Post by Lannie on Oct 31, 2014 14:07:53 GMT -5
I put a couple of pics on the October calving thread, but here are the rest. For anyone who doesn't know Helen, she was born shortly after Joann's and Mitra's dear Helen Heiferlump passed away. So my Helen is named in honor of their Helen.
Anyway, I took some pictures on her due date of the 29th:
Her WIDEness!
Her little heifer udder (it sure doesn't look like she's going to calve in 12 hours, does it?):
Waddling:
And her sweet face (chipmunk cheek due to cudding - LOL!):
So I was figuring, since her teats still hadn't filled, that she probably had another couple days left, but I still went out early the next morning to check, JUST IN CASE, and found this:
It was WAAAAY too far from the house to even think about lugging full buckets of molasses water out to her, so she didn't get any. Instead I brought her a few flakes of the nice 3rd cutting hay we have stashed for milking stanchion treats. She was starving (hungry enough to be eating that tall dead grass all around her).
She tore into that with gusto, and meanwhile, her baby, Loki, laid down in the grass:
He was mostly dry and had already nursed (I saw him), but he started shivering violently in the cold wind. Helen was busy replenishing her energy stores, and I didn't want to disturb her just yet, so I put some of her hay on Loki to insulate him a little bit:
Yeah, OK, it was cute, but it didn't work. He was still shivering. And anyway, just then, who should come swooping down on us but the Wicked Witch of the West, Miss Cricket. First she pushed Helen away from her hay, then she ripped Loki's "blanket" off of him and ate IT, so I threw her the rest of the hay (except one flake), and managed to get Loki up and moved a little farther away, into a spot where the sun was just starting to hit, and gave Helen the last flake of hay. Cricket was still working on the larger pile, so I went inside to warm up, then came out a bit later to move Helen and Loki into the barn. AFTER I got Miss Cricket safely locked in the cow pen so she wouldn't interfere.
Unfortunately there are no pictures of THAT comedy because I was by myself, but trust me, Loki is an expert at the Dead Calf Flop. And poor Helen, she's never been through this before, so she was sure I killed her baby twenty times! They were a LONG way from the barn and pen, and Loki and I were pretty much exhausted by the time we were only halfway there. At one point, he fell down (AGAIN), then he got his butt up, but his knees were still folded and his chin was on the ground, and he just stayed like that for a minute. It was SO funny, I wished I'd brought the camera. But eventually, he got his front end up and we continued on our way. Mostly I pulled or pushed. I tried carrying him, but only made it about 50 feet - he's much heavier than he looks! But we finally made it, and a few minutes later, Rich showed up with the camera, so he got some more pictures in the barn.
"Where am I and what just happened? What a DAY I'm having!"
"Oh, good, there's Mom. I need a drink!"
Poor Loki looks a bit lost sandwiched between his mom and his grandma:
And then... trouble arrived! "Who the heck is THAT??"
"He looks kinda like me, only smaller!"
Finally, Oggie ran outside to play in the pen for a while (he was frisky!), and Loki went exploring ALL BY HIMSELF! What a brave little boy!
Uh-oh! Oggie's back! This is future trouble in the making. Two little boys... I think I'm gettin' too old for this!
Oh, and the funny thing is, Helen is NOT fat like I thought she was. It was all LOKI! LOL! She hardly sticks out at all anymore - I didn't get a good "from behind" shot of her in any of those pictures. So here I was calling her fat, and she was just really, really pregnant! She actually looks like a normal beef cow now.
~Lannie
Anyway, I took some pictures on her due date of the 29th:
Her WIDEness!
Her little heifer udder (it sure doesn't look like she's going to calve in 12 hours, does it?):
Waddling:
And her sweet face (chipmunk cheek due to cudding - LOL!):
So I was figuring, since her teats still hadn't filled, that she probably had another couple days left, but I still went out early the next morning to check, JUST IN CASE, and found this:
It was WAAAAY too far from the house to even think about lugging full buckets of molasses water out to her, so she didn't get any. Instead I brought her a few flakes of the nice 3rd cutting hay we have stashed for milking stanchion treats. She was starving (hungry enough to be eating that tall dead grass all around her).
She tore into that with gusto, and meanwhile, her baby, Loki, laid down in the grass:
He was mostly dry and had already nursed (I saw him), but he started shivering violently in the cold wind. Helen was busy replenishing her energy stores, and I didn't want to disturb her just yet, so I put some of her hay on Loki to insulate him a little bit:
Yeah, OK, it was cute, but it didn't work. He was still shivering. And anyway, just then, who should come swooping down on us but the Wicked Witch of the West, Miss Cricket. First she pushed Helen away from her hay, then she ripped Loki's "blanket" off of him and ate IT, so I threw her the rest of the hay (except one flake), and managed to get Loki up and moved a little farther away, into a spot where the sun was just starting to hit, and gave Helen the last flake of hay. Cricket was still working on the larger pile, so I went inside to warm up, then came out a bit later to move Helen and Loki into the barn. AFTER I got Miss Cricket safely locked in the cow pen so she wouldn't interfere.
Unfortunately there are no pictures of THAT comedy because I was by myself, but trust me, Loki is an expert at the Dead Calf Flop. And poor Helen, she's never been through this before, so she was sure I killed her baby twenty times! They were a LONG way from the barn and pen, and Loki and I were pretty much exhausted by the time we were only halfway there. At one point, he fell down (AGAIN), then he got his butt up, but his knees were still folded and his chin was on the ground, and he just stayed like that for a minute. It was SO funny, I wished I'd brought the camera. But eventually, he got his front end up and we continued on our way. Mostly I pulled or pushed. I tried carrying him, but only made it about 50 feet - he's much heavier than he looks! But we finally made it, and a few minutes later, Rich showed up with the camera, so he got some more pictures in the barn.
"Where am I and what just happened? What a DAY I'm having!"
"Oh, good, there's Mom. I need a drink!"
Poor Loki looks a bit lost sandwiched between his mom and his grandma:
And then... trouble arrived! "Who the heck is THAT??"
"He looks kinda like me, only smaller!"
Finally, Oggie ran outside to play in the pen for a while (he was frisky!), and Loki went exploring ALL BY HIMSELF! What a brave little boy!
Uh-oh! Oggie's back! This is future trouble in the making. Two little boys... I think I'm gettin' too old for this!
Oh, and the funny thing is, Helen is NOT fat like I thought she was. It was all LOKI! LOL! She hardly sticks out at all anymore - I didn't get a good "from behind" shot of her in any of those pictures. So here I was calling her fat, and she was just really, really pregnant! She actually looks like a normal beef cow now.
~Lannie