Goodbye, Number 41!!!!
We have had sooooo much going on I hardly know where to begin! It's now end of May, hard to believe, and things are rolling right along.... since I last posted, we have made great progress on our "smouse" (small house). We are moving onto adding the sheathing, and roof overhangs. The boys did GREAT on their standardized tests (although we have some work to do in math), so I thank the Lord for that. And I'm ready to start the next "year," but obviously the boys aren't on the same page as me!
We have added to our animals, and can now be called a small farm... a dairy cow and two bull calves, along with our 1 cat and 24 chickens!
Our journey begins 2 weeks ago when the 2 boys were at my dad's house for the weekend. Eric and I had contacted a local organic farmer who raises Jerseys. We knew the cow we were to buy was VERY pregnant, so we needed to wait til she birthed, and then give her a few days afterwards to make sure she doesn't develop milk fever (calcium loss- can kill the cows if not treated). So after waiting for a week like expecting parents, we get "The Call".... she's ready. We are high with excitement and visions of fresh, daily milk, butter, cheeses and whipped cream (can you see our cholesterol going up right about now?!) We head to the farm, which is a beautiful drive, on a beautiful morning, to get our cows (we have also purchased 2 bull calves (to be castrated) to help with the abundant milk we knew we were going to get). We pull up, and with the assistance of a couple of farm hands, we are smiling, hands out the window waving goodbye with our new cow family. Eric actually hears one of the farm hands yelling, with a thick Hispanic accent, "Goodbye Number 41!!" We laugh, and gaily drive home, ready to show our new farm members their home.
Everything has been going splendidly since then... the cows all LOVE their new home, everyone's healthy and frolicking, and we have been getting an abundance of milk daily!
How I wish....now, for the real story!
We get home, convince the cows to get out and into the pasture, and they all just stand there staring at us. The one calf won't have anything to do with us, the littlest calf (who, incidentally is the momma cow's we purchased) is laying down, looking as sick as can be. Milking the momma was not fun or easy, as she wanted nothing to do with us. Eric and I clumsily milk her and get about a quart before Eric has to pick up the "lifeless" calf and force him to drink off her. Not to be completely dismayed, we figure the next day will be much easier. So the next morning we arise with plans of harnessing the momma, getting her to walk with us to a stall to be milked (because Jersey's are SOOO docile, according to everyone we spoke to and everything we read!). So we go out, try to herd her down the chute, and out she runs! Now, remember, she has just given birth, and her udder looks like it's going to explode - a giant pendulum swinging around under her middle. So how she is actually running, I don't know. She has Eric and I on the run all over the farm and around the barn a few times, trying to catch her with a halter and basically looking like idiots.
Then I hear Eric saying something not very nice and see him and the cow rounding the corner, with her making this terrible clicking sound as she's running. Apparently, she has now hobbled herself and is running/limping back into the pasture, where she lays down and can't/won't get up! In the meantime, we still have a lifeless calf who we don't expect to make it through the night. And the first one still has nothing to do with us. Can you feel the joy?
Next morning, after managing to get her and the calves down into a shady spot, and drastically reducing their pasture space (she's still clicking, the calf is still "lifeless"), we manage to bottle feed milk and electrolytes into the calf, and after a few hours, miracle-of-miracles, he's five-alive! Good to go, and he's frolicking with the other calf. Things are looking up! Except.....
The momma cow is not doing so hot. To make a long story shorter, we had the vet out twice in one day, to tell us she definitely has milk fever! All he had to do was get out of his truck, take one look at her laying down with head back and limbs sticking straight out, and announced the sickness. After the second visit, he left us at 10:00 that night with instructions of: if she's sitting up and eating the next morning, she's more than likely going to be okay... if she's still laying in the typical milk fever position, basically she's a goner and shoot her in the head! OBVIOUSLY, we did not want or anticipate the latter. So the next morning, I go out to feed the calves their bottles, and find we don't have to shoot her in the head after all because she's already dead!!! Can you believe it?! So here I am, bottle-feeding two little calves while a dead, giant cow, covered in flies, is right next to me. I call Eric, and he has to rig the cow up to the tractor and pull her across the farm to lay her to rest, where other animals will find her. And as he was leaving her, he made sure to send her off with a tribute of "Goodbye, Number 41!" It took a couple of days, but the vultures ended up circling.
It was the longest 6 days ever... and we didn't get to work on the house at all during all of this. HOWEVER: the calves are now doing great.. they are soooo beautiful with huge, brown eyes and long lashes. They look like little deer and act like puppies! They chase each other, leap around and lick you all over when it's time to eat. We bottle feed milk replacer 2 times a day, and love every minute. We are working on getting another dairy Jersey to replace the first (the farmer's working with us- although we don't blame HIM for the milk fever- just bad first luck!) and should be getting her within two weeks. We DID make butter, and got abundant milk while we had her, and it was really fun- quite amazing to milk your own cow.
We've gotten back to the "smouse," and got the wall sheathing up, with the roof sheathing going up tomorrow.
It's been an adventure, but really, we expected nothing less! And through it all, God continues to bless us abundantly! We give Him praise and all the glory.
SOOOOO, our life in pictures since the last time I blogged:
We get home, convince the cows to get out and into the pasture, and they all just stand there staring at us. The one calf won't have anything to do with us, the littlest calf (who, incidentally is the momma cow's we purchased) is laying down, looking as sick as can be. Milking the momma was not fun or easy, as she wanted nothing to do with us. Eric and I clumsily milk her and get about a quart before Eric has to pick up the "lifeless" calf and force him to drink off her. Not to be completely dismayed, we figure the next day will be much easier. So the next morning we arise with plans of harnessing the momma, getting her to walk with us to a stall to be milked (because Jersey's are SOOO docile, according to everyone we spoke to and everything we read!). So we go out, try to herd her down the chute, and out she runs! Now, remember, she has just given birth, and her udder looks like it's going to explode - a giant pendulum swinging around under her middle. So how she is actually running, I don't know. She has Eric and I on the run all over the farm and around the barn a few times, trying to catch her with a halter and basically looking like idiots.
Then I hear Eric saying something not very nice and see him and the cow rounding the corner, with her making this terrible clicking sound as she's running. Apparently, she has now hobbled herself and is running/limping back into the pasture, where she lays down and can't/won't get up! In the meantime, we still have a lifeless calf who we don't expect to make it through the night. And the first one still has nothing to do with us. Can you feel the joy?
Next morning, after managing to get her and the calves down into a shady spot, and drastically reducing their pasture space (she's still clicking, the calf is still "lifeless"), we manage to bottle feed milk and electrolytes into the calf, and after a few hours, miracle-of-miracles, he's five-alive! Good to go, and he's frolicking with the other calf. Things are looking up! Except.....
The momma cow is not doing so hot. To make a long story shorter, we had the vet out twice in one day, to tell us she definitely has milk fever! All he had to do was get out of his truck, take one look at her laying down with head back and limbs sticking straight out, and announced the sickness. After the second visit, he left us at 10:00 that night with instructions of: if she's sitting up and eating the next morning, she's more than likely going to be okay... if she's still laying in the typical milk fever position, basically she's a goner and shoot her in the head! OBVIOUSLY, we did not want or anticipate the latter. So the next morning, I go out to feed the calves their bottles, and find we don't have to shoot her in the head after all because she's already dead!!! Can you believe it?! So here I am, bottle-feeding two little calves while a dead, giant cow, covered in flies, is right next to me. I call Eric, and he has to rig the cow up to the tractor and pull her across the farm to lay her to rest, where other animals will find her. And as he was leaving her, he made sure to send her off with a tribute of "Goodbye, Number 41!" It took a couple of days, but the vultures ended up circling.
It was the longest 6 days ever... and we didn't get to work on the house at all during all of this. HOWEVER: the calves are now doing great.. they are soooo beautiful with huge, brown eyes and long lashes. They look like little deer and act like puppies! They chase each other, leap around and lick you all over when it's time to eat. We bottle feed milk replacer 2 times a day, and love every minute. We are working on getting another dairy Jersey to replace the first (the farmer's working with us- although we don't blame HIM for the milk fever- just bad first luck!) and should be getting her within two weeks. We DID make butter, and got abundant milk while we had her, and it was really fun- quite amazing to milk your own cow.
We've gotten back to the "smouse," and got the wall sheathing up, with the roof sheathing going up tomorrow.
It's been an adventure, but really, we expected nothing less! And through it all, God continues to bless us abundantly! We give Him praise and all the glory.
SOOOOO, our life in pictures since the last time I blogged:
"To Market, to market... "
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| Number 41 |
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| Monkey See, Monkey Do |
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| Last photo of Number 41! |
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| Sweetest face... |
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| Rabbit feeding the calves... |
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| E's turn! |
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| One of God's creatures.... ain't he a beauty?! |
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1 comment:
Oh my Carey! What a story… you should be a writer! I thought your set up on the cow story was great! But boy what an experience! Sorry Cow Number 41 didn't make it, but look on the bright side, at least you didn't have to shoot her in the head!
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