Phil and 872

I wanted to post this picture on the last post, but I didn't have enough room.

When 872 went to the vet, we pretty much carried him everywhere. He didn't have a lot of energy and our luck he'd find it right about the time he found a low spot in the fence.

I carried him most of the way, I have to admit it was the mommy in me. But I let Phil take him back to the pen he stayed in for a few days before we let him and his mom back in the pasture.

I snapped some quick pictures....the last one with the disturbed look at his face...that's Phil about to say "hurry, he's peeing on me." Couldn't help but laugh, after all didn't we take him to the vet to get hydrated.

Lots of stuff

*******UPDATED WITH MORE INFO AND PICTURES!!!!*************


Had another little bull born on April 14th to Rattlesnake Kate and Dr. Seuss. This is Dr. Seuss's first bull calf and Kate's 5th. Kate has had only bulls so far and is probably our best cow. I will get a picture of him up here soon. He's a pretty large calf and is already bigger then his 3 week old sister! Phil said we should name the little guy, Banjo. Mainly because we can't look at him without hearing the tune the kid in Deliverence was playing...yep....he's a little inbred...no, line bred (line bred when it works, inbred when it doesn't). His mom and his dad are mother and son..got that, Dr. Suess is out of Kate and Banjo is out of Dr. Suess.

We didn't plan this. The plan was for Kate to be AI'd to Houdini. Well, little Miss Kate didn't like that idea and flat footed jumped out of the chute when they were putting her cidr in. She could have easily ripped open her gut on that chute, so I wasn't taken any other chances (also didn't realize their chute didn't have a top until that minute...woops). All of our bulls were loaned out to friends to breed...all but Dr. Suess the bull we planned on for clean up. Most of the super stars are accidents, so we decided to let nature take it's course. The whole 9 months we've been worried we'd have a 2 headed calf.




872 is doing much better. Once I got a closer look at him, it was obvious he had scours. With him being so young I knew we needed to take some action. He was past the point of just some good shots, so he was off to the vet. He got some fluids subQ and then got some hemoglobin from a catherator. It was touch and go for awhile, but I think the worse is over. It was too cold to trailer him, so he got to ride in the back of the pickup. He looks 100% better in this picture then when we took him to the vet. Poor little guy.



My hometown, Ordway, has had some tough times this week. A wildfire of 8900 acres went through the town. 2 homes in town and 15 out of town were burnt. The entire town of 1200 was evacuaated. I still can't get a hold of my family, but have talked to friends who said there homes are still standing. Governor Ritter made a trip down and gave them $500,000 to rebuild. Two fireman were killed, one I knew, he was in my class but only for Elementary and Jr. High.

My Neice and Nephew were great fun when they spent the weekend with me. We went to Elitchs where I got sick after 3 mild rides. My 10 year old Neice, went on all the scary rides with Phil and loved them! My poor nephew was too short for a few of them, but had a good time as well.





And on Monday my youngest brother Jared brought his daughter Evee up to see me. I haven't seen her in awhile. She's getting big. Jared said she's is in the lower 10% for height and weight in her age group. She'll probably be a shortie like Aunt Tenneile.



And that's why I've been too busy to get a post up here and pics. Thanks for waiting.

Snow

I hate the snow. At least during calving season and at feeding times. Yesterday we heard the weather reports predict anywhere from 2" to 18" (depending on which news cast you listen to). We fed heavy and put out corn stalks to keep everything warm. My biggest concern is the newest little guy, 872. hopefully he'll get to experience some sunshine soon.

We woke up to a few inches of snow and the cows were smart enough to sleep in the pen with the windbreak and cornstalks. They've stayed there all day.

I've been checking about every hour (lucky me I can see them out the window). No new babies, so that's good. I've seen a few times where 872 got up and drank. Mom has kept him close in the windbreak, that's my girl.

We put off calving this year until April because March is usually our snowiest month. Shouldn't have changed it since March was sunny and dry.

My neice, Mary K and nephew, Jake are coming up this weekend. I can't wait to show them all the babies. They are great kids and I always look forward to the weekends I get them. My very favorite time is the mornings, they've learned if they wake up early they can go out and help me feed...they never miss an opportunity to help out and love being around the animals.

Bull or Heifer?

I have 5 calves on the ground so far

3 confirmed bulls
1 confirmed heifer
1 unconfirmed

Of the 3 bulls, they are all out of Houdini.

Lil' Miss + Houdini = will now be know as 84 (bull)
Nicky + Houdini = will now be known as 812 (bull)
Jenny Belle + Houdini = will now be known as 872 (bull)
Ramona + Sagebrush = will now be known as 13 (heifer)
Blackberry + Houdini = still unknown, either will be known as 86 or 14

872 didn't have a great day. It snowed last night and was pretty chilly today (low 30's). He was fine this morning, but when feeding the cows this evening he didn't come up. In itself is not unusual, but mom kept calling for him. So we went looking. Found him shivering in the weeds, got him up and got his mom looking and she came running for him. He's pretty skinny, but also not even 48 hours old. Mom has one bad teat, but 3 good ones. So, we watched real close to make sure he was getting on the good ones to nurse. Hard to tell 100%, but I'm pretty sure he's eating well. With what I hope is a full belly of milk we left him for his mom to take care of. Hopefully he'll get going a little better.

No new babies, getting worried the last 2 AI'd cows might not have took (Paris and Strawberry Fields). They aren't looking very close. Oh well, a Dr. Seuss calf is pretty sweet too.

Jenny Belle + Houdini

Yesterday afternoon Jenny Belle was starting to stay away from the herd and acting different. We figured she must be close and kept an eye on her. At feeding time she still hadn't calved, but was keeping her distance and left shortly after eating her dinner.

We knew it would be either that night or very early this morning. Went to check her first thing and she had her little calf. She's not very old, a few hours I would suspect. Looks very healthy and as always very cute.

A disclaimer on the first picture of both, I had to zoom in all the way with the camera then zoom in and crop that on the computer. No way I could ever get these close to her and her baby and keep my teeth!

Jenny Belle is one of our best cows. She is Sagebrush and Mohawk's mother. She was named Jenny Belle because she looked just like her mom Jenny (a grandpa charlie daughter). I normally hope for bulls, and I'll be happy if this one is a bull since I know he'll be a bucking dude. But, it would be nice to have a daughter to keep around as I have no question as to her being just as good as her mother.

Nicky + Houdini

April 4th at noon I stopped work to make some personal calls. Thought I'd check cows while doing it. It was easier since they were all at the house and I could see them from the bedroom window. Nicky was looking close that morning and there she was off by her self doing waht I call the "contraction dance." At 12:27 I watched the calf be born. Nicky is a great mom and went to cleaning him right away. I got to watch it all, from the calf trying to stand up on his wobbly legs to his first drink. It was pretty amazing. I got to see Hooked Up just like this last year when he was born, it'll never cease to amaze me.

Nicky is one of the meanest cows I have so I was pretty surprised when she brought him up for grain that night. She did her grunts warning us that if we came anywhere close we'd be toast. And she always had atleast one eye on us.

Got some good pics of the baby, even one with him sticking his toungue out at us. And look at those Zebra ears.

April 2nd, 2008 - 6 & Houdini calf was born!!

Been pretty busy since the last calf was born, but it's about time I get on here and post some pictures. First let me tell you a little about mom. When 6 was born she was all legs so we started calling her Leggs. You know, after the ZZ top song. She's a Catfish heifer out of a burns cow. She was the buckiest of all the heifer calves we bucked that year!!

We took her to Wyoming to Jeremy Evans along with some of our other cows to be AI'd to Houdini.

On April 2nd at 11:30ish am she calved that Houdini calf. I'm 95% sure it's a heifer. Mom is very protective and hasn't let the young one out of her sight since she was born. While the other cows are hiding their babies out in the weeds, 6...who we have decided to call Blackberry instead of the orginal Leggs....has kept her little one right on her side.

We now of 3 healthy calves on the ground, a dark brown almost black; a black and white spot (who we still don't know is a girl or a boy) and this little red.

All the Houdini babies are due soon, I have 4 more from the AI to go. Two of them, Jenny Belle and Nicky look very close. Hopefully we'll have some more before the weekend is over.

Happy Friday!!!