A Day On The Farm…Or A Week!

I am writing this mostly for our scrapbook for years to come but also thought some of you might get a kick out of what should have been a day project is still going on a week later.  That is called Farming!

Wednesday

Last Wednesday Harry, Little Harry and I went to the sale barn near home in hopes to purchase some bread cows and/or heifers.  We had went down the night before to look at some.  The girls were sad they would be in school but we promised we would wait for them to take up to the farm if we purchased any.  There was 7 total that we had our eyes on. 1 was a little wilder then we would like so we figured we would not bid on that one.  We were able to purchase only 2 out of that batch but also purchased another out of another batch.  We were very happy with this.  I ran to school and picked the girls up right after school let out and the Harry's loaded the cows.  We met back up at the sale barn and headed for the farm. 

Here is where life gets interesting.  When we got up to the farm we back up to the corral and was set to go. 

I was at the end of the corral with the kids and ready to take pictures of these nice beautiful cows walking off the trailer into the corral with not a care in the world. 

Unfortunately that is not how life happened.  The cows were so riled up from the sale barn that they were not happy with being confined any longer. 

They jumped the corral cattle panels and headed for the other end of the pasture. 

Harry and I booked it as fast as we could down the pasture to cut them off.  I felt like I was running a 5K - and I don't run! There they stood at the end just looking scared as could be.  We let them be and headed up to the corral to finish things up.  

After we did some things we went back down to where we saw the cows last and just put our eyes on them one last time for the night.  No cows!  We looked and looked but could not find them.  We finally found 1 in the thicket and staring off in the direction we believe the other 2 cows had went.  Then we found fur on one of the fences and the fence was stretched, then we knew they had gone through the fence.  We started looking in our other pasture and wooded areas.  That’s when I got the phone call from Papa Harry that a neighbor had stopped and they saw the cows running cross country – tails in the air and just running to beat the band. 

Harry and I jumped in the truck and started driving and looking, looking and driving.  We finally had to give up and come back to pick up the kids.  Once the action started the kids stayed with Papa Harry & Nonie and Harry & I started looking.  What a defeated feeling having to leave that night. 

Thursday

Thursday afternoon Harry & Little Harry went back over to the farm to look for the cows.  The cows had been spotted and they were a good 4-5 miles away.  Harry talked with all the neighbors and explained to them what had happened and what the cows looked like.  But again came home with no cows. 

Harry didn’t see the 3^rd cow that was in the thicket and wondered if she got lonely and had went through the fence also looking for the other two.

Ten O’clock that night Harry got a phone call that the cows had been spotted and plans were made for the following day to come over and hopefully capture the cows.

Friday

Harry and I took off after he got done with the bread route and I got home from work, around 2 we were over and looking once again for the cows.  But we were getting closer since we at least had a location.  We parked in a hay field and started walking thinking the truck might spook them once again.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw something move in the brush and sure enough there was 2 cows.  We headed that way nice and slow.  The cows took off up the hill but we stayed still and just let them know we were there.  Once again out of the corner of my eye I spotted a brown spot in the grass. 

We started walking and sure enough it was a baby calf.  Harry took a picture right away, had me call the insurance and he went for the calf.  He was able to check and see that it was a heifer.  Our first baby heifer!  Praise God!  But just like that the calf got up and ran up the hill.  The 2 cows started running in the opposite direction!  A neighbor came to help with his ranger.  As we were trying to get the cows into this guy’s pasture so that the cows would be with other cows and hopefully calm down.  Harry almost had them turned around when the cow that had not calved yet turned on him and started to charge him.  I was in the ranger with the neighbor and we darted up the field to rescue Harry.  I don’t know how much the tires actually were on the ground as fast as we were going.  But we got Harry in the back of the ranger before any danger was had.  But unfortunately that meant the cows went running again into the woods.

Now we had 3 cows and a calf lost.  More searching by foot but again left defeated.  Every day, every moment of searching I was praying.  God was listening. 

We finally decided we needed to call it quits for the day. A good friend had grabbed the kids off the bus and we needed to get home to them. 

As you can see they were not missing us much!

I just have to say how thankful I am for all friends and family that helped out with the kids as they were well taken care of but also safe during this all.  I did not have to worry about them once but focus on helping Harry.  Just think if Harry had to try and do this all on his own.  God is good to put people in our lives that help us so much.  Never ask questions, never expect anything in return but always there to help us. 

I told Harry that I truly believed that that 3^rd cow was still in the pasture.  If it had gotten out one of the neighbors would have seen her.  We went to look in the pasture and sure enough I found her in a different area but in a very thick part of brush.  Had she not turned her head at just the time I was looking I would have walked right on by her.  We were sure excited to know that 1 of our cows stayed in.  

We went to pick up the kids feeling like things were finally turning around…slowly but turning around. 

Saturday

We knew that if we were going to get these cows back in the pasture and/or buy any more that we needed to strengthen and rebuild the corral and fence.  My dad graciously volunteered to help and we also asked a high school boy to come out and help us.  He’s helped before and a good hard worker for only 15.  Grabbed the kids and off we went for a day of fencing.  We all put in a good 10 hour day of fencing but it was sturdier and ready for the cows to come home. 

It was all work and no play ;)

I took the kids home and Harry and the hired help went down the hill to see if the calf might have possibly came back to the same spot where she was born.  Also to see if they could lay eyes on the cows.  No cows but sure enough the calf was in the same spot.  This time there was no messing around and Harry was able to capture the calf! 

Harry brought the calf home and we started to bottle feed it. 

The kids were super excited.  Ellaree & Lil Harry want to call it Miracle as Ellaree says “It’s a Miracle from God that she made it through the night without getting hungry or a coyote eating it”.  Yes she is right!  Lorelai wanted to call it Chocolate.  So it is our Little Chocolate Miracle!

Sunday

Kids and I were getting ready for church while Harry did his bread merchandising.  He was headed home when he got a phone call from a neighbor explaining the cows had been spotted and it looked like one was not able to get up.  Plans went into action.  My parents came to get the kids and took them to church.  We headed over to the farm with another friend who was going to try and tranquilize the one that had calved.  We couldn’t the other as the tranquilizer will slow the heart rate down on the cow and it could kill the calf.  We didn’t know if one was hurt or maybe the cow was not getting up because it was calving. We were hoping for the latter. 

We found the cows right were the neighbor had said they were.  Sure enough the pregnant cow was hurt bad.  She had broken both back legs. The other cow was standing right next to her.  The interesting part was that the injured cow was still trying to protect the other cow (this would be the same cow that tried to charge Harry) and if you got too close to her she would try and get up and come after you. 

So thankfully the one that had calved we could tranquilize and get her on the trailer nice and calm.  That was supposed to be the way it happened.  It didn’t happen that way.  First the gun wouldn’t fire the tranquilizer shot.  It took us, I would say about 30-45 minutes to get the gun to fire.  Then the cow ran off but only a little ways before she laid down and started to sleep. 

Harry wanted the injured cow on the trailer first so we started to try and load her.  We could not get close to her so we finally had to put up gates around her and back the trailer up to her and literally shove her in with the door.  She did not want to be in there. 

Next was the other cow that was now sleeping. Did I forget to mention we had brought the calf along to help entice the momma.  It didn’t matter.  She was not interested.  We brought the truck and trailer up by her and she got up and started to take off on a dead run.  We shot her with another tranquilizer and she kept on running.  She went up and around the woods and laid down and was snoring!  Half went after her and got her down while the other half of us went after the truck and trailer and brought it around.  She basically lunged into the trailer half asleep, we shut the door and the way we went.

We got the momma & calf up to the corral and let them out.  Haha poor momma was staggering around good.  Thankfully the baby came right up to her momma and started sucking like she never missed a meal with her.  Praise God!

The 2nd cow is the one that stayed in the pasture the whole time.  She finally came out of hiding.

Now what to do with the injured cow.  Anymore you can’t take a cow like that to a locker if she can’t walk off.  She lunges but would they take her and on a Sunday.  No we couldn’t find anyone, we didn’t like seeing her suffer but we also didn’t want to just shoot her as we had to think about the baby.  We found a guy who would come out and do the butchering right there and he also would do a C-section on her.  Yes he was certified.

Monday

This butcherer came out with his rig and set everything up.  It was amazing.  I explained to him and his daughter that I was not afraid of getting dirty and actually would love to help with the c-section.  They were happy for the help as well and we started in.  Ellaree was the only one of the kids that wanted to watch.  The two lils went to the neighbors until it was all over.  Ellaree took I believe about 500 pictures...just took them off my phone.  628 photos to be exact!  She might get this from me.  ;)

Cutting cow open

This guy is actually doing CPR on the calf

towels

cleaning calf off

Bathing in the sunshine

Very cool in Harry's sweatshirt

Under the heat lamp

The c-section was a success and we had another baby heifer.  It looks to be about 3 weeks premature.  But a cute little bugger.  We are bottle feeding it and right now she’s in our garage.  Kids helped make a bed for her and they had to go out and see her before going to bed.

Tuesday

We also just bought 3 pairs.  Are we crazy after a week we just had? For those of you that don’t know what pairs means it’s when there’s a momma and a calf.  We will be bringing them home to the rest of them later this week.  All 3 of these calves are heifers as well. 

Have I ever mentioned that our place is never a dull moment.  I guess anymore I think of how bored we would be if it was dull. Oh God is blessing us and showing us an overabundance right now.  I cannot praise His name enough this week with all of His provisions and safety.