New Arrival

Peg looked out the window yesterday and said there is a mama licking a very small calf in the pasture.  Sure enough, a baby had just been born and the mama was licking it.

 
This random calf showed up after several minutes.  I thought the mama would chase it away but she didn't.  In fact it seems that the calf was there to help encourage the baby to start working on getting to its feet.

It was amazing to see the baby struggle and how the calf seemed to be there as a cheerleader.

 After several tries, the baby seemed to have enough strength to go after its next mission: FOOD.

Sometimes it looked like he made a connection and sometimes he didn't.  But mama moved and tried to get baby and the FOOD lined up.

Finally, the connection was made!

The sequence of events from the time the cleaning of the newborn began to finishing his first meal took about one hour.

After a rest from his first meal, the baby was up again for seconds.

Then mom and baby rested for another 30 minutes or so before they made their way to the herd which was probably a few 100 feet away.  Getting to the herd required several more snacks and rests. This morning when I looked out into the pasture, I don't know that I saw the new baby, but there were three slightly older babies kicking up their heels and chasing each other as their moms ate breakfast.

Dinner Bell!

The cows were resting along the south side of the pasture when they heard the dinner trucks at the Oak Grove gate and they came a-running!

It may not be our idea of dinner but to a cow it's "steak" (oops, sorry for the use of that word)!

The number of babies I saw was what interested me.  Today was our first sunny day in probably 10 days and the babies were out.  Looks like quite a few new little ones.  The babies are the fun ones to watch as they grow and learn to play with one another other.

The Deer

Just reread my last post, you can tell the pain meds were working...
Typing with one hand is tough, but here are a few pictures from the deer feeder.

This is our granddaddy.  Think these three pictures are of the same daddy deer.

Filling the feeder.  I am not much help with only one paw.

The cows heard the rattling bags and came running up for expected goodies.

After filling, we needed to hoist the feeder up quickly or the cows would have been all over it. Behind the one you see, are 20 more stampeding toward us!

Our simple Christmas decoration.  The cows have done some nibbling and pulling on it but it survives to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Time Between

We had a great Thanksgiving. The Grandkids left us with their colds and lots of fun memories!  Prior to the holiday, I had thumb surgery which really knocked me down several pegs, and we had a real gully washer of a rainstorm.

So even tho I was laid up from surgery, I was able to enjoy the tank from the back porch.   I suspect that we got 4-5 inches of rain.
Looks like various family members will be back for Christmas  Hopefully I'll have some use of my other hand by then and will feel up to taking pictures and typing.  Until then, Happy Shopping!

The Grandchildren

For the last couple months we have not had the grandchildren by as we have been digging out from under boxes and trash.  Finally we have places for them to sleep, eat, kid cups, books, DVDs, etc.  We met the Cypress group in Brenham for a quick exchange with their other grandparents and brought them back to the farm for a long weekend.  They had not been to visit since before the house was finished and they asked a lot of questions about whether we had food, a frig., doors, etc.  Needless to say, they were relived to find a home with all the things "they" needed including Goldfish!
We told them that there were lots of farm chores to do including moving the Norfolk Pine tree up to the house.  Here we have a "tree holder attachment" as part of the wheelbarrow.  The "attachment" informed us it "was very prickly!"

Other farm activities included taking the dogs for a walk.  One walker had to be rescued halfway through the walk as her legs pooped out.
Probably the highlight of the weekend was having all four of the grandchildren at the house playing together.  Yes, they were playing together!  "Cousin let's play!" could be heard loudly and often with lots of giggling and some good old horsing around.  A grandmommy goal was satisfied!

Beautiful!

For the last week I have enjoyed a lovely sunset each evening from the porch.  They may last only 2-4 minutes but they have been wonderful!

The Hunt

Had a couple people ask me about how "the hunt" was going.  Well, it is with some sadness that I have to report that I caught one mouse, by the tail, in a rat trap.  It was totally horrible and I will not pass on the details as I am still suffering from PTSD.  I still had mice... So put out the smaller mouse traps, two of them.  Every morning I checked, and every morning they were sprung and empty!

 Whoever this little guy or guys were, they were smart and quick!  Numerous "experts" swore by the glue traps:

So I laid a couple of these out near the hole.  I woke up in the middle of the first night and realized that the mouse would be stuck and not dead and I would once again have to look the little guy in the eye in his misery!  Thankfully when I checked in the morning, I didn't catch anyone.  So I packed up my traps and have called it quits for now.