RUG HOOKING BLOG

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I'm a mother of four grandmother of seven and great grandmother of three. I live with my husband in the house that we built with the help of my brothers and will have been married for 57 years this February.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

LOLETA GETS WHAT LOLETA WANTS...

It sounds racy but sorry folks, it's not like it sounds although we had to race against time...

 We have a celebrity cow in our barn, sort of like... a movie star... cow. It all began on a beautiful Saturday morning on January 30th, 2009 after I had done my chores and had returned home and my husband had just gone back to the barn to do some electrical repairs in the ceiling of the bedding barn when he noticed that the rafters were sticking out through the windows. The roof had collapsed under the weight of wet snow shortly after I had left the farm. There were 70 milking cows trapped in there. Luckily they had just been milked shortly before this happened.

My husband called 911, my son and I and then he called a farmer who contacted other farmers and a chain reaction of communication happened.

 Within minutes help arrived from  the farming community, they brought chain saws, ropes and halters, many with cattle trucks to transport animals to another farm and they worked feverishly all day long with the fire department rescue team.

 Holes had to be cut out from the side of the barn to rescue one animal at a time. The ones who were  trapped in a bad position couldn't move and had to be treated and dragged out.  Finally they were all rescued and after all the commotion they had to be milked late at night and then bedded in an area where they usually eat feed.  Everyone was exhausted but thankful no one was hurt.

My son in the red jacket with two other farmers assessing the situation
 The back of the old  barn, notice one of the tractor bucket holding the side of the barn to prevent further collapse.

The next day my husband hired an excavator to demolish the old barn so construction could start as soon as possible.


What has all this to do with Loteta you asked!  OK, I'm getting to it... There were reporters all over the place for days, newspapers, TVs and radio reporters all wanting pictures and a story. Needless to say non of us were in a mood to satisfy their curiosity as we were dealing with a very serious situation and we were all trying to evade them as we were trying to come to term with the catastrophe. We were in shock, and tired. But they kept coming.

About a week later a  reporter wanted to check on how we were doing and wanted to take a picture of my son with one of his cows and that's when cow #273 named Angel cuddled up to my son and the photographer snapped photos as Angel draped her long tongue around his chin. This photo was on the front page of the local newspaper and also won the photographer an award this past May. You can see Angel's picture licking my son's face at    http://www.atwphoto.com/CowLick.htm

The community had a fund raiser to help us and a friend quickly made herself a cow costume with a bib utter and called herself Loleta and she also nicknamed the famous licking cow Loleta.  So this September when Angel gave birth to a heifer calf,  my son named her Loleta.

Now Loleta is not like the other calves. She was born September 1st but has unequivocally refused to drink from a pail at the appropriate time. She would not suck on my fingers, only on a nipple attached to a bottle.  She was a bit small so I did not rushed her. I gave in to her whims. But finally at 3 weeks I put my foot down. I tried to have her to suck on my fingers and lower her head into the pail like the other calves  and nothing worked, I tried tough love. She would rather starve than lower her standards.She drank fine from the bottle.  She knows that  Loleta gets what Loleta wants. But f-i-n-al-y at three and a half weeks I won. It was a battle all the way but now she drinks from the pail but she know that's she comes from a celebrity.


AND HERE'S LOLETA WHO THINKS SHE'S SO SPECIAL (sorry about the quality of the photo)



Shortly after the collapse, the two young hired hands shoveled the roof of where the cows had to be bedded down, in the feeding barn

                         This is Julia the milk maid caught on camera by her hubby, notice the sexy boots.
                         Thanks for your visit, please come again  JB

14 comments:

  1. WOW Julia - what a mess. So glad no one got hurt. I know from your blog that all cows were saved and bedded. What a job all of you did. Isn't it true that nieghbors always come thru just when you think all is lost? Kudos to all involved.

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  2. Wow what a incredible story, I am so glad you shared it and the snow is just unreal. We get snow maybe once every 10 or 12 years. I love your milk maid picture. So cute and my favorite thing when we had cows (before I married,) was spending all winter in rubber boots. We raised beef cattle but my Dad was able to talk a Dairyman out of a Brown Swiss heifer calf. She was his pride and joy.
    I do love cows and I love your baby Loleta.
    I imagine it was a very hard day and week for you.
    I am going to check out the picture of the cow and your son.
    What a amazing story.
    Kim
    I am glad you took pictures.

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  3. Hi Monique, thanks for joining my followers. Hugs and prayers

    Doris and Farm girl, thanks for your comments. It's all behind us now. Loleta was just a little reminder. JB

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  4. Girl YOU are the one who ought to write a book - your stories are so fascinating to read. What a miracle that no one was hurt, even the cows!
    /Deb

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  5. Hi Deb. thanks for your comment. Actually we lost three cows. One die and two were so badly hurt that they were put to sleep by the vet. But no people were hurt, thanks God.

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  6. What a mess, but it could have been so much worse. It is a great story of a community coming together. I just love the photo of the cow lick!

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  7. What an interesting story. Thankfully no one/animals were hurt. That was a lot of snow.
    Loved the cow lick picture.
    Whoops I just read back where you did lose 3 cows, but I guess it could have been much worse.
    Farm life is not for the soft of heart I guess.

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  8. Thanks Kim and Katie for your comments. I was tired when I posted on my blog last night and had a senior moment and forgot to add the link. Instead I underlined it and for those who tried to click on the link, it didn't work last night... I woke up around 1:30 a.m. and remembered that I had not added the link and I remedied the situation. JB

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  9. My goodness, sorry to hear of the collapse. So glad no one was hurt. Pictures are amazing. Love to hear how the town came together!
    The picture is priceless!! :)

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  10. Thanks for stopping by Kathy. We sure counted our blessings in this tragedy. Maybe I'll post some more pictures when I can get organized. JB

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  11. I am so sorry you had such a terrible time and lost so much. You were lucky you were not in the barn when it happened. I can not imagine having that much snow this early. Here we do not get much snow until Jan. or Feb. To think you still have the winter to go through. You are so lucky your community came togwther and helped you build another barn for the animals. Good luck to you, you are in my thoughts and prayers.

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  12. Hi Sandy, welcome to my blog. I'll post some more photos of this event some day when I have nothing to blog about. We have a new bedding barn built in two months last winter and we had a large group of men who came to help. Thanks for your thoughtful comment Sandy. Come again.. JB

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  13. Hi Julia - great story and Stephen's photo is terrific! He's done some excellent photography for us at Kingsbrae Garden. No wonder he won an award - it's a dynamic shot!

    It is good news that no person was hurt in the accident, though it must have been hard to lose three of your cows, but it could have been so much worse! Farming is a tough business.

    cheers, maureen
    PS I'm following you now on our Quoddy Loopers blog; thanks for the follow on yours!
    http://quoddyloopers.blogspot.com/

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  14. Hi Maureen, thanks for dropping by for a visit on my blog. There are many hurdles on our life's journey and we try to do our best with what we have, under the circumstances, and it usually all works it self out with time.I hope that you continue visiting my blog. JB

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