Milk Fever

This is our newest addition. A holstein/red angus cross heifer calf born on the 18th of October. She was born to Dixie, my holstein milk cow. Strangely enough she was even born on her due date. The calf is doing just fine, but Dixie went down with milk fever....again. She went down with milk fever when she had Daisy last year. Luckily I was able to get her an I.V. going with a calcium and electrolyte solution and within about 10 hours she was back on her feet. However this time I thought for sure she was going to die. She was starting to perk up after about 2 hours of IV therapy and then she looked right at me, her eyes rolled all the way back in her head and she flopped on her back. I thought for sure she was having a heart attack. I ran in and called my neighbor (he used to work on a dairy farm and has alot of experience with holsteins) he came right over and I was able to get a hold of my vet. Luckily she shook whatever it was off and started to perk up again. She even started to eat (which is a great sign) however I couldn't get any water in her for a few more hours. So we continued the IV therapy until she started moving around so much that I couldn't keep the IV in her. Then I had to give the poor old girl a bunch of SubQ (under the skin) shots of calcium. These shots absorb slower and give her another steady supply of calcium when IV isn't working. She really hated the shots. I also had to sit on my hands and knees and milk her while she was laying down so I could bottle feed her little calf. Thankfully everything turned out well and Momma and baby are doing fine. Now I will have a winters supply of fresh milk and cream.
I forgot to mention that this is Gus's first calf. I think we will call her Delta. My other milk cows names are Dixie and Daisy, so I wanted to stick with the D girl southern names. The song Delta Dawn came to my head, so there you have it. Little Delta Dawn.

Gus

Gus loves his little exersaucer, he has allready figured out how to roll the little rattle so it rattles.

Yard

So yesterday my dad came up with his skidsteer and leveled out our yard. Yay, now all we have to do is pick some rock and rake it smooth and then start planting. I for sure need to get the grass seed planted this fall, but I would like to get the garden beds built first so I don't have to kill the new grass next year in my gardens. Since there is no shortage of rocks, I think I will build a rock garden in the fenced in part of the yard. This will also be the dog and kid yard (: So whatever I plant here must be very tough and dog and kid resistant. I will save all the fancy flowers and such for the area outside the fence, which I will call "my" yard. No Dogs Allowed! Since the septic system also lays in the fenced in part of the yard, I can't plant any trees and will have to stick with shallow rooted shrubs and flowers. Regardless I am ecstatic to have a yard next summer. Especially since Gus will be running around by then, it will be nice to have the fenced yard so he can't run to far. It will also be nice to be able to let the dogs out at night without worrying about them being snatched by one of the neighborhood coyotes, mountain lion, or bears.



This is the start of my new raised beds for my vegetables. Hopefully I will get them put together so I can start getting dirt hauled in to fill the beds with. One is a good place to start but I want many more eventually.


This is part of "my" yard. There will be a covered porch to the left so the right side is going to be a big flower bed. I am not a huge fan of mowing grass. Since there will be alot of grass in the "dog and kid" yard, I want mostly flowers and not so much grass in "my" yard.





I can't wait to get planting and I will keep you posted on yard details!