More Farm Life .... in photos!

Sometimes Farm Life is also about death. A few weeks ago, a cow giving birth had some major problems. She was actually a little young and small to be having a calf...stupid bull...stupid broken fence...but that's another story! After Tim and I were unsuccessful trying to pull the calf out (who was alive, by the way), Tim roped the mom to a tree and roped the calf. We were able to gently pull the calf out.

Look at these eyelashes!


However, the damage to the mom had already been done. After a day of her not getting up and not being able to feed her calf, we brought the 2 of them down to the barn.




The mom was quite content to lay on the ground and eat the hay and drink the water that we brought to her. (talk about a new meaning for ground beef!) Nothing we did would help that mom stand up. We fed the calf some milk replacer a couple of times day..which she sucked down (2 QUARTS at a time!). We ended up calling the vet who came out to check on them. The mom was permanently paralyzed, so we had her put down. The calf also had a broken hip that was very damaged and probably wouldn't heal. The vet said "You never know though. I've been in this job too long to not believe in miracles." So, we fed her and pet her and the kids had a great time playing with her like she was a puppy or something.




However, when the medication from the vet wore off, she went downhill very quickly.
For whatever reason, "Lucky" passed away during the night. Sometimes nature takes care of things in its own way.