Iced Tea in a Hot Kitchen

What is this new little thing in the Field?

New calves.  They are so sweet, and even sweeter when it is warm when they are born.  In the last few years we have been regular in having our calves in the fall.  Twin bulls in September, which is unusual.   And they were so cute!  It is always interesting to see what they look like especially if  both parents are black Angus and we have a red Angus heifer born.  She is mine, and her name is Ginger. (She is my reward for taking care of the cattle during my husband’s knee replacement.  But personally I know it is because she is red, not black.  It doesn’t fit with his black scheme of things) This is where my college science regarding recessive genes come in.  Horns or no horns?  Hold it, your parents didn’t have horns, how come you are growing buds?  Sigh…….

Bossy checking baby out to see if all is there

We have a caramel coloured bull, oops, now steer. This occurs very quickly to keep from having to do it when older, which is not so lovely, and trust me, my husband’s first time done, with a multi-use sharpened Swiss Army knife gave me the willies as a nurse.  “Are you sure I can’t run home and get the surgical knife, it would be a lot easier.”  Nope.  Poor steer couldn’t walk straight for many a day.  Learned the lesson to get them while they are young.  He is doing well now.  He is the one who JD couldn’t dehorn and do so much psychological damage in one day to the poor baby.  His twin brother was spared the trauma by being sold before he was neutered and dehorned. Our new little bull’s mother is a Dairy mixture and his father was an Angus.His name is Spunky because within 10 minutes he was trying to get up and do a lil kick in the process.  He still turned out just as cute as a bug in a rug.  His sister is the white face in the photo above, but everyone has to be in the picture after the new one has arrived.

Our newbies are so sweet, but not in 27 degree weather.  Our momma, A/C (awesome cow) was preparing for her second calf, her first for us was D/C (darn cute) although she is a pro at having babies.  Yes, A/C D/C which was so conveniently decided by a contest on my facebook.  My friend Michelle decided the names after remembering the band had a band member named Angus.  This all should be conglomeration and coagulating as to why the names. Wind, cold and no sun shining makes for a cold and possible dangerous delivery.  Even with her cleaning, it was cold for a newborn.  I watched her for 2 hours while she labored and finally brought forth a beautiful dark calf.  Unknown sex but with a field cow you don’t just walk up and say, “can I peek at your baby’s bum?”

New bull and family all together here

The challenge as with any calf, is to get to the calf, if need be in a dire circumstances, without getting ran over by a hormone challenged momma cow.  If you have their calf, they will not hurt you.  But when you put the calf down or let go of the baby, all is fair game.  Needless to say, I was charged at after JD put our new baby down in the hay. HEY, I didn’t pick up your baby and drag him here! You might have a little more gratefulness since it was my idea to put your baby here so he wouldn’t freeze, thank you very much.  But like most mommas, and she is no exception, they are very protective of her baby.  After a “feel” my husband determined that it was a “he” and at this rate, I hope we don’t use the same Rent-a-Bull we did before.  He has only given us males so far.  If the next two are males,  we may not want to use him if we would like to have a few more females in the herd.    But he is too cute even at this stage of the  game.  So begins the name game.

Warming up nicely

Hey, I am in the hay, not the ha.y to be eaten

But in this weather, this woman has to be smarter than the elements.  The water barrel was frozen and I went to break the ice when one of the cows, Angelina, kept staring at me through the fence as if to say, “what are you going to do with this water here?” I was busy on birth watch.  I picked up the pitchfork and using the end of the pitchfork (not the pointy end) to break the ice in the water trough.  Very foolishly while I adjusted the pitchfork to lean farther, I felt a sharp prick to my face and very quickly felt what I thought was a salty tear, because I was mad at the ice not breaking, thus breaking into tears.  But sad to say the taste was a salty iron not just salt and gingerly touching my face and seeing blood, I grabbed a kleenex and headed back to the car. Examining myself in the mirror of the car, I found the pitchfork and I had a disagreement on its usage and I lost.  I had three marks on the face, one just missing my right eye.  Not smart.  Glad I have had my tetanus shot.  So much for helping the cattle, esp in heels and Sunday dress. Before you say anything, I didn’t want to miss this birth since I was always late on the others, plus I was in the car with the heater on, a blanket and my Texas ranger leather coat.

God watches over fools and children. Praise the Lord He was watching over me today.  My face hurts like crazy but I didn’t lose my eyesight, and He gave me the sight and delight of seeing new life come into this world.  It is lovely.  Ecclesiastes 3:11  He makes all things beautiful in its time.