It’s been such a wonderful day here on the farm: gorgeous weather and fun with the animals, but everything pales in comparison to the antics of our newest resident, Elsie, who has now earned the middle name of “Trouble”. Oh my! She is such a little character who tickles my funny bone with her personality!
It started off this morning while I was mucking the stall. She was flying around and kicking up her hind legs in the stall and literally skidded in the straw to keep from running headfirst into the wall! But that close call didn’t stop her! She went at it again! She was running around so fast that Mocha had to literally do circles just to keep an eye on her!
She thinks she can share Mocha’s feed, although Mocha doesn’t share willingly and almost seems to gobble it up so that she doesn’t have to share and, she literally helped herself to the mineral and sea salt. She would eat the hay if she could reach it and when Mocha throws some on the floor, she inspects it thoroughly.
While Mocha had some “girl time” with Jersey in the pasture, Elsie had her first lesson with the lead rope and I must say that her stubbornness showed through very clearly! Calves have what I will call a “natural defense mechanism” when they don’t like or don’t want to do something. They literally put their heads down and their legs together and fall over on their side! It is hilarious to watch once you know to expect it, however, the first time it happened with Hershey, I was afraid I had done something wrong or he was hurt. Some of our calves have been more insistent in wanting their own way than others…and those calves fall over quite a bit until they get the hang of the lead rope. Learning to be led on the lead rope is usually when that mechanism becomes most apparent.
We finally got her to the pasture where she met her sweet Uncle Herbie. She was more concerned at first with her displeasure at being led on the lead rope, however, she eventually became curious about him. He was very curious about her, but each time she fell down, he went over to her as if to say “Are you ok?”. He was so very sweet and gentle with her! I know that some day they will be best buddies!
Elsie also had her first, second, third and fourth lessons with the electric fence. The last time I saw a calf get zapped that many times in such a short span of time was our first calf, sweet Hershey! Elsie got zapped on the nose again and again, but she kept going back for more! She then went over to the electric fence on the opposite side of the pasture to see if she got the same reaction!!!
Elsie also got to meet Odin who was very interested in playing with her. He weighs more than she does, but they aren’t too terribly different is height. I think he was excited to think he had someone his size to play with! She was a little interested, but really was just more concerned to get back to the barn!
Then tonight, after I had milked Jersey, listening to Elsie run circles around Mocha the entire time, I began cleaning Mocha so I could milk her. Elsie was continue to run crazy around the stall and I heard a loud THUMP! and when I looked toward the direction of the sound, I was shocked to that Elsie had LEAPED into Mocha’s 100 gallon tub of hay and was hanging with her front legs in the tub and her back legs dangling helplessly outside the tub! I jumped up and literally lifted her up out of the tub and set her down on the ground. I couldn’t believe what I had just witnessed! I wish I could have taken a picture with just my eyes, so that you could see what a feat she had accomplished, but I was too concerned with her safety to grab my camera! Her little acrobatic antic upset Mocha so much that she danced around and knocked over my water bucket and milking stand!
So, Elsie was born five days ago tomorrow morning and she has already made several names for herself: Adorable, Precocious, Smart, and Stubborn as well as a few others! Make no mistake: She is a wonderful addition to our farm and if she continues on her current path, I am sure she will continue to break milestones set by previous calves. She is DEFINITELY Mocha’s daughter!
