We knew there was a high probability that today would be the day calf #6 arrived. So we can’t say we were shocked, lol. It was 44° and the wind made it feel like it was 29°. Typical Ohio spring day!😆❄️🌷

When we got up to Mordor to do our calf check, no animals were in sight. (The last couple days, they were all close to the gate at the water trough, BUT NOT TODAY.🙄) So in we went to about as far back as the large field goes…

And there was Ruby with her fuzzy calf.🙂

This is Ruby’s second calf for us. [Click here to read about her calf from last year.] [Click here to read about when Ruby was born.]

It’s a boy! His name is Hank. (brainstormed through other characters from Avengers movies to go with Bucky and Sam😉)

Wasn’t too bad getting him on a halter since the fence was right there.

Then, of course, the others needed to come over and meet Hank…😂

Ruby wasn’t the best leader, and it didn’t take long to see walking them both all the way down to the barn wasn’t going to work. Hank is HUGE, and Mike didn’t really want to pick him up…😬 BUT – that’s the only way to get him onto the four-wheeler, so…💪🏼

Sadly, Hank was not cooperating very well, and there was no way for Mike to get a good hold of him walking behind the four-wheeler.🤨 So back down to the ground he went.🤔

Only other option was to shake the dust off the limo. It’s been a few years since we’ve used the farm truck to bring down a calf, but today it was just what we needed…👍🏼

Now I’ll be truthful here – it was scary for me, staying up with Hank & crew while Mike scurried down to get the truck. Remember – I’m the weirdo farmer chick who is afraid of animals…🤦🏻‍♀️🙏🏼 I’m happy to report that nothing crazy happened with the animals – no one tried to attack me, lol, and Hank didn’t pull me all over with his halter. Thank You, Lord!👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Endured a few snow squalls before Mike returned…🥶

Once Mike got back, he lifted Hank onto the bed of the truck. I helped him get a good hold of two legs on each side of him and we started down to the barn. Hard to take pics with just the two of us, but I managed to get a couple. They aren’t very good, but you get the idea.😉

Here is Hank all safe & sound in the barn.👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Next we headed back up to Mordor to walk Ruby down. Our approach was to call the four cows to us, get them to come to the gate, weed out Ruby, and head down. Three cows cooperated with our plan. ONE DID NOT. Guess which one?🤦🏻‍♀️

Here is the group hearing us calling them and considering heading toward us…

And in this pic, if you zoom in, you can see Ruby leaving the group and heading the opposite direction…🙄

So now my job was to keep these guys away from the gate while Mike rounded up Ruby on the four-wheeler.😬

Mission accomplished!💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻

Didn’t get done with morning chores until after noon today. Definitely a long morning, but also such a blessing.❤️

Our first six calves have arrived safe and sound! We’re expecting two more in June sometime, so we’ll have a little bit of a break with calving until then.

Our count is tied up now: three boys and three girls.☺️

Mike found our 5th calf with its mama this afternoon after coffee break.☕️ So back up to Mordor, we headed…

Finally – Nat had her calf!👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 With as bossy as she was when trying to steal Sarge and LilRed’s calves, we expected this to be a pretty easy time bringing a well-bonded duo down to the barn…🙄…well…😬…not-so-much.😳 Not sure what her problem was, lol. Perhaps she was disappointed it was a boy??🤷🏻‍♀️

We named him Sam. (Another Avenger name, to go with Bucky.😉)

This is Nat’s second calf for us. [Click here to read about Nat’s calf from last year.] [Click here to read about when Nat was born.]

As we entered the field, Sam ran from us but got stopped by the electric fence. (Praise the Lord – otherwise we might still be out chasing it, lol!🙃) We were able to get the halter on him as Nat tried to leave the area.🤨

Mike stayed with Sam and I scrambled to get in front of Nat to steer her back toward the gate.🏃🏻‍♀️

It eventually worked, and she and Sam made the trek down to the barn aok. They didn’t really walk as a “team,” but at least the mission was accomplished and Mike never needed to carry Sam. He’s pretty good sized, so Mike’s body really didn’t want to lift him onto the four wheeler.😉

Now our tally is three girls and two boys.👍🏼 Lord willing, three more to go!🙏🏼

In anticipation of calf #4, we brought the three oldest calves over from the white barn on Thursday. Heidi went first, then Bucky, and lastly Roni. It is a delight to see them running around over here from our back windows.😍

It was nice having the stalls in the white barn already emptied this morning. What a gift it is when you can actually be ready and prepared for something!✝️🙂

After feeding the calves this morning, Mike & I headed up to Mordor to do a babycheck.

Got to the gate and saw a calf up by the water trough.❤️

Couldn’t tell yet who the calf’s mama was…🧐

Upon closer inspection, it was revealed that LilRed was the mama, and Nat was just trying to steal it like she did with Sarge’s…🙄

We didn’t want to lose the opportunity to halter the calf and/or they all walk to the back side of the field before we could get the fences ready for the walk to the barn…

It’s a girl! She is LilRed’s 4th calf for us. [Click here to read about her calf from last year.] [Click here to read about when LilRed was born.] We decided to name her April because…well…it’s April, lol.😂

Mike sent me down on the four wheeler to get all the gates and fences ready while he stayed up top with the herd.

Thankfully, I got things lined up without issue since on my way back up I met Mike already walking down with LilRed and April!😲

So I turned around, headed back down and got a couple pics of them coming towards the barnyard…👍🏼

Sarge and Uno were excited to gain another roomie…😆

A beautiful morning for a parade of our own here on Palm Sunday.✝️❤️

New tally is three girls and one boy. Lord willing, we are expecting four more calves this year.🙏🏼

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…🙏🏼