Buddy at the fence

When I put the ear tag on the third calf, Buddy stood at the fence and watched.  Good thing he doesn't realize that he can easily walk through this fence.

As I watched calf 3 and her mother I scratched Buddy's neck and head.  He stood there loving it and moving ever so slightly at times so I would scratch the right spot.

Scratching his chin on the steel fence post.

Making a face at Donna.

Calf 3

Thursday night, before 9 pm, the third calf was born.  Another heifer.   The calf was born to cow #110.  This is the cow who initially wouldn't let her calf drink last year.    Last night the cow was acting the same way.  She had licked the calf off after birth and was attentive to it.  She constantly mooed at the calf to do something.  But whenever the calf tried to walk back to the cow's udder the cow would back up and push the calf with her head.  Then moo at the calf.

This cow is as dumb as a rock.

A few times I rapped the cow on her head after she head butted the calf too hard.  The cow would walk a short distance away.  When I moved away she went back to her calf.

I may have seen the calf the first time she stood and walked as she had the drunken sailor routine down well.

The cow and calf were in the trees close to the river.  It was getting dark.  No chance of getting the cow and calf into the corral loading ramp like last year to hold the mother so the calf could drink.

There was still time to wait till morning.  The calf would have until 8 or 9 pm (24 hours) to drink from her mother and get the colostrum needed to get her immune system going.

The next morning before 10 am Donna and I went looking for the calf.  The mother was eating hay from the feeder.  We eventually found the calf laying under a tree near the middle of the pasture.

Since it was a heifer I would put an ear tag on the calf indicating the mother's number.

The calf was sleeping.  But as I slowly and quietly approached the calf it jumped up and began to run.  I ran after the calf and finally caught it.  The calf was bellowing loudly and most of the other cows came running.  Mostly importantly: the calf's mother, Mama, and Buddy.

I carried the calf and stepped over the old 3-wire strand fence and into the middle pasture.  There Donna and I were able to put an ear tag on the heifer without having to watch our backs.

Now you'd think - not being rushed - I would put the tag on the 'correct' way. But I didn't.  I had trouble getting the tag's clip all the way through the ear.  I also didn't want to tear the ear.  Somehow I put the tag on 'backward'.   That is, the main part of the tag is in back of the ear and not the front.   This does not hurt the calf, but looks odd.  And to see the tag's number you have look at the calf from the back.

I didn't see the calf drink from the mother.  Judging from it's strength at only 13 hours old, I think it had drank her mother's milk.  Donna and I watched the calf after we let it go.  Her mother was attentive and didn't appear to push the calf with her head.  The calf wasn't thirsty and she laid down and then the mother also did so next to her calf.

In the evening when I checked on the cattle and hay, the cattle and calves were just outside the corral.  When I check on the hay in the feeder the cattle came also.  The calves had no problem keeping up with their mothers.  The third calf stood next to her mother and the mother no longer insisted on keeping her calf in front of her.

Ranching doesn't pay well.

The tag is back of the ear!  Really?!

Mother checking her baby after I released the calf.

Let's get out of here before that mean old rancher does something else!

Septic system

If you remember, the kitchen and mud room's gray water septic system froze over Winter.  As time went on the water would drain very slowly, then a little faster, a little faster, until a week ago I heard both sink drains gurgle as water quickly drained down the pipes.

So Wednesday I washed clothes.

Well... the septic system was still not completely open.  As the washing machine drained, the water backed up through my broken dishwasher and spilled out all over the kitchen floor.

What a wet mess!

Before the washing machine could reach its rinse cycle drain, I dug up the septic system.

I found ice still covered much of top of the water.  Also the drain pipe from the house was partially blocked from grass roots that grew though the crack between rings that made up the concrete holding tank.  The grass roots were screening/partially blocking the free flow of water.

I broke the ice and scraped the roots away and the rinse cycle of the washing machine drained perfectly.

As you can see the lid is not far below the ground surface.

The white material is ice.

The small pipe is from the house.  The white pipe goes out to the drain field.

This is the original septic system from the 1940s.   An annoying feature is that the house pipe is barely higher than the drain field pipe.  Fortunately with the soil type here the water drains quickly.

Calf 2

This morning Number 07 had her calf, a heifer.

As you can see, the birth was not long before I arrived.  While the mother initially cleaned the calf you can see there is more cleaning needed.

Before doing the second calf cleaning the mother was busy eating her after-birth.

In the evening when I checked on the cattle the calf was standing near her mother and Buddy.  The mother had given birth under the protection of several large trees so the calf was not wet from the rain that fell off and on today.  I am not sure if the calf and mother had made it all the way over to the hay feeder so the mother could eat.


Mama is close to giving birth.  Every year she is always the second cow to give birth so this morning I expected to see her with calf.  But no, she has not calved yet.

Hay head

Still only one calf born.   A few other cattle look close to giving birth.

This morning when I checked on the cattle I interrupted Panda who was eating.

Burning ditches, etc.

I hadn't planned on it, but after seeing some burnt ditches on my bicycle ride today, I decided to burn my ditches.  The time is right: the snow is gone, it was dry today, and rain is in the forecast for tomorrow and off and on all week.

Having the hayfield dug up was nice as then I didn't have to worry about the fire getting away and out of control.

The ground is still damp and cool, but the light breeze usually kept the fire moving along.  Still I had to also help the fire along so it would not go out.

But I got it done.  One thing checked off my Spring checklist.

Also on my bicycle ride I discovered the house Curtis and his business partner owned was burnt down.  I had asked Curtis to let me know when the house was going to be burnt but he forgot to tell me.   He had the local fire department burn the house down yesterday as part of a pretty much all day fire training exercise.

Curtis and his business partner bought this house and property last year.  The house had been severely damaged in a fire and was unlivable and unfixable.  Curtis and his partner planned on cleaning up the property then flipping it and reselling it.   They also came across a large number of "house" logs, that is logs that are large and long enough to be used to build a log house.   Ever thinking, they now have the idea if no one buys the property for the price they are asking, they may build a log house and then sell the house and property for even more money.


No more calves yet.   Calf 1 is feeling good.  When talking with Curtis I saw the calf jump up and down a number of times in front of his mother.  "Look mom!  See what I can do!"

Later when I went out to check on how much hay the cattle had left, the calf was running here and there having just learned how to run.  His mother followed and mooed at him to be careful.  Much more of this and she'll lose all her pregnancy weight gain.  That calf is so cute.

Calf 1 - Day 2

Late this morning Donna came over to help me band/castrate my little boy calf.

The calf was laying next to the hay feeder while his mother ate hay.  The mother moved away from the feeder as I approached and then she called softly for her calf to join her.  I walked out of sight around the feeder and came up on the calf without him seeing me.  Then I was able to easily hold him down while Donna applied the band.  All this took only a few minutes and we were done.  No chasing of the calf was needed,

After the band has been applied.

The banding tool is laying in the hay below the calf.

Mom is asking the calf if he is ok after we banded him.

"Let's get out of here before they do something else to you!"

Then we placed temporary coral panels to prevent the cattle from reaching the river for water.  I am not worried about the cattle falling into the river; I am worried about a small calf being knocked into the river.  The river is high right now.  While the drinking area is not in the main current, I am concerned the flow is enough a calf would not be able to get out of the water.

Later in the afternoon Daisy walked out to the check on the cattle.  Then we walked to the river.  Below Daisy is guarding the corral panels to keep the cattle away.

Calf 1

Buddy was on schedule.  I let him be with the cows in order that the first calf would be born around the 24th of March.   And late this afternoon the first calf was born.

I didn't see the birth.  By how the cow acted and looked earlier this afternoon I expected the birth to be late this afternoon to evening.  So I found the calf probably a half to an hour after its birth.

It is a boy.  His mother was making small moo noises of concern to the calf when I got close to check the sex of the calf.  He was standing up looking for his mother's milk so I was able to see his balls hanging down.

Much of the snow was gone so there was a dry area for the birth.   It was drizzling when I took the photo and rain is predicted over the next week.  But the cow and her calf were close to large evergreen trees and can easily keep dry under them.

While it looks like the calf is missing the mother's udder, he actually is sucking on a teat on the far side of the udder.

Snow roof rake

My friend Mark wondered what a snow roof rake looked like.  In case others are interested...

Not shown... the handle has two more sections each of the same length to make it easy to stand on the ground to pull the snow off the roof.  Works great.

The blade has two black plastic rollers so the blade doesn't scratch/get hung up on the roof.

Btw: Daisy left me another mouse on the front step this morning.  This afternoon I shoveled much more snow away from the large hay bales.  I imagine I will be getting more mice left on my doorstep over the next few days.