At my 5:00 a.m. cow check Sunday morning I had a heifer calving. I checked the rest of the cows and then put her in the barn. I went to the house and watched for an hour and she started to push pretty good and by 6:00 a.m. she had a nice little bull calf. He is a bit early but he is fine and his mom loves him and that is all that matters.
I should have known that I would get a calf because I am booked to head to Toronto from Monday until Thursday. It is almost like they want to remind me what time of the year it is! I had made some calls a bit ago to see if I could find someone to stay at my place while I was away. It isn’t easy to ask someone to come and stay and then get up every two to three hours to check cows. I wasn’t having much luck when my girlfriend offered up her services. I am not great at accepting help but it honestly made my day! I feel confident in her and so will my mom. I worry about my mom doing to much, falling on a frozen turd or stressing herself out because I am away.
My girlfriend was on a warm vacation last week and was booked to return early Saturday. As we all have been hearing, Toronto has been getting hit horrible with very wintery weather. There were so many flight delays that trickled down the line that it affected her as well. I was starting to get nervous. I didn’t know what to do. Where do I start? Do I start looking for someone again, do I cancel my flight, do I start trying to find someone to look after the tasks I am scheduled to do this week? Thankfully they finally flew them home later on Sunday night. I hope that she is still willing and able to take on this role for a few days. I should be home for my night checks Thursday. I don’t want to jinx myself. The due date for my cows is Thursday but at this point anything can happen.
The Rainy River Cattlemen’s Association held their first board of directors meeting with the new board. Murray McDonald was elected President for another year and Louis Bujold Vice-President. We had a really good meeting and I felt the board was engaged in planning the year ahead.
To top off all my other stress, my water has a bunch of silt in it. I have never had this happen before. The water is to the top of the well and the overflow is working. We are thinking that after the pipe melting earlier that the water flowing for many hours has likely caused something to shift and we are getting some very dirty water. I noticed it in the barn a few times but it would clear up but now it is in the house and it don’t seem to be clearing up anytime soon. I just keep reminding myself that, “at least there is water” and we are not hauling water to animals.
I hope by next week this cold snap is behind us and I have much more positive news to update you on!
