Ferdinand the Baby Bull: March 2nd started out like any other day and ended with lots of cow drama! After checking on Bella at the night feeding I noticed her teats looked extra full and were dripping milk. I looked this up and most people said this means "calving is imminent". So we checked on her at 8 and again at 10 and at the ten o'clock check we found a little baby all wet and being licked clean by his mom! She didn't show any of the other signs of being in labor so I'm glad she dripped the milk or we might have missed checking on her so frequently.
Her full udder for future reference - about 4 hours before calving
So this little guy gave us a little scare. We watched him for about 2 hours and he never once got up to eat. Nate had gone in with him to help dry him off and when he tried to help him stand up he face planted and couldn't stand. We ended up holding him up to Bella and guiding his head so he could nurse. He still couldn't stand up on his own so that night we took turns going out every 2 hours so we could help him stand up and nurse.
He improved little by little, and by the end of 24 hours we were pretty confident that he could stand on his own and nurse when he needed to. The milking was a ride of it's own too. She is not the nice cow we once thought she was. Once she's in the stanchion she kicks and kicks and steps and moves and kicks some more. After trying a series of failed foot tying methods we've come up with tying her close back foot with a rope to the wall behind her so that she is mostly balancing on 3 feet and then tying the other back foot to the post so she can't step and kick the bucket like she had been doing. This morning (the 9th milking) we successfully kept the bucket full of milk. To giver her some credit she does pretty good about half of the time, but towards the end is when she gets really antsy. I am hopeful she will calm down and milk like a nice cow after settling in to her new routine.
Little Ferdinand is so cute and nice! He lets you walk up to him and pet and scratch him anytime we want. Bella is nice too and doesn't seem to care that we are in there with her and her baby.
He just keeps getting stronger and looking healthier. Now we just have to wait and see how much milk she'll give and how much he'll leave us this next little bit. I'm pretty anxious to stop the twice a day milking because it takes about an hour because of her antsy feet and tiny back teats which we have to milk with one finger and a thumb. Nate and I have been going out together to milk so it doesn't take as long but this morning he milked by himself (40 minutes for a gallon) and tonight I milked alone for the first time (over an hour for 1 1/4 gallons).
Our first drinkable milk!!
Our little one year old Prince Ali on Feb. 28th!
Little sprouts doing really good and getting real leaves
Chloe's Art Party: Chloe's party was Saturday and I think she and all her friends had lots of fun! We had 9 of the 12 kids attend and Chloe was lots of fun and energy the whole time!
Decorating paper bags with stickers, glitter glue, paper cut outs and crayons that were supposed to be for collecting candy - but they didn't dry in time so they just made cute decorations
Avenlea and Summer "at the party" - we set them up a little kids table where they got to do the activities too!
The kids really liked the balloon games. We had them pair up and walk with a balloon to the end of the room and back. Then after perfecting it with two...
They did the "caterpillar" and walked around the room in a little train. There was a lot of laughing and giggling!
Chloe and Porter sporting their aprons and fruit loop necklaces
McCoy was very diligent making both a bracelet and a necklace from his fruit loops. He was so careful about all his crafts and was very polite and helpful the whole party. What a cute kid!
Cupcake decorating time! Em saved the day by stepping in to do the piping for the the frosting on top. I had done a practice round the night before and they weren't looking so cute, but I'm grateful Em knows how! We got these plastic paint pallets and filled them with sprinkles for the kids to decorate their cupcakes. I didn't think of them as party favors but most of the kids wanted to keep their plates to paint on at home so I let them take it home if they wanted.
Summer decorating her cupcake
Chloe and all her friends at her party with their cupcakes all decorated
Pinata Time! All the party goers had at least three turns whacking the pinata before it busted open. Mamma was so nice to get some really yummy candy to fill the pinata with so we've all been on a sugar high for the last couple days!
Marie taking her turn, good swing!
Porter ended up cracking the pinata open and they all got a good amount of candy!
Chloe got lots of nice presents from her friends - she got lots of art stuff (coloring posters,pillow craft, tracing paper, stained glass kit) as well as some fun dolls and pretty accessories. It was a speed opening session but she still took the time to say thank you after each one and then they all ran outside to play on the playground which they'd spotted while doing the pinata. I also brought little Ferd over to the gate so they could pet him which they all thought was really fun.
My big 6 year old!
Behavior Treats: We had a family night a couple weeks ago about using nice words and no whining. We told them if they did no whining for a whole week then we would take them to do something special the next Saturday. Chloe made a poster that said "No whining" with each of their names and a weeks worth of boxes that they got to color in each night they had been good. So a week ago we went to Petco (they ALWAYS beg to go look at the animals) for their "kids time" when they have all the animals out. Then afterwards we went to the dollar tree where they each picked out a treat or new toy
Chloe had a hard time picking out which candy she wanted!
Avenlea chose a little prayer book, Blain got a "puncher" and knife set, Chloe ended up picking Sour Patch kids, and Zeyta got a little bike pump that daddy picked out to keep in the truck just in case ;) It was a fun day and they really did a good job keeping the whining and fighting to a minimum with a reminder of their fun day to come. Love these cuties!
No comments:
Post a Comment