A new learning experience

It is quiet in the house tonight.  I've put all the younger ones to bed and a couple of the olders ones that are sick right now.  Steve and Ethan and Jordy are out working in the barn preparing for an ice storm that is coming in tonight.  We've never experienced an ice storm and are curious what it will be like. 

It amazes me how much there is to learn with life in the country.  I had no idea it was a whole 'nother world! 
We are toughening up, working harder, pushing ourselves further, expecting more out of ourselves and each other.  And, yes, we've also had moments when we've asked ourselves, "What were we thinking?!?"  I suppose we would've done well to have done a bit of reading before we got this little bottle calf, but we didn't.  That's how we roll.  I like to think of it as spontaneous.  So now we are learning about new things every day.  We call it "kicking around cow stuff".  Sounds messy.  We have just found out just how messy it can be.  Yesterday we learned what scours is...neonatal diarrhea in a young calf.  Steve had to come home from work to pick up the meds for the calf because scours is a life threatening illness and must be treated immediately.  He came home with this "horse pill" for our tiny little calf...

and a big pill gun to get it to the back of his mouth with. 

He also needs to administer two injections, one for the new calf and one for Sweetiebelle.  They both are coughing and might be coming down with pneumonia.  The cold has been hard on them and our barn doesn't offer much protection for them.  I am thankful for my hardworking husband and sons to work alongside him and develop good work ethics.

The pictures are a bit out of focus, pardon the budding photographer behind the lens. 

We are encouraging them to record our adventure together as a family.

Someday this all may be old hat, but for now it is all new and a bit daunting.

I am trying to relax a bit and enjoy all of this new adventure of owning our first bottle calf, even with all the fears for his survival and feeling inadequate with our lack of knowledge.  He is such a cutie!

We put both of them in coats to help them conserve body heat and protect from getting too cold and getting hypothermia.

Then we all had a good laugh about how they look!  Good thing we don't own any leather jackets, that would just be a little bit too weird.  Sweetiebelle didn't like her coat at all and kept walking backwards and working her coat off of herself.  I can't blame the girl.  She looked ridiculous and I think she knew we were laughing at her.

We finally took it off of her because we were afraid she would get tangled up in it and hurt herself.  But we left the coat on Brisket and he's doing fine with it.  He really needed it.  He has stopped his shivering and that's one step further in the right direction.

He is taking electrolytes by bottle every four hours round the clock and we hope he makes it.  Makin' memories.  That's what we're all about.  Just ask the kids.  Insanity and spontaneity create just the right environment to inspire plenty of memory making opportunities.  

He is so little and tiny that he can't survive long without milk, but to reintroduce it too soon would cause him to begin scouring again.  The storm that is coming in presents further stress for him to deal with.  Calves need to be warm and draft free, something hard to come by in our barn. 

But Steve and the boys were hard at work all evening making windblocks and nailing up everything we could find to make it more wind and sleet proof.  We put several bales of new straw in so that their bedding is extra deep and set up 3 heat lamps to help create warmth.  Then we learned, the hard way, that calves can get into lamp cords that you thought were high enough to be out of their reach and then chew on them.  Thankfully, we didn't burn the barn down.  We moved the lamp higher and stabilized it with a thick wire so the lively little calf couldn't do that again.  We are praying they make it through the next few days of this intriguing ice storm and that they stay warm, recover and be healthy again.

It's pretty here in Missouri even when it is cold and harsh.  We love our new life here and are working hard to make it home for all of us, where we can all grow strong and healthy.