Spring makes for messy barnyard

Ugh, what a messy barnyard I have! No, it’s not knee deep yet but it is sloppy, slippery, and gross.
The calves are lucky they have pens so they can escape from the miserable mess, but it is difficult to keep a bunch of cows dry.
Some seem to enjoy lounging in the slop, but others do their best to stay out of it.
It’s important to keep an eye of calves during this weather because this is when you may see some scours occur. This type of weather also can play havoc on a bunch of young calves.
When it is this dirty, it is easy to keep an eye on udders. Normally they will be clean from the calves sucking but if not, it could be just a warning sign.
Cows are pretty good at letting you know there is a problem. I always say that “happiness is when you open the house door and don’t hear a cow bawling.”
• • •
I remember my mom telling me how she always dreaded March Break, and how we always got wet and constantly needed to change clothes (we never went off on a warm March Break vacation, if we were lucky we make a trip to the big town—Fort Frances).
I witnessed this wet thing first-hand. I thought it was a good idea to pick up the girls and go pick out a new bunny rabbit.
We did that. We visited a nice farm family in Miscampbell and enjoyed their large display of rabbits. We found our favourite colour and now have a chocolate bunny!
Naming him proved difficult, though. We suggested numerous “rabbit type” names, but none were suitable—to Maddie, that is (poor Marlee slept through most of it!)
I suggested the name of our rabbit that we are just permanently looking after “Mr. Wilson” (just to see the reaction).
Maddie quickly responded, “No, that’s a girl’s name” (“Mr. Wilson” is a spade female bunny and she came with her name).
In the end, we settled on “Brownie!”
Brownie did well being dragged around, watching TV and doing whatever the girls thought he should do. Maddie reminded Marlee that it was actually her bunny because she fell asleep and missed picking him out, and had paid for him with her money (funny, the money came out of Auntie Kimmie’s purse).
But when not tugging around “Brownie,” and we were trying to do some chores, we honestly were outside for no more than 10 minutes and everyone was soaking wet. Head to toe.
No wonder my mom dreaded March Break, I understand now and it was my idea to bring the girls out.
They might have to wait until it dries up a bit for their next visit!
• • •
My full-time farming days are coming to an end. And by the look of my list, I’m not sure if I can get all my jobs tackled and completed before I have to go back to work every day.
Here I thought I was going to have less to do when I gave up my 4-H work. It is just like money—you always think when you are finished paying for something big (like a truck), you think to yourself, “Oh, I will have so much more money!”
But for some reason, it seems to disappear some other place!