Ready, Set, Go.......Nap!

Getting ready for calving season involves a lot of "extras", like getting the hutches ready, cleaning the milk house and parlor, setting up maternity pens, putting up fences, and lots of scrubbing.  In fact, check out our list of things to do:

 

You'll notice we only three things crossed off....and calves can arrive any minute now!  With a new baby, we have only been able to have one person working at a time-and most of that time the last 6 weeks was spent doing regular chores.  But, we had a plan.  After we arrived back from vacation we  were going to mow right through that list! But we did not plan on over 1/2 of us getting severe colds.   We all know how important it is for your team members to be well rested and have time to recuperate when sick, but when you're the owner, that doesn't happen. In fact, an old joke in our house (and growing up) was that if you weren't on your death bed (or in the hospital), then you might as well be working.....

 

 

 

So we did. Today we lined up all the hutches for the newborn calves and bedded them with straw. 

 

Don't worry, we took a break for lunch and a little time for one of us to run and fetch some things we needed to finish the hutches: 1 calf panel, 9 fiberglass fence rods.  So now we at least have warm places to put the newborn calves.

 

Tomorrow is Easter. There will not be a lot of extra work done as we celebrate our risen Saviour. If the calves hold off until Monday, it will be one of the only Easter Holidays in the past 11 years that we haven't been milking.  The first year, we didn't have the parlor ready for milking, so I'm not sure if that counts!

 

 



HAPPY EASTER!