Busy... Work...

October got busy right from the start.  First there was the garbage - the free trash day at the landfill, to be precise - and that means that we haul 6 months worth of garbage to the dump.  Sure we used to have garbage pickup, but they have gotten so expensive, and there tend to be so many holidays when they don't pick up, plus, let's face it, we are both cheapskates and why pay when you can get it for free?  So I spend a day loading trash on a trailer, and Harold hauls it.
Afterward we went to help our friends with their horse sale, which happened this weekend.

Most of the work was fun and easy:  put straw down, put hay down, make sure the horses are in the right pen.  Basically just follow orders.  On sale day the job got even easier.  I mostly had to hold on to horses.  Be a post, in other words.  

I like stuff I can excel at, by just standing there.

The foals were already started and were really well behaved.  It was a long day, but fun.  No we didn't buy a new horse, although I was tempted.  

On Monday Ruby calved.  I had put her on pasture, because I had sequestered her for days now with nothing happening.  So when I took the dogs for a walk I saw that she was getting ready and got her back into the barn pronto - well as fast as a cow about to calve can move anyhow.  Soon thereafter her water broke, and the dogs got locked up and I sat there with the betadine waiting.  

Ruby is quick about calving, so it wasn't a long wait.  She also doesn't mind me being there.  I think she actually waited for me to come around before she got serious about giving birth.  

The calf came head first, but a leg was folded back, so I was glad that I actually stayed put, and I got the leg slipped out, and the calf out in no time at all.  

But sadly, the big bull calf isn't doing well.  He never tried to sneeze out the gunk, or get up.  He has no suckling reflex to speak of.  His heart races but he can't keep warm.  Ruby and I did our best to dry him up and I even covered him with a sweatshirt.  I milked out some colostrum and tried to feed him, since it is usually what will "kick start" a calf - they taste some of that elixir and get real active, but not this time.

So Natasha came by in the evening, drenched the cow with some calcium stuff to prevent milk-fever, and showed me how to tube feed the bull calf, which is what I have been doing, but in spite of getting some good colostrum he is not getting any better.  

Sadly, I think he will just fade away.  I try to keep him fed and warm, and turn him, but he is not responding to much.  

At least Ruby is doing well.  

The dogs are happy, to have some extra colostrum on their kibble yummy!

I think Ruby knows too that something isn't right with the calf.  She doesn't hang around like she usually would if there is a calf.  She wants to go back out to graze with the steers.  Today I got Oscar and Mayer back from pasture so at least their little herd is reunited.