Today I sewed the two raindrop blocks to go with yesterday's umbrellas. These start off as HST and get their corners 'stitched and flipped' so are pretty straight forward to make.
Today the younger twins turned FOUR so there was a bit of a do down at our local playcentre. It's a great venue as there is plenty of room for play and everyone seemed to have a fun time (in spite of the rain!).
So I've left him for the night. I'm sure he'll be up and bellowing for some more milk first thing tomorrow morning!
While trying to get a calf photo I ended up selfie-ing! The calfshed lighting was fairly kind so here I am in midwifery and nursing mode!!
We've long made it a policy not to 'sleep with' our cows - we don't get up several times during the night to check on the close-to-calving ones, as some farmers do. (It's just too hard when you don't get a chance to switch off.) However when we did the rounds later on this afternoon, this first-time lass looked like she was starting to calve so we thought we'd better keep an eye on her. We brought her back, close to the shed so that we could monitor her progress.
(Look how tight her udder is, too - ouch!)
So about 8pm we went out to see if anything was happening and she hadn't progressed very far. We decided to get her into the shed to check what was going on and ended up giving her a helping hand. Ideally calves are born front feet first - this one had a leg tucked back so the poor cow wouldn't have been able to do it on her own.
So about 8pm we went out to see if anything was happening and she hadn't progressed very far. We decided to get her into the shed to check what was going on and ended up giving her a helping hand. Ideally calves are born front feet first - this one had a leg tucked back so the poor cow wouldn't have been able to do it on her own.
It's a wet and wild night so we thought the calf would do better going straight into the calfshed rather that out onto the grass with mum, who may or may not be interested in it.
I gave him about an hour and then went out to check on and feed him.
He was doing well, nice and strong but was struggling to get onto his front feet. 
I managed to get him up (I propped him up on an over turned milk feeder!) so that I could feed him.
(Very hard to take a photo when you are feeding a calf!!) We had some fresh colostrum from a cow we brought in this afternoon and he drank 2litres of that all up really well.
'til next time,
happy stitches,
one of nieces has cows and goats and when the babies are arriving she is in and out checking on them and sometimes is up half the night to help but like you with the ones she feels needs some help.
ReplyDeleteThose late night calves, my husband would go out at least once during the night. Fortunately we had a small herd so it wasn't every night. Happy stitching!
ReplyDeleteNice rain drop blocks and Churns….
ReplyDeleteGreat place to have a Fourth Birthday 🎉 🎂 🥳 party 🎈for the twins , especially when it’s wet outside….
Was good you were able to help deliver the calf and it it on its feet.
Thankfully you don’t need to do it too often.
We certainly do not miss those days and nights. Like Gretchen, our heard was smaller and our cows calved throughout the year not all at once. Breach babies always seemed to take a bit longer to get up and get going. Lovely selfie.
ReplyDeleteLike you were don't do night checks rarely very rare..... Good outcome.....
ReplyDeleteOMG 4 already..... Lovely churn dash blocks....
I don't know how you do it, calves and quilts. LOL
ReplyDeleteI hope the little fellow is ok and as you predicted up and bellowing for breakfast this morning.
Lovely selfie.
Lovely calf pictures. I do like your two tone churn dash. xx
ReplyDeleteA very busy time with birthday parties and calves.
ReplyDeleteThe children look like they had a great time. How did they get to be 4 year olds so quickly?
Looks like a good thing you spotted this cow. Glad you were able to help.