I guess afternoon babies is the trend this season! Went up around 2 and found Gluey with her calf…in a mud pit…🙄😬 (This is typical Gluey-style. She drives us crazy sometimes!)😐

Mike encouraged them to move to a different area, and they were headed that way when we left. Figured we’d give Gluey time to clean him up proper and check back in a bit.🙏🏼

Wesson is our 4th bull this season. [Click here to read about Gluey’s calf last year.]

Here’s a better picture of him a couple hours later…😊

Now our count is even: 4 boys and 4 girls. 3 more calves left (we think)…😉

Stop back later tomorrow to see the pics from Gluey and Wesson’s trip down to the barn.👍🏼🎬

****************************************

Added from this morning 3-31-17

What a rainy, muddy mess it is today!☔️

As soon as Gluey saw us coming, she and Wesson hightailed it AWAY from us.🙄 

Thankfully, we could kinda direct them towards the gate. So we waited for a good opportunity to get the halter on Wesson. Seized it when we got it, and all went well the rest of the way down.👍🏼

So today’s calf has a different story… Uno had her calf, with emergency vet assistance, in the milking barn.😬

Not the way we prefer, but sometimes this is how farming goes. We are grateful there are those trained to handle these types of situations, and that they can arrive when we need them to.👍🏼

Mike and I had done a calf-check up in Mordor around 2, and all was well. But when Mike’s mom took her walk this evening, she noticed Uno walking around/pacing with a foot sticking out – and the foot was not facing the normal direction… Here is Uno.

I don’t have the best view here, but you can barely see a white hoof sticking out towards the top of her tail…

Fortunately, we didn’t have a ballgame tonight, so the boys joined Mike and I and we brought Uno down to the barn to get her in a headlock.

This kinda stuff is really out of our league. So we made the decision to make an emergency call to our vet. Within 45 minutes, Dr. Angel arrived and to our delight, pulled out a backwards calf – ALIVE! In less than 10 minutes!😯 Truly amazing!👏🏼

Here are some pics that are a bit graphic. Feel free to skip over them if they aren’t to your liking…😉

Oh – and it’s a boy! Welcome Breech! (Thought the name seemed appropriate since he arrived backwards and it also loosely fits the gun category…😏) He is Uno’s second calf for us. [Click here to read about her calf last year.] And click here to read about when Uno was born.

Check back tomorrow to see how things went overnight for mama and calf. Sadly, Uno left Breech to go outside to eat and look for her friends…😡 

We placed some hay around him so it wasn’t as slippery, and toweled off Breech as best we could. Mike+Michael carried him outside to the grass. With a flashlight, we directed Uno over to Breech, and thankfully, she began to tend to him again. We took a couple pics that looked like progress to us, so we’ll see how things are in the morning.🙏🏼🎬

**************************************

Next morning: 3-29-17

Such a beautiful site as we came over to begin our day…

Although, Breech was on the wrong side of the fence, you could tell Uno took good care of him through the night.👍🏼

We knew Breech must have been able to walk ok since they were in a different location from when we left them last night, but we were surprised at his quick maneuvering when Mike went to put the halter on! Mike almost had tackle him to keep him from running!🙃 But all ended fine and he’s settled in the barn. Thank You, Lord!❤

Tally: 4 girls, 3 boys (and 4 to go, we think!)🐮

Another afternoon walk by Mike’s mom tipped us off that a cow was looking ready to have her calf… Mike and I went up an hour later to check things out.🐮

Yep – could see a little one as we neared the field!

It was cute – running around 3 cows, trying to figure out which one was its mama!😂

From left to right is: Sarge, Fiskars, and Oreo(Cookie)…

Meet Snowflake! {Ugh. My random-naming sons… There is absolutely NOTHING snowflake-ey about today, lol! Yet they insist…🙄😂}

This is Sarge’s second calf  for us. [Click here to read about last year’s calf.] And click here to read about when Sarge was born…

I love that I caught Sarge’s tongue out, lol! She’s all ready to finish cleaning Snowflake up…😉

They were headed in the right direction, so we decided to leave them together for now. We’ll run up after tonight’s game and make sure they are both still together and ok. Most likely, we’ll bring them down in the morning.⚾️👍🏼

Check back later tomorrow to see what happens!🎬

*************************************

Added these from this morning: 3-28-17

What a soggy morning it was! Made it a muddy mess, but all went well getting Sarge and Snowflake down to the barn.☔️

Here we are heading up… 

[I guess today is Junior’s blog debut! He showed up a couple months ago, and he got his name because he looks so much like Blake!😻 This year Blake turns 11, which is highly unusual for a barn cat – especially considering the busy road we live on. We are grateful he made it through another Ohio winter! Junior is fun because he’s got a lot of kitten in him. He’s playful and very energetic. Can’t say that Blake is super fond of Junior yet, lol… But we do our best to shower them each with lots of love and attention.😺]

Junior on the left & Blake on the right…❤❤

Anyways… Junior followed us almost all the way to Mordor…

He stopped here, at the roundbales…

Here we are catching up with Snowflake…

Off we headed out of Mordor…

Had to weed out their anxious entourage, but it worked out fine. (Everybody wants out of Mordor, but the grass hasn’t grown enough yet… Lord willing: it will be SOON!)🙏🏼

Here is where we met back up with Junior. Looks like he just wanted to check out our baby-routine…😹

Aaaand then he wanted to JOIN our routine, lol!😺

Here Sarge and Snowflake were serenaded by the other newly-freshened mamas…🎶

And here is Blake making sure he isn’t overshadowed by Junior…😉

After milking, Mike and Paul moved Remington and Colt over to our place while Michael cleaned the milkline. These two calves were VERY ornery. Paul had Colt, who really made Paul work. First he only wanted to go backwards. Then he changed direction and only wanted to run. His huge size meant he got to do whatever he wanted, lol! (I’m so glad it was Paul working with him and not me – I could barely keep up to take a couple pictures!🙄😬)

New tally: 4 girls, 2 boys and 5 more to come (we think!) Half way done!!👏🏼

When your boys come home from practice and say they need to be at the school for tomorrow’s double header at 9am, you automatically start thinking backwards from when they need to leave, to when daylight breaks.⚾️🤔

We already know about bringing Colt and Disco down in the morning… And with the rapid succession of calves thus far, there could very well be more in the morning.😬

So we decided it would be wise to transport the 3 oldest calves to their new field at our house tonight, instead of in the morning, when our time will be rushed.👍🏼

First up were the twins. Paul has Maple and Mike has Syrup.😊

Here they are meeting a couple of last year’s calves who are on the other side of the fence…

Next up: Rose…🌹

Now they are all together, and it was time to test out those legs! It is always so fun to watch them run for the first time!😍

Here’s another view of last year’s calves introducing themselves to the newbies.😏

Ok – so now we have a spot open for Colt in the morning plus two extra ones… Wonder what tomorrow will bring?!🤔🙏🏼

Another afternoon calf! Mike’s mom said she saw a calf in the dairy girls’ hay when she came back from a walk, so Mike and I headed up to check things out.

Meet Disco’s 9th calf for us: a boy – Colt.☺️

He looks to be rather large, just like Remington. This post will be another two-parter. We’ll let them stay together until tomorrow, and will bring them down in the morning.

[Click here to read about Disco’s calf from last year.]

Check back tomorrow for more pics of their trip to the barn…🎬

*****************************************

Updated from this morning 3-25-17

We were all relieved it was just Disco and Colt to bring down this morning. They cooperated nicely, and I think it’s safe to say all three of my boys were grateful Colt walked down on his own because NONE of them wanted to pick him up/carry him!💪🏼❌

He is even bigger than Remington, who was born 2 days before Colt!😱 He has longer hair which is super cute…☺️

He ALMOST gave up, right at the end, lol… But he did get up and walk into his stall. Whew!😉

Updated tally: 3 girls, 2 boys and 6 more to go (we think)!🐮

Well, we didn’t have a calf this morning, BUT, when we went up to do a check this afternoon, THERE WAS!☺️

ScotchTape was off by herself in a grove of trees, so we figured there’d be a calf with her…

It looked like the calf had just been born – was still wet and laying down. We decided to let ScotchTape clean it up and feed it. Then we’d come back up in a couple hours to see how they were doing and find out if it was a boy or a girl. Since we’d already milked for the day and the boys were gone at baseball practice for the afternoon/evening, Mike and I decided that as long as Tape did a good job being mama, we’d let them stay together for the night and bring them down in the morning…🙏🏼

Thankfully, that is just what happened! Meet: Remington – our first boy for this season.👏🏼 (Mike’s sister gave the boys a category idea for this year’s bull calves: gun brands. Sounds like they liked the idea!😉) 

[click here to read about her calf last year]

Lord willing, tomorrow I will add Remington’s adventure to the barn onto this post. *STAY TUNED*🎬

**************************************

Update from this morning 3-23-17:

Remington was well taken care of and it was not a problem bringing him and ScotchTape down to the barn.

Next we had to play musical calves… Plan A was to put the twins together, and Remington could have the last stall to himself… So Mike handed Maple over to Paul…

HOWEVER, Maple and Syrup immediately began sucking on each other, so we knew a Plan B was in order…🙄

So next the boys had the move the pile of scrap metal we haven’t gotten around to taking care of yet…😬

Now we had room to put up another gate.

Now we were ready to split the twins back up and move Maple back to her own stall.👏🏼

The weather is finally looking nicer, so Lord willing, we can move all these guys to the field over by our house tomorrow. That way we’ll be ready for round two of calves!😉

Tally: 3 girls, 1 boy and 7 more to go (we think!)☺️