Quite an intermission we had there, friends!
If you need to catch yourself back up, here's where you can find
Saturday morning the (big three) treekids were very excited to get out to see the baby calf as soon as they woke. There was no real desire to get cleaned up - just threw on the first clothes they could find and ran out to the pens.
Pops and I were happy to sit on a Saturday morning at the dining room table in the relative quiet and hear the birds chirping at our feeder, the wind blowing softly and making the wind chime ding-ling. We could talk about whatever our hearts content.
Bump was still sleeping and we were not in any hurry to wake him. The kids were chasing the calf around and petting its soft hair.
I was thinking that the calf had to be getting pretty hungry as it didn't really eat anything much the night before since it wouldn't take to the bottle.
On the other hand, if it were REALLY hungry, wouldn't it get to the business of suckling all that much faster?
Pops got out the milk replacer and measured out the appropriate amount of powder and poured it into the warm water in the bucket. He dug out the largest wooden spoon that I have and gave the bucket a big stir.
The sweet smelling milk for baby calves was funneled carefully into the bottle and the nipple was snapped around the neck of the bottle.
The bottle sat on the edge of the counter waiting for us to get ready to join those woopin' and hollerin' kids and calf.
Pops and I knew that we would be feeding this one for a few days as it had to be cornered, held onto, mouth coaxed open, bottle shoved in, mouth clamped down around the nipple, and throat massaged in order to encourage suckling. NOT an easy task for our young rascally children!!
As Pops worked on his mug of coffee and I watched the family of cardinals at the feeder, Blossom came running back into the house to go to the bathroom. "Hey, Momma, Daddy!! The baby cow is a GIRL! It isn't a boy!! Wooooo Hooooo!!!" and she was gone.
Pops and I looked at each other with our eyebrows cocked and had a WHOLE conversation in 3 seconds that no one could have heard. Wait, Here! I'll share the wild kind of crazy that Pops and I possess after 13+ years of marriage (and nearly 4 years of dating/engagement!)...
"Did you hear that," I ask wondering if he was deep in thought somewhere else or if he heard the wild rambling that just fell out of the mouth of our six year old crazy wild daughter.
Pops: I heard her. Do you think that she knows what she is talking about?
ELM: I KNOW that sheWANTED the calf to be a girl.
Pops: Would she say it was a girl just because she wanted it to be?
ELM: Hmmm. I doubt it. She thought there for a while that bulls have horns and cows don't, so maybe she is still going with that. She wasn't outside with it very long last night. Maybe she really gave it the once over this morning and found that there are no horns growing in!
Pops: Nah... I am pretty sure I cleared that up last time.
ELM: You got any ideas?
Pops: Do you think they were all having a veterinary symposium out there to figure out the workings of the bovine creature???
ELM: Well, it is possible... they've been out there for quite some time.
About that time, she came running back from the bathroom. "You know HOW I know it's a GIRL!??!" We stared at her...
"She lifted her tail and peed out her BUTT! It's a GIRRRRRRRRLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Gotta love that girl!! So much for the sale barn's assessment: black bull calf. Looks like we have a brown/charcoal heifer calf!! Sheesh...
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Thanks for jumping in and leaving your thoughts!!
I sure like to know who enjoys playing around the treehouse!