Cow Camp (Digging Out Part IV)

It's been a long week.  In fact, we haven't slept in our own bed for the past four nights.  We've been having snow and wind and cold temps so have been camping out at the in-laws house at the farm.  Thank goodness we have a nice warm place to go (with satellite TV).  We checked the cows frequently and brought any new calves into the barn until they were at least a day old.  The barn got pretty full at times when we had six calves in a day.  Thank goodness they haven't been coming any faster than that.  We spent the nights at our "cow camp" so we could check late at night and in the early morning without having to fight the road between our house and the cows.  The days kind of all run together since they were all pretty snowy and blustery. 

I had to go to my job in town on Friday because my boss and his wife were out of town.  We had spent the night at the farm so M brought me home in the tractor and cleaned out our yard so I could get to work.  The roads were not good with ice and snowdrifts.  I was not happy that I had to be out in that.  That's part of why I'm semi-retired, so I wouldn't have to be out on days like that.  It proceeded to snow ALL day so I was pretty sure that I wouldn't get home that night.  About 4:30 the sun came out and it quit snowing in town.  Hallelujah!  I made the trek home and the highway was actually better on the drive home except that the north lane was partially blocked in a lot of spots.  I drove in the middle of road a lot--good thing there's not a lot of traffic.  When I got closer to Richland I ran out of sun and it was still snowing and blowing.  I was worried about making it home without getting stuck and M was supposed to meet me, but he was tied up with a cow and calf so I ventured on and plowed my way through.  He picked me up at our house, and we headed back to the farm where we stayed until this morning.  M spent a lot of Saturday digging out again.  He had to plow a path so that he could even get to the cows in the back calving pasture to feed them and then piled up some snow to act as a wind break.

Our cows are pretty gentle and easy to get along with, but once they have a baby all bets are off.  One day we found one with a calf and wanted to get it to the barn but the cow wouldn't let us get close.  She tried to run over M so we went back to get the sled.  We tied it to the pickup since we weren't sure what she'd do if we tried to pull it by hand, and it was too cold to get a 4-wheeler started.  By the time we got back with the pickup she was fine and followed along....until we got to the barn.  Then she took off and made some laps around the yard before we could get her in.  We're really happy with our heifers.  They are calm and good mothers. 

It was a nicer day today, and we actually saw some sun.  It's still too cold for this time of year, though, and we have WAY too much snow.  M plowed us home late this morning so we could have our Sunday pancakes and watch the race and I caught up on laundry.   We did our check right before dark and put a heifer in that looked close to calving.   So, we're off to make another check before bed.  I'm getting used to our moonlit walks every night......so romantic......or not!

Essential ranching tools--sorting paddle, shovel, pitchfork, attitude adjuster.