The kitchen is vacant tonight!

I just arrived home from babysitting a few minutes ago and was relieved to see the kitchen empty of bovine occupants!  It's actually quite nice out this evening and feels a little like Spring.  :)

I brought Amelia, James and Michael over here for a while this afternoon and they enjoyed seeing our calves and other animals again, then playing on the swings and teeter-totter.  We noticed some green grass coming up in the lawn!  Hooray!

The children informed me, after we got back, that they'd wanted to see my clean fish aquarium because the last time they were here, it was all a mossy mess....  They were content to wait for the next time to see it though, as it was supper time by then and their tummies were hungry.  We popped some popcorn and had movie night tonight.  ....And my brothers say:  "You get paid for that?"  ;)

Good night everybody.  God bless~

Babies--and 'sitting...

Thankfully, there haven't been tons of cows calving in this cold, snowy spell!  Last night we had 2 calves in the kitchen, but they're doing well now.  

Yesterday I babysat Johanna and Tracy Jo until suppertime, then helped get cows/calves in the barn.  It's a blessing to have a couple of barns with different sections in each....  We ate a late supper last night!  This morning, we had to get the kitchen calves back with their mamas and made sure they nursed.  We now have a bottle calf too (or a spiker calf if needed) as one of my cows who isn't doing very well (has hip issues) surprised us all by having a healthy calf yesterday morning.  She's not in any shape to raise a calf though, so it will be our new bottle-baby. 

At 1:00, I drove into Napoleon and picked up our neighbor children (the 3 I stayed with for a week last month) from preschool.  We went to the post office to mail a package for my dad, and we also bought a case of powdered colostrum at the elevator, as we're going through it faster than we'd hoped with all the calving problems.  Thankfully, we haven't lost any babies in the last few days! 

Now I'll be staying with these children until tomorrow night when their mom gets back from visiting a dear childhood friend/working.  Their dad is away for job-training, so it's just the 4 of us again.  They just finished their bath and want to get back to playing tinker toys, so I'd best post this and get back to play.  ;)

Desserts you can have on a candida diet?

I'll be joining a fun group of young ladies for a weekend+ in a couple of weeks and my contribution to the menu is to make a snack for everyone.  As some of the young ladies are on a special candida diet, I'm trying to decide what to make.  Does anyone have any suggestions for a dairy-free/mostly grain free yummy snack?  I found a helpful list of foods that can be eaten here: http://www.thecandidadiet.com/foods-to-eat-on-the-candida-diet/.

I made another gallon of yogurt today.  That stuff doesn't last long around here!  Then I worked on my records/taxes/loan paperwork some more.  Fun times?  Well, kind of.

There were only 3 calves today, so far, although another 1 is going to calve soon.  We are having troubles with our heifers not claiming their babies, so have had to get several of them in the barn or separate pens so they have some bonding time.  We had to do that twice this evening.    Please pray for all the ranchers who are calving, as this is a big job!  It can be a dangerous one too....

More babies!

Well, this wasn't the most restful day-of-rest we've had in a while, but now at the end of it, there are 6 more healthy calves in the world, so it was a good day.  We did have to pull 1 of them this evening, but all is well now.  We're working on spiking a calf on the mama whose baby died yesterday.  She kicks at the calf when it tries to nurse on its own, but as soon as we get her locked in the head-gate, she's a perfect angel.  Dad says they'll get used to each other and will forget that at one point they weren't really mama and baby.

This afternoon, we all jumped in the pickup and headed out to do some tagging-catch-up-work.  We had about 10 to do, and as a few of them were 2 days old already, the boys got their exercise.  My dad was the driver; Mom the record keeper; Andrew the catcher; Jacob the tagger; and I was the baseball-bat holder---just in case the mamas had some crazy ideas..... 

I praise God that we all made it through this week safely and look forward to another exciting (and tiring) week!

The joys and woes of calving....

The joy of this time of year is watching the little calves bound across the pasture, tail straight up in the air like a flag.  Even in the wind today, they had some good romping fun.

The woes part is when you lose one of those little ones.  I lost one calf today, as it's heifer mother had it right in a very muddy/manure spot and it got cold and icky and the mama didn't lick it off.  Until we found it, it wasn't off to the best start.   We got it in a barn and I washed it off for a long time, then later brought it in the house to warm up, but she was just too cold or weak or something and she died.   

We had to get another of my cows in the calving pen this morning and pull her calf, as it was very large and she was having trouble.  Then, she didn't want to have anything to do with the calf for a while, but after I sprinkled some "Oh No Mo" on it, she licked it a bit and later let it nurse, so I think they'll be alright now.  

I also have another calf who's been in the house for 2 days (he's in the barn tonight) as he just was cold and it took him a while to get going.  We think he probably never nursed.  He still won't suck on a bottle and I've been having to tube-feed him all of his milk.  He's one stubborn baby! 

SO, today was an exhausting day and I am glad it's over.  There were also 3 other calves born today and they are all doing well, so that's a blessing.....

Busy day...

For my dad and Andrew, the day was spent in cleaning grain until past dark.  This morning, before they left though, they (I was along too, but didn't do much) brought one of my calves in the house to warm up, as it was very cold and couldn't sit upright.  It's one that was born yesterday evening.  It had been standing but apparently didn't get anything to drink and just got too weak to do anything but lie flat out on his side.  SO, I had someone in the kitchen to keep my company all day and he is sleeping in the small entry right outside my bedroom door tonight.  He's doing tremendously better now and even stood up and walked around after supper, but he will still not suck on a bottle or anything and I've been having to tube-feed him all his colostrum.  We're really hoping he'll be jumping around by morning and ready to nurse on his mother and that she'll remember him, as we don't want to have to get her in the barn (she's the knock-you-over kind). 

My mom spent the whole entire day in Bismarck, doing lots of sessions and running around town getting parts for the guy's things.  She just returned home at 10:00.

Outside of working with the calf, I baked bread/pizza; did some laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning; then hunkered down and worked on paperwork for taxes....    Jacob and I did the evening chores by ourselves:  he fed the cow's hay and I did the milking and other chores.  He helped me with my calf quite a bit today too. 

Oh, the nicest part of the day was when Paula brought the girls (Johanna and Tracy Jo) over for a "Field trip" to see the animals.  :)   Johanna really liked the turkeys and Tracy really liked stomping around in the mud and melting snow!

Big ol' pot of chili....

Before it gets too warm out and nobody wants to eat hot things, I made a big kettleful of black bean/chana-dahl/chicken chili.  It's pretty yummy!  Even one of my brothers who isn't fond of chili said it was good.  :)

Andrew cleaned grain again today.  My dad attempted to clean grain, but broke down and had to bring it home.  He and Andrew got it fixed again this evening, so Lord willing, he'll be going strong again tomorrow.  What a miserable day it must have been to be standing outside, working with dusty grain. 

There were 2 new calves this afternoon, so I hear (1 is even mine).  :)    Tonight it's my turn for the middle-of-the-night run again.  My dad and I have been alternating with that one, as it's the hardest in my opinion (waking up, going out in the cold, then coming in and trying to fall asleep again).   Jacob takes the midnight run and just stays up until that time.  Andrew takes the 6:00 check and then stays up from there and milks his cow at 7:00am.  So far, there haven't been any problems at night, so that's a blessing! 

I babysat Johanna and Tracy Jo this afternoon/evening again.  We had fun building with blocks and reading books.  Of course they loved their bathtime too.   Johanna then found her "Baby" (her favorite doll) and cuddled it for a while, then took it in the kitchen and put it in her own highchair.  Next, she went to the bathroom and drug her step-stool to the kitchen and placed it beside her highchair, then asked for some goldfish crackers.  I gave her a few crackers in a bowl and observed the little mother climb up on her stool and feed her baby crackers (then chomping them down herself after offering each one to her baby).  It was SO cute!

I think tomorrow is an all-day-at-home kind of day for me, but that may always be subject to change of course.   I think I'll clean my aquarium, as it's needing some help again......