Monday, February 11, 2013

Birth--It's Kind of GROSS!

Thursday evening, Danny and Tristen come home from feeding, and Dan announces he's pretty sure our old cow, Rosie, is in labor.  She was bagged up, had stopped eating, and seemed really uncomfortable, so he thought we should head out as soon I got off work. We pulled up just as her water was breaking, and things just starting to get serious, so we quietly found a place to sit and watch.

This was the second time Tristen has ever seen something give birth, and the first time he was too young to really GET it, but he does remember. It wasn't the beautiful mother-son bonding moment I thought it would be, but he may have a new found respect for females! HA! His wide eyes and expression would have had me rolling in the grass, had we not been trying to be very quiet.  In his words later--Birth is kind of gross! ;)

Rosie is an old pro at giving birth. Probably finding it more of an annoyance now, since she has to stop eating to do it.  Birth seemed pretty easy, and out came the calf.  The calf seemed to be a little slow to responding, and we were just talking about intervening when up popped babies head.   Momma got it all cleaned up, softly mooing to it, encouraging it to get up. 40 minutes after it hit the ground, we headed home, and baby was up eating.

Isn't she cute? Love her little pink nose!
Dear God, Thank you for getting me here safely. I love it here. Now, if you could just help me get away from this crazy lady in the purple coat, who keeps taking my picture and making some weird squealing noises and saying SO CUTE over and over again, I'd really appreciate it. She's getting annoying..
Yesterday I just sat out in the lot and watched her, as Danny was getting a bale. She was running around, doing the "calf bounce".    Pretty sure this  is on the universe's  list of top ten cutest things EVER!

We spent Saturday in Abilene. We  were up at 3, on the road by 4:15, and back home at 10. LONG DAY!! But it was fun to spend the day with our friends.  Jacob's Havanas were pretty much class fillers. Our on-off weather has wrecked havoc on coats, and all his younger stuff was TOO young to compete well. His Havana friend Madelynn kicked butt, and she ended up winning 2 Best In Shows with a stunning little black doe. Its always fun to watch kids you love and know work hard do well!

Tristen had a great day! He hauled some stuff he was anxious to get on the tables, and also some young 14 week olds that he grabbed at the very last minute, mainly to teach them some manners and get comments.  It was a good call. His little baby blue buck won Best Opposite Sex in one show, and Best of Breed in the another. 

Yuck..MONDAY AGAIN! This one seems more painful than usual. I'm guessing because our schedules are messed up! Off to get some more coffee! Have a WONDERFUL day!

4 comments:

Gardener on Sherlock Street said...

Never can get enough of cute calves. Laughed at its little 'prayer.'

Have a good week.

Melanie said...

Good for Tristen. .now he'll be able to liken that experience to his own wife when she is preparing for delivery :-0

Rhonda said...

I would love to see a calf born. Have seen a foal born - just awesome and miraculous. LOL about Tristen's comment! Glad the rabbit show went well. I imagine the weather is a mess with their coats.

Sara said...

Baby calves are the CUTEST thing ever!! I just love the spring months when the ranch if full of them hustling and bustling all over the place. If you boys are anything like Jeremy, all the experience with calves and bunnies will just make them compare their future wives to them!! Remind him NOT to do that if he values his life, LOL!