Long Day Part 2

About an hour ago, Summer came running down the stairs saying "I'm not seeing things this time, there's really a cow loose"

One of the steers had gotten loose somehow and was chilling by the road. After an hour of running around in our PJ's and pounding down Marco's door we finally got him in a field with the bigger steers until morning. 

Glamorous. 

Long Day

Today was a really long day. We started first thing by moving around cows. We shuffled and sorted all the ladies to be vet checked. Down came the rain and in came the vet. She stuck her hand up the butt's of about 100 cows and told us if they were good to breed or not. I got to catch the cows as they came down the chute and only let 2 go. That's not so bad, I guess. 

After we put everyone back where they needed to go we treated a few cows that needed to be treated, and we fixed a few things that need fixing including a watering trough. There really wasn't much to write home about today that I haven't already talked about. It was a pretty normal cow day. 

One Week Down

Today was the busiest day that we've had since I've been here. The morning started with Summer, Isaiah, and myself putting up fences near the cattle shack for the ladies that used to be in 33 to move over into. It went pretty quickly. TJ commented that our fence line looked like we were knocking down a few beers while we worked on it, but hey - it got done. After we went through and checked the electricity on all the fences we moved the cows across the street and into their temporary home. 

We then checked a few cows. N7 (the one-eyed bandit) looked a lot better today. Where her eye was all clouded over is almost totally clear so she didn't need an eye patch and we just treated her with sulfur. S25, the mom from yesterday, is looking better. We're hoping the swelling that's pinching her nerve will go down and she will go back to walking completely normally again. The other infection gals are starting to look better. Temps are getting down and their uterus' are almost all cleaned out. One cow has an e-coli infection (I don't know how to say the technical term) in her uterus and a sore foot so she's being treated for that as well. 

After lunch we moved all the divas from field 63 to the 5 acres area. They will be checked at vet check tomorrow along with all the other gals that we moved. 

I finally got to do something horticultury today! We planted a pear orchard in back of the shop. Scott drilled holes with the skid steer and we came behind him and planted 250 trees. I have to say; I am not a fan of bare root trees. They're no fun to plant. Hopefully they'll get watered in tomorrow and I'll get to see them finally flesh out some leaves. 

Sad Day

Today was kind of a bummer of a day. 

We started the morning by going out to fence a field, but didn't get very far. Marco called us up to 5 acres to birth a cow. Unfortunately, the calf was way too big and it took us almost an hour to get him out. He was dead before he was even born. He was just to big, and coming out backwards so his hips caught on his mothers. He pinched a nerve in her back and she had trouble walking afterwards at first but hopefully she'll get better. 

Then Summer and I fenced in a huge field. Fencing is hard. My arms are in so much pain!

After lunch we planted trees in yucky clay soil so it was slowwwwwww going. I'm excited to move cows tomorrow. Hopefully we'll see how that goes. 

Here's a picture of the ladies watching me plant trees. 

This Weekend

This weekend was pretty cool. Emily and Isaiah arrived on Friday. They're both very cool people. It'll be a good summer. I'm pretty excited. Emily's mom came, so we went to Rick's Place on Friday night and tried Michigan Dogs. It's kind of like a hot dog with a sloppy joe on top but it's delicious. We saw Ed and Pat there and it was kind of fun to be in a little local place. We came back, talked for awhile, and then went to sleep. 

I got up on Saturday morning to check cows with TJ. We caught the (ex) bull and gave him some banamine to help the swelling in his balls. He tried to lurch through the head hold and broke a couple of needles on me, but I ended up able to give him the shot. After, TJ had me check the "divas" while he went and checked the boys  to cut down on time. Well one divalicious cow decided that it would be fun to chase me down. I'm so glad that big animals don't scare me or this job would be a nightmare. Later that afternoon TJ, his fiancee and I went up in the lake placid region to deliver some meat to a diner. We ate up there and then took the scenic route home. We got to drive past the olympic training centers and the ski jumping facilities. It was so crazy and intense!

When I got back Emily and I went for a walk around a few fields and hung out and then we went into downtown Essex to The Old Dock Restaurant for their opening night. It was a little pricey but delicious and right on the lake. We came back and line danced in the living room a little bit afterwards. 

Cow checking this morning was interesting to say the least. TJ and I got to Sandy and Barberas house and P30 (remember the one that lost her voice bellowing for her calf?) and 2 others were wandering around the road. They are NOT supposed to be doing this. So we spent our first 30 minutes of the morning chasing them through the woods and trying to get them back where they belong. They just walked right through the fence. So we had to re-put up fence. Then we treated the (ex) bull and finished cow check. LP35's foot is looking worse so tomorrow morning we'll probably bring her in to look at it. Poor girl. 

After work we took Emily's mom over to Burlington on the ferry and went to the tiniest Walmart ever. It was a full day affair and now I'm exhausted. I'm trying to fight of a cold, still. Hopefully I can do it! 

Day 3

Today was like the most stupendous, fun day ever!

I got up (per usual) and went up to work. I brought my muck boots to join all the boys' in the shop. However, as seen in the picture below, my pair is not quite like everyone elses. It's good to stand out from the crowd...

First off, one of the chickens got eaten by something last night (not fun).

Then me, Zip, and TJ went to go check cows. First we checked the ladies and little ones over at the 5 acres. Everyone seemed pretty okay over there. Then we checked the "divas" over  by the river. These sassy heifers get super curious whenever we come around and have to come up and sniff and be excited. Then we checked the reject cows, the bulls, the steers (both fields), and finally TJ took me up to the nursery. It's a whole lot of pregnant or to-be-pregnant cows and a lot of little guys. Some of the mommas that we moved the other day are still bellowing for their babies left over in the 5 acres areas. 

Right after that, we had to go back down to the steers to get LF69. This poor boy has been crimped (a form of castration) at least 5 times and none of them took, so Marco surgically removed his testicles. I'll spare you the picture for that but it was an interesting procedure to watch. We wrangled up the boys, fly sprayed, and loaded 69 into the trailer. When we got to the cattle shed to do his business one of the cows was in labor! I got to witness my first calf pull of the season. Little TS21 was born today. She was a cute little angus but we had to keep an eye on her because for awhile her mom wanted nothing to do with her. After that excitement we snipped 69's manhood and went to lunch. 

This afternoon TJ and I went back up to 33 (the nursery) and gave them some minerals. Everyone came ambling up the hill for them. Apparently it's like a treat for them because everyone was pushing and shoving to get to the feeder thing. We did the same with the ladies down at the 5 acres. Then we rounded up N7 and the 3 other cows that needed to be checked because they had an infection from giving birth and retaining little bits of placenta. We checked the first 3 cows' temps (all of them high) and then cleaned out some of the gunk from their placenta. This involved me sticking my arm shoulder deep into a cows butt. Cow poo is a lovely color on me - let me tell ya. 

After Marco helped us replace N7's eye patch he left and TJ and I gave the shots to the new mom and baby. I got to give both Sub-Q shots to the mom which was really hard. On the second one she kept shaking her head and pulling the needle out which wasn't pretty because then she started to bleed and blah... I felt really bad for her. Then I got to ID tag the new baby girl and do both of her shots, weight measurement, and umbilical clamp. I learned a ton today!

I'll take you for a ride on my big... red... tractor!

Today started like yesterday. I woke up early, ate breakfast, went to the shop to meet up with everyone. 

First thing, Marco sent me with Ed. He's a pretty cool guy, that Ed. He was going to teach me how to disk on their MX350. I was a little bit more than petrified since the back wheels were about a foot taller than me! 

Conquering my fear, I climbed on in, watched Ed harrowed up a few rows and then tried it out for myself. With all that glass up there it's really not that bad at all. The only part that I have problems with is coordinating the klutch and the gears and the 6,000,000 things that are going on at once! 

We rode around on the tractor until well after lunch. At that point we helped Scott put away some of the Lewis' windows and attempt to fix a flat on another large machine. I'm not exactly sure what this one did but it was big, too. 

When that was done we went to fix the pushing lawn mower but that never happened. A Heiffer got loose from 33 South and we had to herd her back to her cranky friends. They're not very happy with us right now since we took their babies away from them yesterday. Sorry, ladies!

Day 2 was another good day.