Return To Thursday

I haven’t come up with a weekly feature to follow Calving Capers just yet but I do always plan to enter something to my blog, at minimum, every Thursday as I had originally set out to do.

As I write tonight I am in a state of happiness and gratitude as the rain has been coming down for the past few hours. Puddles are starting to form and the dust is good and gone at last. Or at least long enough to let the cows and calves clear their windpipes of the nasty stuff for a few days.  I hope and pray we are about to depart from the drought that plagued us through winter and now into our spring!

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Another highlight today was a little treat I have come to enjoy whenever I get the opportunity. From time to time I get to gather eggs from the chicken coop at my brother-in-law’s place. I even get to keep said eggs! I don’t imagine this would be so “romantic” a lifestyle that I would want to have my own laying hens…I can see there is a significant chore load that accompanies these happy little cluckers.

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Hard to believe but for all intents and purposes our “calving season/calving capers” has wound down to this handful of faithful cows due any day now. We don’t need to check on them every two hours as had been the case during the beginning weeks of our adventures. We are content now to let these girls do it on their own. After all, they’ve done so successfully for many years now.

I did however have a little short-lived excitement this week when hubby brought in Dilbert from the field. From the slough actually, which is where he had been lying in. He couldn’t stand up and his mother was certainly not able to assist.

Dilbert has been “slow” from the start. He is “different”. He has small eyes and big dumbo-elephant-like ears and it took quite awhile before he took to naturally feeding from his momma. We’re not sure what set him back on this day to be stuck in the slough but whatever the reason, I was ready with the bottle and nursette and ultimately to be his caregiver. There hasn’t been a year yet that I haven’t had some little character to fuss over.

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But this episode turned out to be short-lived. I guess it was my few hours of TLC that encouraged him there was hope to carry on. By the end of the day he was standing on his own and able to navigate, albeit unsteadily, around the pen. By morning, I was out of a job and he was happily reunited with his momma…health returned.

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Thankfully, hubby agrees that we should keep Dilbert and his mom close to home this year instead of the pasture. After all, he’s a little bit slow and he just might need me yet!

 

 

 

Countrified Blessing – The Drive

The “Countrified Blessing” theme on my blog is just a fancy title to showcase the little things I appreciate about rural life.

The Drive…

 

A leisurely, stress free and relaxing drive down a country gravel road whereby the occurrence of an oncoming or tailgating vehicle is rare to none. Where are you going to find such a state in the city?

And, by the way, the only windshield nicks or cracks I ever experienced were on a paved highway!

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Calving itself has it’s own level of stressors and concerns but I find that the “harder” part of calving and raising cattle is keeping the little critters healthy, thriving and ultimately alive! 

This little gal [ears drooping, lethargic, barely able to keep up to mom] needed to be brought closer to home for treatment. Yes, we care for our sick animals with proper medicinal intervention and close observation throughout. To my mind, this is humane treatment of the animals in our care who depend on us for their well-being. I would much rather provide effective antibiotic medicine and see our little calves return to their energetic selves within a few days than have them needlessly suffering and dying in misery in the fields.