New babies and life

I love this time of year!

We picked up a bottle calf last week he is so cute. His name is cooper.

Our neighbor (about a mile and half away) dropped off  this cute little baby goat he said something happened to the mom and he couldn't get the little one to eat. She was so bad I didn't think she would live, my daughter and I dripped milk into her mouth every 2 hours for almost 2 days. Then at one feeding she started sucking on the nipple and is now doing great and running all over, she is so tiny we have her in the house in a playpen were she will stay for a few more days. I realized a few days later they were both (calf and goat) born February 15 how cute is that :)

Oh found this post on someones facebook, this is so true! I get my feelings hurt at some of the comments people I know make because I butcher a calf every 2 years and a pig every year. I give all my animals the same attention and they have 100 acres to run and play on its a shame they don't understand how much better they are than some places they could have ended up. Sorry just found post and it's just what I have been telling some for a few years, not talking about my blogger friends this is some family and others around town. This blog has been so nice because I run into so many like minded people and it feels really good! :)

Past and Present

So glad April is over, seems like I am always looking over my shoulder thinking let nothing bad happen, I am sure most everyone has a month or a day they dread? I lost my grandfather and father in April, my grandfather (I was his power of attorney) when complications from a surgery occurred I was the one that had to turn off the machine.  I think this was hardest decision I ever had to make, looking back I think it was that much harder because I had to do it alone, I was the only one that could make it. My grandfather had a living will and it said never to be put on a machine because (he said) he did not ever want to put me in the position of turning it off, but things happened so fast the hospital put him on without (I guess) looking at his records. They informed me that once he was on the machine it reverted to the power of attorney and that person had to remove it and of course that was me. I almost wanted to say and now you are looking at his living will.....My father didn't have a living will and when complication happened the hospital wanted to put him on the machine (they said) long enough to run tests to see if they could find what went wrong, they did not find the cause but they said he was brain dead and the machine had to be turned off. This decision (with Dad) was between my 5 siblings and I, this may sound odd but it took a lot of stress off me knowing I was not doing it alone this time. With my grandfather the stress of what I had to do put me in the ER but with dad it was just the gut wrenching sorrow of loosing a very important love in my life. I could almost feel the distribution of the decision with dad resting on the shoulders of all of us not just mine, if that makes sense? My grandfather passed 10 years ago and Dad 4, both within a few days of Easter. I hope one of these years I look forward to April again, it was/is a time of family get togethers, BBQs, church events, it all still goes on around me, I just cant seem to get the same "feeling" I used to get. I hope soon it will be like that again without the pain. Sorry did not plan to post the above, I just sat down to post births and it happened...
On to the farm :) We had two births in April

                                       Bella had a girl

                              Snowball also had a girl

When looking at all three calves the other day my daughter laughed and said they look like the ink was slowly running out....

Good news bad news.....

Good news first.....

 

Snow Ball had her little one and both are doing fine, this one is a girl so I can keep her. Now we need a name :)

Bad news...

We are down to our last bale of hay but I did find someone that will deliver me two bales and that should be all we need.
Very bad/sad news

We lost sisters baby (sister is one of Snow Balls calves) this was her first, the calf came breach I called the two vets in the area one was in surgery and the other was tied up at another farm. I got the calf turned but he was so big I had to try to pull him (with the tractor) and that didn't work. I finally got ahold of my father in law, he came out with a gentlemen that has a lot of experience with this and he brought out his puller, they pulled the calf and of course it was dead. The above picture is of sister being lifted, I was lucky that hubby came home the next day and helped me rig up something for her. After three days of lifting her for two hours then letting her lay for two she finally started getting up on her own. Her right back leg is still not perfect but she has her feeling back in it and is doing better daily.

First baby of the year :)

This is Ellie our Dexter, you can't tell by looking at her but she is the calmest sweetest cow! The only one we have that is calmer is Bella our Black Angus, Bella is a cow that thinks she is a dog! :)

Here is the little guy after a few hours, I gave mommy time to clean him up. It was so nice on the day he was born (70 degrees) we had a BBQ, glad she had him then instead of the following day......

This was yesterday....sleet then a couple inches of snow and 30 degrees, if it keeps this up we may have to get more wood. :)