Every day for the past week we have thought, “Today is the day Nat is going to have her calf.” And each day we’ve been proven wrong, lol.🙄🙈 Until – TODAY!😆

I’ll back up and fill in how the last week has gone:

Anticipating a new calf soon, last Tuesday we decided to move Mary Kate and Jake next door to our barnyard to free up the calf pens in the milking barn. They were both eating great out of their buckets and ready to graduate to a grassy chunk of space.👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Jake did NOT like his halter, lol.🤣

But Mary Kate didn’t seem to mind it as much…👍🏼

Took a few minutes to get them started, but then they were off!👍🏼

Mary Kate was quite the poser…🙂

She’s a pretty sweet girl, and is already being spoiled…😉

Jake, on the other hand, was a little cranky, lol…😂

It took a little while, but eventually they became friends.🙂

I’m sure Jake is thinking, “Ugh – sisters,” LOL.😏

They both ate great in their new spot, and are continuing to adjust well to their halter training.👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Then Heidi kept rubbing on Nat🙄, so we decided maybe we should move Nat into the barnyard so she could have a little more free space. Plan was to do that the next morning…👍🏼

Friday was a dreary, rainy day. That made it even easier to move Nat closer to the barn so we’d all have less mud to wade through IF she had her calf…☔️

Nat kept hanging out at the gate that led into the far side of Eisengard – where Tilly & Granny are, so we decided to put the 3 of them together. Tilly was VERY excited and curious, lol.😆

Nat wasn’t really sure what to think about these new changes… She spent the weekend looking longingly at her friends on the other side of the fence.🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

Now we’re caught up to this morning. Here’s our audience when we came over to milk. STILL no calf.😬 (Nat’s due date had been Saturday, so now we’re 2 days late.)

A couple hours later, Mike was moving fence and he thought it looked like Nat was starting to push. He came over to check on her, and YEP – 2 feet were visible!💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻

In the couple minutes it took me to climb over the gate and get closer, the calf was born!😲

Nat started right away to clean her calf up.👍🏼

It didn’t take long for Granny and Tilly to come over and introduce themselves, lol…🙃

It’s a boy! Meet, “Dude.” (Think John Wayne movie, Rio Bravo.🤠😂) This is Nat’s 4th calf for us. [Click here to read about when Nat was born.] [Click here to read about the calf she had last year.]

Less than 15 minutes old, and already trying to get up!🙌🏼

We decided to let Nat finish cleaning Dude up, and then come back for him after coffee break.☕️ (Dude was up and standing right after we left the field.👍🏼)

Dude was sound asleep in the warm sunshine when we returned.☀️ And he is pretty big – maybe the biggest one this season? What a blessing that he is so calm and willing to walk with the halter on!👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

He’s also VERY photogenic…📷

Almost there…👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Made it!!💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻 We milked Nat and got enough colostrum for Dude’s feeding in a few hours.🍼

Now Nat has returned to the pasture with her friends, so she is happy!🥰

Only one final calf left – from Angel. This will be her first one for us.🙏🏼 She is due on the 17th.👍🏼

Tally so far: 2 boys+2 girls and one more to go…🐮🐮🐮🐮

Thank You, Jesus…✝️🙌🏼