Still learning the irrational cow psychology

Photos:  Bessie looking forlornly towards the pasture, Lucy and Ruby lounging in freedom, and Ruby posing for an adorable photo It's interesting how the life or routine that you love most of the time can get you so frustrated at other times.  Wednesday night I felt like throwing my hands up in despair.  It was one of those days when my overall mood was a little dark and gloomy, and the cows weren't helping. Bessie didn't give more than half a gallon of milk on Wednesday morning, because baby Ruby drank from her before I got out there (attempts to confine Ruby to the stall inside the barn were thwarted the night before).  I kept Bessie separated from calf Ruby ALL DAY, planning to get a full gallon of milk that evening.  Ruby and auntie Lucy spent the day lounging in the pasture, with Lucy bellowing now and then because she imagined that Bess had better hay inside the cow pen....  I anticipated a good amount of milk in the pail when I went out around 7 pm, simply because the udder looked full and Ruby hadn't been in with Bess to nurse since about 10 a.m.  Well, Bessie barged into the stanchion as soon as I opened the door to the barn that night, stuck her big nose into the bucket and spilled grain everywhere (meaning that she was going to be shifting around to lick up every last crumb as I tried to get the milk aimed into a relatively small pail UNDER her huge body.....), and acting in general as if she'd been starving all day and why didn't I feed her SOONER!!!  (She DID have good hay all day...Lucy was right when she bellowed in fear that Bessie was getting better treatment all of that day in the cow-pen spa). Milk was flowing a little better than "feebly", things were going OK (not great, but about what I expected).  Then Auntie Lucy let out an earsplitting bellow from outside the cow pen, and the milk flow stopped immediately, almost like magic.  I had maybe a pint of milk in the pail.  Not close enough to a gallon after pampering Queen Bess all day. A little more work, and there was a trickle of milk again.  And again, Lucy let loose with a temper-tantrum moo---starting low like a foghorn, then increasing in volume and pitch until it seemed impossible for her voice to screech any higher.  Again the milk dried up and I was working with Bessie's limp little cow teats.  No milk was going to be squeezed out, no matter what I tried.  There was obviously milk in there, but it wasn't being made available for me.  Bess obviously wasn't in the right mood to give her milk to anyone besides her baby calf.  Grrr...... Did I say how much I was ready to sell all 3 cows and be done with it all?  Probably good that a buyer wasn't stopping by the barn that night. It probably wasn't the best thing to do, because Ruby the baby hadn't nursed all day, but when she and Lucy came thundering in to the cow pen as I opened the gate, I ushered Ruby into the stall with a smart slap on her rump, and closed her in for the night.  I debated:  Did I see her eating and drinking today?  Yes, plenty of times--milk in the morning, baby bites of grass and hay and some licks of water.  Can it be safe for a month-old calf to go until the next morning without her milk?  Not sure.  Is she vibrantly healthy?  Definitely.  Did we need to get some milk in exchange for the $7 or 8 of hay that Bessie and company had eaten in that one day?  Yeah.  Would a gallon of milk the next morning make me feel better about the whole cow situation?  Maybe just a little. We heard Bessie mooing: low motherly sounds late into the night, calling to her little baby who was not settling down in the stall.  Bessie could have slept right next to where Ruby was, but the big cows bedded down outside instead, leaving Ruby all alone in the cold cruel barn. I woke up at 5, with images of a limp black and white calf in my head, dehydrated and beyond saving because of my greedy need for Bessie's milk.  It was hard to get back to sleep, facing the unknown consequences of keeping a calf from her mama for over 12 hours.  (No joke--in the pitch-black of night, any number of panicky barn-yard scenarios can run through my over-tired brain.  It's all still too new to me and there are just too many unknowns.....) Turns out that everything was fine when I went out at 7:30 on Thursday morning:  Bessie was nearly bursting with an abundance of milk, Ruby was energetic and even tried to nurse from the other side as I was squirting the milk into the pail, and Lucy was happy to have her attention diverted with the delicious clover hay that I strategically placed outside in the big metal feed ring for her.  No screechy noises from Lucy, no frantic calls to the vet to revive a milk-deprived calf (that whole scenario was completely inside my own head), and Bessie could see and keep track of her baby (and probably didn't care at that point who was getting the milk flowing).  A full gallon of beautiful white milk was harvested (complete with 2 flies who had a death wish and dived right in). The cows can stay....  The trick is staying one step ahead of them as they try to outsmart me with their cow psychology.

Even baby cows are smart.....

Photos:  Aunt Lucy and baby Ruby checking out the interesting fire pit, Bessie waiting impatiently to be milked and (with no relation to today's story) Ruby meeting Shadow for the first time. Well, the cows seem to be outsmarting me left and right these days.  There might be one good milking from Bessie, and then whatever carefully laid plan led to that abundance of milk for us will be over-run by the cows for the next time--meaning an abundance of milk for Ruby and not much for us.....  This morning was a good milking, despite how Ruby the calf set herself free during the night.  I had closed Ruby in the small stall that Russ and Jeff built this past June.  The idea was this:  separate calf and mama for the night, get a full bucket of milk in the morning, let them spend the day together after that.  Farmers and homesteaders do it all the time--the organic co-op in Barrington which just added milk cows does this with 4 new cows and their calves, and get enough milk to keep their co-op customers happy!  Shouldn't be a problem with one cow and her calf, right? Ruby wasn't happy to be closed in, but mama Bessie and auntie Lucy went about their normal business:  munching hay out in the cow pen, bedding down for the night under the stalls.  For Bessie's sake, I will say that she made sure that her baby was OK before she went back to her snacking.  She is turning out to be a really good mom, even though she couldn't prevent her calf from being closed in for the night. Little Ruby was clunking around in the stall, throwing her body against the walls.  When I left to go inside the house, she was still securely inside, with a bucket of water and a section of hay in case she got hungry. This morning, there were two cows bedded down outside by the feed rack.  I didn't think twice about it, and it was early--thought it was Bessie and Lucy, and went into the barn to set up for milking Bessie.  Imagine my surprise when the stall was empty!  Ruby must have bumped the gate hard enough during the night for the hook and eye closure to pop open.  It wasn't Ruby at all looking back at me from inside the barn past the stall, it was Lucy, checking the stanchion out for any stray alfalfa bits. Well, I thought,  I'll just milk Bessie and take whatever that hungry little calf left for us.   I was pleasantly surprised to get over a gallon from Bessie while Ruby munched baby-sized bites of hay outside with Lucy. I guess that Ruby didn't break out until this morning, because of the amount of milk that was left for us. Tomorrow morning will be a different matter.  I shut Ruby away in the stall again tonight, this time with both adult cows getting all worked up and standing directly in the way.  It was like buffalo on the plains:  The baby knew where to hide between the cows for safety, and the adult cows faced the imagined "danger" (that would be me!), with their hooves firmly planted in place.  I really don't want to have two aggravated female cows thinking that they need to protect a calf instead of letting me put it in a stall for the night. Finally after a lot of chasing, she was in the stall and I closed the gate.  This is NOT the way I want to spend my evenings, that's for sure. My plan was to close her in the stall, then close the barn door as well (so that if she got out of the stall, she'd still be separated from mama.) Bessie outsmarted me on that one and looked at me with famous cow stubbornness in her big brown eyes as she refused to move an inch.  She was determined to stay by the side of the stall, and would NOT under any circumstance leave Ruby.  Sigh.....sometimes that electric cattle prod from Farm and Fleet would really come in handy. Soon after, I came back to sit out in the pasture with the dogs, and lo and behold---there was little Ruby, bedded down with Bessie and Lucy OUTSIDE the barn.  She had popped the hook and eye in no time (or maybe Bessie figured out the trick to set her little daughter free).  I've ordered a halter.  Ruby still doesn't know how to walk on a lead.  Chasing her around the cow pen is just asking to get stepped on by one of the big cows, especially since auntie Lucy sees any commotion as a chance to do her bucking bronco imitation....  I'll experiment until I find something that Ruby likes well enough to trot lead right on over to the place I want her to be (for Bessie, it's fresh corn, for Lucy it's hay cubes, or both of them will run for Queen Anne's lace plants or other weeds).  Either cow will perk up their ears and hurry over if they think that I have their favorite treat).  It's a little harder when a calf's favorite taste is milk from their mom...... Unfortunately, that favorite taste will mean much less milk for us tomorrow morning.  ;( Laura.

Hay for the ladies

Photo:  The surprising amount of hay in the barn. That's the first floor--filled almost to bursting with 3 wagons-full of hay.  Michael's job for the next few days or weeks is to take at least a dozen bales to the second floor and stack them there.  I made up printer-paper sized signs to tack on the walls up there, with all the important information about which type of hay is in which area:  "Grass hay, last 18 bales of 2011 hay, bought from Dan, give 1/2 bale each night until gone.  Buy from Dan when you can" (meaning--he might promise 80 bales, but then his phone is run over by his truck or you simply can't reach him until well after your supply would run out) or "Alfalfa, 10 bales bought at $8, from Walter, Bessie gets one flake per day at one milking.  Don't buy from him again:  too dry and all the leaves fall out of the bale" or a couple of good ones:  "Clover hay, baled in dry July 2012, 100 bales from Bruce.  1/2 bale in the morning of even-numbered days, alternate with 2nd cutting alfalfa from Tyler.  $7.25 a bale--buy again next year, hopefully at lower price" and "3rd cutting alfalfa, $7 a bale, good stuff from Tyler.   Only for Bessie--one flake for one milking per day only.  Buy from Tyler if there is a 4th cutting this year".  I think I'll keep track of what we feed, when we feed it, and how long the hay lasts.  I hope that gives me a better sense next summer of what to buy for winter of 2013! For now, a first floor packed full of all different bales of hay from all different sources feels really comforting.  A couple of weeks ago, I was nearly panicking because we were down to 18 bales (with 87 more promised from Dan--still haven't seen those 87 bales!!!).  Now there's a bountiful supply, and despite the sneezy feeling inside a barn full of clover and alfalfa hay, it's with a grateful heart that I take stock of that much food for the animals that are in our care!  ;)

Updates, again

Disappointing news:  The deal on the house fell through.  They had their inspection, and the only thing we've heard is that there was something about the windows that they didn't like.  Not sure what that could be--there was nothing wrong with them, there was plenty of natural light, and it seems like they were looking for a way to get out of the contract.  The day before that, Jeff went to get our mail from the Palatine mailbox, and the potential buyer had already used our address to have some of his mail delivered.  Jeff took that mail, left it on the kitchen counter, and locked up the house (there was no permission asked, and potentially the buyer would have been going through our personal mail to find whatever he had mailed to himself.)  Just a bit strange. So, no sale on the house.  Disappointing, but not surprising.  I was feeling that everything was a bit flaky..... Great news (tempered with the knowledge now that the money from the house won't be in the bank):  We now have over 300 bales of various quality and type of hay in the barn.  Jeff's comment was "We wouldn't have bought all that if we didn't think that the house was selling".  My thought is:  "The cows won't starve, and God WILL provide".  We'll wait to see how that happens, exactly. 300 bales is not enough for 2 full-grown cows and a growing calf to make it completely through the winter, so Lucy is still up for sale.  It makes sense:  We can't really support two full-grown cows, either with hay or pasture, and even if we could keep Lucy, I can't milk 2 cows by hand.  What I need to keep in mind:  We have cow(s) to provide milk for our family.  Keeping two adult cows doesn't fit with that scenario, even though friends are eager to take extra raw milk off our hands!  ;) There have been some genuine responses to the ad, and a few scam responses (along the lines of "We can't pay with anything except a check.  We'll send you a check for "x" amount OVER the asking price, you deposit our check and send us that extra amount by way of a personal check from your own account, and when we receive it we'll pick up your "product".)    Sorry, no. One woman wanted a registered Dutch Belted cow, so I referred her to Farmer Bob.  Bessie is 75 % Dutch Belted with registration papers, so hopefully Bob has some cows that this woman can check out.  Other potential cow buyers wanted to buy "the other cow in the photo" (Bessie), who I specifically said was NOT for sale.  One person obviously didn't even know what the ad was for, and asked if our "pet" was still for sale". It's interesting to see what responses come along, and to sift through the worthless ones to find the honest ones. On the milk supply topic:  Bessie has decided to hold her milk back.  We're in a mental tug-of-war, it seems.  Her milk will start flowing in the stanchion and suddenly stop.  Yesterday, I kept her closed in the cow pen and shooed Lucy and baby Ruby out into the pasture.  I got a nice full gallon after just a couple of hours of having Bessie separated from her calf.  Today I did the same thing, but she had wised up to what I was doing.  Bess gave just a little bit of milk before it stopped flowing.  Then she kicked manure and straw into the bucket.  Drastic measures need to be taken, especially if the hay I'm feeding her costs $7.25 a bale!  It's not Ruby's fault, but.....little Ruby is on a halter and lead, attached to a tree in the pasture for a while right now.  She needs to learn to walk nicely on a lead anyway.  Bessie can come up to her to feed her, but this is in preparation for tomorrow's experiment.  Tomorrow morning, Ruby will be on the lead out under the pasture trees, Bessie will be separated from Ruby in the cow pen, and then Bessie and Ruby both get set free when I get a gallon of milk.  We'll keep tweaking the plan until I find something that works.  It might take Ruby being led to the nice stall that Russ and Jeff built, and then Bessie being milked right next to her.  The hitch in that plan for the moment is the idea that Ruby will allow herself to be "led" anywhere.  Hence, the halter and the lead, and the attachment to the tree, to get the young calf used to the idea of being anything other than free to go wherever she pleases.  She inherited that stubborn cow personality from her mom, for sure! Well, enough cow-talk for now.  We have potential renters for the Palatine house.  That is what we're praying for now.  A buyer, a renter.....whatever creative way God might have in mind to occupy that house and keep our bank account from bleeding out slowly with each mortgage payment. Laura.

Princess Lucy pitches a royal fit

Photo:  Lucy, all grown up and posing for the photo Until now, the cows have been relatively quiet.  Once in a while Lucy the heifer would startle us with a sudden "moo", but nothing more than that.  When I would milk Bessie, Lucy would get a small amount of the better quality hay off in the other corner.  No problems, until Bess figured out that when HER good hay was gone, she could back out of the stanchion and move into Lucy's pile. NOW, with mama Bessie suddenly giving voice to lots of different moos since baby Ruby was born--soft urgent moos, sharper warning ones, exact duplicate foghorn-style moos, "where are you" questioning ones--Lucy seems to have found her voice as well.  Lucy is also about full-size now, and trying out her place as the dominant wanna-be.  What we have on our hands is a full-grown cow with a calf (Bessie) and also a year-old heifer (Lucy) who is trying to throw her weight around for the first time. Lucy's behavior has been bothering me, but I'm learning to work through it and anticipate what she'll try next.  Her moos are on the temper tantrum scale, though.  The first time, I couldn't stop laughing--not really all that concerned about Lucy's delicate emotions at all, I'm afraid to say.  :)  A little background from the past few weeks:  I have to be quick and sneaky when I call Bess in to be milked now.  Lucy has decided that Bessie's grain and alfalfa is equal to tea and crumpets in a posh Victorian castle's sitting room--intended only for the privileged few, and she desperately wants to be one of the privileged few! She tries every time to outwit me and barge past Bess into the stanchion.  Bessie will be quietly but determinedly walking to the milking room, and here comes Lucy, full speed.  I put up my palm and smack Lucy  flat on the middle of the forehead, and she falls back just enough to let me close the door behind Bessie.  Visual description:  Bess is not even trotting to come into the barn. There's no attempt at competition from Bess at this point.  "Ambling" is a perfect word for it:  Udder swinging, head stretched forward, patiently intent on getting to the stanchion.  She knows what is waiting for her, her udder is telling her that it's time for some relief, and the stanchion is the place to be.  Lucy, on the other hand, is rather frantic---looking up in surprise from her grass hay in the feeder or from the fresh grass in the yard, and erratically kicking, running hurriedly and even haphazardly to try to get in front of Bessie.  Bess, of course, is single-minded when it comes to getting her grain and alfalfa to munch on, and doesn't even pay attention to Lucy's bold and stubborn jostling.  Lucy pushes, shoves, and gets smacked in the forehead as the door is closed in her face.  The princess is thwarted and the queen gets the delicious treats.  That does not make for a happy princess! Back to the first time it happened:  I had closed Lucy outside of the electric fence around the cow-pen because of how persistent she had been to get in the way and cause a problem.  Bessie was in place for milking and calmly munching, head down in the bucket and tail swishing contentedly.  Suddenly, the most ear-splitting screechy "MOO" burst through the wall of the barn and into the milking area.  It started in rather a normal way, and then became high-pitched and rather crazed with no warning.  I shook my head in amazement and went on with the 30-minute milking routine.  The ENTIRE TIME I was milking, Lucy was making all kinds of horrific versions of "moo", from low and angry to high and desperate and demanding and other-worldly as she circled the electric fence and voiced her displeasure.  Queen Bess was happily munching on her imaginary tea and crumpets (bucket of grain and a section of alfalfa from a bale), while poor Princess Lucy was shut outside in the cold (98 degrees), with only a crust of stale bread (fresh grass and lovely green clover) to munch.  It was a full-blown temper tantrum!  I could NOT stop laughing as I imagined Lucy stamping her delicate front hoof as she demanded to be let in at any cost.  ;) Funny thing was, though, by the time I finished cleaning everything up and opened the door again, Lucy and baby Ruby were happily munching, side by side, on the opposite side of the pasture.  It seems that Lucy's tantrum had the effect of luring Ruby out of the electric fence (she stumbles through sometimes, getting shocked as she tries to squeeze out instead of passing me by the gate.  She'll learn....) I brought the milk back into the house, and asked Michael and Jeremy if they'd heard Lucy.  (It should be noted that they had been playing video games, which usually means that they are oblivious to anything else around them).  Michael said "Is THAT what it was?  It sounded like a monster or something in the back yard."  We all had a good laugh at Lucy's expense. I have learned a little trick, though.  Lucy still doesn't like to be shut outside, and still lets out a crazy-cow moo or two, but now she knows that when I open the door again, I'll have a couple of hay-cubes to hand-feed her.  She is much happier just getting that tiny treat than when her imagination runs wild picturing all the finery that Bessie is enjoying just on the other side of the closed door.

Update, or better yet: "God provides, part 2"

We have an offer on the house.  The prospective buyers must really need their closing costs covered, because their counter offer was still a bit low and still included having us pay closing costs.  We countered with $10,000 less than our asking price plus agreeing to pay closing costs. I felt no anxiety at all as we waited to hear if the buyers had accepted or rejected our counter-offer. (And that's saying something, since I tend to be just a bit of a worry-wart--you can all have a good laugh at that.....!) They accepted!  So we just need to sign contracts tomorrow to get the ball really rolling. After 2 years of paying 2 mortgages (ouch!), a lot of that purchase price will re-pay the money that has been sapped from different bank accounts to keep up with mortgages and outrageous property taxes on both properties. Again, I can only say "God provides!"  It's amazing sometimes how things can just seem to fall into place, but when I stop to really think about it, it's always on God's timing.  And always after we step back and scratch our heads at the inefficient efforts we've been putting forth, God comes through with "Try trusting Me FIRST next time!" ("In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths" and "Lean not unto your own understanding")  The learning process--in ALL areas of life, ALL the time! Thank-you all for your prayers today.  Praise be to God, who works all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose!  ;) Laura.

Potential to sell the house in Palatine

Please be in prayer for this, and once again for our patience in waiting on the Lord for guidance.  We put our old house up for sale last year in September, starting at $325,000 and knowing that amount was a real long-shot.  Like everywhere else in America, the same house would have sold for a lot more just 5 years ago.  The builder of our house and 4 almost duplicate houses behind it had estimated that his homes would have sold for well over $425,000 if he'd taken them out of the rental market and tried to sell them 5 years back.  ;(  If you're curious to see the listing, it can be seen on the redfin website.  Just type in the address 617 North Maple Avenue, Palatine, IL 60067.  The house was definitely given to us on God's timing back in 1995, when we'd decided to stop looking at any other houses and stay in our townhouse.  Jeff saw the tiny ad in the paper and we almost passed it by, except that the price was $50,000 less than everything else we'd looked at back then, and it was NEW--hardwood floors, lots of windows for natural light (which I love), lots of room for a family of 4 to spread out and grow.  It had been built specifically for another family, whose financing fell through because he was self-employed and couldn't get a loan (still not sure why).  The house fit our needs perfectly! We spent 16 or 17 years there, and we all have fond family memories of times spent in that house, in that neighborhood, with friends and family....  It was a great house in a great location for us, a very spacious place for a busy family, and just a mile or so from the Lutheran school and church.  Jeff would walk the mile to the train station to catch the shuttle-bus to work. We've lowered the price gradually since September.  A few weeks ago, we lowered the price again to $279,000 (sounds like a lot, but that price is a deal in the northwest Chicago suburban area).  Someone offered $245,000 and wanted us to pay closing costs.  We counter offered to $270,000 but declined to pay their closing costs (about $5000).  They made another very low offer, and our real estate agent had some choice words to share with their agent.  The house has been shown numerous times before and since then, but  we have just started looking at paperwork to try to rent it.  Not our first choice, but we decided that if we need to rent instead of lowering the price again, we'll do it.  Now our real estate agent has said that the clients who offered the almost insulting low price might be ready to come back with a more reasonable offer.  Did I mention that in the almost-year since we listed the house, this has been the one and only offer?  Lots of showings, but only this one offer. If the house would sell, we could invest our time and resources completely in this little farm venture, not to mention the huge change in the stress level on the budget and on our poor overworked brains.  ;) Like with the hay situation, it IS in God's hands, and we've been praying all along for the right buyer, for God's timing, and for patience during the wait. Also like the hay situation, and similar to when we gave up the real estate search and THEN the right house came available (both in Palatine, and in looking at farm properties), and even when we were looking at buying cows and everything seemed to be falling through until I gave up trying to control the situation, God works when we finally admit and realize that we can't possibly orchestrate what is needed. If you'd like, would you join us in praying, specifically for the house to sell, but even more specifically for God's will to be done (and for us to trust Him and leave it in His hands!) Laura.