I am amused my children as we have had the best Christmas ever. It topped off with me having like cramps, diarrhea and I bled so much it ran onto my legs like a horror show.
Who else could star in their own cinema eh, but the Popular Girl.
I am delighted in this as satan nor the minions did not win, as the Victory is in Christ, and that is what Christmas is all about. Others had fine experiences too like almost boiling their leg off and having a fever and now thankfully are recovering.
This is not about my wonderful life with TL, but about Baby Belle in recovery mode. I am amused in this as I have a few pointers for future cattle owners, the Mulberry Lady for example who expressed an interest in Jersey calves.
Belle is now done coughing, as we did not follow up on a second vaccination of that Nuflor antibiotic. The amusing part is about our feed guy, who exclaimed he used a 1000 dollar bottle of that on his cattle and they are still sick, just like with Nuflor, and he is going back to Long Penn, which is of course the correct low cost way of dealing with cattle.
I have not had the heart yet to tell him in a teaching way, that he would not be having all this problem if he did not have nice pole barns in which his cattle loaf about. See cattle get warm on warm days, and then get pneumonia. I wonder of this in if someone has produced a calf fly now as I have never seen this in cattle, as Belle was snotty nose and cough, and no fever this last time.
Anyway the cure in this is you build a straw shed out of straw bales or some kind of material the cows will not eat readily, and of course put planks on the sides of the poles to keep them from busting through it.
My Grampa had one of these things built for his horses which evidence is still there in the gully where he built it a coon's age ago, and Papa Gerhardt always kept his cattle in a hay shed too all winter.
See straw breathes where metal does not. So the cattle or animals do not get steamy hot and then get sick. That is the million dollar knowledge in all of this that only Lame Cherry knows. Is our plan to build our own sheds of this type, as they are really not buildings to be taxed.
They work good on poultry too, but mink go through them like shit through a goose to kill chickens.
So you build this shed for your bovine, large enough hole to get a skid steer loader in there to clean it out, unless you like pitching shit with a four or five tine fork into a wheelbarrow. It works and if you put a stanchion there secured to posts, you will have your milk room for Bossy to be milked and be happy in with a cattle panel fence about her, to ward off the damned pumas and things.
OK so I was called away for supper. Garbanzo Bean Soup and cheesecake we made for Christmas.....Lord that is like I ate too much of that cheesecake.
Important part is the Baby Belle festivities update. TL just got finished feeding Belle one choice spear of hay at a time, as Belle likes being like Cleopatra.
On a most important note:
Mom came in from the porch and gave no treat. There are rules in this that when Baby Belle moo's even when we are in the other room, she gets grain as Baby Belle knows feeding times of 7 AM and 3 PM.
So Baby Belle retaliated in tiny terrorism, which I am quite pleased with as it reveals she has been watching us and she is intelligent.
On the intelligence front, she has figured out how to open the toddler gate now .....very smart calf.
So we have the dishes on the table and Belle picks one of the forks off by her mouth and has it hanging there ready to eat. I am quite delighted as TL is thinking Belle is going to swallow the thing....that never occurred to me as TL was in terror over the event and Mom was upset about me bragging about how bright Baby Belle is.
I see this as associative intelligence in she was watching us use utensils and has figured out how to use them to be human. You can say all you like about those apes doing sign language, but how many of them figured out how to use them like humans by watching eh?
Belle also has a new tactic in she chews on my coveralls as a way to get TL to open the gate and then Belle rushes to try and get into the living room.
This was amusing last night in Belle was playing in the kitchen and would charge the gate in mock battle while TL was standing there.
She looks rough yet, with the hair rubbed off in spots which I do not think is ringworm, but it is growing back in most places, and she has ears yet, so she should start looking respectable when she gets her hair back in.
Thing is, she is well now, and should start putting on weight. I think that she is about a head longer than when we rescued her from the lesbian rustlers and her back is almost as high as the kitchen table....so she is growing, even if it is a day by day thing one can not notice.
This is a wonderful experience, even with hay for a floor now as Belle pulls it down and sorts through things, pee at will and turds I am picking up as others here are several times a day. I never knew how nice this could be. Belle beats the goatikins in not into everything, beats the dogs in her poo is not dog crap and beats cats in not onto everything.
She is going to be a lifelong pet really and to share an experience this past week. It thawed enough in they hay field to run the cattle and horses into it to try and save some feed. The cattle were not cooperating as they had feed, so I got three pieces of twine string I tied together to get some semblance of a rope 3 feet long, and went over to the calf our Vet's kids raised for 4 H.
She stood there, ate an apple treat from TL and I put this itty bitty string around this 1200 pound cows neck and off we went easier than leading a dog. Belle is getting like that already and the other calf escaped from the coop the other day, and in getting close to her, I got a lariat on her, and she led back to the pen like she was trained too.
That is the purpose in these calves is to have them in niche areas, where I can lead them to and have them trim things up. I know cattle are intelligent enough, but these Jersey's seem a bit smarter in the brain matter and I like their disposition. Daisy is ........well she is the life of the ball and Belle is more sedate, but they both are delightful bovines who I wonder if they know they are cattle right now.
So if you get a shed built of hay, that will not be wet, that should be a pretty good pen. Some wire cattle panels and posts to make things secure, and then some kind of training to get them to places you like with treats as bait, I see these as good additions to people with some property.
Yes one has to breed them, vaccinate them and they need care somewhat......biggest problem is to never let them have wet feet in mud or shit in a pen to keep them from getting foot rot, as that is the biggest problem people make with animals, but this seems pretty simple even with raising them in the kitchen which is not what was intended in the least when we rescued these.
That would mean trying to get a calf which was weaned around April or May starting and not make the plunge after September. Daisy though except for the ringworm she came with is just fine in her coop and is healthy.....yes she has that cyst yet which will be remedied by lesbians giving bad vaccinations, but Belle's has healed up I think completely now after 3 drainings I think it was.......I believe the Nuflor vaccine helped, even if it was primarily for lungs.
This about wraps things up on this. Belle has etiquette now in manners of holding forks in her mouth and learning day by day how to be human.
Odd how most humans never learn that and only learn how to be more beastie.
agtG
