Wake Me Up When It's All Over

Isn't that how the song goes?  We've all been a little short on sleep lately and we've only just begun the calving process.  It'll be a bit easier if the temps ever warm up.

Yesterday M wanted to go to a bull sale.  Bad thing was it was a couple hundred miles away and I had to go to work so R would have no backup.  The day started early, 5 am for M, so he could check the cows and head to the sale.  R was still up because he had a heifer who wouldn't get up or pay any attention to her new calf.  They dealt with her and put the calf in the warmer, and M headed to the sale.  He wasn't quite prepared for the price of bulls this year so although he got a bull it wasn't one of the ones he really wanted.  He's still on the hunt for another one so I see a few more sales in his future.  I'm hoping for immaculate conception.

R's day didn't get any better.  He had a heifer who ran around the corral with a calf halfway out and then found twins in the cow pasture.  One was dead and one was " half dead".  Another trip to the calf warmer and a couple of attempts to get the poor thing to eat.  When I got home from work we tried again to get it to eat and managed to get a little  into it.  We were pretty happy when we saw it up and around later and making attempts to nurse.  We think it's going to be fine.  R didn't want to mess up the schedule he's been on so did his usual checks.  That meant he was up for 40 hours-- but who's counting?

As we were heading into the cow pasture to feed this morning we noticed a cow ready to calve so thought we'd try to get her to the barn.  We got close and she let us know she wasn't having  any of that!  Okay, fine, we backed off.  As M was walking back to his tractor he was on his phone with his back to the cow,  but she wasn't done with him and came running up behind him.  I yelled to warn him, and he outran her as he calmly said into the phone "I have a cow after me, I'll talk to you later".   Made me laugh.  That cow was a bit crazy for awhile but seemed to settle down.  Hopefully she'll be in a better mood tomorrow when we try to tag the calf and move them.

R is getting lots of good experience this calving season.  I hope we don't burn him out too soon!