Round 2

        What I'm calling "round 2" of our calving season is now if full swing. We bred a large group of cows to calve in January. I seemed like every other day we'd be moving another new mama-to-be into the shelter of the barn to get ready to calve. January was filled with many, many pitch black trips down to barn in the wee hours of morning to check for new calves. It seemed to be a pretty non-stop cycle.

        Then February came and we saw calving come to a stand still. Chris planned it this way so we would have a break in the chaos to clean out pens and get the barn ready for the next round of calving. Everything was pretty quiet around here until last week when every cow we had in the barn decided to calve on near exactly their due dates. Predictable calving is almost always better than early or late calving and almost never happens around here, it seems. So, needless to say, we've been spending a lot of time down in the barn. There's something beautiful about watching a mama cow clean off her new baby. Or when a little bull calf makes hot laps around his mama kicking his heels in the air, slowing down nuzzle up to his mama's nose. It makes my heart tingle watching the baby calves go from trying to stand on wobbly new legs (sometimes taking a few tumbles when they lose their balance) to romping around and playing with the other calves, racing across our concrete lot chasing each other.

         Calving season will be over for us in a few months and then I will watching all of those new babies grow. Its things like this that make me believe that I am a lucky girl. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.