What Were You Doing at 2:36am?

Wow!  It has been a little while since I have last written anything, the layout has changed!!

Anyway, on with my post!!  Last night Jared and I went out to check the cows together after all the kids were in bed!  As I was putting Armin to sleep Jared was up on the roof of our new house putting a better water proof barrier on our chimney in case the rain that had been forecasted really did come!  While he was up there he could see the cow herd quite well and he noticed that there was a cow off all by herself and a little larger than normal lump next to her!  So he called me and asked if I wanted to come out with him!  Of course I did, I will do anything at this point to spend some face to face time together!  And really who wouldn't want to go for a stroll through a somewhat stinky field by the glow of the setting sun and the twinkle of the first stars...so romantic!

The cow Jared had seen from the roof of our house was standing by a lump of dirt, not a calf but she was acting funny and she couldn't seem to put her tail down.  When we got close to her she started to walk away in the opposite direction looking extremely uncomfortable, we left her for a while and went to investigate a little more, Jared was sure the large lump near her had gotten up and moved...sure enough we did find a new, very new little calf laying in the hay.  So new that he was still super slimy!  Jared didn't know if he should tag it or wait because he was so new.  He ended up putting in the RF-ID tag in his ear and putting the elastic on his boy parts, but we weren't exactly sure who he belonged to.  The cow acting funny was no where in sight, and we thought maybe she was actually calving.  We found a few cows who were quite interested in the little guy until he wanted to have a drink, and then they would kick him away.  We decided to go inside and wait for a couple of hours to see what happened, before we went in we made sure to put the little calf back in the hay where we found him.  Instead of going in right away, Jared finished taping the ty-vek around the chimney while I sat in the nice warm truck to make sure the lights were shining on him so he could see!

After being in the house for a couple of hours we went back out just after midnight.  The calf was still in the same spot and not licked off at all, but warm.  When Jared got him up to feed him some colostrum we had in the freezer he made a bit of a fuss, the next thing we knew there was a cow bellowing back at him and looking quite concerned.  Jackpot, we found his mom and with very little trouble, we were going to be able to go to bed at a somewhat decent hour!  Well, as the cow got closer we could tell from the lack of a yellow tag in her ear that she was actually a heifer that is not even pregnant, we kept her in hopes that next year she will have a calf, being such a good looking cow we knew we had to keep her!  That somewhat decent hour was looking less decent!

We drove around the field in search of the cow that was acting funny and finally found her in the corral still acting funny.  Both Jared and I thought we saw a foot sticking out from her back end and since she was right near the alley to the barn we pushed her through and closed the gate.  We left her in there while we went back to the house to check out Jared's cattle "bible" to see how long we should leave her until we helped her deliver her calf.  Once we got back out she was lying down in the corner of the alley looking quite content...good, she had her calf without any trouble!  Another surprise...it wasn't a calf she delivered but her placenta!  Okay, things are now starting to add up, the little calf in the field must be hers, and she was just uncomfortable because she hadn't delivered her placenta.  The little unknown had a mom, so we went back out to the field and rounded up the little guy and brought him to the barn.  Just to make sure the calf really was hers Jared put her in the maternity squeeze and cleaned her back end off with soapy water and manually checked inside to make sure there wasn't a calf still inside her birth canal.  Thankfully there wasn't so we are now 100% positive the little guy belongs to her.  The only challenge now is to get her to realize that!

The calf was doing good this morning though it didn't look as though he had sucked from his mom at all.  The inside of his mouth was warm and he gets up and moves around quite good.  Now to just get him to have a drink from his mom.  I was able to get her into the barn by myself before lunch but she could see the fear in my eyes and knew I wasn't as scary as I was trying to be, she took control and walked right past me!  I did manage to close all the gates so she is locked in the alley and can only go into the barn, Buck is on his way over to help me get her locked in the maternity pen so we can force the little guy to eat!  Hopefully it will work.  Now that I have come back and reread this, I can safely say that the little guy has finally had a drink from his mom, and they are locked in the maternity pen together until she is completely convinced that he belongs to her!

After Jared and I got everyone settled last night we came in the house at 2:30am to a very sad little boy standing in Emry's room crying!  He was so scared!  When we got him settled we decided to put him in our bed and when we got into our room our other little guy was standing up in his bed crying!  So Jared cuddled the big one to sleep in our bed while I cuddled the little one to sleep on the lazy boy in the living room!  I finally got Armin settled and back in his bed at 4am!  On the plus side I was able to watch Survivor from earlier without any interruptions, though I don't think it is really ideal to do that at 3am!

It was a good night, long but quite a bit of fun despite the confusion!  I love spending time with Jared and I love working together with the cows, I feel it is a great bonding time for us and I admire the tenderness he has for the cows and the patience even when the much needed hours of sleep were looking shorter and shorter!