The Arrival of Lucky

Last Monday, one of the beef cows, Bambi, freshened in the pasture.  Bambi is a big pet since she was bottle fed and raised by the kids due to her being a twin and her mother not having enough milk for her.  

The calf was very weak.  It was Bambi's first time calving and she didn't lick him off well.  So he got very cold and didn't have the strength to get up to suck. 

It's been beautiful weather here, so The Farmer and the kids were over in the pasture shortly after Bambi freshened.  Ruben tried to coax Bambi to her calf with some grain.  

It worked temporarily and she did lick the calf some more but the calf was growing weaker as time went on. 

Riley stayed with that calf all afternoon.   The Farmer and kids didn't even come home for lunch until about 4:00 p.m. and that was quick so they could go back to the pasture.  

When they came back home at dark for supper, they brought the calf with and said they were going to keep him in the garage overnight to try to warm him up.  I really thought he was going to die.  


Anyway, I went in the house to finish supper, but The Farmer and the kids weren't coming in so eventually I went back out to find that they had set the calf up in the schoolroom.  (We have an addition on the back of our garage that's finished for a family room/school room.  It has lots of southern windows and a concrete floor with in floor heat.  It's super cozy and we spend most of our time there.)  

I must admit, I was very freaked out.  I expressed my concern about the calf going to the bathroom on the floor and it being baked in by the in floor heat.  Clearly, by the looks on the kid's faces, they hadn't thought of this.  So they scrambled to get layers of plastic and old rugs/rags down.  

Anyway, within an hour or so, the calf thawed out and they were able to get him to drink some milk.  He even started to bellow.  Then he snuggled in for the night.  Riley and Ruben were begging to sleep with him, but we knew how long that would last.  The Farmer encouraged them to sleep in their own beds to get a good nights rest so they could better care for Lucky ;-)

The next morning when we awoke, I told The Farmer we better get out there first just in case he didn't make it through the night.  Well when we came out, the calf started bellowing and was trying to get up.  The kids went back to the pasture and milked Bambi by hand.  Then brought the milk home and bottle fed him.  

Next, the kids let him try out his legs in the garage.  He proceeded to lick the salt and snow off the van.  

The next day, RileyAnn took Lucky outside for some adventures.

I think he wore her out :)  


Since, Lucky's pen has been moved out of the schoolroom and into the garage.  The Farmer and the kids have been taking him to the pasture during the day to be with his mother.  They do bring him home at night because he is still gaining strength.  He's very small but seems to be thriving.  


The thing that is so amazing to me is the cycle of life.  Clarabelle died, but less than a week later Lucky was born.  RileyAnn is back in her glory.  She still mentions Clarabelle occasionally, but seems to be healing as she's learning to trust God's provisions.  I am so glad the kids are home to witness this.  I feel they are learning some very important life lessons.