The story actually begins last evening when we gave Wally some wet cat food.  She actually ate it, but Roscoe was upset he was not given any.

We did the chores this morning, and Mr. D. is still shivering.  So I put an old sweater on him and offered some extra food.  I really hope the temperatures improve soon!

I added fertilizer to our vegetable garden area.  I had taken down the tomato hot house structure too.  After lunch, I had a work meeting, and Tom had a dentist appointment.  And we both had some shopping to do after.  So we were going to meet back up at home, but I got a text that Summer was in labor.  I found out her water had broken.  So we hung out in the backyard so we could watch her.  Tom rototilled the vegetable garden and the hothouse soil.  I harvested the last of the carrots, onions and potatoes and planted some potatoes.  Here is our gorgeous rototilled garden.

Summer was nervous with us watching her so I moved the Arlo camera so we could watch remotely, and we headed into the house.  We check on her periodically.  She had been pushing for about 1.5 hours, and we were getting  nervous.  We have had to pull calves before including using a come-along on one and weren’t excited to do this again.  Then we saw one hoove then another. We kept watching remotely, and then suddenly there was a calf at around 6:30.  There was loud bellering so we ran quite quickly out there thinking the other cow was interfering.  We moved her into the barn but realized it was Summer who has hollering.  She did lick the calf so we were encouraged.

The sheep were concerned with all of the ruckus.

She initially seemed to be caring for him well.  Tim was able to identify testicles using binoculars.

But then when the calf tried to nurse she kicked it.

This kept happening, and then she started using her horns on it.  We tried to get the other cow to care for it but no luck.  We tied Summer in a barn pen and got the calf to nurse (with a lot of help).  Summer didn’t kick at it then and was actually licking him again, but when we let her free she immediate started using her horns on it again.  So we separated them, tied her back up, milked her colostrum and bottle fed it to the calf.  Fortunately he took it all well.

Then we made an emergency run to the feed store before they closed to buy some calf colostrum and milk replacer.  We had a late dinner.  I then went out to the barn to check on the animals.  The moon was dramatic.

The calf seemed OK in a pen by himself.  Initially he appeared to be dark chocolate brown, but as he is drying he is a light milk chocolate like his mama.  We are going to try to reunite them again tomorrow but do not have much hope. It is seeming like we will have. bottle baby.

We will leave it to the grandkids on Easter to name him.  One more calf to go with hopefully a less dramatic story.