Joys of Ranching!

So honey, you went through the list of names everybody gave you for Penelope's baby. What did you come up with? What did I come up with? Yep, what did you like the most? So I decided there was a lot of petunias and pennies and you know. What's her cute name? Yeah, all very good. All very good suggestions. But I picked Gertrude. Gertrude. Alright. So that was Mike Ross. Mike, we're gonna get you a hat. So we'll find you on Facebook or something. Or if you message us, we'll get your address and send you a hat. How's little bugs this morning? What do you think of Gertrude? Huh? Huh? Yeah, you don't know what to think of that thing. So here's little Gertrude. I'd say she looks like a Gertrude. Try and find Penelope here. Here's Penelope. So those of you who don't know about Penelope, she was a heifer last year, so this is her second calf. She had her first calf last year. But last year she had a really big calf. We ended up having to do a C-section on her. I don't know if you can still see a scar or not. But usually we don't keep cows that we've had to do a C-section on them because we always thought if they've had a C-section once, they'll probably have to have a C-section again the next year. So our plan was to get rid of her, but she's a really nice cow. The reason she's named is because she's so nice. Usually we don't name our cows, but she's just kind of a sweetheart. So we named her Penelope, and the vet talked us into keeping her, even though she did have a C-section. He thought she might be all right. She might have her calf on her own this coming year. And lo and behold, she did. She had little Gertrude on her own. So I'm kind of glad we did keep her and didn't get rid of her just because she had a C-section. So that's the back story on Penelope. She's turning out to be a nice little cow. And this is all we've got left for cows to calve. So it's kind of crazy. We're probably 85% done with calving. And now the real nice weather is going to come. It's supposed to be 60-some degrees today. But it's gone real fast. We're pretty grateful that it has gone so good this year. And we're feeling hopeful that the end is in sight, that we don't have too many more cows to calve out. It feels good. The days with calving are going to slow down a lot. We're not going to be having 30, 40 calves a day anymore. It's just going to start kind of petering out for the next 2, 3 weeks. Probably have 10, 5, 15, anywhere in there, that number of calves a day. So in the last video, the cow whose calf died and we ended up putting that other calf on her is right here, 21, orange and purple. Her calf's right here, the one that she adopted. So we actually went out the very next morning, and she was letting him suck. So we cut off the hide, turned him out, and they seem to be doing just fine. They're out here still, still paired up. She likes them a lot right here. Of course they're going to try and get away from me, but yeah, it's always good when the adoptions work so well. The stay trapper is back. He must be out checking his snares, but looks like he got a couple coyotes. I don't know if these were from here or if he was out at somebody else's place this morning and got a couple, but either way, it's good to get those calf killers taken care of. There's an eagle flying over, and all the cows are going crazy chasing it. I don't really know why. They all went to check their calves, make sure everybody's okay. They were, all these cows were just right down here eating. Now they all ran back to their calves, check on them. It's kind of funny, the cows chasing animals. The other night I went to check the cows in the dark, and there were these 2 little bunnies, just little ones, not full-grown cottontails, but like little, I don't know, a few months old, however old, but just like this size. They were running, the cows were bellowing, going crazy chasing these rabbits. I think they thought they were going to hurt their calves or something, but it was kind of funny. Do you have any luck? Today I just got this little short yearling here this morning. Oh, that one was here this morning? Yeah, up on that. Oh, when you go out that corner, he was on that fence line up there. That's the second one I've caught out on that fence line. Just behind our house over there? Yeah, but on that end. You know, where's the tower? I can't see the tower. Yeah, right up in there. So anyway, I've been going out that gate with the broken gate stick and just right down that fence line to the north. Oh, okay. Oh, gotcha. Before it drops off. Where it's kind of rough. And then were these other 2 from the neighbors? Yeah, these were both from that Nate's. Oh, over at Fredrickson's. Nice. You guys are supposed to be warm today and then 2 days of moisture in the evenings. And then 20 degrees. So I might pull all these sets on Friday when I come back. But I think I've either gotten 4 or 5 out of you. Okay, perfect. Well, that helps a lot. But I'm headed right now to meet your dad, and he's going to show me the bone pile over at the feedlot. Maybe set some over there. If I can do it in a way where I'll have to look at it, but you don't worry about dogs and whatnot over there, do you? Not too much. Well, I know one neighbor's dogs do go over there some, but they could learn a lesson a little too. Morning, dudes. What are you doing with that tongue? Hey, buddy. You're kind of funny. Buddy, your mom's right there. You should go over to her. Yeah, she's over here, right there. Why don't you guys go over here? Come on, little tongue. Well, since it's such a nice day and calving is slowing down a bit, we're actually going to work our yearling heifers today, give them a shot of the stuff called Vibrio lepto, or it's for Vibrio lepto, which are two diseases that cause abortions. So these guys aren't bred yet, but they'll be getting bred in May. We'll be coming in and artificially inseminating them. So Vibrio and lepto, they both cause abortions. One's kind of an early-term abortion, and one's a later-term abortion. Well, we've got this pen, this pen, and another pen way down on the end that we're going to work today. It shouldn't take very long. It's just one shot. Run them right through and get them vaccinated. Come on, let's go. Hey. Come on. You enjoying the sunshine, Jack? Oh, yeah. I was ready to be done with cold. Yeah, me too. Hopefully we are done with it. We got our 3rd and 4th and 5th winners. Yeah, we're going on 6th. Did you come to help, honey? Not much help? That's okay. With the baby stuff. Bubs can help us. That shirt looks like it's mine, huh? It's in our closet. Yeah, it is. Hey, buddy. We don't know if he likes the wind. Probably not. It's pretty windy. It's not that wicked, is it? Are you feeling better? No. Not really? No. Still trying to kick your bug? Yeah. Yeah? How do the heifers look? I haven't actually looked at them. They're looking pretty good. Bubs, you like that sun on your face? Hey, buddy. Hey. Want to give us a smile? He's like, I'm ready for a nap. Yeah. You ready for a nap? Yeah. Go on in there. Come on. Come on, girl. Hey. Come on in there. What's that? Trying to get a video of yourself getting run over. I know. Come on. Get up there. You can go there. Not even up there. Come on. Go, go, go, go. Get in there. Come on. They went through all the way. All the way through? Yeah. She's done, isn't she? Can you hold them all? Yeah, I can try. They went all the way through there. How did the neighbors know? So, Mr. Silas, these heifers were born a year ago, and they're going to calve a year from now. Does that make sense? Does that make sense, honey? Yeah. Okay. These are the last ones. Nice. So, we're done. Quick and easy. Yep, real easy. And quick. Just a little muddy. Looks fun, man. Yeah, pretty muddy. That's why we really take it slow. Right. Try not to run on us. I know, that's the word. Good laundry day for Damaris. All righty. Well, thank you all for coming along today. We do really appreciate it. Really appreciate all the name comments. There was a lot of good names. It was hard to pick just one. Damaris liked a lot of them. But, yeah, we really appreciate the comments and everything, guys. Hope you're all doing well. Take care. Until next time, we'll see you in the next one.