Hooray! 2nd heifer had her calf unassisted and waiting for us to find this morning…👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

This is Natasha with her first calf. [Click here to read about when Nat was born.] Since Natasha’s name originally came from the superhero Black Widow (think: Marvel-Avengers) AND since this week is the debut of another one of those movies, we decided to stay along those lines, and this bull calf’s name is Clint (think Hawkeye, lol🏹😂).

Neither Nat nor Clint minded Mike walking over & putting the halter on Clint.

Nat & Clint walked together for a few minutes, and then Nat completely abandoned her calf and left to go get a drink.🙄

Mike tied Clint’s halter near the gate so we could figure out how to get Nat back…

No worries, though, Clint had the yearlings on the other side of the fence to make him feel welcome…😉

There is Nat all the way back at the waterer…😬

Mike headed back to attempt to usher Nat back toward Clint and out the gate…

She did come back the direction we wanted her to…BUT she passed up Clint, went through the gate, and made a beeline to the barn.🙄

Soooo. We adjusted our plan. Mike hurried to escort Nat down to the barn, and I stayed and babysat Clint until Mike could get back.🤷🏻‍♀️

Gave me lots of time to get some pictures on this glorious morning!✝️☺️

Once Mike returned, he did his best to convince Clint that he should WANT TO walk down to the barn…

It did work, but only for a little jaunt. Even the yearlings tried to encourage him by walking along the inside of the fence!😂 But Clint just wouldn’t have any more walking.👎🏼

So we stopped, prayed, and the Lord enabled Mike to lift Clint onto the back of the four-wheeler. No pics of that process, or my husband would have been very frustrated with me, lol.😆 It was a bit of a stressful drive down to the barn with a wiggly calf & Mike’s awkward holding positions. Mike’s top half was holding Clint down on the bed, while his feet walked and I drove 5mph+/- down to the barn. Had to stop several times, but we did make it to our destination in one piece. PRAISE THE LORD!✝️

I got a pen opened up in the barn, and Mike then carried Clint into the pen. He was NOT light… Mike will no doubt feel the effects of this experience for the next few days.💪🏼🙏🏼

It wasn’t too bad getting Nat in to milk for the first time, and she gave us a nice amount of food for Clint.🍼

Later in the afternoon, we decided it would be wise to get the last 2 mamas, and bring them into the same field with the other milkers. Mike got the fences ready, and we headed up to get veteran Gluey and last-bred-heifer Ruby. Thankfully, everything went smoothly.❤️

We will be glad when the last two calves finally arrive. It will be nice to settle into more of a “set” daily routine. Calving season is exciting and fun, but not without its challenges!😉

Tally is now even – 3 boys and 3 girls.👍🏼

Meet Amber! Was a delight to find her with her mama, Bubby, this morning. This is her 5th calf for us, and she is Paul’s cow.☺️

It was a beautiful, warm day to find a calf.❤️ [Click here to read about her calf from last year.] [Click here to read about when Bubby was born.]

She’s a tiny little cutie. AND NOT ALL WHITE like our first 2 calves, lol. Amber is a beautiful shade of red/brown. She had a lot of spunky energy & made the trip down to the barn with no problems.👌🏼

Count is now 2 girls, and 1 boy. Lord willing, we have 5 more calves to go.🙏🏼

After over a two week wait, we finally have another calf!👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

(We did have one two days after Angel was born, but he was born prematurely, and didn’t survive. We were sad he didn’t make it, but grateful that his mom, Coco, is doing aok.👍🏼)

Events like that can make waiting for the next calf feel even longer… So today, I was really excited to see some activity with the dairy girls when I went up to check on them mid-day. There was a group growing around a wooded patch, so I went to investigate…🕵🏻‍♀️ 

As I got closer, I thought I could see a white form through the brush with LilRed…

Yep. Sure enough. A calf in the briars!🙄😂 I was pretty sure it was a boy, but decided to wait until Mike got back home to get any more adventurous. This would then give LilRed more time to get it cleaned up and perhaps moved into a better area.🙏🏼

After coffee break, Mike & I headed back up to the field to check things out. Yep – it’s a boy! Meet Frosty. He is LilRed’s third calf for us. [Click here to read about her calf from last year.] [Click here to read about when LilRed was born.] Frosty was very spunky, and full of energy. He is also pretty large, with long, lanky legs. Mike was grateful he didn’t have to carry him! Just like his big sister, he walked all the way down to the barn with his mama. Thank You, Lord!✝️☺️

It’s always fun to see how curious everyone is when a new addition parades by their field…😆

We moved Angel next door earlier this week, so we don’t have them side-by-side to compare their sizes. As long as Frosty eats well again tomorrow, we’ll probably take him over to join her this weekend. They will have fun running around together!❤️

Here are some pics from when we moved Angel. She pretty much ran in circles all the way over, lol. I was glad Mike was holding her on the halter and not me!😂

One thing is for sure – Angel is VERY photogenic!❤️

Both Angel & Frosty have moms who are half shorthorn. We’re excited to see if the calves born to the ones who have less or no shorthorn in them will look the same as these two.🤔🤷🏻‍♀️ If not, we may have a hard time telling everyone apart this year!😉

Lord willing, we are expecting 6 more calves…🙏🏼

Current count is: 1 girl, 1 boy.👌🏼