More cows

Jason was in China the last 10 days, and just got home Sunday night. It's good to have him home! Glad I didn't go into labor when he was gone!

I spent the last 4 days of my singleness at the farm again with my family. It's just so nice to have other people cook and clean and take care of my kids for me. Pretty sure I napped every day :)

Thursday, mom worked, and Leah was needing to help the guys work cattle, so I watched the little ones. For those that don't know - there's a couple ways that cattle are "worked." Thursday involved preg-checking (checking to see if a cow is pregnant) and vaccinating 300 cows. Yes, cows get vaccines too. It's either that, or risk your meat being tainted by disease, you pick.

The vet comes out to preg-check, and it basically involves squeezing a cow into a shoot so they can't move and vaccinating them, while the vet dons a very long glove (up to his shoulder) and shoves his arm up the cows...ahem...well you know. He feels around for a baby, and if he feels one, then he hollers "bred." The cow is then put back in the pen. For cows that are not pregnant, they are put in a separate pen for "better luck next time." The cows are also checked for signs of disease, and teeth are checked to make sure they're healthy. Ben and dad have been having some problems with their cows getting sick, so they were very careful to change out needles between each cow (Leah's job) and the vet put on a new glove each time. Of course, for humans, that would be a no-brainer, but for cows...eh...not so much usually.

I met Leah up at the house at 8am and watched Andrew and Heath while Allison and Harrison were up close and personal with the whole process. Henry was in school.

To say my son loves cows would be a huge understatement! He adores cows!! Every time he saw his Papa, he would ask if he had been out feeding cows. He was very enamored!

I kept trying to get Andrew to look at the camera. Heath was happy to comply by looking very cute!

Ben works the chute that squeezes the cow tight. It doesn't look comfortable, but it doesn't hurt them at all.

Leah, and the other vet Drew, giving vaccines and switching out needles.

See that guy on the right all bent over? Yeah, that would be the vet. He's got his arm all the way up there! Not my idea of a good time, but a necessary part of the gig.

They look pretty pleased to be that close. It was funny to listen to Allison ask all sorts of questions. She didn't miss anything!

"What you lookin' at?"

"Yeah, you better run!"

The little ones stomping on a dirt clod. Ah...so much fun!

And they're off...

They wandered and played for a while, but their little hands were red icicles after about an hour. It was really cold that day. We headed back in to play the day away.

More to come later.