January 10: Fun Things

Unfortunately, rain fell today. We have wishes for dry ground, or a hard freeze. Instead, we have mud and more mud.

Phil glanced out the window after breakfast and saw our calf standing, hunched up, in the chilly rain. "Poor baby," he thought, and went about his day.

Shortly before lunch, he looked at the cows again. But it looked like we had two babies, not just Bethany's baby, born in the fall. Strange!

He went to check, and, yes, we had a brand new calf, standing, chilly, in the middle of a pile of hay. None of the cows even looked like they had delivered, so we wandered around, looking at their back sides. A few cows were standing near. We finally figured that Toots, who didn't birth in 2013, had delivered her long overdue baby.

This was readily confirmed when Phil picked up the calf to carry it to the shed, out of the rain. Toots looked around, frantic, for her baby. I led her through the gate and, once she saw her calf again, she charged up the slope.

I dried the calf with a towel, in hopes that it would warm up once dry. Toots had done a good job licking off the birthing fluids: only a spot on the baby's neck had the viscousy fluid still, and the baby fluffed right up. I checked Toots's teats to make sure they were not blocked, and they flowed easily. Presumably that baby had nursed, as it was standing, and had been standing for hours.

Once in the pen, it laid down and stopped shivering. I was tempted to try to feed it milk replacer, just to get more warm fluid into it, but Phil said, "What a lot of hassle," and I agreed. Might as well go for the hands' off approach.

Bull calf born in this, the F-year.

Welcome, Ferdinand the Bull!

***

I really worked my kitchen today: two loaves of bread, a cellophane noodle stir-fry for lunch, water kefir, chuck roast, mashed potatoes. Good eats.

And through it all, Phil managed to do something spectacular: he planed the worktop until it was virtually level. Then he put on his respirator and sealed the joints with plastic wood compound. Happily, it was warm enough that he could open the windows and turn on the fan, so as the compound dried, he could sit in a room with a closed door and the bad vapors were sucked out. We're hoping for no headache tomorrow.

Then he sanded the countertop for some time. And, just before dinner, I put on the mineral oil sealant, and I had a finished worktop. Finished! Worktop!

I hadn't ever seen it without tools or other sundry supplies. It looks amazing!

And I am loving the big sink. Loving it, I tell you! After dinner, I had a medium pot dirty from making kefir, a large pot and mixing bowl dirty from the mashed potatoes, a large skillet and the large lid dirty from the roast, along with various utensils that needed cleaning.

That amount of large dirty dishes used to paralyze me. Strewn about the countertop, those items leered at me in their dirty, unsoakable state.

Now, all those (and more, if necessary) fit in my sink. It is easy and exciting to whittle down the pile, and quick dry and put away. I find it so encouraging to actually be able to go to bed each night with the dishes done and the sink wiped clean. I don't know that I've had that pleasure maybe ever, but certainly not since being a parent. Ahh. I love it!