Aug. 29, 2006 - We watched a callf be born tonight!

Usually, this happens in the pasture in the middle of the night, so it's unusual to actually get to see the event (unless the cow's in trouble and we are helping to pull the calf).  But this evening, the cow we had in the barn lot so we could watch her in case she had trouble, went into labor.

She was bred to a bull that has had a history this year of siring 2 humongous calves (that died during the birth, nearly crippling the heifers trying to have them).  This is not a large cow, so we were concerned should she also have a big one.

Dh came up around 3:30 saying she was in labor.  He was busy and couldn't go back down to check her, so I went around 4:30 to see how she was doing .  It was chore time, so the dc did their chores and then came too.  Since she was a little further along (part of the amniotic sac was out), we decided to stay and watch a while.  Now, these things can take a LONG time, so I wasn't confident we'd actually get to see the birth.  But, we made ourselves comfortable on a haybale, and waited.

It wasn't 15 minutes later she started pushing pretty strongly, and we suddenly saw a hoof!  I knew right away this was a MUCH smaller, finer boned calf than the ones that caused trouble earlier, so breathed a sigh of relief.  But, still only saw one hoof, so wasn't sure yet I wouldn't need dh.  As she continued to push, and made a bit more progress, I sent oldest ds around her other side to get a better look, and he said he could, indeed, see 2 feet--one was slightly under and back of the first (like the calf was diving out, LOL).  Whew!

She really got down to business, and soon we could see the nose.  The sac was still intact over the head.  Then we saw the eyes, and could see the baby blinking.  The head was out to the ears, and then before we knew it, the front shoulders were out.  I was concerned about the sac not rupturing--if the cord was severed before the calf's head was clear, it could suffocate.  But I didn't want to approach the cow to soon and have her get up before the calf was fully delivered either.  Fortunately, with one more push, the rest of the calf slipped out.  I was then able to go to the calf, and rupture the membrane with a finger, removing it from the nose and face.  Took a quick peek and saw we had a little heifer (girl).  Then used some pieces of hay to tickle the calf's nose and mouth to stimulate breathing and sneezing.  The mama knew JUST what to do, and started licking her baby dry immediately.  It was a good thing we were there though, since mama started cleaning on the back end, and by the time she would have gotten to the nose to clean off the sac, the baby might have been dead.

We hung around awhile to see if she'd get up and find her first meal, but she seemed pretty content to just lay there and receive her bath.  After about 20 minutes, I decided to try to see if I could help her up.  Sometimes, they just need a little nudge.  Well, she wanted no part of that!  I tried to lift her hind end, but she wouldn't put any weight at all on her legs.  Being 6 months pg, I didn't think it wise to try too hard to accomplish this.  I did stick my finger in her mouth to check her suck reflex, and it was good and strong.

I decided to just leave them be for a bit, and went back to the house to fix supper.

Dh was done with his business, so he went down while I was cooking.  I was worried he might need help, so when everything was in the oven, I gave the dc instructions for watching the timer, and went back to the barn.  Dh was just getting ready to leave and said, "Nothing to be done here."  Apparantly, the baby was up when he got there, he pointed it in the direction of the mama, and instict took over.  She got on no problem and went to town!

It was a good birth, and a great experience for the dc to witness up close.  Homeschool science at its best!  It also provided wonderful opportunities to discuss the similarities for when OUR baby will be born.  Of course, my dd made the understatement of the year when she asked, "Aren't you glad you don't have to lick us dry, Mom?"

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Jun. 18, 2006 - Harvesting Wheat - the old fashioned way

Friday we had an interesting experience.  My dh is working to renovate one of our smaller pastures, and the first step last fall was to disk in the old sod, and plant winter wheat.  His main purpose for this wheat was to cut it as hay (while it was still green and before the grain had formed much) as feed for our cattle.  But we also thought it would be fun/interesting/educational to keep a small part of it standing and let it mature.

So, Friday was the day to finally bring it in.  Dh used a sickle to cut it, and the dc and I gathered it up in bundles and tossed it in the back of the pickup.  I shouldn't fail to mention that it was at least 90 degrees, with a suitable amount of humidity to boot!  But we did have a nice breeze, so it was tolerable.  Once we got the pickup loaded, we drove back to the house and unloaded it onto a plastic sheet layed in the garage.  Then went back for the second (and thankfully last) load.

Next we had the task of trying to figure out how to get the grain out of the heads, and the hulls off the grain.  We tried a variety of fixtures, rubbing the heads between 2 boards, beating them with bats, etc.  But found the most effective (if also the most time-consuming) way, was to simply rub it between our palms.  This proved to be a little tough on the hands, so dh ran to town and got us all new gloves (our work gloves were too filthy to be considered for something we will eventually eat).

My MIL came down to help, and we spent the rest of the day hulling wheat.  As it got close to stopping for the night, we decided to separate the chaff from what we'd already collected.  We had a perfect breeze, so used the simple method of pouring the grain and chaff from one bucket to another, letting the wind blow the chaff away.  It really worked!

We managed to get through about half our pile, and ended up with about 15-20 pounds of wheat berries to show for it.  I will need to borrow a friend's grinder before it can be made into bread, but we are all anxious to try it.

We found it interesting how many Bible stories took on new meaning for us as we were working.  We all thought of Ruth, as we were stooping and bending, picking up the stalks of wheat, and then noticing what was left, that the gleaners would have had available to them.  And what a hard job it would have been to get what was left.  And also what a favor Boaz had done by instructing his workers to leave extra behind for her.

Another that came to mind was when Jesus and his disciples were walking through the grain fields pulling off the heads of grain and eating them.  (Interestingly enough, that was our Gospel reading in church today).  We had all popped a few berries into our mouths to try them, and realized that this was what they were eating that long ago Sabbath.

As much work as this has been, I'm not sure it will be something we will repeat, but it sure has been fun/interesting/educational to do it once.

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Jun. 14, 2006 - Adopt a calf

One of our cows that lost her calf might get to be a mama after all.  Our older full-blood cow had her calf yesterday.  This cow has a horrid udder (we bought her that way-knowing the trouble she'd cause, but she was CHEAP), and has not raised her own calf since we got her, and lost the one she had just before we bought her.

Anyway, she is a BEAR to work with (and a little dangerous because she is SO protective of her baby).  Poor dh almost lost an arm and a couple of teeth trying to milk her one good quarter yesterday to get the calf some colostrum. Because she's had mastitis so many times earlier in her life, her udder gets VERY tender and she kicks anytime you (or a calf) get near it.  

So, we decided to see if the cow that lost her calf on Memorial day still had milk.  She is so docile, she'll just stand in the headgate and let you milk her, no problem.  Well, she does, but not much.

So, the next task was to see if the calf would nurse from her (and if she'd allow it).  Got the calf up to her, and NO PROBLEM!  The calf has great instincts, and the cow stood quietly (restrained in the headgate still).  The calf will be much better at stimulating her to come back into milk than we ever could.

So, we'll have to restrain her for a week probably as we work on getting the 2 of them to think of each other as mom and baby, but it'll be MUCH better than having to bottle the calf twice a day (and a calf always grows better with a mama than on artificial milk).

So, we'll see how it goes.

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Feb. 5, 2006 - Our first calf

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