Oct. 29, 2007 - Cooper
A week or two after Brown Sugar and the calves were moved home, my fil showed up one morning. And he had a young colt, about 6-8 months old with him. Cooper was his name.
At the time, we only had one pen, so Cooper made himself at home in the pen with Brown Sugar and the calves. Cooper was very malnourished. When our neighbor dropped by to trim Cooper's hooves, he told us it would probably take at least 6 months on a high dollar feed to bring him up to par since he was in such bad shape.
But, no. That's not what happened. lol Cooper had to be put on a diet after only 2 months here with us!
Cooper loves Ray. He follows Ray around everywhere he goes when Ray is in the pen. :)
And Lerah is in little girl heaven. She adores Cooper. She's recently taken on the task of feeding Cooper twice a day when we do animal chores. She loves Cooper even though he's stepped on her toes a few times (that's painful!).
On occasion, one of the boys or Ray will take Cooper on a walk. And Cooper can hear the horses down the road a piece where our neighbor lives. And Cooper does his very best to insist that walks go in that direction. :)
Recently we got more cows (more on that in another post) and they live in the same pen as Cooper, a bigger pen we built next to Brown Sugar's pen. Turns out that having only cows as penmates has led Cooper to think that he's a cow. Cooper has begun laying down with the cows on a regular basis instead of doing like horses do and standing most of the time. *giggle*
My intentions as far as Cooper goes are not altruistic. I figure if I have to invest time and money (in feed) in an animal, they must do something to earn their keep. I'd like to train Cooper to pull a buggy so I can ride him. But more importantly, I want to train Cooper to walk in a horse mill that can power an ole timey washing machine. Then Cooper would be providing our homestead with a valuable service (besides his manure, of course).
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Oct. 23, 2007 - Ode to Salt and Pepper
As I mentioned earlier, we got 2 calves with our dairy cow, Brown Sugar. The Jersey we named Sugar Daddy and the Holstein was given the name of Salt and Pepper, for obvious reasons.
Each morning and evening, after we finished milking, we would turn Sugar Daddy and Salt n Pepper in with Brown Sugar. They would eagerly attack her teats and finish milking her out. This was a great deal of help in preventing Brown Sugar from getting mastitis again. And the calves just *loved* that mama milk. :)
This also enabled us to be able to skip a milking if we needed to be away from home. And that was needed each Sunday evening as our church services are a great distance from our home and the meetings last all day. We would milk Brown Sugar in the mornings, then turn the calves in with her and leave them there all day.
They grew fast having access to fresh mama milk every day. By the time they were 6-7 months old, they had almost weaned themselves. So we eventually separated them from Brown Sugar permanently. And they did well in a pen with our colt.
But Saturday night, Salt and Pepper did not come up when we fed the others. Ray and I went hunting for him. We finally found him hidden underneath a tree. When we tried to get closer, he got up and walked rather slowly around the pen (which is very large and wooded) til he got to the water trough. There he drank some water and we left him alone.
Sunday he still did not come up when Ray fed the others. Again he looked for Salt and Pepper and found him under the same tree. On Monday, he was in obvious distress. Ray spent hours working with him, running a hose down his throat to relieve the pressure of the gas that had built up inside him.
But this morning Salt and Pepper was dead. :(
The children have taken the news well. And I know this is a fact of farm life that we must all adjust to. But it still stinks.
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Oct. 22, 2007 - Big Changes
I haven't written here in quite awhile. There's a reason for that, as you shall soon see. :)
Back in July, our family began a journey that has drastically changed our lives. A journey that has altered our lifestyle, created work and responsibility for ourselves and our children, and caused a tremendous outflow of money from our hands and home into the pockets of others. *giggle*
In July, we took the audacious step of buying a Jersey milk cow. She lived with a friend (who was over an hour away from our home) for almost a month while we built a pen for her.
She's a cutie. I named her Brown Sugar and she's such a gentle cow. Very good with the children, all of whom can milk her, except for my youngest, only because her Daddy hasn't yet deemed her *old enough*.
She came with a Jersey calf and a Holstein calf, neither of whom were her's. Since then we've given her 2 new calves for reasons I'll describe later on. And she took those on easily as well.
Her milk is oh so creamy! We just love to drink her wholesome delicious milk cold from the frig. And it's good for making butter and whipped cream and cheese as well.
When we got her, Brown Sugar had a bad hip. We aren't for sure what happened to her, though my Ray thinks a bull rode her down. And the man who got rid of her, did so because he didn't want to milk her...so she had mastitis. It took us quite a while to get rid of that, and we've struggled with it cropping up since then too. But that's a story for another day. :)
Having a milk cow *requires* early rising. So now my hubby and my boys get up at the crack of dawn to milk Brown Sugar (and do other chores I'll tell you about another time). And that means I have to rise early as well, for menfolk doing hard strenuous farm chores need a big hearty breakfast. :)
Those of you who know me well know I do NOT like early mornings, being a night owl. But Brown Sugar is worth it. :)
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