Welcome, little calves

An exciting week on the farm. We are very inexperienced with livestock birthing. We are learning! Good thing that these cows like to birth on their own, and don’t want our help. You see she is missing from the herd, you go find her, and there she is, with a calf at her feet. The calf is up and walking within an hour. We should have known Dancey was ready to birth too. We had decided she had another week or two to go…(yes, we know the signs of imminent birth, but we ignored them, OK?). She was mooing at us and Katie, and we thought it was all about the fuss with Katie. Everyone was mooing! While we were busy admiring Katie’s calf, Dancey slipped away to the farthest field and gave birth to a sweet little girl named Kaide (rhymes with Sky-day). Note to self: close off the back fields during birthing time. I hope our friend Kate will be honored that a calf shares her name, and that of her daughter, Kaide. I am sure I chose a different spelling, but that’s where the name comes from. Its a Japanese name which means Maple Leaf. My kids have always liked Kaide’s name, so they chose it eagerly for the calf. Noah chose Kate for the first calf, because its Katie’s calf, so of course. Do not explain to him that these are the same names. Because they are not. Here are some photos.

Kate

Kate

The boys visit Kate and Katie.

Phil and boys with Kate

Now both calves are out on the fields with their mamas. Here is Kaide and then one with her mama, Dancey.

calf in grass

calf and mom in grass

cows in the woods

Katie and Kate in the woods, keeping cool.

cows in woods 2

Here is Clover, Dancey’s calf from last year. A year old. A Heifer, Noah says. Clover is used to getting all the attention, so she spent some time licking the salt off our hands and arms.

Clover

Noah waters the Kids Snack Garden. Whenever I was busy in the greenhouse, he would select a few plants to transplant into bigger pots, and he collected them in a couple trays for his snack garden. He would watch over them, fuss with them, water them, add to them. Now it was time to plant the spot. Here is Noah watering his plants. Kids will enjoy snacking from the Kids Garden when they come for CSA veggie pickups.

Noah waters the kids Snack Garden

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