Livin' off the land

On top of everything else we currently have going on in our lives, we are also responsible for the lives of 14 little baby cows. Well, some of them are not so much babies anymore. Some of them are full grown bad ass diesel steers. I still think they are cute, though, but don't say that in front of their girlfriends because they'll be all like, "Mooooooooooom! You're embarassing me!"

Happy moo-moo!

Anyways, we have been back and forth to the farm about every other weekend, if not more often, checking on the bee situation (more to come on that soon, some good and some bad news), checking on the cows, and working in the garden.  These cows, to me, are pretty high maintenance. James had me thoroughly convinced we would simply let them walk around in a field and make sure they had water every now and then. Not the case.

Our cows have needed several courses of vaccines so far, and just like toddlers, they don't like shots. We have to use a cattle chute. You should be super impressed that, after a few courses of each cow shuffling through the chute, I am a superior chute handler. We only have one problem - the chute operates on a basic premise: that cows are fearful of humans and will run from them. Our cows are not fearful. They walk right into the chute and stand there. We have to push them all the way to the front. When we open the gate to let them back out, they just stand there, perfectly content where they are. Once they have been turned back out in the field they huddle around us. One of them even reaches through the fence if I am nearby just to get a good grip of my shirt tail to chew on.

Blossoms on one of the apple trees.

We have also treated them for ringworm. Ugh. Gross. Makes me so itchy just thinking about it. Luckily, none of us have caught it (yet). 

In comparison to when we originally obtained our little baby moo-moos, they are doing fantastically. Even our little runt, Number 31, who we had to intubate when he was new to the farm, is romping around the pasture with his friends.

So, all in all, our new bovine buddies are doing great. They are growing up big, and soon it will probably be scary to have to usher them in and out of the chutes, but for now they are still super sweet and adorable.