THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK

Yesterday morning I was doing my chores at the farm and I was keeping my eyes on the pregnant heifer in the calving pen. I gave her a bit of grain and hay but she showed no interest and she got real restless. I knew she was ready to calve.   I put lots of fresh bedding in her pen.

She laid down and stretched herself right out and started to breath hard and moaning.  I call my son Vaughan to tell him she was in labor. Her water broke shortly after she laid down and sprayed the fresh bedding.

I was all done my chores and it was time to go wash my bottles in the other end of the barn so I checked on her again and saw two big hooves sticking out and I knew it was a big calf. I called my son again and he arrived without delay.  He got his dad to help him pull the calf. By the time I returned, the calf was born and I was right, he was big.... It was a hard pull and my son thinks that she would not have been able to deliver by herself. It was good timing because I would have only returned to the barn around 4:00PM.

The calf is doing super and nursed on the mother shortly after.
The mama got herself all dirty by laying in her own mess. It looks like I never added fresh bedding but that's how it is in the birthing pen. It's unbelievable how quickly they mess it up. Like my husband says, "I'm glad cows don't fly"


He's a big little bull. I gave him a vaccine and dipped his navel and my son usually give them vitamin shots.

He's happy for the fresh bedding to lay on.

He's folding his long legs so he can lay down to sleep after suckling on the mother.

Look at that face. Still wet under his eye. I'd like to have long eye lashes like that. No need for mascara for sure...

And what about my face? Aww, you're cute too... This is Tigger, he was born outside last Fall and the feral mother moved him in the barn but he was very scared of me then but he finally came around and now he's like my own shadow. He follows me everywhere I go and wants to be scratched and he purrs loudly. The camera  flash blurred his eyes.

The other cats are not as friendly but they never run away from me. See the big front paws.

I almost forgot, today is my second daughter's birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY Jackie. I hope that you are being treated extra special today. Hugs.

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend everyone.
JB

JUNE GETTING INTO GEARS

There's so much to do and  June is one week old already and I decided that I can't do it all anymore. Surprise, surprise... I'm slowing down and I'm not as goal oriented as I used to be...
 I'm choosing to just do what I can comfortably do and put one foot ahead of the other and what will get done will get done, who cares anyway. Life is very good as is anyway...

I'm just getting around to vacuum the inside of my van and I washed the matts and  I could have filled a wheelbarrow full of sand and small pebbles from my matts.  A good scrubbing in the laundry tub and they look cleaner. They were hung on the railing to dry in the hot sun.

I scrubbed and waxed my van on the outside but still need to clean the windows and doors on the inside. I'll wait for a warmer day. It's wet outside today.

I painted these two old lawn chairs that felt too gritty to sit in with a good outdoor paint. Now they feel nice and clean  and no longer grippy.

Both our screen doors needed to have their broken latches replaced. When the grandkids were  here we had to tie the latches with strings to prevent Daniel from accidentally opening the screen doors. Now I'll be ready for them when they come back in August.

Yesterday I had to weed this long flowerbed. The soil was very dry and hard and I had to wet it down a bit to pull the weeds out.

I got a good section done but had to come in as it was getting dark and the mosquitos were coming for dinner. After weeding a section I put some bagged soil I bought last fall on a end of season sale.

I  disinfected some tomato cages in a solution of water and bleach to kill any blights that was left on there from last year. I rotated them until they were totally  submerged for several minutes.

I planted my long skinny tomatoes in some crates by lining the inside with repurposed landscape fabric that my husband's office chair came wrapped in at Christmas.

My tomatoes looks spindly but I'm confident that they will smarten up if I can remember to water them.

Finally, I wanted to show you my little Avocado trees that I planted  in these 4 inch pots in early Spring. They need to be repotted and harden to go outside during summer.  I just half buried the pits in a large flower pot and watered it along with my big plant. When it started to grow I had to dig them out  before the roots grew too long. A fun project to do for curiosity.

Thanks for your visit and please come again.
JB