Over the past couple of weeks, four calves have been born on these here lands. And all four of those calves needed to be tagged and castrated, so long as they were male.
We had extra teens this weekend, so we felt it was the ideal time to try and seperate these calves from their mamas and do our thing.
First, we tagged Hazel. She is a girl, so no need to castrate.
Do you like the tag I made for her?
Because I do.
Next, we had to head out to the main pen where all the moooooody cows and calves reside.
Since I am the cow expert on our property, I am the one who knows which ones the mamas are and their babies. And we were looking for Black cow (clever) and her bull calf, Purple Cow #5 and her bull calf, and Mildred and her bull calf.
Mildred is literally terrifying. I kid you not. And I was extremely worried that someone was going to get hurt. And it would be so bad for anyone to get hurt, but I really didn’t want the teen guests to get hurt. Because what kind of hostess permits her guests to get hurt? I ask you?
We head out to try and get all the cows in one area.
This is easier said than done.
First, Auggie, YES, Auggie ropes a calf.
Go, Auggie!
This is black cow’s bull calf. David, Hadley, and Lily are tending to the calf while Auggie and I are trying to keep Black Cow away.
We were successful. And no one got hurt.
We set off again. It is really fun because the cows like to all run together to the complete opposite end of the property and some peoples in our party have to go and try to herd them back.
My job was to stand in one spot and not let them pass by me. And I nailed it, of course.
Next we got Purple Cow #5’s calf. And yes, Auggie roped her as well.
Apparently Auggie is a bona fide cowboy.
Who knew?!
And when it was time to castrate, it was discovered that Taylor was, in fact, mistaken, and this calf was a girl.
Me: Oh, yay! He is a girl! And now we do not have to castrate!
And then. We had to face Mildred. And what can I write to express to you the deep fury and hatred Mildred has for all mankind.? She charged at several of us. And once she was going towards Kate and HD and I told them to get out of the way and David was like, “No! Don’t let her pass!” And I was like, “You listen to me, Mister, no one is dying here just to castrate this calf.”
Finally, David ropes the calf. Auggie and I were trying very hard to keep everyone alive, but Mildred was really quite furious.
Me: Oh, please be a girl! Please be a girl!
David: It is a boy.
So, we must tag him and castrate him and not permit Mildred to murder us.
But then David didn’t have his knife! And what a time to lose your knife! And Auggie was so brave and I really didn’t want him to become a Mildred fatality.
HD ran to get David another knife. David and Lily started to castrate and Auggie and I and the rest of the crew worked on keeping David and Lily alive.
Finally, they were done and they untied the calf. Mildred and the calf mooed angrily at us to inform us of their displeasure and ran off into the sunset.
I breathed a great sigh of relief that no one had gotten hurt.
And then. I saw Lily.
She got kicked in the head by the calf and was bleeding. So, she is on her way to the doctor and I am hopeful her mother will forgive me.
But all calves are tagged and castrated.
The end.
Maybe Mildred needs some calming down meds. LOL. Hope Lily is ok. Blessings.