Sunday eve... Cold out... and there is some snow flurries... You know the kind that look like the tiny styrofoam balls in a bean bag chair??? Little puffy spits of snow.
Temps got down to 23 overnight... hit 39 today but it was mostly cloudy and windy.
Not 2 weeks ago, temps were 15+ degrees ABOVE the normal average for this time of year... Now the last 2 days they are 15+ degrees COLDER than normal... so you really feel it... too much swing in temps... And it is supposed to be like this for the next week. We just might be getting our "overdue" cold winter...
Went up to the cow and put her in, fed the bottle, put another sq bale in the bunk for them. There was some water... tomorrow I will have to take some up there... but probably only a couple of 5 gal buckets. She will get put out tomorrow so will only have to make sure the weaned hol calf, gets water. He was in already, so he is doing okay for water. There was ice on top of it, but not too bad. It will get more ice tonight though... So, if I take a couple 5 gal buckets, it should be fine... These are black tubs, so at least if the sun comes out, and they are on the south exposure side of the barn, it helps to warm the water a little so it thaws quicker...
Little hol drank his bottle and was quivering... yet, he was out running around when I got there and cow wanted in the pen. He went right back on her once the bottle was done... He is doing good. Little jersey is doing okay too... they are both eating a little grain. She is right there wanting in for her grain now... which is great... I think she has been in heat... I thought maybe she was in heat the day after I brought her home, but not sure... Bull has been in there about 10 days and he was sure checking her out ... well, if she is not bred, and he catches her, and she will get preg... then she has a home... if she is open and won't settle, then will have to wind up shipping her... But she has a fairly good reprieve... these heifers won't get preg checked until next spring... I will get her checked when we get the holstein heifers out for the bangs vacc... just to make sure she is not bred and will need to have the calf weaned soon..... I am going to take the steer off the longhorn and run him with the steers at the barn...... Jess(longhorn) can use a break... Although I do not preg check her, she is getting pretty wide looking so I am nearly positive she is pregnant; due again in the spring like all the heifers from there that we checked... But if the jersey is open, she will go back up there for the winter and then will get rechecked in the spring.
As good as she has fit in with learning to come in and all that... I hope she is, or soon gets, pregnant. For the price, I will tolerate her only fully raising one calf at this point... Tried to interest the jersey in a bottle but he said... UH, I don't think so....but he does come over to check out the bottle calf when I feed the cow some grain before I put the cow out for the 24 hours. Hoping he would try it so that with this cold I could convince him to take a little extra.. I do think that she is milking a little better though since she is getting a decent amount of grain... I may get the calf coats out for them... it is pretty cold out. Especially since days are forecast to only get up to the low 40's.... They would not be expending so much of their body heat to staying warm
Everyone came over to the car while I was at the barn, so no extra grain for the first calf heifer, with the smaller calf...
I am going to settle in with a movie I think and work on sorting some more junk mail and do more paper shredding... I am hoping next week that the wind will lay down so that I can see about getting at least one of the boxes off the trailer and see what is what... maybe be able to get some numbers and such to see what matching ones I have. The little NH bantam is contained to the crate.. but he gets fed and watered every day... with it covered on the sides, to cut down the wind. Not alot of interaction with him in there like if he was in a coop... but that is coming.
I had hoped to call and go get the bigger trio of NH's this week... but it will wait another week... Not going anywhere while I am still not "better".... Although getting outside today helped to clear my head out a bit...
GOD BLESS FLANNEL LINED JEANS........
