A birth story

Haha.... I bet that title got you goin' eh? My birth story is not a human one... rather a cow one :)
(just thought I'd clarify :)


Yesterday at around 8:00p.m. I went to milk our cow Sally. I knew that Clarabell was getting REALLY close to calving, but I had quite given up on guessing when the calf was actually coming.
When I was finished milking I went out to check on Clarabell... and I saw.... FEET!! YEAH!! It was time!

I was mentally preparing myself for a staying up REALLY late waiting for the calf to be born and getting it fed and getting Clarabell milked.
I was thinking.... 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning.

It was SO adorable/funny, between contractions Clare would come over to me and start licking me all over, it was like she was practicing for when her calf actually did come :)
At around 9:30p.m. she started pushing in earnest, so I ran inside to get Ker out there just in case the calf was really big and I needed help pulling the it out.
But she was a PRO and a few minutes later... the calf was born!!! IT'S A BULL (boy :)!!!



I have experienced nothing as amazing as having the privilege of watching the birth of a new little life. And every single time it thrills me! This time was extra specially special because Clarabell was my little baby... now she is all grown up!

At 10:30 Ker and I went out to milk Clare and to feed the calf. We seperated the calf from momma, this is always the SADDEST thing to do, but it is necessary if we want milk to drink! We brought Clare into the barn and began milking her. She was REALLY good, so amazing in fact that I could hardly believe it! I thought.... wow, milking a heifer (first time mother, milker) is EASY!
Unfortunately... I spoke to soon, the morning milking was a disaster.... but I'll get to that in a bit....

Clarabell gave over 2 gallons of colostrum. We fed some of it to the calf and then put the rest into the freezer. Colostrum is milk that cows give for the first few days of her calf's life. It is essential for the calf to get colostrum within the first 24 hrs of life or it will die.
We freeze the extra in the case that in the spring we have a calf that lost a mother, or that it's mother is not able to give it the life giving milk that it needs in time.

Cows don't give chocolate milk.... but they give something even better, BUTTERSCOTCH MILK!!!

(looks like it eh?)

 After milking, we fed the calf, he was a really quick learner and Ker and I were in and cleaned up by 11:15p.m.!

This morning when I went milking, I made the mistake of leaving the calf in the same pen as where I was milking Clarabell. The minute the calf let a bawl Clare LOST IT. She wanted her calf NOW! I had to put her into the head gate, and even then she was swaying from side to side, kicking the milk machine off, bawling and makin' me a sad woman!

Tonight she did so much better.... I hope to have my sweet carefree Clare back soon!

And I'll NEVER again say that it is going to be easy to milk a heifer.... I've learned that experience means a lot!!

SOOOO, any name idea's for the calf????