In the Dark

Yeah, tis the time of year for chores in the dark. O-dark thirty in the morning and after dark in the evening. It isn't too awful when it is clear. Kind of neat to be out in the night. However, during monsoon time it is pretty darned grim. They say it is supposed to clear off this afternoon.

I am ready.

On the feeding side of things Alan came up with a good plan. We were chopping Sudex and second cutting hay and feeding it green...a reasonably workable system. Then we got this rain. No idea how much, but it is still raining after almost two weeks, the driveway is gone again after just being repaired, the four-wheel drive is down and the John Deere can't do the job. We didn't want to open any of the 150 or 200 foot long bags the men have put up for winter, but the girls gotta eat.

I suggested to the guys that next year they should think about putting up two or three little bags first thing in the spring, so if we get a spell of bad weather or a break down we don't have to commit to feeding out winter feed when it isn't winter. (Once you open a bag, the feed spoils if you don't keep feeding from it.)

Alan thought a while and said, good plan. Then he suggested...."why don't we pull the bagger off the bag we are filling now and just close it up and start a new one for the rest of the fall harvest?. Then we can feed that instant "short bag" right up."

Yeah, brilliant idea, so that is just what they did. The cows had big golden mounds of partially ensiled Sudex for supper last night and they really liked it. We let them eat in the barn instead of outdoors so they were actually dry when we milked them, which is not an issue for them, but it sure is nice for the cheap help. They went back to their pasture last night, but heaping mangers await them as soon as it gets light enough to find them and bring them in.

Had a calf born yesterday too. We were watching Camry like a whole family of hawks. The past two times she has calved she has been afraid of the calf or something and tried to give birth while running away from the process. This is not a workable plan and she nearly died with her first calf. things were pretty dicey last year too even though she calved right by the barn and we were right there.

Thus the plan was to keep her in the stable when she looked close and be right there to assist. Like many plans made by mere mortals this one was foiled by a higher power. She looked fine yesterday morning, no sign of labor, so we turned her out with the rest of the girls. Last night when we brought them down to dinner she was leading a shaggy little black and white heifer, a daughter of SWD Valiant. I guess she finally figured things out. Just in case she hadn't quite we kept them both in the barn last night....