Wednesday, June 13, 2007

And So It Begins...

...The terrifying waiting game until Mandy calves that is. She is due the 29th, and as one of my old teacher's from my middle school career would say, I'm as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. This is, after all, my darling, much beloved cow. And she is out in the milking herd, with a cow that is a calf stealer, and would love the opportunity to kill anything that goes near a baby...which would include me if I had to take care of the new mom and baby.

So I have been trying to figure out a way to deal with this little issue that won't involve keeping my poor, mammoth, too big for her stall cow in the barn locked up. At this point it is looking like we will run Sequioa (who if I haven't mentioned before is being held at the moment on a bedded pack type of pen as a result of her injuring her leg, and us being unable to heal her up), up into the old pasture with another old cow who busted her ankle a while back, and clean the pen out, and stick Mandy in there when she starts getting real close. Alan has even agreed to clean out the pen with the skid steer, put down a nice big layer of sand, and then I'll cover it with sawdust and some of the straw we have left over from this winter.

At present it seems like a plan to the majority of the family. Becky is in the, 'so long as she has another speckly heifer' catagory, Dad and Mom say 'whatever', Alan thinks i am over reacting, as she is a big cow, and I am in the stressed out, don't care what the calf is so long as the cow comes through okay group. Rationally I know she should be okay, but she had trouble last year and the year before. First calving was a monster bull calf who came breach, and then last year Blitzie was stuck and both momma and baby got real stressed out. I think I have the right to worry. I'll let everyone know how everything goes, and whether or not I have a nervous breakdown before she actually has the calf.

2 comments:

Don said...

So is the calf out, and what was the results of the birthing?

Don

Paintsmh said...

Hey Don. Thanks for taking the time to stop and comment. The baby is out and both she and her momma are doing great. I have some pics up over on Buckin Junction. She's a spunky thing.