kdolu Most of my mornings can be summed up with the words “coffee” and “cow pies”, but this morning was something else. A wild morning, if you will. While some days can be tough, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Here is a little glimpse into my life as a farm chick:
5:15- Alarm goes off, I immediately hit snooze. Pretty typical. I never use to be a snooze button person; I blame my husband for this habit.
5:23-Alarm goes off, I actually get out of bed.
5:24-Walk like a zombie to the coffee. Drink it.
5:27-Open the fridge and find nothing to eat, damn.
5:28-Open the pantry and find nothing to eat, damn.
5:29: Decide I will just drink coffee for breakfast and eat double at lunch. I like lunch food better anyway.
5:30-Try and tame my hair that is a wild mess from going to sleep with a wet head.
5:40-Decide it’s pointless and just get dressed. #Can’tTameThisMane
6:00-Arrive at the farm and am greeted by my dog who is only being cute because he is hungry and wants to be fed.
6:05-Discover that we have a cow that fell down while giving birth and cannot get back up. I jump in the skidsteer and help my husband maneuver the cow into the bucket of the skidsteer. We move her onto a patch of grass and give her plenty of fluids, feed and TLC. We hope she will get up on her own soon.
6:20- I bring fresh feed to the hospital barn and make my husband shovel it all into the manger.
6:30- Head out to the calf hutches to paste the three newest calves. They had just eaten breakfast, so they didn’t squirm much. It was an easy job today. You can read more about how and why we dehorn calves here.
6:40- Walk to the back row of hutches to help my mother-in-law finish bedding calves. Realize I lucked out because she only has four left. Yahtzee.
7:00- Move a newborn bull calf out of the calving pen and into a pen of his own. He is a big son of a gun, but its nothing these pipes of mine can’t handle.
7:10- Make the list of cows that will recieve rBST today. Yup, we use rBST. You can read more about that here.
7:17- Grab the list of cows that need to be dried up today and track down my husband.
7:20-Find my husband. He is drenching a fresh cow (cow that recently gave birth) with fluids and isn’t ready to sort cows yet, so I begin turning on all the fans in the barn. Feels like its going to be a hot one today.
7:25-Notice I am being followed by a heifer in heat. I try to lose her, but she’s too quick. She licks my pants while I’m turning on fans and rips a bigger hole in my jeans. I take out my phone and snapchat this ordeal to my friends.
7:30-My husband and I sort out the cows that need to dried off and take them to the milking parlor.
7:46-Realize the cows we just sorted are running around outside because someone left the gate open. Are you kidding me?!
7:47- I start running after the cows with my husband, in-laws and other employees.
…30 seconds later….
Stop running and just begin walking really fast because I am out of shape and don’t run.
8:10-Finally get all the cows wrangled and back into the barn.
8:17-Get a little mad at my husband for something stupid.
8:18-I get over it because my husband is a cool dude and life is too short to stay mad.
8:20-We vaccinate and milk the dry cows one last time before sending them on “maternity leave” at the farm down the road. We will bring them back in 50-60 days when they are ready to calve. What to know what to expect when your cow is expecting? Read this old post.
8:40- I throw on a little Miranda Lambert to calm my nerves and make a list of cows that will need to have their hooves trimmed tomorrow.
9:00-Help my husband sort a cow that needs to be bred.
9:10-Stroll on over to the calf hutches to vaccinate calves.
9:15-Get calf crap on my freshly washed jeans. Aaaargh!
9:30-Check on the down cow. She drank all her water and ate all her feed so I give her some more. This is a good sign and I’m feeling hopeful that she will be on her feet soon.
9:40- Enter my calf vaccinations into the computer and begin gagging because the calf crap on my pants is engulfing our small office with a rancid smell.
9:50-Realize I’m hungry ( which seems odd due to the gawd-awful smell radiating off of my jeans) I hope my hunger doesn’t turn into hanger (hunger+anger).
10:00 Call my sister to tell her how crazy this morning has been.
10:10- Do a walk through and see what is going on. Notice things seem to be slowing down. Cows seem happy, calving pens are clean, cows are being milked, dogs are basking in the sun.
Life is good.
The rest of my day was a little less crazy, but still fairly interesting. That’s a story for another day.
How was your day? Do you prefer the slow days or the busy days? If you are anything like me you long for the busy days when you are bored and wish it was a slow day when you are running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
🙂
