Life as Lego plus cow news!

As Jake threw up the last of the bales from our field yesterday and Amanda was stacking them in strong piles, I said: Lego. Just that one word. Lego. (It is hard work we do not have the puff for more than one word at a time). Her head came up and she looked around and said Yes.  Nodding. Lego. The original Lego.  

Playing with those old fashioned Lego blocks had trained us to stack hay!  And There is another part to the stacking of hay that is important. The barn, as you will remember, is listing badly to port (and dipping in the bow a bit too). So we stack the hay into the center of the barn to try and stabilise it.  I have a feel for it. That barn and I have a crossed fingers relationship. We are like this. (holding up two  crossed fingers). No-one but me is in charge of which bale goes where. I also stack them so I can retrieve one kind of bale or another  during the winter. Not all bales of hay are the same.  We must look after that old barn.

While we are stacking the hay, throwing bales onto the clatter box, stomping about in the loft – it gets very noisy. We have been doing this two days in a row. And here is something interesting. Both times I have looked down and found that Poppy had put her babies into their snug and Lain Across the Entrance so they could not get out.  (She does this at night too). Yesterday they were wide awake and darting about in the snug taking running leaps at her ample rump, that had turned into a door, trying to get back out. But no, she had closed the door. Soon they gave up and went to sleep and so did she, still with her bottom across their entrance. Interesting isn’t it.

Later we drunk coffee and ate Amanda’s coffee ice-cream.

As a treat.

And now to the The cows.  Such good news – I hope. 

So Lady Astor started screaming like a banshee all day long yesterday.  Mooing and mooing quite aggressively.  Obviously in heat. The breeding three weeks ago had not taken.  I let Aunty Del in with her to see what was going on and they were both jumping up and riding each other (this is very common and a good way to work out if a cow is in heat but they were riding each other so which cow? – I let Lady Astor into the yards and she tried to jump ME, which is actually pretty frightening not to mention dangerous – well I am not in heat so I concluded that Lady was the one). I had been talking to the Lady Vet anyway (about beginning the process to breed Aunty Del) and told her about this, so after work she drove all the way over with her liquid nitrogen tank full of boyfriend straws. After kitting up and pulling on the orange glove up to her elbows, she examined Lady and looking up, said my two favourite words.

“Good Mucous.”

“Oo”, she said “Soft cervix too”. We smiled to each other and she proceeded to breed the cow.

Aunty Del was in the stall next door waiting for the injection that would begin her cycle. I have never been able to judge her cycle. She is the sweetest most laid back cow in the Western world.  But she was being moony yesterday. – – lovey with me – not to mention the cow jumping exhibition earlier. So before we gave her the first of the injections I asked the  Lady Vet to give her a quick examination.

She got some fresh gloves, examined our heifer, grinned,  looked up and said my two favourite words again! “Good mucous”. So I ran inside and found her registration papers, and as she had the tank with all the semen in there already, she quickly ran through the options, looked up her little semen boyfriend book and bred Aunty to a straw called JJ.

I felt high as a kite. I know it is not a sure thing by any means but this is the first time I have been able to gauge two heats and get the animals bred on a natural heat. On the same day!!

And Amanda and Tomoyo were running the kitchen! So dinner was taken care of. A  most excellent day.

Today we are picking sweetcorn for the farmers market.  And it is going to be another lovely day!

I hope you have a lovely day too.

Love your friend on the farm,

celi