Have you met Charlie?

Charlie was the bull calf who was born by C-section on our farm.

(You can read more about this in my guest post on Heather’s Three Kids and Lots of Pigs.) Charlie has done great, but his mom has had a little bit of a problem.

This is her first baby, and she is still a young cow. Sometimes, first-calf heifers don’t make enough milk for their babies. We need to make sure to keep an eye on the calves from these mommas.

After we turned Charlie and his mom out with the rest of the herd, Hubby Doc noticed something strange.

Charlie was trying to nurse from cows that aren’t his momma! Those mommas, and their babies, weren’t too happy about that.

But it wasn’t Charlie’s fault. His momma is a new momma, and she is spending a lot of energy trying to heal from her C-section, and she wasn’t making enough milk for Charlie.

Poor Charlie.

So we brought them both back into the barn, and started bottle-feeding Charlie.This is a little tricky. You want to make sure that you feed the calf enough so he’s not hungry all the time, and is getting all the energy and calories he needs. On the other hand, if you feed him too much, he’ll be full, and he won’t want to try to nurse from momma. And if he doesn’t try to nurse from momma, then she will completely stop making milk. And we don’t want that, either.

Charlie is getting fed 2 quarts of milk replacer twice a day.And boy, does he love his milk! He can finish that 2 quart bottle in less than 2 minutes! He’s a good eater.

When we check on him between feedings, he is still trying to nurse from mom. We know we are striking a good balance with his feedings because he is gaining weight, but he is still trying to nurse from mom.

Hopefully, as momma has a chance to heal more from her C-section, her milk production will increase and we will be able to stop bottle-feeding Charlie. If not, we will keep bottle or bucket feeding him until he is ready to be weaned and transitioned to solid food (3-4 months).  Way to go, Charlie!

What's that smell?

Sunday night John and I went out to the barn to feed the cows, the dogs, and the cats.  We also had to separate out the heifers from the cows, so we were in the barn longer than normal, getting gates moved so we had a place to put the heifers.

I fed the cats, and then turned around to help (well, to watch, really) John move the gates.  All of a sudden the cows stopped eating and left the barn lot.  There was still corn left, so this was pretty strange.
Before we fed, John shut another gate to keep them in the barn lot, so we thought they were just pissed about being locked in.

The cats weren't eating either, but this is not so strange.  Usually they want some attention while we're in the barn.  So we didn't think much of this.

Then I turned around and saw...



... a skunk eating out of the cats' dish.  Now I realize this picture is grainy, but surely you can tell that is a skunk and not a cat?  It's dark in that corner of the barn, and frankly, I wasn't getting any closer.

(Okay, to be honest?  I did try to get closer.  But the skunk turned and ran away.  So no more pictures.)

Great.  A skunk.  We've seen it around our property before, but not quite like this.  The sightings have been more like "Hey, did you see that skunk run off the driveway?"  Now what do we do?  I do not want a skunk in the barn.  I would rather have pigs in the barn.  (Yes, I realize what I just said.)

Fast forward to Monday night.  John had some 4H kids over to learn showmanship, and they were all out in the barn.  Who should come, perhaps to learn how to show the sheep?

Momma skunk came to visit.  This time she brought her 4 babies along for the road trip.

That's right, I said FOUR skunk babies.  We are not having 5 skunks running around our barn.  (And we are not having five pigs to take their place.  Just to put that out there.)

Anyone have any bright ideas on how to get rid of the stinkers?  We're up for options!

I guess the good news is that we still have running water, so if we do get sprayed, we can at least shower...