed to whatever the day was going to bring for weather. 

It was one of those afternoons when the clock couldn’t move fast enough. I was really busy which helped, but when it was time to leave – I was out of there and heading north to our farm. 

And wouldn’t you just know it the temperature now is around 90 degrees and very hot! I just got done giving No Ears some water when the Vets came back again and gave her more calcium and some sugar water to drink. Well of course I just watered her so she wasn’t thirsty but she was very hot! Daryl rigged up a tarp for over her and with a storm brewing it was keeping the sun and hopefully the storm off of her and the calf. See No Ears still hasn’t gotten up yet. 

So instead of standing there just looking at No Ears, I decided to go to the house and get somethings done. We weren’t supposed to try to get her up until later tonight so all I could do was to wait. Yea, I’m not so good at that! 

Well the storm did come. We had gotten black skies and lightening. Well the wind picked up and because it was literally almost a white out with the rain, I decided for some reason to go check on the cows. OK, now hindsight not the smartest thing to do I agree. But it made sense at the time and I went looking for a hooded sweatshirt. When I couldn’t find one, I grabbed a garbage bag and ripped it in half and used it as a tarp on top of me. 

Off I went to the pasture and when I got about half way there my hair was standing up on my arms and the back of my neck with the lightening so I ran quick saw that the tarp was off the cows, knew that I couldn’t do anything about it, and ran back to the house. Yup, not my smartest move of the day or maybe even of the year to be honest. 

And to say that I was wet was an understatement. 

But once the storm blew over and we got over an inch of rain, Daryl and I headed back up to check on No Ears. 

We milked No Ears while she was laying so the calf would have the first good milk in his belly and after talking a little bit with No Ears she got up! It was a good day after all!! 

So here is my first picture of No Ears and her new little calf Lucy.  I’m sure there will be more pictures to come in the next few days 🙂

It was hot today and when I got home I thought I’d better check in with everybody. It seems like forever since I spent time with the farm animals and well tonight I took the time. 

Daryl was baling straw late this afternoon, so I was pretty pumped that we would actually get some straw bales to use in the chicken coop. But no such luck, he made them into round bales instead. But he did bring home a little scrub bale that I can use to bed the chickens. And that’s exactly what I did. The only bad part of having this bale in the shed is that I’ve caught the chickens just ripping it apart and making a mess in the shed… and well all through the yard to be honest. I’m sure that this won’t be staying here long!

 Now I have no idea if the chickens will like the new bedding that I put in the coop tonight because my chickens really don’t handle change very well. Can you see it in their faces? 🙂

What I wanted to do with the straw was to bed down their boxes so they would have a place to lay their eggs on a nice soft spot. I guess we’ll see how well they do by tomorrow if they like it or not. 

While I was in the coop I could see that the garden had some nice red cherry tomatoes to be picked. And guess who LOVES cherry tomatoes? If you guessed the chickens you were right! 

Next on my list was to see how the cows were doing. Even though the apples on our trees are really small – the cows don’t care. They are almost like little appetizers for them. I literally was laughing out loud in the cow yard because Scarlet wouldn’t leave me alone and is totally obsessed with these apples. She is like a cow on crack – other than the crack part is really just apples. I tried to get a picture of the cows, but they kept licking me and I was getting pretty slimed before it was all over so I gave up on trying to get a good photo op of them. 

I was a little concerned tonight why No Ears wouldn’t come by me though. This is so not like her and she has me a little worried. I hope I’m not being over dramatic about the situation. 

And finally after giving the dogs a good belly rubbing and a huge hunk of summer sausage to each of them, I spent the rest of the night watering the flowers. And while I was out there, right behind where our windmill is, I could see the space station going across the sky. 

So now it was time for bed and while I was trying to get to sleep I mentioned to Daryl that No Ears acted kinda funny tonight and I wasn’t sure what was going on. Then he mentioned that he thought that she acted kinda funny these past couple of days. WHAT?? And now you think I’m going to get any sleep? I’ll check on her in the morning but until then – it’s going to be a very long night!