Oh No, Oh No

Well, just like that winter is here with a vengeance.  Up until two days ago we enjoyed quite mild temperatures for January and were in heaven.  Now, the wind is blowing the temp has dropped from 0* to a bone chilling -25 with wind chill on top... we got a foot of snow when the cold front blew in from the north and that has made things even more treacherous than they were before because now we can't see where the ice is.  

Like last year the two weeks before calving officially starts is a living nightmare... two cows suddenly started bulling ( a term used for cows in heat and ready for a bull, they will jump on other cows and want to be jumped on ) not a good past time for cows in there 8 th and 9 th month of pregnancy to be dancing on their hind legs across the ice while piggy bagging the cow in heat.  So those two young cows had to be removed to a different pen, more work for Robt. to keep them fed and bedded separately.  Then two cows aborted their fetus's....too early, whether it was due to slipping on the ice, jumping on those cows in heat or some other medical reason, god only knows...but then a cow started showing signs of calving...the restlessness, twitching and arching of her tail...stamping her feet and general uncomfortableness.  after a couple of hours Robert could see a foot...he decided to investigate and one leg was back and not presenting itself in the right position of both front feet first along with the head further back but between the front legs. so he pulled the calf...and one leg fell off...once the calf was out...we examined it only to find that it had been dead for a couple of days and had begun to decay in the cow.  We suspect that slipping on the ice was her reason for the dead calf...she has exceptionally bad feet...like sled runners on the bottom so she has no traction on the ice and her feet slide every which way...we have seen her since go splay legged several times...but then just two nights ago...another cow, young and healthy started fussing like she might calf. Robt reached in after a while to find the calf dead but coming the right way...he put the chains on the calves feet to help her by hand, he pulled and the body of the calf tore apart (this is just pulling by hand) and it was rotten...he came in at 3 am to shower and ask me to come out to the barn with him....we worked until 5 am trying to remove the remaining half of the calf...finally I made a slip loop with some rope, Robt hooked it around the spine of the lower half of the calf body and I pulled on the rope while he guided it into the cows pelvis and thank god it finally came, but it took many, many tries..and the smell was horrendous...poor Robt got the worst of it being so up close and personal to the dead calf....we had to treat the cow with antibiotics of course, but are still worried about her going septic....with the calf body fluids still inside...it might have been better if we had just shot her but we neither have the nerve or the appropriate firearm to do such a thing, and were too horrified and embarrassed to have a neighbour do it for us.  Two days in and she is still alive and eating..seemingly no worse for wear...

Robt and I, of course are traumatized for life...we have, in 35 years of calving cows have never, ever had such a thing happen...we are in denial that there is something the matter with our herd...some disease or something that is causing these bizarre problems...and we have both agreed that if there is one more incident like that we will be involving a vet to come and examine a few of our cows, maybe do some blood work.

It certainly has us both wondering if it isn't a good time to get out of the cattle industry...while the prices are super high...we would still farm just not livestock...sell hay and grain instead..we wouldn't make as much money ( when cattle prices are high, anyway) but there would be a bit less stress and certainly make winters more bearable with out the 6 hours of chores and calving cows.  we will be thinking more about this during the winter...but what ever we decide...it will take time to implement.

I am feeling pretty good most days...I like being more active..outside everyday to nail boards or build something for Robt.  I was up in the air a few days ago, when he lifted me in the bucket of the tractor, about 20 some feet in the air to enable me to fix the rain gutter on the barn...with a tin roof the snow crusts on and then on a warmer day it slides off in a big whoosh and usually tries to take the rain gutter with it...we have band-aided it back on several times in the past but this time I wanted to do it right...since pieces of the gutter have broke away now with being loose and the wind rattling it around so much...so I had to devise some  metal straps that I could attach by taking one of the tin roof screws out and replacing it through one end of the strap, then bend the strap down to the outside face of the gutter and using a sheet metal screw attach the other end of the strap to the top bent edge of the gutter, acting like a suspender..I attached 18 of them on the worst side, it was freezing and I had to have my gloves off so I could hold the screws...we will wait for a warmer day to do the ones on the other side of the barn.

We are thinking of getting a new dog...(puppy). We tried the shelter route once and had the dog home on a trial run, it was so badly behaved, with terrible manners that we had to take it back...when you have other animals here we decided it was best to get a pup that would become trained to be around the animals...town dogs just aren't the answer.

We haven't thought about what kind...I of course still yearn for a small house dog but it isn't practical...because we also need one for outside...so we will go with the outside type dog first...we want to get one this spring while our other dogs are still alive, so the new dog will learn their good habits..like staying home when we are gone and not chasing the cattle or cats.

I would like a shepherd cross, something with a bit of hair that can be outside in the winter for longer periods of time...and this time we will train it from day one to stay in a dog house...with a heated floor...so that it would not have to be in the house or the barn...there just isn't enough room..

well I am getting ahead of myself talking about a dog...they are sooooooo much work...