Welcome to the Jungle
In case I haven’t already mentioned, there was an accident and she needed a partial hip replacement. She is doing well, and in recovery. It was a bit scary for a while though.
We went straight from the house to check on the cows. They were moved to a field with Sorghum (pronounced Sore Gum), and we always have concerns about prussic acid and nitrogen poisoning. They LOVE these grasses though, so we are careful about when they go in. They are calving too, so we wanted to go see if any new babies had arrived. We did not realize though that we would be encountering a JUNGLE. I am nearly 6 ft tall, and this stuff is well over my head.
So while we were in there, there was a young cow walking around funny, by herself, and opting to lay down when everyone else was up and eating. Daddy goes out to look at her and see what’s wrong. He comments that he thinks she’s going to have her calf soon. Of course, mom has to ask why he thinks that…hehe. She drives him nuts sometimes with all her questions.
We keep going and cannot find any babies. We know there should be at least 5, but they are all hidden. And these little ones can hide better than a mouse in a hole. We drove as much of the pasture as we could, but didn’t find a calf. Mom kept saying she wanted to keep looking, but Daddy vetoed because we just have so much to do and the calves should be more than old enough to be ok.
Next, we had to set some posts and move a building. Yes, you read that right. We need to MOVE A BUILDING. Mom and dad had measured, cleared space, tamped dirt, and leveled the ground work for the building to be placed on. We had spent a large portion of the previous day figuring out how to move it ourselves thinking there was no way the company that does it could get out in time to move it. We had the backhoe out and strapped the building on, tried 2 different ways to move it, but all of those efforts were fruitless. So then today, this guy comes in and his trailer did all of the work for him. It had hydraulics, a wench, and the ability to twist itself. He had the entire thing done in less than 15 minutes where we had spent hours.
While he was moving our building, we could not get on the same page with the sign posts. Daddy and I had had several conversations about these posts, and we would have sworn mom was there for them, but she had pictured something completely different. Finally we found the common ground as the guy moving our building finished putting it on the blocks.
If you ever work with either of my parents, you will find that they are very ADD about their work. Mom went to do her own task, and Daddy and I went to set posts. In trying to figure out where we wanted to put them, Daddy found another problem. He decided to spend the entire time we were supposed to be setting posts, fixing the dirt…no, I’m not kidding…fixing the dirt. We had a gate that would only swing one way, so he used the backhoe to fix the dirt so the gate could swing the other way…sometimes I wonder how we manage to check anything off our list.
So then the insurance guy came. We sat in the office for 20 minutes making sure we have the right insurance coverage for the BIG CORN MAZE EVENT!!! This thing has morphed into a monster of colossal proportions. Have you ever seen Pacific Rim? This event has become our own personal Kaiju. We are a week and a half away, and things are as crazy as ever. It turns out our coverage is great, so no big worries there.
We ate lunch…I had a delicious Keto Quiche, and mom and dad had sandwiches again. The news had said this morning that there would be rain this afternoon. So we started watching the radar and felt confident in our time until after 5pm. Mom was working on getting an aerial shot of the corn maze, while Daddy and I went to check the calve again hoping we might find them this time. We got over there and immediately found the oldest one. We went driving through the jungle again.
First we found a cow that was moving odd. We knew she isn’t due to have her calf until December, so we knew she must be hurt. She laid down, so we left her alone to see if she might be better in the morning. We found 3 of the other 4 babies. Unfortunately, we still couldn’t find the youngest of the group. We found his momma, and she wasn’t upset. She would occasionally look off in a specific direction, but the field is 20 acres and we couldn’t find him. We found the cow from this morning though, and she had just had her little calf. The first little girl!
We got back to the barn, and daddy decided to go mow while mom and I tried one more time to get an aerial shot with the drone. She and I took off in the mule. Daddy hopped on the tractor and got started… all with this to the south…
Mom and I went to check on him right as he was finishing. We thought for sure he was done for the day. He did not agree and went to mow another pasture. This storm was moving FAST…
Just 2 minutes later, a true torrential downpour. The poor steers came running into the barn soaking wet. That little baby girl had just been born, and was now getting soaking wet. God made them far more durable than we are. Daddy came driving back as fast as the tractor would go, and ran in. He was dripping wet, hehe. We all sat in the office, thankful for the shelter, and finding different computer tasks to do. I had a meat order to deliver, so I left. Daddy went to an eye appointment, while mom stayed fed the animals one more time, and locked up.
The animals should all be safe and sound overnight. We have shelter everywhere, and they are tough. We will be back to check everyone again in the morning.