Not to be all doom and gloom. On the bright side, our other cow had her calf about a week ago. We had been checking on our cow, Saphire, on and off for almost a week with anticipation of the big moment. In fact the previous Saturday we thought for sure it she would have it that afternoon. Mark went up to help his brother build his house, which is just on the hill by our house. In fact here is a picture of it from my master bedroom.
So I was down in the field, checking on Saphire, just as a good cow dula (that is what I want to be referred to from now on) would do. She was laying down and things looked like they were progressing. To the point I had my 13 year daughter run in the house, call her father to come down and witness the grand moment. Not only did he rush down, but his father and brother came down too. Boy didn't I feel like a nimrod when our lovely cow stood up and started walking around and nothing else happened. I vowed at that moment that I would never be the bearer of the false alarm again.
So each day I would check Saphire and try to gauge her progress. She seemed about the same over the next couple of days, so we figured we would just sit back and wait.
Monday while I was at Costco with my daughter, I got a call from my son who said he was feeding the cows and Saphire didn't come running like all the cows usually do when they see someone walking toward the feeder. So he went out and checked on her and sure enough, she had just given birth. I was a little miffed that we had missed it but really glad that all went well. So we rushed home and got pictures so we could share them with you.
So our first calf was a boy, which my husband decided to call Buster, and this is a little girl which we decided to call Ruby (sincer her mom's name is saphire).
Isn't she cute? What a great mom Saphire is.
Like mother, like daughter.
She is very adventuresome and was wobbling around checking everything out as soon as her legs would let her. It is fun to look out in field and see the two little calves sniffing around playing with each other. So another milestone. Next baby calf will be due in March according to my husband and his gestational chart. It is pretty close to the human, so if you want an estimate when you baby is due (and you are pregnant) give us a call, my husband is open for phone consultations.
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This is where the kids thought the calves should have a name! Sophie asked what we named our calf and I answered 09-1, see Grandpa has a system. First calf of the year, then her mom's name goes on the back of the ear tag X26, this comes from the previous owner, the x standing for the year she was born (he picked a letter for each year) and then her number. A paper record is kept also. The ear tag on a female calf goes on the right side and the bull calf goes on left. This plan was devised by men, no just another reason we find that the women give birth, names are nicer. Well and I think the men have dealt with the children asking what is for dinner and when it was mentioned "Bob", they came up with this other plan.
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