Monday, June 14, 2010

Chores.... Again

Calves are cute....... from a safe distance. You would think that after being married to someone who loves farming and animals I would have learned to enjoy being around calves but so far it hasn't worked. Ornery little critters is the phrase that I would use to describe them.

Tonight after my husband came home from work we hitched to our trailer and went to gather up a load of baby calves. I went along simply because I enjoy spending time together as a family and knew that gathering up a load of calves was going to take a sizable chunk of time out of our evening.

We like getting them from farms rather than a sale barn since they tend to be much healthier and less likely to cause trouble and get sick later on. As my husband pulled up to a barn I stayed in the truck with the girls while he went to look at the calves. We admired the view of rolling hills dotted with pretty farms and talked. In a pause in our conversation Rosebud asked me a mind boggling question. She broke the silence saying "Mom, if someone paid you ten thousand dollars which would you rather ride. A bull or a pig?"

I of-course chose the pig. Thankfully she realized it would take a lot of money to get me to ride either one but I'm still trying to figure out where she ever came up with that thought. The picture it paints in my mind is hilarious!

Once we got home with our load of calves Sailor was all excited and wanted to point out his favorite one to me. "It's the white one with a black face," was his identifying description. As I stepped up on the side of the trailer and peered in all I could see was a group of black and white calves.

He has inherited his Daddy's love for calves, and also his way of describing Holstein calves. My head is spinning trying to keep the black and white one with a white face separated from the white and black one. I think it would be much easier to identify them with their ear tags but apparently it's much easier to know them apart by having the perfect sequence of black and white memorized.  I decided it must be a guy thing and I'll leave it at that.

9 comments:

  1. Please promise me that if you ever do ride a bull or a pig, that you will post a video for us to see!

    I'm willing to contribute an additional $20 if you get brave enough to go for it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Huh! I'd a picked the bull. When I was a kid, we had a nice old bull (Bully Boy ~ creative, don't ya think?) and he would let us ride him from the slough up to the barn for his evening meal.
    And I have fond memories of feeding calves that milk made from that powdered "calf manna" from a bucket with a rubber nipple. I just loved being in the barn with them.
    Thanks for that memory!
    Blessings!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm amazed at your equanimity in responding to that question. I wouldn't ride either one for a million dollars! You must have quite an adventurous little guy there! Sounds like my Jacob. We actually put him on top of a calve once because he begged to..then he screamed like a banshee until we got him off. But he always loved adventure..long before he was ready to handle it. :o)

    I'm so glad you shared this! We are considering buying a couple of calves for our front pasture. I'll have to have Tim read this first.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lol, I guess I can understand the identification problem. Though, when you spend a lot of time with animals, (my mom and I raised milk goats), you do get to where you can tell 'em apart at a glance.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's not just a guy thing! I grew up on a dairy farm and my job was always taking care of the calves... and I love them! And I can tell the white and black vs the black and white! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Let's be honest, I think there are a LOT of us that would be willing to see you on the back of a pig!! And think what a great blog post that would be. Where do kids come up with this stuff??

    I'll never forget when one of my kids asked me why the pope wore that little hat on his head and if he was Jewish. My kids went to CATHOLIC school!!!!!!!! I want my money back. HA HA Have a good Tuesday ~ ♥

    ReplyDelete
  7. Rosy's question made me laugh! :o) I agree with everyone else, if you do decide to ride a pig one day, you'll have to at least post pictures and share the story with us. :o) That would be hilarious!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Trust me ive rode a pig before. pick the bull.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for taking time to comment. I love hearing your thoughts.