Mike found Sarge with her new calf this afternoon, and we had quite the cow-drama getting them down to the barn.😬

This is Sarge’s 5th calf for us. [Click here to read about last year’s calf.] [Click here to read about when Sarge was born.]

Mike came down to the barn to set up another calf pen and finished feeding round bales before we went up to bring down Sarge and her calf. We weren’t expecting to find Nat trying to steal the calf from Sarge.🙄 Nat is actually Sarge’s first calf from 2016. [Click here to read about her story.] Nat is due to have her own calf soon, so she must have thought she already had it, LOL.🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ She was very aggressive (no one got hurt, but she was running around like a crazy mama), and so-much-so that Sarge pretty much gave up trying to take charge of her own calf. Ugh.😡

Poor calf was pretty confused. She wouldn’t walk with Nat, and Sarge went back to eat…so I walked all the way back to the 4-wheeler to give her a lift. (Of course – the ONE time you DON’T bring the 4-wheeler in with you…😆)

Anyways – through all this, for some reason the childhood story of Heidi popped into my mind…an orphaned little girl raised by extended family up on a mountain… (I know, I know – no mountains here, but my legs felt like they had hiked up one after so much walking through pockets of mud.😖👵🏼) I mentioned the name to Mike. He politely agreed, and there you have it: Heidi.😂

Not too many pictures of all this craziness, as I was afraid I’d drop my phone during my quest for remaining balanced.

Next we tied Heidi to a post outside of Mordor and then headed back in to get Sarge.

Once we got back to Sarge, she proceeded to zig zag us through the field. Thankfully, we were able to eventually guide her through the gate.👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 HOWEVER. She never even stopped to reunite with her calf.😳

So for the first time, I herded a mama cow down to the barn on the 4-wheeler, while Mike waited with Heidi for me to return.🙃

Once Sarge was in the barnyard, I closed the gate and headed back to Mike & Heidi.👍🏼

All went well, and after we milked Sarge, Heidi enjoyed her bottle. Mission accomplished. Thank You, Lord!❤️

New tally: two girls and one boy. Lord willing, 5 more to come.🙏🏼

 

Found this guy with his mama during our morning calf check.❤️

Peggy calving again for us wasn’t actually a part of our plan…🤦🏻‍♀️ Last year she had her first calf, but she didn’t make the cut to stay in our dairy herd. [Click here to read about her calf from last year.] [Click here to read about when Peggy was born.]

BUT – when you are sorting cows when the bull is in with the herd, and it takes a little longer than you thought it would – there’s always that slight chance…🙄

We noticed Peggy bagging up a couple weeks ago, so we knew then that she had gotten bred.😂 No worries, though, a healthy calf that arrives unassisted is always a blessing!❤️

This pic is fun because it features Peggy’s first calf on the left – Steve. He was pretty curious about his new little brother. Continuing the Captain America themed names for this family group, this new bull calf has been named Bucky.😆

Since Bucky was eating, we decided to leave them together for breakfast, and come up after milking and feeding round bales to the two groups of cows.👍🏼

Plan was working well until Mike happened upon an “extra” calf in Mordor…😯 He knew it wasn’t one of ours as it was too large to be a newborn, and it was all black.

A neighbor’s calf had gotten on our side of the fence, and Mike could see and hear its mama crying in the distance.🤔

You can see our dairy girls didn’t seem phased by any of this, lol.😉

Fixing this now became our next order of business.😉

I was to make sure the mama and the rest of the herd didn’t make a run toward the open gate while Mike went behind the calf and herded him toward the gate. Thankfully, it worked!👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Mike thinks he found a low spot in the woods by a creek where the calf may have gone under the fence. He’ll probably attach a cattle panel to patch it up as we move forward.👍🏼

Next up: bringing down Bucky. The timing was perfect because he was sound asleep!😴

Mike was able to slip the halter on him before he even got up.👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Peggy escorted Bucky to the gate, and we were pleasantly surprised that he followed Mike as far as he did outside of the gate. Then Mike loaded him on the 4-wheeler for the remainder of the trip.💪🏼

Made it to the barn, safe and sound!😄

Roni seemed pretty happy to have a new neighbor…😉

Tally now is one girl, one boy. Lord willing, 6 more to go…🙏🏼