Wednesday, April 14, 2010

A month of sickness, new calf, and a milk cow!

My goodness - what a wild month!  I apologize for the absence, the last couple weeks have meant nasty virus for the whole family and three days in the hospital for our daughter.  Scary stuff.  But I am back now with wonderful news of all sorts!  Our heifer (now a cow I guess) calved early Monday morning!  She had a beautiful little heifer calf that is such a friendly, spunky girl.  The kids love her: while I've been working with her (milking mostly) Cole sits in the stroller to watch and Savanna looks on from a safe distance.  The calf, Opal (we're going with gemstone names for them, my sister-in-laws idea) regularly checks in with both Cole and Savanna, making both of them laugh and squeal with delight.  So fun to watch.

Opal - Born April 12, 2010
Ruby got her first real milking last night - in hobbles.  She gave a full quart from two quarters (two teats/half the udder).  This morning she stood like a nice girl and gave almost a half gallon!  I can't wait for her milk to come in so that we can start drinking it.  We're saving the colostrum for a friend with cattle though, just in case they have a orphan calf, this way they will have real colostrum to start off with.

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