the beginning of a beautiful St. Patrick’s Day, 2019, on the farm
I was given a wonderful and unexpected gift…the gift of a second chance. Many of you know that early in February after doing morning chores, I took a serious fall on ice that was hidden under a layer of snow while I was out taking pictures of what I thought might be the final snowfall of the season. It was breathtakingly beautiful and although it was extremely cold, I was thoroughly enjoying capturing the pure white beauty against the contrast of the drab browns and grays of winter.
The lane behind the south pasture…one of my favorite photo stops.
As I was taking pictures from some of my favorite spots around the farm, my eye caught the beauty of a particular maple tree in the back pasture. I slowly and carefully made my way across the pasture to get “the perfect shot” and as I ducked under an electric fence tape (the one you see just head of me in the above photo), I took a nasty fall. Although I was seriously hurt and I knew it, I was mostly concerned that I had dropped my camera in the snow and that I hadn’t captured the much-desired picture of that maple tree. That last thought has haunted me all of these weeks!
the last photo before my fall. the illusive maple is just showing a few branches on the right edge of this photo.
So, on St. Patrick’s Day, with the temps at forty-one degrees, it started snowing. BIG. BEAUTIFUL. FLAKES.!! At first, it didn’t collect on the ground and then suddenly we realized it was beginning to collect and it was collecting fast. My husband suggested I might take this opportunity to capture some pictures of this wintry wonderland surprise, so I donned my barn coat, and boots and headed out with my trusted camera in hand.
this is what I saw when looking up into the snow as they fell on me and my camera
There are many beautiful places here on the farm to capture scenic shots, but guess where I headed? You guessed it..out to get that illusive shot missed several weeks ago because of my fall. The sight did not disappoint! It was like my maple tree was standing there waiting for me to capture her beauty.
the perfect maple tree dressed in white
This may not seem like a big deal to you, but it was a pretty big deal to me! Each time someone would ask me how I fell, I would tell them the story of the illusive picture and how I could still see it in my mind…the picture that got away. This haunting irritation can now be put to rest. I am quite happy and thankful for the unexpected opportunity for a second chance to capture the beauty of the maple’s last chance to wear her winter dress!
First, I want to say that I am no expert and I am not trained in any health or dietary profession. I only know from my own experience what has helped me to be healthier for now more than five years. For me, it was a decision I made based on my quality of life and my need to feel better.
I was having severe “attacks” which I came to discover were NOT gallbladder attacks as my (now former) mainstream, general health practitioner would have had me believe which would have led to my gallbladder being unnecessarily removed. Thanks to a wonderful MORE THAN CHIROPRACTOR (Dr. Keith Lewis, Healthy Life Doctors in Upper Arlington, Ohio) who really cared to dig down and find what was causing my digestive distress, I discovered I had a sliding hiatal hernia that was causing esophageal spasms when my stomach got caught in the hernia. It was so painful that I thought I was having a heart attack and even had the squad called for me when it happened in Whole Foods once.
My doctor gave me a list of anti-inflammatory foods and inflammatory foods to remove from my diet. He also gave me a list of acidic/alkaline foods to help me understand what foods to try to eat more of that would help heal my digestive tract. One thing I have discovered is that when you are contemplating a change, it is your motivations that will determine whether you are able to make those changes stick in your life. For me, my motivation was extremely high. While going through this period of time, my digestive tract and diaphragm were so damaged from the attacks that I was unable to lift a basket of laundry or a gallon jug of milk (this was before I had my own fresh milk), and I was unable to bend forward for just about any purpose including switching the laundry or picking up something from the floor. I felt so sad watching my children pick up the slack of the things I wasn’t able to do. I never knew when an attack would completely immobilize me. So, for me, having the map to wellness that these lists provided was like an answer to prayer and I was willing to give up almost anything just to feel better.
The first big changes were no refined sugar and no refined flour. These two food items are hidden in more processed foods than you may realize, and it is sometimes difficult to recognize them on the ingredients list due to the number of aliases companies now have for them), but that wasn’t the big challenge for me because I already did most of my food prep from scratch. I made homemade bread and rolls once or twice a week, homemade ice cream, baked cookies and cakes, etc. You get the drift! My cooking/baking was healthy in that it was organic and made from “real” ingredients, but was also full of refined sugars and flours.
It’s pretty easy to say “no refined sugar” until you begin to realize the huge commitment that is. As alternatives, we began using coconut sugar which is higher in fiber and a lower glycemic index than sugar. We also increased our use of maple syrup which is packed full of minerals and also has a lower glycemic impact. We also use raw honey, which is a natural sweetener with health benefits of its own, but it has a higher glycemic index. I tried using various forms of stevia, but had trouble with the aftertaste, so my use of it was very limited.
As for cutting out the refined flour, I began experimenting with coconut and almond flours. Please keep in mind that when I began this journey, “keto”, “paleo” and “grain-free” weren’t popular catch words like they are now. Whole Foods didn’t even carry items that I could use for this journey. I frequented the customer service desk asking for various brands and items as I became aware of them and gradually Whole Foods began stocking some of them.
I also found that not all almond flours are created equal. Some aren’t as finely ground so the foods made with them don’t exactly have a palatable texture. Eventually I found some brands that worked for me and I began scouring the internet for recipes that would help me navigate this new nutritional journey.
I discovered many bloggers who had “grain-free, sugar-free” recipes on their websites and slowly made my way through them trying some of their recipes. Some FLOPPED badly! Micah still reminds me of the “foam chocolate muffins” I made one morning when my friend/pastor’s wife was coming over for coffee. Oh my! They had no taste, no texture, it was like putting tasteless, brown foam shaped like a muffin in your mouth. They didn’t even taste chocolate! How can you mess up chocolate? But I did find some bloggers/sites whose recipes were fairly dependably edible, even tasty. Over the years, I have compiled a list of websites and bloggers whose recipes were fairly reliable in producing edible grain-free, sugar-free foods.
Now, the next step in my journey was to realize that maple syrup, coconut sugar and almond flour, as healthy as they are, didn’t help me much in the weight department. Initially, after giving up grains and sugars, I dropped about thirty pounds, and I felt so much better as I began to heal. However, maple syrup still has calories that turn to fat, so as my use of maple syrup increased, so did my weight.
Enter Trim Healthy Mama. It was introduced to me last year by several friends all in the span of a couple of weeks, so I began reading about the plan. Part of what made eating sugar-free and grain-free difficult was my struggle to make meals that both I and my family could eat without necessitating the need for two meals to be made. The plan (which I will explain in a coming post), recipes and products of THM have been a life-saver to me and my family. Finally, I have the resources to eat how I need to eat to lose weight and maintain that weight loss and the recipes to prepare meals that both I and my family can enjoy.
Since being on the Trim Healthy Mama eating plan, using some of their products (their baking blend and sweeteners have made the biggest impact for me), I feel the best I have felt in years. I have lost almost twenty-five pounds since last July and I no longer feel like I am starving. I feel well and energetic and I enjoy trying the recipes in their cookbooks. I have been very pleasantly surprised with the ease of most of the recipes and with how they taste. The men in my life agree even though sometimes I need to add a few items to help fill them up. It has been such a blessing to me.
If you have questions or comments about going sugar-free or grain-free, please contact me. I would be happy to encourage you along your journey to get healthier and give grain-free and sugar-free living a try! It may feel overwhelming at first, but when you realize the benefits, it will become easier and easier to make that choice, one day at a time. Not all of you will want or need to be as strict as I am, but I never want to go back to the way I used to feel and that is my motivation to keep on track!
Watch for an upcoming follow-up post where I will make the anti-inflammatory guidelines as well as the acidic/alkaline foods chart available to you!
If you have followed my farm stories for long, you no doubt remember reading about our last calf who, when just hours old, bolted through several electric fences and crossed the road before Micah tackled her on the edge of the cornfields. If not, you can go back and read “She’s Here….And She’s Off” that was written last October. That same calf “Snickers”, when being carried to the barn shortly after her birth as we do with all calves born in the pasture, belted out the loudest cry I have ever heard on a newborn calf. She earned the nickname “Little Big Mouth” on that day and she has lived up to it many times in her short four-month life.
A week ago Tuesday, she said good-bye to her mom, Caramel, and joined her Aunts Hazel and Truffle and her Great Uncle Oreo in the pasture. Now, this isn’t the first time we have been through this process. Normally, in fact with all other calves before Snickers, three days has been the magical timing of when they decide their situation isn’t going to better itself and they may as well just shut up and make the best of their current situation. But, this calf again has made a name for herself and lived up to her nickname.
Snickers’ arrival in the pastureOreo, Hazel and Truffle watching in curiosity as Snickers joins the group
She mooed for a full five or six days and five nights….most of that non-stop! Caramel responded in duet with expected moos for three of those days, but conforming to our expectation that she would settle down in three days, she was contented after that. But, Snickers (LMB) kept it up…till she was hoarse! She would go over and eat hay with the other calves and then go back to the area of the pasture nearest the barn and start her complaining all over again.
Then one night, after she had begun to settle down, a neighbor’s dog evidently got bitten by our electric fence late at night and was yelping so loudly I could hear it through my closed window. Well, Snickers decided that was her cue to begin her song of woe once again. Thankfully, when the dog quieted down, eventually she did as well.
The other funny thing that has happened in the pasture since she arrived is the older calves have each “adopted” one of the calves as their protector/babysitter/trainer. When Hazel joined them several weeks ago, I expected her sister, Truffle, to take her under her wing and be her buddy/surrogate mom. However, it was big, sweet and gentle Oreo who became his niece’s buddy and babysitter.
When Snickers joined the calves, I was also hoping that Hazel would be a comfort to her because they had played together in the corral quite a bit and seemed to really enjoy playing with each other. However, Hazel stood and observed this noisy little creature with near disdain and a quizzical look as if to say “WHAAAT IS YOUR PROBLEM???? This pasture was a pretty peaceful place before YOU arrived!!!” It was Truffle who then seemed to have the patience and desire to help with Snicker’s acclimation to the group. Several times I have gone out to the pasture and they were standing two and two…Truffle and Snickers in one place and Hazel and Oreo in another. There are times that all four of them are in one place, either around the hay bale eating, or in the shelter for the night but this pairing up has surprised me.
Snickers, enjoying stretching her legs and running around in the openness of the pasture
I think she is slowly becoming one of them but Oreo, as sweet and as gentle as he is, still finds ways to let Snickers know he doesn’t really appreciate all the chaos she has brought to the pasture. I have observed him several times chasing her away from eating near where he was eating. As much as I don’t like this, I have come to realize it is part of how the calves establish the hierarchy of the pasture and I must allow them to work it out, as long as someone is still able to eat, drink and sleep without being bullied. Sometimes I wonder if somehow Oreo knows that Snickers is Caramel’s daughter and is paying her back for how Caramel bullied him when she was at the top of the heap in the pasture. If you remember, he was the one who broke through the fence and happily ate from the neighbor’s clover field when Caramel kept chasing him away from the hay. Guess what goes around comes around!
I am sure you have heard the phrase “spit in your eye” or “here’s spit in your eye”, but have you ever LIVED it, bovine style? Normally that phrase means something derogatory or disrespectful but not in this case!
Tonight, after milking Mocha, I went around to all the stalls to strain the hay out of their water (a long story…) and when I went in to strain Mocha’s water, she swung her head around toward me just as she hawked her throat…and PLOP! In went her spit right into my eye! Imagine the timing and the perfect placement for that to happen!!!
Now I don’t know if you have any idea how slimy bovine saliva is…but let me say I could tell there was a film on my eye that needed windshield wipers to clear it off! Had it been an animal other than one that I am totally in love with, it might have really bothered me….but if you have been following my stories very long at all, you know that Mocha is my favorite cow on the farm…probably my favorite animal, so I immediately dismissed it as just one of those hazards that comes with working with animals and not an overt, disgusting, deliberate act toward me!
I have to say that I have encountered, accepted and even become accustomed to many things that my before-farmer-self would never have dreamed, but this was not one of the events I could have predicted! Manure, yes! Smell/odor, yes! But never would I have guessed getting spit in my eye by my favorite girl!
I will admit that I am a storyteller. Ask anyone who knows me! I love giving lots of colorful details about the fun and funny (and sometimes not so funny) things that happen here on the farm. However, it was suggested to me that there may be ways I can help you! What??? Yep! So, I am going to ask you to give me some feedback and let me know what kinds of topics you might like to read about or learn about.
Some of the topics I’ve come up with that might be interesting or helpful to you are: Chemical-free Cleaning; Kicking Sugar to the Curb; Instant Pot or Not?; Re-training Your Sweet Tooth; Fast and Filling Meals. If any of these topics interest you, let me know! I’d love to hear from you! Or, if you have topics you’d like to know more about or questions that I might have the answers to, please comment and let me know.
Some other things I know a little bit about are The Ins and Outs and Dos and Don’ts of Breeding Dogs; Homeschooling; Essential Oils; Natural Wellness; and of course this Homesteading/Farming Adventure we are on. I’m here for you and plan to be more present in your lives, so, let me help you! And, if you find a topic particularly helpful, please feel free to share on your favorite social media site by using the icons at the top of each post.
Being a help to you and writing about something you would like to know would thrill me! Hope to see you here again soon!
Personalities are funny….but especially so when you are talking about bovine personalities! I know I have talked about this before, but we have a variety of HUGE personalities here at the farm. Jersey, the mom, grandma and great-grandma has her stubborn moments, but for the most part, she is quiet-natured and easy going…kind of a go-with-the-flow kind of girl.
However, her daughter, Mocha is definitely NOT those things most of the time. She is our “diva” cow…she knows what she wants, when she wants it, how she wants it, and lets you know if you haven’t met her expectations! One example is our morning and evening routine: Jeff cleans out the stall while I get the dairy feed ready. If he takes too long and doesn’t close the stall door, OR if I take too long getting the feed ready, she puts her nose on the stall door, shoves it open and walks out to where I am filling her feed bowl. Sometimes she just stands there and waits and sometimes she comes over to see what is taking me so long! Patience is definitely NOT one of her virtues! Mocha shows typical signs of PMS when she is in heat: moody, sulky, difficult to get along with, etc. But, she is smart! She is way too smart for her own good, and ours! Mocha is a leader and sometimes mouthy but seems to understand the way things work. When there is a variation in routine, she complains for three days, but after that seems to acclimate to the new routine.
Mocha has birthed four daughters: Cocoa, Caramel, Truffle and Hazel. Cocoa was fairly easy going, more like her grandma than her mama! Caramel is far more skittish than either Jersey or Mocha. Truffle is very smart like Mocha, but she is far more loving and docile than Mocha. Oh, don’t get me wrong…Mocha has her special ways of being affectionate with her humans… but Truffle is outwardly affectionate. Truffle is also a leader, much like her mama. Hazel is like the best version of Mocha and all of her sister calves put together. She is big, strong, sweet and so very smart!
Mocha with Hazel nursing for the last time.
Since Hazel turned four months of age in January, it was time to move her out of the barn where she has been with Mocha, to the west pasture. It is always emotional for me to know when that last time is that they will be together, so I always snap a few pictures to commemorate the occasion.
Mocha and Hazel (left); Caramel and Snickers (right)
I was eager to see how easily she would adjust to being away from her mama and living full time with her uncle Oreo and her sister Truffle. It has been so much fun to watch. Oh, she mooed incessantly for three days, carrying on a long-distance duet of sorts with Mocha but even during her vocal displays of displeasure at being separated from her mom, she emerged the new leader on the block! From her first moments in the pasture with them, she was self-assured and just walked around checking everything out.
Hazel, Oreo, Truffle (left to right)
Oreo and Truffle followed her around as if they were self-appointed babysitters, but it quickly became apparent that she was taking a leadership role with them. Normally, the youngest calf has the low spot on the pecking order, but not Hazel! She has claimed the prime sleeping spot in the shelter and has made her place at the round bale of hay in the MIDDLE OF THE FRAME. She climbs into the frame and eats from there. I guess she thinks she can’t be challenged or booted out of there since she is the only one small enough to get in there.
Hazel in the middle of the hay frame.
Soon, there will be another addition to the west pasture as Snickers, Caramel’s daughter, will soon be ready to leave her mama and join the other calves. She, like her mama is more skittery, so it will be interesting to see who she attaches to and where she makes her place. She isn’t as assertive as Hazel but really like Hazel, so I am eager to see how all four of them get along.
One of the interesting things that has developed is the fact that Oreo has seemed the most interested and attentive to Hazel since she has joined them. I guess I expected the sisters to bond the most, but he follows her most closely and is so interested in where she is and what she is doing. I will enjoy watching all four of them as they grow and enjoy the pasture this summer.
It’s a new year and with the new calendar comes a new slate in many ways. However, there is comfort in familiarity and routine…maybe that’s one reason I love farm life. But there are some changes on the horizon.
In a week and a half, Hazel will be weaned and will “move in” with Oreo and Truffle. In a way, I dread that for her as it will be a tough adjustment. She has been going back and forth from her mom to the corral and back again for three and a half months. But, the nice thing about bovine is that they are fairly adaptable to a new routine after about three days. Oreo and Truffle have watched their nieces/sisters from a distance since they were born (with an occasional kiss under the electric tape), so I am excited for her to be able to socialize with them rather than being in the corral alone.
Mocha and her calf, Hazel
We are thrilled that it seems Jersey has put on enough weight to begin cycling again and she is now pregnant with her calf due in August if all goes well. We are presently waiting for pregnancy confirmation for Mocha. If this breeding takes, her calf will be due in October. Mocha’s two year old heifer, Caramel, is in the process of being bred. Caramel’s calf, Snickers, will be weaned in February and then will join the other Hazel, Oreo and Truffle.
Caramel and Snickers
Although the breeding of our girls isn’t new, Snickers will be the last Jersey/Angus calf born her on the farm, at least for the foreseeable future. We haven’t had a Jersey calf born on the farm since 2016 when Caramel was born. We were breeding with Angus hoping for at least 50/50 males to females for offspring, but out of seven calves, only two have been male. So, we are going to start breeding for full Jersey calves so if the 5/7 female ratio continues, we will have some full Jersey heifer calves to sell or raise for beef. It will be interesting to see if the ratio is the same with a different breed. I look forward to the fawn-like looking calves that will be in the future for de Good Life Farm.
One of the things I love is how the species on the farm interact with each other. Hazel has a very curious and yet very contented nature. Each day when I separate her from her mom, we must walk past our livestock guardian, Odin. He will be nine months later in January and his size makes it hard to remember that he is still a puppy. As I walk Hazel passed him, he does everything in his power to entice her to play with him. But, it’s so funny that when she actually walks toward him to play, he tucks his tail and runs. Then she gives up and begins again walking to the corral. When she does this, he gets brave again and comes at her again, trying to get her to play. This goes on as long as he can get close enough to engage her interest.
Odin, King of de Good Life Farm, Protector of the Six Realms (our livestock guardian)
As this post is several weeks old and didn’t get posted…I am going to post this and start a new one. There have been lots of things happening around here! Stay tuned….
I am slowly realizing that as much as I love the life here at de Good Life Farm, this life is not for everyone! In fact, there was a time I’m sure I would have said “manure on my boots, hands, clothes, even FACE…etc.? NO WAY!” However, here I am and loving every wonderful day, whether hard or not-so-hard (there are no easy days)!
For instance, we are in Ohio…and the last two weekends in a row we have been pummeled with snow storms. That changes everything about my day from how many layers of clothing I wear to the barn and how many socks I have on inside my boots to how long it takes me to complete my rounds to each of the animals checking on their needs at that moment. The dip into arctic temperatures meant that on those days I went out every hour or two to break up the ice in the water troughs with a shovel so that they could drink…calves, cows, chickens and livestock guardian dog. That takes some serious time and effort.I hate being cold- maybe more than most things, but I can deal with the cold once I am in the barn taking care of the girls. , back to my point: It’s not easy. It’s not for everyone.
But, just as is true with most hard things in life, there are perks…joys…things to make me smile and laugh amidst the hard work. Just yesterday I tried my hand at making my first video of farm life…and yes! I will be uploading it. (But don’t laugh! It’s very rough!) And in the midst of the videoing, the animals were just being themselves: cute, acting like they always act, completely unaware that they were being videoed. I’ll give you some examples:
The first place I visited on my video tour was the calves shelter where Oreo and Truffle reside. They were lying in the hay chewing their cud and seeming quite contented. As soon as I went into the shelter, Truffle got up and wanted to get some loving and find out what I was doing. The video didn’t capture the time I was giving Oreo loving, so he didn’t feel the need to get up and solicit my attention.
Oreo and Truffle
From there, I went to the barn and opened the window to Mocha’s stall. As I could have predicted, she played hard-to-get by acting uninterested in my attention until I was ready to turn away and visit Caramel and her calf. Then, true to form, she climbed up on the hay pile and stuck her big head through the window for some attention. She is a very fickle diva-cow sometimes but she is so lovable I can hardly be upset with her!
Next, I visited the stall where Caramel stays with her three month old calf, Snickers. They were both eating which didn’t surprise me. Caramel has been putting away a lot of hay and Snickers is following in her mama’s hoof-prints. Snickers turned to me for some attention but in actuality she is so coyly looking for an opportunity to escape the stall…which she has done several times! Little Stinker should be her name!
I crossed the barn to Jersey’s stall to give her a little visit but all she wanted to do was bypass me to try and get outside. This time of year is very difficult for the cows as it has been weeks since they could safely be outside. They are all itching to get out.
Next, I gave a little tour of Odin’s “straw igloo” who wasn’t happy I had brought along a shovel for the trek. He seemed afraid of the shovel, and although I dot understand why, it served the purpose of keeping me from getting tangled in his cord.
Odin and his straw igloo next to the chicken coop
I walked past Odin to his charges, the chickens. Although except for the days of the horizontal snow from the east, we have tried to open their coop door for some fresh air, however, they are not fond of snow or ice on their feet, so they haven’t ventured out much. They were talky as I showed them off.
After the chickens, I trekked across a snow drift to the corral where Hazel, Mocha’s nearly four-month-old calf awaits the call that it’s time to be reunited with her mama. As I entered the gate, I took a look at her and had to stop the video and switch to still mode…she looked so adorable! She had put her face full in the drift behind the shelter and it was all white…with just her little dark eyes showing through! She is so cute and as the video shows, she is always ready to romp and play!
Hazel and her face full of snow
Although there was no huge thing to shout out about, there is joy in the journey. Manure (regardless of the season), snow and ice of winter or heat and flies of summer…it’s all part of the journey here at the farm and I love it.
I know that I am so fortunate to be living a life in which I find joy, pleasure and contentment. It is my dream-come-true. I have known many people who searched their whole lives trying to find what they loved doing, and my loves are literally in my back yard!
One of the things I love about farm life is the cycle of life and events. Year after year, things are cyclical, repeatable, fairly consistent: breed cows, dry off cows, birth of calves, make sure calves are getting what they need, milk cows, move cows in and out of barn, move calves with and away from moms, etc. However, there are always those events that make you scratch your head and say “I didn’t see that coming!” or “WOW! How can we prevent THAT from happening again?” But for the most part, calving has been fairly uneventful. Some calves have arrived earlier than expected and some were a little later than we thought they would be but other than that, there really haven’t been any surprises…UNTIL TODAY!
Caramel (Mocha’s daughter, Jersey’s granddaughter, for those of you who have followed our farm for awhile) was due to calve tomorrow. We have been watching her, expecting her to calve early but even as recently as last night, I saw no signs of impending labor, other than she had “bagged up”, which basically means her milk was coming in. When Jeff went out to separate Hazel from Mocha at 6:00 this morning, he checked on Caramel and said “all was fine”. Imagine my surprise as I was pulling my milk cart to the barn to see a little black calf standing in the corral next to Caramel! But that was only the first of many exhausting surprises this morning!
I ran into the house to grab my camera to get some pictures of her, thinking she had just been born. When I returned with my camera, I realized she was already almost dry and was standing quite well on her own. Caramel was quite fussed though! Now, just to fill you in on an important detail, since we don’t milk Caramel, she doesn’t get the daily handling of coming in and out of the barn like our other bovine. She has been a bit of a loner, a little less social and a bit more skittery than the others, since the twin calves who would have been her buddies died when Heidi died in September of 2016.
Thinking we would protect Caramel and her calf by getting them into the barn where we could monitor her colostrum intake, apply iodine to her umbilical cord, etc., Micah picked up the calf and carried her with Caramel right beside them into Caramel’s stall. Well, first of all, in all of the six previous calves, I have NEVER heard a calf bellow like this one did! She was bellowing so very loud and constant. I think that kind of freaked Caramel out a little bit. When we got them into the stall, Caramel was quite agitated and the calf was running around and into the wall. At this point the 10×10 stall became much too small and dangerous for them. So we moved them back to the corral. Boy, were we ever in for a surprise!
The calf ran around the corral and then to my utter shock and astonishment, she climbed right through the electric fence into the side pasture. I don’t know whether she got shocked or not, but I am suspecting she did, because she took off, running faster than I have ever seen a newborn calf run, all the way up the side pasture, with Micah running after her!
Now, if you read my previous post about Hazel getting through the electric fence tape that separates the side pasture from the front pasture, you will recall that I criss-crossed it so that she couldn’t get through. Our second surprise came when she just barreled through that criss-crossed tape. Again, I don’t know if she got shocked or not, but she may have.
I thought once she got into the large front pasture, she would just stop from sheer exhaustion. But NO! She kept running and to my horror, she ran right through the front pasture fence, across the road and into the ditch and cornfield on the other side! Poor Micah! He has been sick with a bad cold but he just kept running after her! He finally caught up with her when she tripped and fell in the ditch on the other side of the road, right before heading into the cornfield! Had she made it that far, I don’t know how we would ever have found her! Micah caught her and kept her stationary while I ran back to the barn and grabbed a lead rope to put on her. I was so winded my chest hurt but I knew she would be tough to keep down for long, so I did my best to run back to Micah.
We got the lead rope on her and Micah carried her back across the road. He put her down in the grass so we could lead her back to the barn, because obviously no fence we have would keep her in! That little bull-headed heifer kicked and ran and tried to escape the entire way back to the barn. We settled her back into Caramel’s stall just to give her a chance to rest and calm down. She had to be exhausted!
In the meantime, this little rascal had upset every single bovine on our farm…from great-grandma Jersey to her grandma Mocha (who was waiting in the stall to be milked), to her aunt Truffle and her great-uncle Oreo! They couldn’t figure out what this little calf was doing outside of the fence and across the road!
Eventually, we got Caramel and her calf settled together in the barn in Jersey’s stall since it is a bit larger. They seem to be doing ok for now. Up until this calf, we have had the now-unfounded belief that the corral was a safe place for a new mama and her calf! Now we know better! I hope the craziness of her first few hours are all the drama we have for awhile. I am exhausted!
Oh look at that precious face: beautiful and seemingly docile; but, do not let that gorgeous face fool you! She is ornery and energetic as well as headstrong and fearless! She took us on a romp this morning that should have been no big deal except for a few special circumstances coupled with her strong personality.
First, let me say, she will be three weeks old tomorrow! From the first hour of her birth, I knew that she was different from Mocha’s previous three calves in that she was hitting “milestones” ahead of her sisters. Some milestones she hit days before her older sisters. She stood within her first hour. She only needed to be shown once how to nurse. She ran around Mocha in the stall within 24 hours of her birth. From her birth, she was too tall to duck under her mama. She drank from the water trough with her mom in the first few days. The list goes on and on!
She is like the other calves in that she doesn’t like to have the lead rope put on and be forced to go somewhere, whether to the barn, to the pasture or from stall to stall in the barn. She plants her front feet and sticks her chin up in the air with a fierce determination to stand her ground. In her first few days of life, she rewarded the person on the backside pushing her by defecating on them, which was a good thing as far as monitoring her food intake, but not nice for the person trying to push her to go where she didn’t want to go!
She is pretty independent too! From her first hours, she just had this settledness and confidence about her. She doesn’t seem too bothered to be put in a separate stall while I milk Mocha. The other calves would bellow and moo but for the most part, Hazel just lays down and waits until we come for her.
Well, her independence showed in full living color this morning. For the past several days, she and Mocha have had the full run of the front and side pasture but since there isn’t much grass to be eaten in the back pastures right now, we had to move Jersey and Caramel to the front and put a second strand of electric fence tape across to accomodate Hazel’s small size, thinking she couldn’t get through, allowing she and Mocha to in the side pasture. (A little side note of history, last week, she ran right under the electric tape and had some crazy frolics in the front pasture while Mocha stood in the side pasture yelling for her, unable to get past the single strand of electric tape.)
This morning, that little independent miss just ran and broke through the electric tape and frolicked with her grandma, Jersey, and her older sis, Caramel, running around so fast that her body was literally at a 45 degree angle to the ground! She roused Jersey and Caramel up something terrible! Caramel is due to deliver her own calf in about 8 days, so needless to say she doesn’t need to be frolicking in the pasture with her baby sis!
To make matters more crazy, while she was running around the pasture and avoiding being caught by me, (and I am talking around and around and around the pasture) Jersey decided to run interference for her by standing between me and her and then just as I would get close to Hazel, Jersey would take off which would clue Hazel in that I was getting close and off she would go again! At one point, I was so frustrated I wasn’t sure if I was going to cry, yell or just double over in laughter.
I’m not really sure how long I ran around like a fool, chasing the illusive Hazel, but the thought did cross my mind “I now know why they lasso calves!” I think it would be a skill that would have come in quite handy this morning!
Eventually, by putting Mocha back in the corral, Hazel could no longer overcome her innate desire to be with her mom, so she headed back to the corral as well. But, what a workout she gave us! I often think how cool it would be if some “eye in the sky” was videotaping the antics that happen here on the farm, so that we could relive them and have a good belly laugh from time to time!
