Snow

We woke up to snow on the ground, just enough to make the grass white.  It stayed cold enough that the snow stayed all day but we have a weather forecast that predicts it will be gone tomorrow.  Once again Domenic didn't show up but Joe was here and helped milk  so I decided I was taking the milking off.  It is a complicated time of year for me with the addition of a holiday, company coming and the tax year ending so I took advantage of the rare chance to get some extra stuff done in the house.  Before Bruce and Joe were done milking another heifer had her calf.  Joe has helped us the last couple years, primarily during the summer, and we didn't realize he had never seen a calf born.  That was calf #13 and I have 12 calf hutches.  Today was moving day for 13 animals from the back of the barn over into Ed's yard.  We now have 25 over there that eat at the bunk.  Ed takes care of them and they do well.  Bruce cleaned the pens in the barn and bedded them, and then rearranged the calves so I have 2 empty pens!  He gave the 4 calves I want to bring in the same nasal vaccine that the cows got.  We are a bit nervous about the continuation of this bug so we are playing it safe.  I will be able to move these calves in tomorrow, but in the meantime, I have the 2 newest calves together in one hutch.  Bruce came out and helped me feed tonight.  Having them together isn't too bad if they are both pretty stupid or both pretty smart, but having a fairly smart one with a new one tends to get me beat up.  The new one was a very good drinker and will be moved into his own hutch tomorrow.  The heifer that freshened this morning has mastitis so Bruce treated her right away.  For some reason the heifer calm doesn't work as well on her as it should so Bruce had to keep his guard up so he didn't get hurt.  For Bruce's safety she needed to stand still but she wasn't exactly agreeable to that and tended to kick.  We certainly have been spoiled with the rest of the heifers behaving so well.  With all the moving, cleaning and bedding that went on this afternoon Bruce ended up with cattle to feed after chores tonight.  Hopefully Domenic will be here tomorrow.