A Lady and Polka Dots

Some people have commented about how much work there is involved with calving. Well, it shouldn't be as much work as it is, but due to all kinds of problems which won't happen again, we ended up with all this work. We wouldn't normally have put the cows and their calves in the barn. BUT......the calves were born much tooooo early, and we need to ship the rest of our small herd. Now, what is left outside needs to be shipped except for one cow who did not get bred this time. So........as soon as the boys and two cows that never did settle are shipped, everybody can go outside. I say, "The sooner, the better." There should only be one more calf, and we have that heifer in the barn already.

border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317936292917066402" />
This is today's calf. Isn't she quiet a lady. Now there are four girls out of eleven, two black and two red. Her mom is black and white. Doesn't she just look like a little girl?



The is One Dot. Mom is 1/2 Holstein, 1/2 Hereford. Dad is black with white belt.














This is Two Dot, yesterday's calf. Mom is black. Dad is black with white belt.






This is Hoppy. Mom is 1/2 Holstein, 1/2 Hereford. Dad is black with white belt.
He is the one without a tail. I think he could live in a place where he was alone or with one other cow. He wouldn't do well where he had to compete for food.

Ain't Nuttin Pretty About This Post.....

Here are the last two calves that were born during the cold snap this week. At first the boy did not nurse, but seems to getting along fine now. Sorry they are such a mess. I will have to bring them into the house and give them a bath. OR.....I could just wash their jackets. Guess the jackets are keeping them somewhat clean besides keeping them warm.



This is Ling Ling because she was born soon after Bear, the Chinese Panda Bear calf. Did you get that? SHE is a heifer. Yahoo!!!! Only two heifers out of seven calves. I won't be going to Las Vegas soon or buying any lottery tickets. Why waste my money? You can tell by the red jacket that she is small.


This is Spot or Ike or Manx. I really haven't decided yet. He could be Spot because of the big spot on his nose. His mom throws calves with the wildest patterns on their heads. I was considering Ike until I noticed something else about his anatomy. I was considering Ike because he has "Tina Turner" legs. Boy is he tall. Or he could be Manx because he was born without a tail. What next? Guess he can get along without that part of his anatomy.

One thing about the calves born here, there ain't no two alike!!!

Another way to enter the real world........

Introducing....... High Ridge Hsing-Hsing Panda Bear (guess I have been reading tooooo many sites with dog pedigree names). aka......Bear (There are pictures at the end)

Here is how he entered our world.........After chores last night I made my nightly check on the cows to see how they were doing. I had checked Bear's mom in the morning, and she was fine. Last night about 5:00 p.m. she was separated from the herd and mooing. After a couple seconds, I realized that was the moo I had heard before when a cow and calf had become separated. Oh, shoot, she must have had the calf, and it had escaped through the fence. The calf was no where in sight, and I figured it had laid down and froze when it wasn't by its mom. I started following its tracks since there was still some snow out there. I kept following until I was quite a way from the fence out in an alfalfa field. There in the distance barely visible, because of the fog we had yesterday, was the shape of a calf on its feet. Well, that was good. I went back to the barn told Jake and got a rope and halter and my stick. THEN I trudged out into the field which was alternately wet snow and standing water. Jake came out on foot and the calf was not cooperative. We got the rope halter on him, and I waited for Jake to come back with the truck. He came back with my golf course maintenance cart. We got Bear in the back of the cart and splashed toward his mom. Luckily she followed us up to the barn and into a pen. (There was a lot more to it than that.)

We were all cold and wet. Bear was wet. Mom wasn't licking him. She was hungry.
They were both in a better place than outside. We left her to take care of him.



I was too tired and cold last night to take pictures. Bear looks much better this morning. He was dry when I went into the barn, but I couldn't tell if he had eaten. The temperature was about zero degrees. I went into the house and got some milk and a jacket. After I got the jacket on him, I convinced him to try the bottle, and he proved that he knew how to suck on that. Not long after that, I let him go to his mom --like I could stop him. He attached himself to the milk bar and began wagging his tail furiously, so I knew that he had made the proper connection



Bear and his mother in the proper position for mother and new born son. He is also properly dressed for the month of March in Wisconsin.

Just another day in Paradise. P.S. The cart does not move this morning. It starts, but I am sure all the water from last night has frozen something. Besides the fact that it is standing in water which is frozen now, of course.

Dusty, Lefty, and Herbie

Jake is still off work. He took a week of vacation to try to improve the arm and shoulder pain. Today he is working on getting water to flow to the back of the barn so that I don't have to carry pails to the maternity ward. I had to add a twist by telling him that one of the other cows is in the process of producing our fifth calf this afternoon. Weather is much better today. No sun, but warmer.



This is Herbie. He may have been slow getting into this world, but he is making up for it now. He is in the middle of the barn and able to sneak through the bars and walk and run around a large area. He has found a place to sleep up by the sheep that seems to suit him. Sure wish he had been a heifer because he is just adorable.




This is Dusty. There is nothing unusual about him except his mother doesn't like me very much. I don't go in by those two.



This is the youngest, Lefty. He was smaller than the others, and we had to buy him a new jacket that was smaller. The black one just fell off of him.

There will be more soon. Our second red and white is in the process. Our job will be to get her into the barn after the calf is born.

Then there were four......

I just went out to check how everyone was doing this afternoon about 2:00. There she was laying down and pushing. We barely had time enough to round up a few gates so that we could keep her in the lean. Not long after we had her contained, she gave birth to another bull calf. There must be some reason for this. He was quite active after his birth, and right now, she is still licking and trying to dry him. I haven't seen him nurse, yet. I will keep going out there every so often until I have observed him getting some nourishment. Then I will be reasonably sure that he will make it through the night. I guess I will have to get a jacket on him, too, but I don't know when that will happen.

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!

"Oh, what a beautiful morning,
Oh, what a beautiful day,
I have a wonderful feeling,
Everything's going my way." Maybe not everything, but it feels like it!

I know, I am old, but it is better than the alternative. This song from "Oklahoma" came into my mind because of how happy I am this morning. It has been a powerful long time since I felt this happy, and I like it. I noticed yesterday, I was singing, that was odd.

We have snow this morning, so what? It is winter, so what? It is cold, so what? The sun isn't out, so what? THE CALF IS NURSING!!!! That is the first time since he was born early Monday morning. Last night, I told Jake that I was afraid we were going to lose him.

This morning at 4:00, after my futile attempt to bottle feed him, he walked up to him mom and started "the head butt thing" after he had literally walked underneath her. She was OK with it and he was OK with it. She had been real shy of the nursing thing. All of this time, she had been by his side. She hadn't rejected him. When I went out again at 8:30, there he was nursing.

Yes, the little guys are all dressed up for the prom. We used to raise bull calves that we bought from farmers at about 2 days old. We had calf blankets for them, so now these little guys get to wear them, too. Neither of the boys have names, yet.



How Sweet It Is!!!



This is calf number three. I didn't know for sure what color he was until I looked at this picture. I thought he was black although when I took the picture this morning, I questioned his color. I think he is a brownie. He is getting a lot of attention because the pen he is in with his mother is next to where all the other cows come up to get water and to nibble on some hay. Nice noses, huh?



This is Fuzzy and Lovey. Lovey is one bouncy little babe! Although I couldn't catch it on camera, she was busy eating hay while I was in the barn when she stopped running and bouncing full speed around the pen.

And Then There Were Three..............

When I got home from my dentist appointment about 1:30 this afternoon, I saw one cow standing off from the others. I walked out to check on her and, what do you know, there was a calf. It didn't even belong to the cow I was checking. It belonged to a heifer. We are just in the house having gotten mom and calf, a bull calf, into the lean-to on the barn which Jake finished repairing about an hour ago.

The new calf is nursing, thank heaven. Holly's calf is not. We have tubed it with colestrum and about a quart of milk replacer tonight. Holly is sticking by its side and licking, but "here ain't no nursing happenin!!" That is trouble since the calf does not want to suck.

No pictures of the new calf. He is all dirty because his mom dragged him all over the pasture before we got them into the barn. Maybe he will clean in the new straw in the lean-to.

Oh, yeah, hope that goat in Iowa has triplets so she can keep up with us here in Wisconsin.

Oh, darn. It's a boy!

Here is the picture of the bull calf that was born about 4:00 this morning. It was a long labor, and it wasn't easy. And.....I missed the actual birth. I had been out there since 12:15 when I woke up and decided to check on Holly. When I got out there, the real part was just starting, and the water sac showed up quite soon after. Then it took until 4:00 for the calf to be born. I kept watching, saw something, saw a foot, saw feet and tongue, and could almost see the nose. Then I went outside to do some work for a second time. When I went back in to check, there he was. Holly was quite weak. It took her a while to get up and start licking. The baby took about an hour to get up on his feet. It is two hours later now, and he hasn't nursed yet. Still have that to worry about.

More later.

Fuzzy and Lovey

I am pretty sure that Lovey is aptly named. She is up and nursing and leaping about in her pen. Unfortunately, her mother, Fuzzy, seems to be almost leaping about now, too. She is not happy around people, and she does the the bull thing---flinging bedding all around the stall with her front feet-- whenever one of us gets too close. She is very protective. The sheep seemed to be entertained by the new creatures bunking with them.

Holly is totally swollen on her backside and has teats that are starting to point outward. Today she is swatting flies with her tails periodically. That is just fine, but there are not any flies in the barn. Could that mean that contractions are starting to happen inside of her? I sure hope so. She doesn't move very well anymore. She sort of lumbers around the pen. However, she is still eating whatever she can find. Oh, well, got to wait and see.

Lovey, I think.

When you aren't looking, all kinds of things can happen. When we went for breakfast, we saw a cow out in the fence line brush. Unusual. When we can back, she was still there and on closer inspection, she had a calf with her. We went out with our Toyota pickup and put the calf in the back with me and hoped the cow would follow. After several tries at that, we gave up even though we had the help of all the others cows.

When we drove out there again, not in the pasture, she was all alone, and she decided to come up to the barn. We had left the calf in a pen in the barn. With a little coaxing we got her into an enclosure, but she won't go into the barn. I am happy with that for now.

Lovey, I was feeling her up as we were bouncing along in the back of the pickup, is a heifer, real lively, and appears healthy. Her mom was not a heifer. If I am right, the new calf will be called Lovey in honor of Valentine's Day.

Still waiting on Holly, Claire.

The Big Ugly

The dogs thought that it was windy out this morning. On the dog note, Sax, a blue merle collie won best of breed at Westminster yesterday and then went on to take third in best of group in the evening. Why do I mention it, you ask? Sax was bred by a vet at the animal hospital where Libby's Florida mom, Suzy, practices. The dogs could even be distant relatives since they have the same prefixes on their names. But, not being a dog person, I don't really know what that means. AND.....maybe, Libby's dad is one of Cindi's dogs. Close enough for me to feel some affinity for that beautiful furry collie dog.


As you can see in the picture, this time of year is "U... G... L... Y.....You ain't got no alibi." (Sorry an old cheer from years of watching high school football, snuck into my mind.) It is true, however. This kind of weather is ugly. I happened to catch the weather station device that we have up here this morning when the wind speed registered 56.3 MPH. Now that is a real gust. While I was feeding the sheep, I had to hang on the fence wire because there was wet ice underfoot. Oh, yes, the temperature is 42 degrees. I think I enjoy the weather station that I bought for my DH more than he does. He is the one with the weather obsession because he is a mechanic for the LaCrosse highway department.

A calf on Saturday could be named Valerie for Valentine's Day. No, there is no calf yet. It could be that Holly is just enjoying that big pen and no competition for food that she has now. Maybe she isn't prego.

Holly at the Hilton

Holly has moved up from Motel 6 to the Hilton. We got the barn cleaned out so that she could use it as a maternity ward. We were so worried that it would be difficult to get her into the barn proper, and she just followed the lane we had set up like it was something she did every day.

I hope that she won't mind having a few friends stay over because there at least three other cows who will deliver soon. Our next trick is to get them into the barn. For right now, we will just be glad that we got the barn cleaned and Holly moved.

Of course, she was waiting for a better place to give birth. Now, she can have that calf any time that she wants. On Wisconsin!

"Just Stringing Us Along......"

It was all timing. Holly was showing a string this morning before we went for breakfast. I saw it with my own eyes. I even made her turn around to be sure of what I was seeing. When we came back, it was no where to be seen. Maybe we are making some progress.



This is my "bird sanctuary". I know it isn't cool, but it makes me happy because I can see it out the "postage stamp" window which is in front of my sink. The other night I remarked to my DH that I wished I would have a different bird at the feeders. Well, last evening there it was. I even had to get out the bird books to identify it. I don't recall seeing it before although I probably have. It was a nuthatch. There probably won't be any pictures of it because it flits and snatches and flits away. I would never get a picture of something that moves that fast.



This picture does not do Fuzz Nutless justice. He is in the middle. The other two are Mom, gray, and Puff, yellow, mother and son. You really can't tell that Fuss Nutless is twice the size of either of the others. He is also twice as ornery although he gets along with Mom.

Challenge.....Iowa vs. Wisconsin

I am throwing down the gauntlet. It is Stuffin versus Holly. Who will give birth first, goat or cow? Claire, if you read this and accept the challenge, you will have to help me think of a fitting prize for this contest. It just occurred to me when I went out to check on Holly, AGAIN, that we should have a contest since both of these girls are not telling anyone when they plan to be "unpregnant". You have an advantage since you know that you can't go any further than 25 days. I, however, do not have a clue when Holly was bred, but I do know that she is "with child"

What do you say, Iowa?

It Will Bite You in the Butt

Good old 2008 has come around again to "bite us in the butt." Because of a whole list of stuff, I do not want to go into, we are having calves in the dead of winter.


Obviously no one in their right mind would do this on purpose. To complicate matters, one of the list of "stuff", there is no way to get them into a protected place. Last night we played "round up" like cowboys trying to get Holly into the barn. One way or another, we did get her into a protected area and isolated from the others.

Birth is imminent. I haven't learned to tell when this is going to happen as well as I have with the sheep, but she is going to burst soon. She is a heifer; the first calf born at our farm. Kind of sybolic, I guess. I feel much better just having her out of the elements so that there is a place for her to give birth. It may not be inside, but it is out of the wind and snow, and we can get help if it is needed. I can't keep from just going out there and checking on her. It is exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. Like lambing only with much less control. (There is not much control with lambing that I remember.)

Just hope for a healthy heifer calf so she has someone to pal around with. She is not accepted by the rest of the herd, either their idea or hers. Her mom died last winter, so she has been alone since then. I just don't like to see even animals without companionship. I know, they are just animals. I am a big softy, and I can feel any way that I want about that.