Calfsicles
It’s that time of year again - with the below zero temps we have to be vigilant.
My helper - she doesn’t really help - but she is good company.
Much warmer now.
Reunited.
When I went back to check, a heifer had started to calve. I kicked the rest of the girls out to the pasture. The heifer had dropped her calf, and left it to follow the herd. I locked her up and called my father in law. Two hands are better than one! We loaded the calf sled and brought the pair to the barn. The heifer seemed to want her calf, especially after I put some oats on it. Well, the grain must have been more interesting than the calf. The oats had been licked off, but the baby was still wet and cold. It’s in the warmer now.
February 17th, 2006 at 10:55 am
That picture of that wet little calf just triggered a 20 minute office “remember when”. We use to haul the wet one’s into the house, throw them in the bathtub with towels, crank the heat, and shut the door until we heard them bellering again. Stay warm, get some rest….thinking about ya
February 17th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Looks like you had a day of it! That calf warmer looks like a handy thing to have. We end up doing the haul them in the house and put them on the heat register thing….which certainly isn’t the best option.
Hang in there!
February 17th, 2006 at 8:15 pm
The things this city girl learns from your blog! Glad to see you posting again.
February 18th, 2006 at 11:27 am
after reading your post, i’m less inclined to complain about snowblowing my driveway. thanks for the photos.
February 18th, 2006 at 3:45 pm
Karen, I hope you and your family (all of ‘em) are staying warm in this cold. Over here in Helena it’s getting down to -20F at night and doesn’t warm up much more than 5 or 10 degrees in the day. brrr. From my point of view as a city-human, it doesn’t seem like an ideal time to be dropping calves on the ground. But I know ranch life is different. You take good care of those babies. And you and your husband!
February 18th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
The look on the Sugarbear’s face seemed to say, “I like to help, but I’m not all that sure I want to go out in the cold to do it–especially since I just work up.” Even so, it’s good to see a photo of the Devil Dog–we haven’t seen much of her lately, or of her “siblings”. I for one missed them almost as much as I missed you, Moos. (Although there was good reasons why you were “gone”.)
Dropped by the Flick’r site, and loved the picture of you and a squriming Sugarbear in the pickup (probably the only time she showed reluctance on having her picture taken). I had a similar reaction with Sheba today. I had to give my aquaphobic mutt a bath, which makes herding cats look like a simple exercise. (As a puppy, the now ex-husband of my good friend Maureen–who I got Das Mutt from when he treatened to send her to the pound for digging in the back yard–decided that the best way to teach her how to swim was to throw her in the deep end of the swimming pool. She’s been deathly afraid of water ever since. When trying to get her in the shower stall–trying to get a 100-pound dog in the tub is almost impossible–she lays down, and I have to lift her front legs up into the shower, then shove her in.) But now she’s cleaned up and smells like something other than a dog.
As a reward (sort of–we go every week whether she’s been good or not), I took her to a nearby off-leash dog park. (One of the parks here in Mesa fenced off their retention basin, and you can let mutts run loose there. Most parks here in town won’t allow pets at all–even on a leash!) While there, we saw a gal who had a border collie, who was spending his time trying to herd all the other dogs. (Insticts die hard.)
Kirk
Sheba (who is keeping her distance from the bathroom for a while)
P.S.: Methinks I’ll have a cup of “llofee” (Must be a new brand down at Starbucks) ;=)
February 22nd, 2006 at 8:26 pm
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February 22nd, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Wow,this is great. The hubs hopes to do this one day too, when he’s here full time.
Thanks for sharing!