Yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, after feeding Patty & Fillup, I needed to add more water to the dairy girls’ trough. As I was waiting for that to finish, I was watching to see if anyone looked ready to calve. In so doing, I noticed Coco messing around with Tangerine. [Some Coco history: she had her first calf for us last year, was THE WORST heifer to train to go into the headlocks that we’ve worked with over the past 10 seasons, and was the ONLY girl to not get re-bred by our bull. Normally – she would not have made the cut to remain in our dairy herd. BUT – her mama, OreoCookie was one of our best milkers… So, sometimes you make exceptions to your own rules.😬 (And sometimes you regret doing that as time goes on, lol.) We figured we’d give her another chance to get bred this summer.]

**side note – I Just went to find Coco’s post from when she had her calf last year, and found out I NEVER DID ONE!😲 I guess that’s what happens when it’s the last calf and so much later than the bulk of the calves. Lord willing, I’ll be able to find the pics from when Andy was born and create a post for him. Will probably be void of many details, lol, as my mind doesn’t retain that much info for very long😂.**

Back to yesterday: That morning, we had noticed that Coco was in heat. Like: SERIOUS, standing heat.🙄 This causes her to act even nuttier than her crazy-normal. [This is probably why one of her nicknames is KOOKY, lol.] I noticed Tangerine had her tail out, and thought she might be in labor. Sure enough, she laid down and I could tell she was. Coco didn’t do a thing but jump on Tangerine’s head!😮 I KID YOU NOT. Ugh. Poor Tangerine jumped up and tried to separate herself from her pesky friend, but to no avail. COCO WOULD NOT LEAVE HER ALONE. Geez.😠

Tangerine is the brown one with the “T” on her forehead, and Coco is the black marbley colored one next to her.

By this time I was done filling up their water, so I decided I’d go in & try to distract Coco so Tangerine could go to a corner and have her calf in peace. That was a worthless endeavor.😬 Coco is a SUPER stubborn girl, and gave me quite the run around. NOT FUN. In fact, it was downright maddening.😡 [Remember, this field is right next to the road, so not only am I trying to get a fifteen hundred pound animal to do what I want against her wishes, but all in front of an “audience” to boot.😫] My intent was to get either Coco or Tangerine to go through the gate that separates the two parts of this field and then I’d close the other one out. Didn’t work.😤

Me & Coco having a stand off…🙄

Tangerine trying to get away from nut-job…😉

Mike txted to see why I was taking so long to feed calves & do water. He had been nursing a killer headache all day, and I wanted him to lay down and rest.🤕 Oh well – at least he got to for a little bit. He got his barn clothes back on and came over to help me.

Mike didn’t do a thing but start calling the girls to “come,” and they perked up and came towards him, lol. Made me chuckle.😂 [When pastures are growing and Mike moves the girls to new sections of grass, he calls to them and they get excited to follow. So basically, he tricked them to come towards him.😂] Coco came through the gate first, so we just closed it after her. Now she couldn’t bother anyone else! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.👏🏼

Next we had to go get another water trough and extra hoses so the girls’ we just closed off could have their own water…

Tangerine picked THE most non-private section to have her calf in: a low spot, RIGHT by the fence by the road.🙄

I wanted to wait to catch the birth on “film”, but she was taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r, so Mike & I decided to head home for a coffee break.☕️❤️

We wondered if we’d get any phonecalls before we came back over. Yep! Got 2, lol!🤣 One of our friends was driving by and saw a cow down & wasn’t sure if that was “normal,” and the second call was Mike’s mom saying someone had stopped at her house to say there was a calf in the field but it wasn’t standing up yet. We figured it had probably just been born and all was well, but you never know. It really IS a blessing to have people care enough to stop or call.👌🏼🙂

So about an hour later, we were back to check things out. Found this little (big) guy with Tangerine.👍🏼 [Click here to read about her calf from last year.]

Right after Mike confirmed it was a boy, crazy Gluey realized what happened & came running over like a mad woman.🙄 [Given our irritation with her regarding her calf Fillup, we weren’t too thrilled to see her fascination with Tangerine’s calf.😠]

Not much we could do about it at this point. Just figured this calf would get extra cleaned up, and prayed that the correct mama would feed him.🙏🏼

Here is Coco looking longingly from the other side of the fence, lol…😏

And Uno adding some grass to flavor the new, fresh water…🙄

Decided to return home and that I would come back in a bit – before dark, to perhaps get a glimpse of this boy eating off his mama. Can’t say that’s what I got to see exactly, but I just had to let it go.🙏🏼 Gluey was going to remain “stuck” to Tangerine and her calf. What a frustrating evening!😬

Now begins this morning…☀️

Mike & I had tossed some name ideas out for this bull, but hadn’t really settled on anything. So I wondered what name would come to mind after bringing him in. Here he is in the hay with both Tangerine and Gluey right there.🙄

At some point, Mike jokingly called Tangerine and Gluey, “Dumb and Dumber.” And it was then that I KNEW where we’d get this calf’s name from. Yep. Did a quick internet search for the name of the characters from the Dumb & Dumber movie, and decided Lloyd would be his name. He can thank his “moms” for that.😂 *Disclaimer – I am not a fan of that movie, but I know my boys have laughed at many parts in it, so if the shoe fits…*

Oh – and here is Disco – see her tail? Yeah. She’s getting ready…😉

So Lloyd is really big. Bigger than Fillup. It was such a blessing Mike didn’t have to carry him to the barn!👏🏼

First we had to get him under the board, and then I went to get the four-wheeler to drive him to the top of the barn. He had a tiny tantrum as he waited, lol.🙄

We were going to leave him tied up until after milking, move his 2 older siblings next door, and then give him his own stall…but changed our mind and put him in with Fillup instead. It worked fine. Fillup didn’t care at all, and Lloyd just cuddled up and rested.👌🏼

Next, we walked Disco to the other side of the field and closed the gate. That way she had the whole section to have her calf to herself.👍🏼

She waited until we were done cleaning up from milking, and then had her calf. She had a girl! She’ll get her own post later, but here is a pic from within seconds of her being born. Soooo cool when we get to witness an actual birth!❤️😇

Next it was time to take Patty and Fillup next door to our barnyard. Pics were a little tricky, but the mission was accomplished.👍🏼

Lloyd made our count 2 boys to 1 girl, but Disco’s new calf this morning brings it back to a tie: 2-2. Lord willing, 3 more to go!👍🏼

Well, when the forecast for Carroll County says this:

and this:

…you sometimes you need to change plans. Ugh.🙄

Made the executive decision to move the dairy girls from Grey Heaven down to Isengard. Since we have several cows looking “ready” to calve, and with (supposed) accumulating snow on the way, the trek could be yucky with the slope we have from Grey Heaven to the milking barn. We really don’t like having the girls in Isengard because it’s right next to the road. If there are calving issues or weird things happen, it’s just not fun dealing with it with a bunch of cars driving by. BUT we don’t always get what we want, lol.❄️😬

Here are the girls leaving Grey Heaven and heading down toward the crossroads…

They were pretty excited to move…

Now they are in Isengard, and Mike will bring down their round bale feeder and a new bale.

Not exactly how we wanted to start SPRING, lol. Oh well – that’s just how it is in Ohio. I laughed at the irony as I walked back home after morning chores were done. Sometimes we just have to bring Spring INSIDE and admire it from the kitchen window…😂

I’ve never uploaded a video to the blog before. Thought I’d try with a small clip. Here is Patty drinking the next morning after she was born. She is a a cutie!🍀🐮