Easy Sunday

I was hoping nothing out of the ordinary would happen today. Then I felt I could go back to my smartass blog posts about some subject that at least I felt was amusing. From the emails I get and the comments I get from people in person (yes the blog comments still are not working) are varied and so are the people who read the blog on some type of regular basis. Some people ask for more of the everyday operations and others like it better when I try and twist something in my day into something humorous. Still others like when I talk about the serious part of life and how that plays a role in my day. Then there are the people that do not say much about the blog but email me offers of hair growth, weight loss and various items to enhance your brain. At least I am guessing it is to enhance your brain because the email says, “As a man, would you like to enhance that certain part of you that could use some extra growth?” anyway …..

It was once again sunny and beautiful here and close to 60 degrees after frosting a bit overnight. I was pretty slow at leaving the house this morning being it was Sunday. I went to feed the yearlings and babysitter cows and that went well. I have noticed that neither mother nor daughter that were separated the other night stray from each other much now. I then went to feed and check the special needs cows and the fall pairs. I needed to feed two bales today so I fed the first one and tagged two new calves there. Then I went back and loaded the second bale and fed it. The cows and the calves looked nice in the bright sunshine today and I was just about to leave for the main group of cows at Basin City.

I then noticed one calf that was born February second walking among the herd and bawling. I also noticed that the calf seemed a bit shrunk out. I knew his mother was a old cow and I though maybe she is in the other pasture or maybe she is in the feeding line and I just had not seen her. I walked through the cows and she was definitely not in the group. They have lowered the big canal level the last few days and I thought I knew where she might be. I decided she had found her way around the end of the fence that led to the canal since it had been lowered. It was a nice day so I decided to take a walk, find her and put her back in.

I could not find her where I thought she might be so I decided to walk through the thicket of locust trees. After spending time walking through them I still had not found the cow. I decided that maybe she had jumped the hotwire and was on the side hill of the hill pasture. So I got in my pickup, left the cows and drove the canal bank where I could get a good view of the side hill. There was no cow on the side hill and I was really puzzled where she might be. I decided to drive back to the cows and walk through them once again; surely I had just missed her. As I crossed the canal bridge driving back I found the cow. 5027y is an old black brockle face cow that my dad had bought years ago. She is really easy going and raises great calves. This past fall at culling time I decided to keep her one more year. She had a nice calf and stayed in decent body condition and I was glad she had.

Just like how sometimes nature can be so inspiring Mother Nature can sometimes be one cruel bitch. I cannot determine why but for some reason 5027y had left the earth for that big pasture in the sky. I felt bad but also knew that sometimes things just happen and the focus of my day had now changed. I went to Basin City and fed, checked and tagged a new calf there. When I returned the girls helped me get the orphan calf caught. Tonight he is resting comfortably with a full belly of milk from a bottle. He will now be a bottle calf unless some cow loses a calf over the next few weeks then he may be grafted onto a surrogate mom. So much for an easy restful Sunday.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is Redroot pigweed aka Amaranthus retroflexus.

Today’s picture is calf 0027y (new bottle baby) when he was 2 weeks old.