Veterinary Science 101

Well, the girls had a fine lesson in calf-pulling today. I'm proud of their observation, otherwise we would have not only lost the calf, but the cow, also. While getting ready for the day, the Ballerina noticed a Heifer (yep, she was last year's calf) laying in the field alone. She thought it was odd that the rest of the herd was no where around, so she took a closer look out the window and was shocked to see a leg sticking out. Because the heifer was a light cream color, and the calf leg dark brown, it was noticeable from such a distance. Now, here's where their judgement proved lacking a bit. Instead of notifying an adult, the older 2 Dalrymples trekked out into the field to gaze astonishingly at the back side of the poor heifer with the calf sticking out. Finally, Dalrymple #2 came to tell mom, who was just getting out of the shower. Ah, yes, dressed in my town clothes, I went to see how serious it was. It was pretty bad and the calf was already dead. She was hung up on a broken leg. My wonderful calf-pulling husband should have been home from work at this point, but wasn't, so I called him and told him to "GIT ON HOME OR WE'RE GONNA LOSE ONE!" :0) Now, later, when quizzed about what on earth they were thinking by going to the cow themselves, instead of telling an adult, Dalrymple #1 (aka the ballerina) said she thought she could just grab the leg and pull it, but then decided not to try. !!!!!!!!!! My, my, my!!!!!! No tellin' what mighta happened if she had attempted that feat! It took my husband, myself, 2 ropes, and a 4 wheeler about an hour to pull that poor thing. By poor thing, I mean POOR.....it was very small and frail...not sure it would have made it had it survived the birth. Aggravatingly, it was female. It's worse to me when we lose a female b/c I think of all the calves she could have added to the herd. :0( The heifer is not feeling so great. She had already made a bag (was ready to nurse) and hubby says that will make her sick for a couple days. So not only did she experience an excruciatingly painful still-birth, but now she's gotta be sick on top of it. So sad. Right now she's resting, but we are praying she gets up soon and isn't paralyzed from having her calf pulled so roughly (we didn't have any other options due to where she was on the back 40.....NO WHERE NEAR the chute where we could have placed her head and then used a come-along to pull the calf....much easier on the mama than a rope and 4-wheeler, with my husband holding her head and horns. That must have been hard. Think about it.....he was pulling on one end and I was pulling on the other!) The girls got quite a lesson and had lots of questions, which my husband patiently answered while laying on the mama and soothing her.
We all really do love farm life....just not losing calves. Did I mention Junior was hiding behind a sad little tree the whole time? For some reason she was scared of that heifer! LOL Her daddy kept telling her to get over there and watch, but she was scared because he and I kept having to grab the mama by the horns, dig our heels in, and hold on for dear life.
Life on the farm, heh. Is it naptime yet? ;0)

On a better note, I just found out that I won 2 tickets to see Coyote County Loser, which was written and produced by some graduates from John Brown University, our local Christian College! I'm SO excited!!!!

Hope you all have a great weekend! :0)

Jerri

Water. Agua. H2O.

Ahhh.....can you hear it? Feel it? Taste it? Mmmmmm....
You just don't know how much water you use and how bad you need it until you don't have it. Running water is something not to be taken for granted!!! I've always heard that if you have running water (indoor plumbing) that you are rich compared to the rest of the world. I know it's hard to believe that many people don't have indoor plumbing.
We have been hauling water in for cooking, cleaning, drinking, hygiene, and flushing potties. We have been taking showers at my parents house. This HAS NOT been fun!!! (not the parents part, but just being without water in general) Being stuck at home because of icy weather is okay with me, as long as I can get something done. No water makes that difficult. No laundry, no dishes, no cleaning the bathrooms, etc.
So, yesterday afternoon, since the temp finally rose above freezing, hubby got out to work on the well only to discover that the filter housing was busted. So, expensive as that was, we replaced it. (Most of the time I HATE, I mean ABHOR credit cards, but in this case I sure was glad we have one!) One other problem.....turned the water on and the shut off valve had busted also. Grrrr. Hubby replaced that this morning with some spare parts he had (thank goodness!). We now have water and he is supposed to replace the points on the well this afternoon (which we purchased A LONG TIME AGO, but somehow they never got put on....). YAAAAYY! Now....dear hubby expected us to jump up and down cheering for daddy when the water came back on. That's not really the reaction he got. Sure, we thanked him and we expressed how glad we were to have it back on. I think he was a little bumfuzzled as to why we weren't more excited. Let's do the math.
Family of 5, 3 meals a day, plus snacks=lots, TONS of dirty dishes to catch up on.

Family of 5=5 pairs of clothes daily, plus pajamas, towels, wash clothes, etc. to be caught up on (not to mention we were behind on the laundry already!). (might I add here that we wore layers of clothing to keep warm, so there were even more extras!)

So. My 3 girls and I who are the keepers of the home (laundry, dishes, and cleaning) know that having the water turned back on means warm water to wash hands with, brush teeth, and take baths (not to mention flush the potty) but it also means time to give the house a thorough run down....which might take days! LOL

We really are glad to have water back!!! May you NEVER have to experience life without it, but learn from us that it is a convenience not to be taken for granted!!! :0)

Merry Christmas!

Chicky, Chicky

Well, we are adding some members to our farm family. Baby chicks! We actually added them last Sunday. Yes, that beautiful day....which turned into a stormy night! So...I was out at 4:30am trying to cover them up and keep them from drowning, only to find one had already gone. I think it was the one in this first pic. It was the smallest of the 10.

You may be asking yourself why on earth I would take a pic of the waterer....let me explain.

My dear husband went to the old barn in search of a watering can for the chickens. He comes back with this glass, original chicken watering jar. Wow. As he walks up he says to me, "Now this is why and when it pays to be a Dalrymple." LOLOL!!! Those of you who know us well know that my dear husband is a packrat, although I think with each generation it gets a little better....from what I've seen and heard anyway, LOL! This was his GREAT GRANDMOTHER'S!!! Apparently there were many of them, but as a small boy, he and his brother broke the rest (shame, shame!). It took a while, but I worked the lid off and cleaned it up and it works wonderfully ! Ah, to be a Dalrymple! Just what is she trying to do? Not sure myself!
This is the prettiest of the bunch, IMO.
This one was near death the next morning, so we brought it in and put it in a box in a warm place. Throughout the day it livened up, but that night before I went to bed, I went to check on it and it was dead. :0(

That put us at 8, but as of this morning, we are down to 7. :0( I have no idea what happened to the one that's gone.....it vanished!

She's such a nuzzler! :0)

Even though it shows how badly our grass needed mowing at the time, I think this is my favorite picture. (and it's been mowed since then, anyway, LOL!)