Pictures of Jemimah, Ribeye, and Stormy

Here are some pictures of Ribeye and his mom, Jemimah. You can tell how small he is by comparing him to the fence posts.  They are about waist high.

The last 

picture is a more current picture of Stormy - she is really doing 

well.

Happy Anniversary R & T

Happy 15th Anniversary Roger & Traci!!

Todd took the afternoon off of work today to be with the kids while I took Garrett in for his 6 month check up.  I don't know where the last 6 months have gone!  

Only read this next paragraph if you have a strong stomach!  Disgusting content follows!  Just before I left, Heidi came across the living room with a thermometer in her mouth.  She had picked it up from behind the faucet where Todd had laid it after we took the calf, Stormy's, temperature after she was born.  Imagine where you take a calf's temperature...and then imagine the look on Heidi's face when I told her where the thermometer had last been!  I really wish I had taken a picture of it.   She spit and sputtered for quite a while and then grabbed Laura's toothbrush to brush her teeth - which Laura promptly threw in the garbage.  Don't say I didn't warn you... :)

Todd got some pictures of Ribeye today, so I will get some posted.

Last evening we tried to separate the cows from the bulls that we had put together in the pen in the morning.  We took a salt/mineral lick into the pen thinking we could get the bulls occupied with it while we worked on getting the cows out.  We found out that they had really been missing having the salt lick while they were in the far pasture.  They went after it like it was candy.  There was no getting any of them away from it!  While they were busy, Todd was able to get a lead on one of the cows that hasn't been tamed.  He grabbed the lead and took a ride across the pasture (you would have thought he would have learned his lesson when the heifer yanked his shoulder out of the socket  last year - but he at least had a hold with both hands this time and was holding a rope he could let go of and not just a halter) Anyway, I wished I had had the video camera.  The cow jumped clear across and round and round the paddock with Todd doing a funny little dance behind her.  He finally decided to just leave her in there.  We got the gentle Herefords out, but ended up leaving the rest in there for another time.

We were able to get Jemimah into the corral hoping to get a better look at little Rib-eye.  Unfortunately she had parked him somewhere again and he didn't come up to join her.  We let her out just before sundown and she ran off to find him.  It was a bit of a rerun from Monday night - he hadn't stayed put - so she frantically ran around bellowing for him until she finally found him.

Today the kids had piano lessons, so I did my weekly shopping while they were there.  Then on our way to Bible Study we went by our current favorite store - Rural King - for some more fencing parts and goodies for the animals.  Had a nice meeting and visit afterwards.

Another day at the farm

This morning we moved the cattle into a temporary fenced area.  It is getting easier to get them moved.  Either they are getting more used to us, or we are figuring out what we are doing.  Or just maybe it is the new grain mixed with molasses that makes them follow us around.  The farmer who rents the tilled ground from us will be starting to work in the field pretty soon since it looks like it has stopped raining so much, so we needed to get the cattle out of that pasture before he brought his tractors in.  

We had another cow calve the other day - a very cute, very small bull calf.  He looks like he will be a true miniature.  I will try to get a picture up of him soon.  His mom is pretty skittish, so it is hard to get them to stand still long enough to get a picture.  Yesterday, she came across the stream crossing, but left him in the pasture over there.  I closed the gate across the crossing, not knowing she didn't have him along.  Close to sundown, she started frantically looking for her baby.  We went across and looked for him with no success.  We finally let her across again and she called and called for him.  This morning, after we got the rest of the cattle in the pen, we opened the stream crossing again and she came back with him in tow.  We were sure glad to see him! Next we are going to try to see if we can get her in the pen with Blossom, Stormy and the sheep.  We need to decide if we are going to make him into a steer, or if he should be left as a bull since he is so small.  His name is "Rib-eye".

Stormy update

Stormy has come a long way in 5 days! She is now walking, running & jumping a little bit.  She is nursing all on her own.  You would never know that she had had so many problems when she was born if you looked at her now.  It is amazing to think of how far she has come.

The birth of Stormy

This story begins back in August of 2008.  We woke up one Saturday morning to find that our heifer, Blossom, had gotten out of our pasture and was visiting our neighbors cattle.  We spent the rest of the day trying to catch her and bring her back home.

Several months later, we borrowed a miniature Hereford bull for Blossom and one of our other small Hereford cow, Rosie.  After a few weeks we had the vet out to see if Blossom and Rosie were going to be giving us some new calves, and we were surprised to find out that Blossom was already several months pregnant.  Apparently she had been visiting the big Black Angus bull in the pasture next door when she got out in August.  At least we could come pretty close to guessing her due date.

When her due date got close, we penned her up in the pasture close to the house.  About a week before her due date, in the middle of the night (2:15 a.m.) Todd sat up in bed and said he had heard the heifer making a funny noise.  We got up and went out, and sure enough she was in labor.  After a little bit, we could see the hooves, then the nose, then nothing progressed.  We finally called the vet at about 4:15.  He came out and put chains on the calf's legs and got her pulled out.  The calf had been in the birth canal and without oxygen for quite a while.  Her tongue was hanging out, eyes rolled back, and she couldn't get to her feet.  It had been storming all night, so when she was born she was laying out in the rain and was freezing cold.   

After the vet left, we brought her into the basement.  We put 2 space heaters near her and put some heating pads on her.  We still couldn't get her warm, so we carried her to the shower.  She was probably the only calf in the county to get a warm shower that morning. :)  Our neighbor, Curt, came over and fed her through a stomach tube and gave her a couple of vitamin shots to help her out.  We stayed with her all day, making sure she was warm and trying to get her to drink out of a bottle.