CALF JACKETS FOR MY BABY

This Friday and  Saturday I was busy at the farm all day with chores and scrubbing calf pens and for the first time since I've been working at the farm I had an empty calf nursery. Not for long though.

Sunday morning I had a feeling that there might be a new calf and I sent my husband to check and  he was surprised to find a new baby calf hiding behind a bunch of cows. It was a heifer calf and she was dirty and cold and he carried her in the barn in his arm. She was born in the dry cow shelter which is colder than the barn. It didn't appeared that this cow was going to calf the day before and we were so busy with heard health and rounding all the heifers to be checked for pregnancy and having another bunch bred, so she was left there in the shelter with plenty of bedding Saturday. We also had a Luau and auction to go to.

I quickly prepared the pen with fresh bedding for the mama cow and baby. My husband and I had made plans to go to breakfast with friends so my son fed the calf for me and she drank her two bottles of milk in about five minutes. Sunday evening she again gulped down two bottles( 8Pints) of warm milk and I gave her a vaccine. Then she started to make grunting sounds as if she was having difficulty breathing or was in pain. Later at night my son checked her and decided that her breathing was labored and gave her some penicillin in case she was getting pneumonia.

This morning she didn't want to get up and was not feeling well and refuse even to suck so I just let her be and went to my meeting all day. When I got back she still wouldn't get up for me and I managed to get her to drink about a pint of milk.  So a while ago I went to see if I could get her to take some electrolyte and she even got up and drank a whole bottle. She is getting another shot of antibiotic and should start to feel better by  tomorrow I hope.

Earlier today I tried to get her to stand so I could take a picture but she would not cooperate but she stood up for this picture tonight. So Tammy and someone else were asking about the calf jacket. When it's cold we put these jackets on the new born calves as it takes a lot of calories for them to keep warm and with these jackets they do so much better. The trick is to get them to gain weight as fast as possible.

 Her jacket needs to be wash and hung on the line because it got a lot of use this winter but the inside is clean. Another job for another day.

Some of my empty calf pen. Sorry for the dark picture. There are 10 pens.


  Thanks for stopping by and leaving a small comment.  JB

IT'S GOING TO BE A SHORT WEEK.

How time flies  since I've been so busy all week with regular chores and hooking on my Grandmother's Trunk Challenge rug and cleaning out calves pens, yes all 10 of them and 10 poop crusted gates too. Now I only need to clean 20 pails but today I'm taking a break.

This morning I went to feed my big girls, yes,  once my small calves are moved to the large pens so they can socialize with each others, I call them my big girls. This is the first time since I've been taking care of the small calves that I had a totally empty nursery.

When I was ready to leave I asked my husband if he would go out back to see if by any chance a cow would have calved. I really didn't thought that there would be a new calf but I was wrong. There she was all cold and standing, hiding behind the other cows.  My husband carried her in, yes , she's  a heifer, thank goodness.
We put on a calf jacket  on her to warm her up. Since we had planned to meet with friends for breakfast we had to go and my son fed her 2 bottles of Mama's warm milk.  Sorry, no pictures this morning.

Last evening after work I attended a Luau and  dinner auction at our church as fund raiser. I bid on 10 hours of labor  by a renowned tile installer to install floor tiles. I bid up to $280.00 and let it go, as the girl who I was bidding against has been fighting cancer for the last couple of years and I really didn't need to have those tiles installed right away and I wanted her to win the bid.

Then I bid up to $600.00 on a three day  renovation by another  renowned carpenter and I got my bid. I was so happy. The two previous  years I bid up to $625.00 and still never got it. The donor for this offering was donating 2  bids valued at $500.00 each and so many wanted him that I abandoned the bid. This year he was offering only one bid as he's getting on in years. So now I'm looking forward to having my other bathroom renovated. It looks pathetic  right now.

Tomorrow I'm off to an all day farm meeting so I won't get much done and I also need to calculate 3 months of HST (harmonized sales tax) and revenue for the farm business and I need to get some wool ready and pack my bags for the Maritime Fiber Artist Retreat at the Atlantic Hotel Marina Oak Island Resort  for the weekend. I've got my list made up and only need to pack but what wool to bring. I'm gonna try to work on my neglected Childhood Memories rug when there and also take photos.

I almost forgot to show you my blanket and my husband's journal that we won.. I had promised to show you pictures.

I won this blanket, it has a fluffy soft lining and  I love the  convenient handle on it.

My husband won this hard cover journal with removable leatherette cover with ribbon page marker.

This morning my Electronic Engineer son in law stopped by to check if my flood damaged  ceramic kilns could be salvaged. Since he took a pottery course with my granddaughter he's interested at getting a kiln and I would like to get one working at least as I love doing ceramics and I have items that were glazed and gold applied but never fired. They are electronic kilns and may prove quite a challenge to fix.


Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment and have a good week.