Mr&MrsSmith : The Week

This week was fairly fairly cold. Which is fine. Except when you're calving! The calves are wet when they're born so they can freeze so quickly. Their ears are first to freeze and then their feet. We were checking cows almost hourly just to make sure we didn't miss one. If they're born on the hay, they're a little bit better than being born on snow/ice. Once they're born they have to be carried into the shop into a heater for 3-6 hours or so. At one point (at like 11pm, OF COURSE) there was 2 calves in one heater, one in another heater, one that had been in the heater already but wasn't fully dry so he was barricaded by the boiler, and then 2 more in half of the chicken coop! Too many calves. The cows all seemed to wait until the evening to calve. Between 6pm and midnight there was about 7 calves born! Crazy. We spent the week hauling calves in, and then out, cleaning stalls, pens and shelters, feeding them and then napping when we could! Or Jed at least. He's the master of napping.

Sneaking in a nap...he can sleep ANYWHERE

This little fella nearly froze his ears off so he
got a pair of homemade earmuffs for the time being!

I also got to bottle feed him to give him some energy to nurse

I checked in on the chicks every chance I could, or whenever I wanted...They're in a box, in their coop in the shop. So they are well protected from wind and cold etc. However, the shop isn't fully insulated and the coop isn't fully done. We threw a space heater in there and moved the other light we had so they could keep warm.
They've grown up so fast...ok, maybe not grown UP, but grown. I fed them a mashed up boiled egg which they went nuts over! No, that's not cannibalism because no one died for the egg, just so you know!
We also managed to sneak up to Miles City to get Jed's taxes done...it's always 'good' for us to get out, stock up on groceries where it's a little bit cheaper and eat some delicious Mexican food, of course!