Dog Nest
I was going to write a post about how our dog is crazy. She has made herself a nest. Her nest is perched high on a snow drift outside the front door.
She hates having to be outside alone but when she has to be, she sits in her nest and chews on the random items she has collected there. She has ripped some branches off trees, found a deer skull, her favorite ball that was so fun until her huge teeth popped it, and now she has some piece of a dead cow there. Her collection she has brought home and stored there.
That seemed weird. And gross.
But tonight topped it all.
I walked around a corner to see her chewing on…Β something.
It wasn’t one of her toys. She will select stuffed animals sometimes. Or clothes. Sometimes the most random of things. I thought I should investigate.
Reaching down I got hold of it. It was slick and rounded, long and narrow, very wet from dog slobber. At first I was somewhat afraid it was a turd. It was gripped between my fingers and I was worried. It was the right shape. But where did she get it from?
Looking closer in the dimly lit room I saw, a hoof?
It was a hoof! A tiny little hoof attached to a leg. It had to be a calf leg? A very tiny baby calf leg. I thought back to the time I saw her walking through the corals proudly carrying some cleaning. I thought at the time that it was odd that there would still be some around from last year. It did cross my mind that maybe one of the cows miscarried. The storms were hard on them, the ice is slick, and sometimes it happens without outside cause even.
I didn’t think much more about it. It happens. Nothing I can do, no way to fond the cow.
But this.
How long ago did she find this leg? She had not just come in the house and hadn’t been carrying it earlier. That means the leg has been in the house. Somewhere in the house. A tiny little leg, from the knee joint down. The whole thing fit in her big mouth. That must be how she got it in the house in the first place.
I think I’m going to be sick.
And the house is going to get scrubbed.
That dog needs to go live outside!
Weaning
First there was a bad back keeping the job from being done. Then there was the forecast for bad weather. No need to add more stress by doing it with a storm coming on. Then it was the storm, even worse than predicted. Two weeks worth of blizzard and frigid temps. No way to get anything done but survive in that weather. Then pens and lanes full of drifts left us wondering how to even get the job done?
It needed done and that was that. Where there’s a will there’s a way. We had to get the calves weaned.
With the usual places full of snow we had to find new places. A different lane, a different approach. It worked. Mostly because it was not as full of snow. The cows wanted out desperately. Large numbers of them sorted themselves just by running out the gate once it was open. I felt bad disappointing them. They didn’t get to go on through to the pasture on the other side. In time we will get them back out of cornstalks. Cows like the corrals, when they also get to chose to leave.
We brought a few at a time up with the 4wheelers. When I sat aΒ moment on mine and no wind blew, I was able to catch the scent of something. What was that? I sniffed my gloves just to be sure I hadn’t touched something untoward. Not my gloves. It was only occasional that we were still and together. Most of the time I was on foot quietly moving cows about. It’s such a fun conversation to have. Hello old girl, yes you. You can go by me now. Some go confidently, past and out the gate. Others need to be reassured they are the ones you really mean. Yes pretty girl, you can go, no, not the one behind you. Go ahead now.
Then I’d be back on my trust green mount to move the cows to the new pen or get a new batch, and there was that smell again.
Finally I was able to place it. Warm cat pee. How, pleasant. Did someone mistake the engine for a litter box? Nothing for it but to ignore the fragrant aroma and get the job done.
Soon all were sorted. Calves on one side of the fence, cows on the other. It has been well shown in studies that calves are most stressed by separation from their mothers. More than from the medical necessities performed on them. Weaning over a fence allows them to be together, just without the milk. Calves dove right into the feed we filled their bunk with. The cows were looking for their breakfast.
My daughter got a special gift for Christmas this year. Her heifer from last year lost her calf. She loves the heifer and didn’t want to let her go. Not even with the option of choosing from among all the other heifers, after they calved to guarantee a calf. That set her back quite a bit in building her herd. My daughter loved our little yellow bottle calf from this summer. I had told her no, she couldn’t just have a calf. They are expensive and she needs to learn what it takes to build a herd on her own. But, having lost her first calf this summer, I felt bad. Marsh Mellow could be hers.
But, that means she has to help with her. We weaned the last of the bottle calves off of Popcorn too. The kids came out and helped push them through the round about rout we had to take to get them to the others. They did a great job. That left two calves behind that hadn’t been nursing. Pitiful and runty, I wanted to leave them up front so they didn’t have to fight bigger calves for feed.
We got the bottle calves calves out with the others. The children ran ahead to play in snow drifts. I walked home while the guys cleared more snow.
I saw it from a distance. The dog wasn’t up that far yet, it couldn’t be her. Besides, even from the distance it had a very calf like appearance. So what was it doing on top of a snow drift!
One of the calves left behind had been left by himself for a brief time while we got others sorted. Apparently he didn’t approve! He had climbed the snowbank. Pausing only long enough for the required pictures I rushed to get him down where he belonged before he got hurt or stuck.
In the house later my son asked if I had seen the calf on the snow drift! I told him I had, and had put him back where he belonged. Nodding sagely, my son said “so did I”.
Oh dear. Hope we will be able to keep the calf off the bank now that he has found this great new play ground.
Merry Christmas
We got the best present this morning. It was thirty five degrees when we went out to feed! Snow was melting on windshields and everything started right up without even being plugged in.
We did open our presents first. The cattle and horses have plenty of feed, they aren’t waiting anxiously. No reason to rush.
Bones, black kitty, is back outside where she belongs. Our daughter was holding her the other day and said a bug crawled off the cat onto her. She killed the bug, but there wont be very much cuddling until we can get to town for flea control!
Grey and white kitty quieted down amazingly through the snow. Once he discovered other kitties were getting fed, and the food wasn’t so bad he warmed right up. He is a strange kitty. I was trying to show him where I had left food. He attacked my hand, full on with claws and teeth. Then started violently rubbing against my arm. He may be crazy, but that’s my kind of crazy. Especially when I am fully dressed for winter and safe from his aggressive displays of affection.
The horses got carrots, my pet cows got cake. The rest of the cows got a cows favorite present, lots of food. We are cutting them back to normal rations, but it’s still exciting to get food.
We bought ourselves a flour mill for Christmas. I walked through the garden yesterday, looking for the sweetcorn we had left behind. We’ve always thought it would be fun to grind our sweet corn into corn meal. Two stalks still held ears of ornamental corn. The rest was picked bare. Deer had been sheltering behind the lilacs. Rabbit tracks covered the ground. Far better to feed the hungry animals with the remains of the garden. Who needed corn meal anyway. The sunflowers are picked clean too. Their heads barely above snow level. Now, barely into the bleak midwinter, what will they eat for the rest of the cold? I hate to have the easy pickings gone already.
Squirrels have been everywhere. We see them constantly on the snow drifts. They’re venturing far from the safety of the trees to gather kernels of corn left from the feeding of the cows. Pheasants are everywhere as always. A grouse wasn’t quick enough to evade the hawks. They feasted on her alongside our driveway. Hawks need to eat too. Bald eagles sit in the trees of the windbreak. The cats better be careful.
One calf died the first night of the blizzard.So far that seems to be the only loss. There were a couple of days we just could not get to the bulls to break the ice in their tank. They had feed and shelter. Just not water except for the snow. After the wind stopped and we could see enough to dig to them my husband took a chainsaw to the ice in their tank. He cut out thick blocks. Ten inches of solid ice in those two days. One bull is not going to be ok. He got frost bite in the most unfortunate of places. Poor guy. That would make two losses from the blizzard. Death isn’t the only way to lose cattle.
Christmas is good. Work still needs done. It is the work I want to be doing. The posts about thanking the farmer for not taking any days off, working on holidays and bad weather, always seem odd to me. What else would I want to do? This is the life we chose. This is what is good. Coming back in and sitting a bit is good to, but what would one do with a full day off anyway?