Opie

It's calving season - my favorite time of the year. 

Some years can be extremely difficult - mostly weather related. Others are as smooth as chocolate pudding and entice you to buy MORE cows for next year!  This is one of those years. 

 Thank Goodness.

However, when Dad comes in and says we had twins, it isn't said with enthusiasm but with some disdain.  One would think that, hellooo, you get TWO calves.  Isn't that better than one?  Not really.  We usually take the weakest of the two away from mama so that she can raise

ONE BIG STRONG HEALTHY BEEF WAGON

and we keep junior as a "bottle calf" until we can find him a new mama.

Here's the only "weakest one" we've had this year (so far).

Opie...

Just born...kids are drying him off and I'm trying to get him to stand up on his own. 

 He weighed in around 80 pounds.  Hard on this chick's back.

Me covered in birthing goo. 

 I didn't even touch my own babies until they'd had a bath. 

Kidding.

The reason I don't get manicures.

My sister calls my hands "man hands".  It took a lot for me to show you these meat hooks.

After he sucked, he was sent to the nursery pen for some toddler TLC.  Works every time. 

Keeps the toddler busy, too.  Win, win.

He gets three of these everyday for awhile.

Then he becomes a playmate for some...acting like the family dog at times...well, except for the fact that this dog likes to suck on everything. 

 NEVER, EVER, EVER wear clean clothes when feeding a bottle calf.

A neighbor lady once told me that no matter how hard we try, "when us farm women go to town we're always gonna have s*#t on us somewhere".  True story.

Opie.

ahhh...farmlife.

Becky