Twins!

We were all invited to my B. grandparent's home today for a special meal, but as we're calving now, we knew some people would need to stay home.   It ended up being just my parents who went and they had a nice time spending the afternoon in Mandan with Grandpa and Grandma and one of my dad's brothers and his wife.  My parents pulled back in the muddy yard at supper time.

But, before they left this morning, we all worked together to sort off the big bulls and chase them across the road to their new home (the pen over there).   They were mighty frisky and stubborn at first when we tried to sort them off and had multiple bull-fights going on at all times it seemed until we finally got them all headed toward the gate and out (after running back and forth 4 times).  Then they went to their pen without too much more trouble. 

After that, we had to sort of a younger bull who'd gone back into the main herd of cows (we have 2 separate herds---the old and the new) and we put him with the 4 yearling bulls in a pen, then loaded them all up together on the stock-trailer and hauled them across the road.  (It was easier than chasing them, I'm sure!)   My mom headed inside to get ready to go at this point while my dad helped us tag the calves that were ear-tag-less.  After that was safely accomplished, my parents headed for Mandan and the boys headed across the road (after our noon meal) to spend the next couple hours thawing out the bull's water fountain which has been frozen shut all Winter.  I still wasn't feeling well (headache and weak/tired), so I did the dishes from the weekend and worked on some paperwork business.  Later, I baked a couple of apple pies.  Maybe part of why I was tired is I took one of the night cow-checks last night and then it took me a couple hours to get back to sleep once I was in the house again, as I kept thinking about things......

This afternoon, my brothers were still thawing out the fountain, so they asked if I'd check the cows.  I hopped in my dad's black pickup (with 4-wheel drive) and went for a sight-seeing journey.   The most exciting thing that I saw was a new mama licking her wet baby off while lying down.  I could see 2 feet coming out her backend, so knew that our first set of twins for the year was well on it's way.  I left them alone while finishing the rounds of the calf-checking, then by the time I got back to the cow, she had the 2nd baby lying by the first and was busy licking them both off.   The 2nd calf had the sack over it's head though, so I grabbed a stick (in case she was a mean mama); climbed through the fence; and went over to the calf.  Thankfully, the cow (one of Andrew's) was one that used to be a bottle-calf so she was OK with me being there and I was able to pull the sack off the baby's head and nose without any problems.   He seemed to be glad to be rid of it. 

 Later still, my dad and Andrew hauled the calves in the barn, as we just want to be sure they get some good bonding time and this way we can keep a close eye on if the babies are doing well or not.  Sometimes, a cow will only claim one calf and will leave the other to die, or other times, she may not have enough milk for both of them and neither will do well.  In that case, we would be very glad that we have fresh cow's milk to feed and would have a bottle-calf in our barn again.   For tonight though, Andrew and I helped the babies find the "Dinner pail" while their mother ate the alfalfa hay I'd fed her.  She was very patient which was a good thing as the twins were kind of, well, dumb.  :)