Diary from Sky Range Ranch - March 19 through April 20, 2021

MARCH 31 – We had a little rain and snow for a few days last week and some cold nights. We were glad we weren’t calving yet. I tried to do a phone interview last Monday for one of my articles and discovered that our phones weren’t working. Our secondary line (that services my fax machine and computer internet) was still working, but the old original line was not. I was able to use the phone on my fax line, however, and when Andrea and Stan came down to help us feed cows she brought her portable plug-in phone and we checked our phone box outside the house and figured out which of the lines it was. We had to call the local fix-it guy for the phone company and he found that a brief power outage had messed it up down at the main service box down at Baker, and he got it working again.

Last Wednesday Stan drove back to California again, and Andrea went to a doctor appointment for a swallow test (she is still having some issue with her throat after all these years, from her burn injuries). Lynn went to Carmen Creek to locate a well site for some folks who bought property there. When Andrea got back from the doctor she and Dani and I offloaded the part bale off our feed truck into the feeder in the main corral so we could move the little bull into that corral. It’s getting too boggy by his manger feeder and we don’t want him to get foot rot. We need to clean the mud and manure away from that fence/feeder; he can live in the main corral for a while until we can do that.

Then we loaded the feed truck with little bales and hauled them around to make a stack by the calving pen and 2nd day pens—where we will need some hay when we start calving. Then Andrea did some more work on the windbreak corners in the rebuilt pen below the barn—where we will soon have some baby calves.

Dani and some of her friends went over the dump hill on 4-wheelers and roared around in the mud, and came back covered in mud. I took a picture of them when they got back.

Dani & friends covered with mud

Thursday it snowed again. Andrea took her computer to my brother Rocky so he can update it and put Excel on it so she will be able to do the bookwork as secretary-treasurer for our water district. Steve Adams, our watermaster, sent her the figures for this year’s assessments so she can send out bills to all the water users. Then she went to town to do all the town errands, and took a meatloaf (that Emily made) to our Dr. Cope (our veterinarian) and his wife, who have both been very sick with COVID.

We started putting a few of the most-ready-to-calve cows in the orchard at night, where we can see them easier from the house with spotlight and binoculars. They are also under the yard-light, which makes them easier to see.

Friday, Andrea went to the doctor for an ultrasound on her thyroid, and Lynn went to locate a site for a well on another property on Carmen Creek. A lot of people are moving into our valley and some ranches are being subdivided into home-sites. People are fleeing from “crazy” places like California, Washington, New York and a lot of them are coming here.

That afternoon Andrea, Dani, Em and Christopher went to town for a photo shoot—Emily taking some senior pictures for Sam—and then Andrea took them all to dinner, except for Emily, who had to go to work.

Granddaughter Heather in Canada sent some photos of the boys—young Joseph helping his dad build a shed in their calving area to create more shelter, and little brother James having a ride in their wagon.

Joseph helping his dad

James has a ride in the wagon

Saturday, Em and Andrea took Christopher to an Easter egg hunt but he was a little too young to know what was going on and was more interested in checking out the one egg he found than trying to find any more.

We’ve been getting ready for calving, and that afternoon Dani and her friend Kendall replaced 5 burned-out lightbulbs in the calving barn. A couple were at the top of the peak and Dani had to stand on the stall partition (with Kendall steadying her) to reach those. Andrea brought Christopher down on the 4-wheeler and Lynn babysat him while we sorted out a few cows to put in the orchard for night. 

I took photos of Christopher riding around in our house on an old broken “4-wheeler” that he found outside this past winter.

Christopher having fun wheeling around

Then Christopher had fun in his swing, but went to sleep and was still half asleep when Andrea took him back home on her 4-wheeler.

Sunday afternoon was warm but windy. Andrea finished up the windbreaks in the pen below the barn, putting boards alongside the edges of the tin so the cows can’t rub on the tin and loosen it up off the pole fence. Then she and Lynn took the post-pounder off the little tractor so we can use that tractor to harrow fields.

Dani and some of her friends went over the low range on 4-wheelers again and were goofing around, and Dani fell off hers and sprained her elbow. Andrea took her to the ER where they did x-rays to make sure it wasn’t broken. We were glad she wasn’t hurt any worse. She’ll need to keep her arm in a sling for a few days. Lynn and I took care of Christopher while Andrea and Dani were in the ER (since Em was at work) and fed him supper. He loves cottage cheese and chicken nuggets.

That night was extremely windy and the power went off for 3 hours. I put candles in the bathroom so we could see. Again, our main phone line quit working, and the phone guy had to fix it again the next morning. The weather was nasty—snowing and blowing—and we were glad no cows were calving, since we had no lights in the barn with the power off.

Also, we couldn’t plug in the tractor, with no power. That morning we fed a few little bales off the feed truck, and started the tractor later in the day to take big bales to the feeders.

Dan and Eileen French called me that afternoon (ranchers who run cattle on the range next to our old range) and told me about their experiences this year with more than 35 “lupine calves” born with crooked legs and other deformities—caused by the pregnant cows eating lupine last summer on the range. I will be writing an article about it, and they sent me a couple photos of some of their deformed calves. Some have legs so crooked they can’t stand up, and have to be held up to suckle a bottle, since they can’t nurse their mothers.

Lupine calf bottle-fed

Lupine calf - Chris French

These are similar to some of the calves we had in earlier years when our cattle were on the range in early spring and ate lupine--and had crooked calves the next calving season.

Yesterday was cold and windy all day; it never got above 30 degrees. Andrea printed out the water assessment bills for all the water users on the creek and will mail some and hand-deliver some of them. That afternoon Lynn went to locate another well site and Andrea and Em took Christopher to town for a birthday party with some other little kids. I took a photo of him in his car seat as they were heading out.

ready to go to town for a party

By evening China Doll started calving and I put her in the calving pen. When she got seriously into active labor, Lynn and I put her in the barn to calve, since it was bitterly cold and windy. Andrea got home before she calved; she and Dani and I took turns going out to the barn to check on progress. Dani got tired and fell asleep on the kitchen floor in front of the wood stove, and I took a picture of her snoring away.

Dani asleep on the floor

China Doll finally had a heifer calf, but we had to break the sac when the calf was born; it was still over the calf’s head. Andrea got the sac off in time for the calf to start breathing, and then took a couple photos of the brand new baby.

China Doll and new calf

When we checked on the pair an hour later, the cow was lying down (to strain some more and pass the placenta) and the calf hadn’t been able to nurse, so we helped her—before the calf got too chilled. We gave the cow a little hay to eat and Andrea got the calf started sucking. We named the calf Christy Doll since she was born on Christopher’s birthday. I took a photo of Andrea helping the calf nurse.

Andrea helping the calf nurse

Today was warmer and we put China Doll and her baby out of the barn into a 2nd day pen with lots of bedding in the windbreak corners. We need a little good alfalfa hay in the barn (to use for feeding a cow to encourage her to stand still if we have to help her calf suckle, like we did with China Doll’s calf) so we filled the calving sled with good hay from the heifer feeder and Andrea pulled it to the barn with the 4-wheeler. I sat on the hay to keep it from falling out of the sled, and Andrea took a photo.

bringing alfalfa hay to the barn

Lynn started the tractor and used the blade to drag hay and muck away from the feeder in the main corral, so it can dry out and not be a mud hole where the bull eats.

scraping piles of hay and manure away from feeder

Then Andrea and Lynn took the harrow up to the field by Andrea’s house, carrying it with the big tractor. 

They assessed the damage to Andrea’s roof from the horrible windstorm we had a couple nights ago; it blew off a lot of shingles. That wind did a lot of damage to structures around the valley, taking off some tin roofs, and blowing down a fairly new security fence that Michael and crew built for a day care center in town. It flattened the fence, including the big metal posts—like a hurricane would do.

APRIL 12 – Last week the power went off again for more than 4 hours, and we were glad we didn’t have any cows calving in the barn with no lights. That next morning Andrea brought Christopher down with her on the 4-wheeler since Em needed to sleep after her late night at work, and he toddled around while she put a few more boards on the windbreaks and we put hay in those corners. Then Lynn took care of Christopher while we put China Doll and her calf down into the new pen, and walked around the horse pens and horse pasture and found where the electric fence was shorting out, and fixed it. 

That afternoon Lynn did town errands, bought more ear tags for the calves, and went to Carmen Creek to locate another well site for some other people buying property there. Andrea took Christopher to town with her and they went to see Emily briefly at work, and then Andrea took a photo of him walking around on the lawn outside the care center. There’s not so much mud and snow downtown and the lawn was nice and dry.

Christopher in front of the care center

The next day we took a couple more big bales to the cows, including the cows in the horse pasture, and a new bale to the bull in the corral. I took a photo of the cows enjoying their new bale in the horse pasture.

cows eating at feeder in horse pasture

We put Lilli-Annie (nickname Alligator Eyes) into the side pen to calve. She calved that afternoon, standing up—with the calf falling in a heap with its head underneath its body. We had to rush into the pen and straighten out the calf so it could breathe, and beat off the cow who is always an aggressive “man-eater” when she first calves. One person grabs the calf and the other fends off the charging cow. Then Andrea finished harrowing the field by her house. I took a photo of Alligator Eyes and her calf.

Alligator Eyes and new calf

The next day was warm –up to 70 degrees that afternoon. It was the first morning we didn’t have to build a fire in the wood stove. Andrea and Dani’s friend Jack finished putting the tin roof on the little windbreak shelter corner in the 2nd day pens. The end pen has a shelter so a calf could get out of the rain in that pen. Dani and Kendall helped me put hay in the calf houses in the field above the house, for bedding. Andrea harrowed heifer hill and the field below it.

Easter Sunday was warm and nice. Andrea finished harrowing the field above the house that morning and I took a couple photos then helped her through the gate into the horse pasture so the cows wouldn’t try to get out and she harrowed that pasture before taking the harrow on down to the lower field where the heifers are.

Andrea harrowing

Dani finished that field where the heifers are, then harrowed the lower back field. I took a photo of her harrowing the field below the lane.

Dani harrowing

Then we put China Doll and Alligator Eyes and their calves up to the field above the house. I took a photo of Alligator Eyes and calf before we moved her out of the side pen and after we put them up in the field.

Alligator Eyes & calf in pen

Alligator Eyes & calf in field

Dani brought China Doll and her calf from the pen below the barn, and I took photos of her bringing that pair to go to the field.

Dani bringing China Doll & calf

About that time the Amish were going down the road in their buggies to go to their Sunday service so I took photos of them, too.

Amish buggies going to church

That evening we all went up to Andrea’s house for a family dinner and belated celebration for Christopher’s 2nd birthday, with all the kids there. It was great to have Charlie and Sam there, and Christopher had a great time with all his aunts and uncle. He also had fun with his cake; it had little tractors on it and he took them off first thing and played with them on his tray, farming cake crumbs.

Christopher's cake

cake & tractors

Christopher enjoying cake

doing a little dirt work with tractors

He had fun with great grandpa Lynn, and goofing around with his aunt Sammy

Christopher and Great Grandpa

goofing around

Christopher & Sammy

Then he opened his presents, and spent some time arranging some of his new toys on the counter in front of the television.

opening presents

organizing the toys

On Monday my cousin Naida called to tell me that her brother (my cousin Roger Smith) passed away suddenly, from a heart attack. He was 83, and still singing opera and singing at many churches in the Sacramento area. He was one of my favorite cousins; he lived with our family periodically a few times while I was growing up, and later worked for my dad a few times on our ranch. One winter he and his college friend Bill lived up at the cabin and went to the woods to cut trees for posts and poles (peeling and treating the posts) and that next spring (1959) they built most of the fence around our half section of land in the mountains.

Roger always enjoyed his times here, doing a lot of hiking in the mountains. He discovered a rattlesnake den in a rock cave about a half mile above the cabin and one fall had a bear get into the cabin while he was gone. It ate the grease out of a pan on the wood stove, and thoroughly trashed the place. After that he built a more substantial door on the cabin and put wood bars across the windows so no more bears could get in.

Naida told me that Roger loved the ranch and wanted to know if we could scatter his ashes up here in the mountains that he loved. I said it would be an honor to do that, so she and Roger’s ex-wife are making arrangements to have him cremated and the funeral home in California will ship the ashes to us—to scatter somewhere on the 320 when the snow is gone and the wildflowers are blooming. My brother Rocky will arrange to have a video made as we do it, so it can be shown at the memorial service this summer in California.

Granddaughter Heather in Canada sent photos of the two boys dressed in their Sunday clothes to go to Easter services.

baby James all dressed up

Young Joseph in his Sunday Best

We had several more calves born this past week. A few of them had to calve in the barn because the weather was so cold and windy. I took a photo of Outlandish and her new baby in the barn (she’d gotten tired and was lying down again to strain and shed her afterbirth, after the baby nursed) and took another photo the next day when we put that pair out to the pen below the barn.

cow & new calf in barn

out in pen by barn the next day

Wednesday afternoon Andrea watched the cows while Lynn and I went to town for our second COVID shot. We were fortunate to not have any bad reaction or side effects, since we had to keep on doing our chores and checking cows at night. Just in case we weren’t up to par that night, Charlie stayed the night at Andreas to help with any calving problems—after he changed the oil in Andrea’s pickup and helped me put up a temporary electric fence across one corner of the horse pasture, to keep the cows out of that corner (there’s a ditch there and we don’t want them lying there and possibly getting on their backs and not able to get up). Luckily we didn’t have any calving problems that night, and Lynn and I felt pretty good after our shots, just really tired.

Andrea drove to Idaho Falls that night to meet up with Stan (who came from California that day). He was having a flatbed put on his pickup that next day, and then they drove home that evening. That afternoon another cow was calving and it was still windy and cold, so Dani and I put her in the barn to calve. She had a heifer calf. 

By midnight one of our heifers was calving and I was glad Andrea was home by then, because we were pretty sure we’d have to pull the calf. The bull we used last year does NOT sire small calves and the first-calf heifers are all likely to need a little help calving.

It was cold (18 degrees) and windy so we put Pimples in the barn to calve (at 1:30 a.m.), using a calm older cow as a companion in the adjacent stall. Dani and a couple of her friends who were staying overnight with her put some new bedding hay in the barn and in the second day pens, then they took a nap on our couches while Dani sat out in the barn and watched the heifer. We have a little stool with a foam cushion on it, where a person can sit fairly comfortably in the back corner behind the old stove (in a tiny area behind one of the barn stalls—next to a wood stove that we put there years ago when we were calving in January and the nights were often sub-zero). In that spot, the cows can’t see us but we can peek at them to see if they are progressing in labor. Dani sat out there until she got cold, then I went out and watched the heifer, about the time she started seriously straining. The calf’s feet were showing but there wasn’t much progress so at 3:45 a.m. Dani called Andrea. She came down from her house, and tried to sneak up on the heifer to get chains on the calf’s legs, but the heifer jumped up. 

We prepared to put her in the headcatch (right outside the barn), turning the yard-light on above it and getting gates ready, but about that time the heifer lay down again and began more serious straining. While she was straining and concentrating on her pain, Andrea was able to sneak up on her and get chains on the calf’s legs. This time the heifer stayed down, straining, and several of us were able to sneak over the stall partition by her back end, and help Andrea pull the calf. It was a hard pull but we got the calf out alive—a big bull calf. The kids went home afterward, and I watched the pair for a while to make sure the calf could get up and nurse. He lay there a long time, and the young cow loved him and licked him, but when he finally did get up she was confused and started knocking him around with her head. By then it was daylight and I was doing chores. I called Andrea and she came down to help me—and again we were afraid we’d have to put Pimple in the headcatch, so we could help her calf nurse, but she started to settle down and let the calve move toward her udder. He was able to get onto one teat, so we fed Pimples a little alfalfa hay to help encourage her to stand still, and I stood in front of her so she wouldn’t move away, while Andrea quietly guided the calf onto the other teats. A very happy young cow and calf by that time, and within a couple hours she’d transitioned into a very aggressive, protective mama!

Later that morning we had another cow calving and I got her in from the pasture and put her in the side calving pen. With sunshine and warmer temperature, she didn’t need to go in the barn, and calved quickly. I took a photo of her and her new calf.

new calf

Charlie came out, and helped Stan put some new shingles on Andrea’s roof, to replace the ones that blew off a few days earlier in the horrible wind.

Saturday was cold and windy again. Stan and Andrea went to town and spent all morning at Fire School (to get recertified for working on fires this summer). Dani helped me take the tarp off the hay in the stack-yard and Lynn got a couple more bales to put in the feeders in the horse pasture, and a new bale for the young heifers in the field below the lane. They helped me move the feeders to new locations.

Then they rolled up several bunches of deer netting (that we put around our haystacks to keep the deer from getting into them during the winter) and stored them over by the sick barn. Lynn went to locate another water well site for some folks from Boise. The wind got really nasty by late afternoon and we were glad the new calf was already dry and had a tummy full of colostrum. We didn’t tag any of the new calves that day.

Yesterday was cold again but not as windy. At 2 a.m. I noticed one of the other heifers was calving—when I looked out the window with spotlight and binoculars. The calf’s feet were already showing so I needed to get her into the barn fast. Lynn helped me put her in, using a gentle 2nd calver as a companion. Then I called Andrea and she came down. We watched the heifer awhile and realized she was going to need help. Emily was on her way home from her late shift at work, so Andrea called her, and she stopped here on her way home, to help us.

Andrea tried to sneak up on the heifer in the stall, and started to get the chain on one of the calf’s feet, but the heifer jumped up and ran off. She was running out of time for having a live calf; only one foot was out and the other one was back a bit and right alongside the head—jammed up so tightly that there wasn’t enough room for the calf to come on through the birth canal. So we put her in the headcatch and Andrea worked at trying to get hold of the second leg and pull that foot on past the head. Lynn held the cow’s tail up straight to keep her from straining as Andrea and Em struggled at getting a chain on that leg (really tight in the birth canal, with no room to get fingers around the foot) and I held the light. 

Finally that leg was successfully snared, and we all pulled hard on the calf. It was seriously stressed (and pooped—all the fluid surrounding the calf was green-brown) but still alive when we got it out. We got it breathing and carried the calf to the barn, and the little cow went right back in there and mothered it nicely in spite of all the stress she’d just gone through—licking it diligently. It was a heifer calf, and it soon got up and tried to nurse, but the young cow kept facing it, licking it, and it couldn’t get back to the udder. 

The young cow was too nervous to let us help, so we warmed up a quart of colostrum and fed the calf by bottle, to give her some energy and keep her from getting chilled—and buy her some time to bond with the cow. It was 5 a.m. by that time and we were all exhausted and went to bed for a couple hours. By the time I got up at 7 a.m. to do chores, and checked on that pair in the barn, the calf had managed to suck a couple teats, so all was well.

After breakfast Andrea, Lynn and I tagged all the calves that had been born the last couple days and put the heifer and her baby out of the barn but didn’t tag that calf yet because we didn’t want to disrupt their bonding process.

Then Andrea and Lynn changed the drawbar on the little tractor and pulled the old manure spreader up to Andrea’s house so Stan could work on it some more and get it working properly. Stan also started digging some of the debris out of our ditches so we can start irrigating. The fields are very dry and we need to start irrigating soon.

Another cow started calving this afternoon and we put her in the calving pen—and then into the barn by evening because the weather was nasty. She calved quickly and we put the companion cow back out in the orchard. Later, just before midnight, I checked on the cows in the orchard and one of them had just calved—and a couple other cows were trying to help mother the baby. I called Dani and she came quickly from Andrea’s house and helped me sled the calf to the barn, with the cow following. The cow was not happy about us messing with her baby and I had to beat her off with a stick to keep her from attacking Dani as she pulled the sled (and had to put the calf back into it a couple times when it struggled to its feet and fell out). We finally got the pair in the barn, out of the bitter cold wind, and the calf was able to nurse and do fine.

Today was still cold and windy. After breakfast Andrea helped me put several cows and calves up to the field, from their sheltered 2nd day pens. One of the cows we put out was insistent on fighting the other cows and in the process knocked her calf down and it got rolled around and stepped on. We finally got the fight broken up, and brought that darn cow and her injured calf back in from the field. 

The calf was limping badly and we hoped it didn’t have a broken leg. We put them in the side pen by the house where we could observe her, and left her there all day. We hope she doesn’t have internal injuries as well as a banged-up leg. She lay down all morning, but by this afternoon she was walking around better, and by evening she was feeling good and bucking around, and still nurses the cow, so maybe she is just badly bruised with no serious damage.

Charlie came out this afternoon and changed the oil in our pickup and feed truck and greased them both. It’s nice to have a mechanical grandson!

APRIL 20 – More cold weather! We’re wondering if spring will ever arrive. The calf that got stepped on seemed fine the next day so we put that pair back up to the field. We tagged and banded the next ones, to put out to the field another day. Stan found several old wagon wheel rims (the wooden wheels long rotted and gone—off some old freight wagons that had been parked here on our place in earlier times) and made a really nice firewood holder for us, to have on the back porch in the winter. This will be a handy place to store some extra wood that’s easy to grab from the house. I took some photos to show what it looks like and how he welded the base onto it—made from the springs of an old Model T car that was parked long ago in the bushes below our barnyard.

wood holder

cat & firewood holder

base made from old car springs

Another young cow (number 128) calved that afternoon, in the side pen. She’s the one that lost her first calf last year; it was dead before she went into labor and the front legs never entered the birth canal, so we had to put her in the headcatch and Andrea fished the legs out to where we could pull it, but when we got it out we could tell it had been dead awhile. We gave that cow another chance and didn’t sell her, because it probably wasn’t her fault; we suspected that Panda (the horned cow) had jabbed her in the belly. Panda was mean to all the other cows and we sold her last fall.

Anyway, the heifer that lost her calf last year really wanted calf, so we kept her and gave her another chance. She did love her baby this year, and licked and licked it, but was a bit confused (and wouldn’t let it get to the udder). The calf finally did manage to suckle a couple teats on one side but the cow was kicking her.

The next day she was still kicking at the calf, so Andrea, Stan and I took the pair around to the barn pen and put the cow in the headcatcher. Andrea tried to help the calf nurse the side that hadn’t ever been sucked, but the calf was too scared, so Andrea milked out those teats and we saved the colostrum to freeze. Taking the pressure off those quarters probably eased the cow’s discomfort, because she was letting the calf suck that side of her udder by that evening.

When I was out doing chores I took photos of some of the cows and calves in the field above the house.

Outlandish & calf

Blackhead's calf

I also took pictures of Outlandish’s calf going into the calf house. The calves like to go in there to sleep—out of the wind and rain.

Outlandish checking on her calf that went into the house

comfy in the house

Last Friday Stan and Andrea moved one of the feeders out of the horse pasture with the 4-wheeler and dragged it up to the field above the house. There are so many cows and calves up there now that we need another feeder there, and there are only a few pregnant cows left in the horse pasture-orchard. I took photos of the feeders they took up there.

feeder

We took 2 big bales up to the cows and calves, then Lynn and Stan worked on the manure spreader and got it working. They took the hay fork off the big tractor and put the bucket on the loader, and Lynn used it to scoop some old manure from the bull pen to put in the manure spreader and try it out.

They took it to the field below the lane, where the yearling heifers are, and spread the trial load on the hill side of the field that never gets enough manure on it because we use it for hay and only pasture it after the hay is harvested and regrows. Stan helped adjust it as we started running it.

Lynn taking first load out to try to spread it

Stan adjusting the manure spreader

The trial run worked, so they went back to put in a full load and spread it, too. It’s nice to finally get that old spreader working and useful again after so many years!

spreading 2nd load

I put Zorra Rose in from the horse pasture to the calving pen, and she had a big brockle-faced heifer calf. The weather was nice enough that afternoon that we left them there and the calf nursed quickly.

Alfonso took some of his cows and young calves up the road and left one of the calves along the road, above the field where our cows and calves are. We didn’t want that calf coming down off the back to try to get in with our cattle, so Stan drove up the road on the 4-wheeler to move it on up. The calf was sick, however, and dull and weak, and didn’t want to travel so he had to push it along on foot part of the way. After he got it up around the corner, Alfonso came back down the road, and together they put the calf on our 4-wheeler (with its legs tied) and took it on up to where its mother was. Alfonso told Stan that this calf had been sick ever since it was born. Stan didn’t realize what a problem this might be, especially if Alfonso’s sick calf brought a new “bug” to our vulnerable calves (or even to Christopher, since some pathogens like cryptosporosis are zoonotic and can be dangerous to young humans or people with impaired immune systems). So we burned his gloves and gave him some bleach and told him to go home and wash the 4-wheeler and change clothes. Alfonso brings in new cattle all the time, never vaccinates, and has a lot of disease problems--so we have to be diligent about biosecurity.

We moved 128 and calf down to the big pen below the barn, now that her calf is nursing better and she’s not kicking it as much; we didn’t want to risk putting them up to the field just yet until that cow is behaving a bit better on mothering the calf. Then we were able to put Zorra Rose and her new calf in the side pen where 128 was, and put another calving cow in the main pen. 

Before we went to bed, however, we needed more pen space since another cow was calving, so Andrea and I took Zorra Rose and her new calf down to the 2nd day pens, and put 101 and her brand new calf in the side pen, and got in old 42 (Magdalena) who was calving. But the temperature dropped rapidly and the wind was blowing, so we ended up putting Magdalena in the barn to calve. Fortunately by the time it got that cold, 101’s heifer calf was up and nursing and partly dry, and would be ok left outside in the side calving pen.

Magdalena calved at 2:30 a.m. and then Andrea and I helped it nurse because that old cow’s udder has sagged a little low and it’s hard for the calf to get on a teat. She probably would have, eventually, but it was so cold that we wanted to make sure she got some colostrum quickly.

Later that morning Lynn and Stan took a load of manure to spread on heifer hill. It needs a lot of fertilizer but we decided to only do one load this spring because it’s so dry and cold and there isn’t much water in the creek. We don’t want a lot of manure on the grass for too long before we can water that field or it will “burn” the grass and set it back. We’ll try to spread more on it this fall after we are done haying and grazing, when it can do more good for next year.

Andrea harrowed the area below the lane where they spread fertilizer on that field, and then we put the harrow away again until we need it to do the field where the cows and calves are—after we move them out to green grass.

Dani’s little pickup quit running on her way home that evening from taking her friend Kendall back to town, and she had to leave it down at Baker. The next morning Stan and Andrea towed it home and Stan started checking it to see why all the oil drained out of the transmission. That morning Allan Probst brought us 4 dump-truck loads of big rocks, to put down below the old barn where the creek channel has been undercutting the bank and topping our old fence into the creek. With the first load, he didn’t realize how much the bank was undercut, and the dump truck nearly caved it away and very nearly went down into the creek chasm. Fortunately it didn’t fall in and he was able to get away from the chasm. Michael will bring his skid steer sometime and push the rocks into where they are needed, to stabilize the bank.

Andrea, Dani and Kendall helped me corner 128’s calf in the lower pen (5 days old and very fleet) so we could tag it. We didn’t want to mess with that calf any quicker since that young cow is so weird (still kicking a little at the calf) but they are well bonded now. We also tagged Magdalena’s calf and 101’s little heifer calf and put Zorra Rose and her calf up to the field.

Later that day I took photos of some of the cows and calves, including Magda and her baby, China Doll and baby (our oldest calf. I also took a photo of Zorra Rose’s brockle-faced heifer lounging near the calf houses.

Magda & calf

China Doll & calf

Zorra Rose's calf

On Monday we had a snowstorm in the morning but it didn’t last very long. We needed the moisture; everything has dried out a lot with all the wind we’ve had. I did chores in the snowstorm, and put my “crash cow” into the calving pen. It was still snowing when she started serious active labor, so we put her in the barn to calve. She had a big bull calf at noon. We don’t have very many male calves this year—mostly heifers—but I was hoping this cow would have a heifer. She’s a really good cow and I’d like to have a few daughters from her, but so far all she’s had are boys!

That afternoon Lynn went to town to do all the town errands and get some groceries. Andrea and Stan drove up the creek in her pickup and sawed three trees out of the road and sawed them up into firewood.

I put Magdalena and calf up to the field and then Dani came along (to leave Christopher here with us for a while) and helped me put my crash cow and her new calf out of the barn into a 2nd day pen where I can feed and water her. Lynn got home from town shortly after, and he and I took care of Christopher until Stan and Andrea got back.

Monday evening our phones and internet quit working, and it was a good thing we didn’t have any calving problems during the night because I wouldn’t have been able to call Andrea. The phones still were not working this morning, and Lynn had to drive 2 miles down to Baker and use a cell phone to try to call the phone company, and to call the guy I was supposed to interview for an article, and to call a guy who tried to call Lynn about a water witching job.

Andrea came down mid-morning and helped me put 101 and calf to the field and then we took 128 and her week-old calf to the field—figuring she’d had enough time with it by herself that she could handle taking care of it out with the other cows. But they were both a little wild and goofy and on the way up to the field gate she kicked her calf in the head and knocked it down. It seemed to be ok, and got up and ran on out the gate with her, but then ran and ran around the field with the cow trying to keep up with it. They eventually settled down and seemed to be transitioning into the herd. I checked on them later and the cow and calf were together and the calf had nursed, so hopefully they will do fine.

Andrea had a very painful toothache this morning, but since our phones were still not working she couldn’t call to make a dental appointment. So Stan took her to town and she went to see a dentist, who prescribed antibiotics for the infection and made an appointment for her to see a specialist who will be here in about 3 weeks (he comes to Salmon once a month).

Our phones and internet started working again this afternoon so I was able to send some urgent articles to editors, and call the person I was supposed to interview this morning.

At chore time this afternoon I took photos of the heifers eating at their feeder in the field below the lane, and some of the cows and calves in the field above the house.

heifers at feeder

happy pair

I also took a photo of a calf that tried to climb into one of the feeders while I was out there, and got stuck. He was high-centered and couldn’t go forward or back and I had to lift up on his hind end and push him on through it.

calf stuck in feeder

 

Diary from Sky Range Ranch - February 11 through March 18, 2021

FEBRUARY 20 – Last week continued cold, getting down toward zero most nights and only up to 17 or 18 degrees in the afternoons. We were breaking ice daily on the creek to keep the water holes open for the cows, and in the bull pen.

Michael and his fencing crew finished the new pen below the barn last Thursday and it was good they were done because that night it started snowing and blowing and the next day was too miserable to be building fence. Andrea helped me feed the cows and we put an extra little bale on the truck to go with their big bale, to make sure they had enough food for the cold weather.

It was still snowing and blowing the next day, on my birthday. Granddaughter Heather in Canada sent me birthday wishes by e-mail, and photos of the two boys.

Joseph with the Valentine he made

Joseph's coloring project

James ready for dinner

When we went to feed cows we had a hard time getting to the field through deep drifts. The portion of big round bale that was left was precarious so we tied it down in all directions so we wouldn’t lose it off the truck as we bounced back down from the field.

I took a few photos that day, of the snow on the woodpile and vehicles, Lynn bringing in an armload of wood, Michael’s skid steer plugged in, and the lane toward the barn.

woodpile

Lynn bringing in wood

skid steer plugged in

lane toward barn

I also took a photo of the feed truck with the bale tied in several places to keep it from tipping over, and little bales around it.

feed truck with big bale tied on

The next day was worse, and even harder to get up to the field to feed the cows. Andrea’s driveway was also impassible for a car, so after we fed the cows and the feed truck was empty, Andrea and I put 22 little bales on the feed truck for traction, tied them on so they wouldn’t bounce off, and she used the feed truck to buck the snow drifts on her driveway. After a trip up and down the driveway with the truck, breaking trail, she was able to drive in and out with her car.

We unloaded the little bales in a stack by the calving pen and Lynn got the tractor started (after being plugged in all night and a canvas over the hood to help insulate against the cold) and loaded another big bale on the feed truck, and took our last bale of straw to the cows for bedding—then used the tractor to plow our driveways. Andrea drove to Idaho Falls to spend some time with Dani for part of the day. She stayed overnight and was able to visit with the doctor the next day and bring Dani home on Tuesday.

Michael came and got his skid steer, to plow his driveway and clear snow in his stackyard over the weekend, then brought it back down here on Monday to plow snow along the lane below the old milk barn, where his crew will be building new fence. He left the skid steer here and Lynn gave him a ride home.

It just kept snowing; we had several more inches of new snow on Tuesday and the roads were pretty bad (and poor visibility in the snowstorm) for Andrea and Dani’s trip home, but they made it ok, getting home that evening.

Another problem arose; Jim called early morning from Andrea’s house to tell us there was no water. He checked the pump house, and the heat lamp had burned out; the line was probably frozen. Lynn and I fed the cows while Jim worked on the water problem, then got the tractor started and took a new bale to the young cows below heifer hill. The snow was more than a foot deep and he had to plow a path up to the feeder.

Wednesday was a little warmer, up to 24 degrees, with more snowstorms, but Michael and his fence crew worked on the lane fence in spite of the bad weather. They also pulled out the old cattle guard next to the fence along the creek in the field below the lane—that Lynn put there years ago to keep cattle from falling in a hole that the ditch eroded under the fence. Michael got the old cattle guard out and filled the hole with rocks, and the guys built a jackfence there.

Dani’s friend Jack was here that day, and they helped me clean out the old hay in the bull’s manger and put it in his protected corner for bedding, then they used scoop shovels to shovel the deep snow away from the corral gates we’ll need to be able to open and close when we vaccinate the cows. Lynn plowed more snow, and made a path along the chute runway in the corral.

On Thursday we vaccinated the cows. After chores Andrea helped me shovel the deep snow away from a couple more gates and away from the squeeze chute. Dani and her friend Jack came down a little later and helped bring the cows down from the field to the corrals. We vaccinated and deloused them. Dani and Jack moved the cows through the chute runway, Andrea caught their heads, Jack worked the tailgate and squeeze, Andrea and I vaccinated, and Dani did the pour-on for lice, since she is tall and has long arms and can reach along their backs very easily. I took several photos of her pouring the delousing product on the cows—from head to tail.

Dani delousing

Then we put those cows in a side pen and went to get the young cows (first and second calvers) from the field below heifer hill. 

Those young cows were not at all hungry (they have hay in their feeder all the time) but they followed me down through the next field. Then they got goofy – bucking around and playing—and decided they didn’t want to come into the lane by my hayshed. It took all 4 of us (Andrea, Dani, Jack and me) to patiently outwait them (keeping them from running back up through the field in the deep snow) and they finally decided to go through the gate. We took them around to the corral and vaccinated and deloused them. 

We left them in the corral while we took the older cows back up to their field and fed them with the feed truck, then took the young cows back to their field, and Dani and Jack took a bucket of loose salt and mineral to put in their mineral tub.

I fed everyone lunch (a big pot of chili) and then Dani and Jack took a pickup load of firewood up to Andrea’s house. It was good to have the cows vaccinated; they need enough time to develop antibodies to have good-quality colostrum for the calves they will be having in about 6 weeks. Vaccinating the cows ahead of calving helps protect the calves from various diseases—if they nurse the colostrum soon after birth.

Yesterday was warmer and Andrea had Christopher outside when Emily went to work. That little guy started running down the driveway, following his mom’s car, and he was toddling so fast and got such a head start that Andrea had to drive the 4-wheeler down the driveway to catch him. So she brought him on down here on the 4-wheeler to come visit us for a few minutes. While he was down here he climbed on an old snowmobile that was parked off in the bushes and was trying to start it.

Christopher trying to start an old snowmobile

Today was even warmer, up to 33 degrees. Andrea helped me feed cows and chop bigger holes in the thick ice in the bull pen where Babe drinks. The ice is almost a foot thick on that little waterway (a spring that runs through the back of the pen) and it’s hard for him to reach down to the water, so we chopped a bunch of that ice away. This afternoon Lynn started the tractor and plowed more snow—on our driveways, and made a better trail up through the deep snow to the field where we drive to feed the cows.

MARCH 1 – We had a few days of warm weather, above freezing in the afternoons, so the snow is starting to settle in places, then freezes hard at nights and is so crusted in the mornings that you can walk on it. Coming home from work one night Emily slid off the driveway going around through the corrals and got stuck in the snow and had to walk home. The next morning Michael and crew were here early to work on the fence between the field and the upper swamp pasture, and Michael used his skid steer to pull the car out of the deep snow. Then he used the skid steer to plow a path through the 18-inch deep snow along the fence where the guys will be working and setting new posts, and plowed an area where they can park their pickups.

It thawed a little that afternoon then froze, and Andrea’s driveway and ours was a sheet of ice. When Emily came home from work late that night, her car spun out on the steep part of Andrea’s driveway and when she got out to see if she’d be able to get it going again, she fell down on the ice and slid about 10 feet down the driveway. She managed to get the car a little bit off the ice and make it home, but the next day Andrea spent a couple hours hauling dirt from Shiloh’s pen (with 4-wheeler and calf sled) to spread on the ice on her driveway.

That day the fence crew got all the new posts set in the old fence along that side of the field. We built that fence in 1967 and some of the old posts were rotting off. It was a little difficult driving the new posts in frozen ground. Some of them went in fairly easy (only about 8 inches of frost) but others had to go through more than a foot of frost. The hydraulic post pounder is amazing, however and just keeps pushing the posts down. It was interesting to see how much heat was created by the friction of the post doing down through the frost; little “worms” of thawed mud oozed up from the ground next to the post as it was pounded down.

When Andrea went to town that afternoon to accompany Dani to her first therapy session she left Christopher here with us (since Em was at work) and we took care of him until she picked him up again after chores. I took a photo of him swinging.

Christopher swinging

On Wednesday we had a little new snow but the fence crew worked in spite of it and Michael brought a tall gate post for them to set, to replace the old one. They were having trouble digging out the old one; it took a while.

That afternoon Andrea, Dani, Em and Christopher went to town and Emily took photos of Sam for her senior pictures. Andrea also took a photo of Sam with Christopher.

Sam & Christopher

Someone took photos of Andrea and her 3 girls, and also a photo of Dani chasing Christopher around the parking lot trying to keep track of him.

Andrea & her 3 girls

Dani keeping track of Christopher

On Thursday Lynn went to Kirtley Creek to locate water for a well for a guy from California who is buying property there. He and his wife were staying at the motel where Dani works part-time. 

Christopher got into one of Andrea’s cupboards, got out a sack of flour and spilled it all over the floor and was skating around in it, and then decided he needed to clean it up. Andrea discovered him trying to sweep it up with a broom and took a photo.

Christopher trying to sweep up the flour

Stan drove back from California and got here late Thursday afternoon. The next morning he helped us feed cows; he and Andrea brought Christopher down on the 4-wheeler and Christopher “helped” me drive the feed truck while they fed the hay.

Christopher in the truck

Christopher helping drive

Stan feeding hay while Christopher helped drive

Michael and Carolyn drive to Helena on Friday to get a trailer load of materials and chain link fencing for another job. It was a treacherous trip with the bad roads.

Saturday we fed off the last of the big bale on the feed truck and put gas in the truck; it was nearly out of gas. The gas gauge hasn’t worked for years, so we just mark on the calendar to keep track of how many days it’s been since the last time we put gas in. It doesn’t take much gas, just driving it to the field to feed, and a tank of gas lasts more than 3 weeks, but it had been 4 weeks since we gassed it up last and we were lucky we hadn’t run out. 

We’re having more cold weather. Yesterday morning was down to 6 degrees but it warmed up a bit after the sun came up. Andrea and Stan brought Christopher with them again when we fed cows. All bundled up, he looks like a little Eskimo. He climbed up on Andrea’s 4-wheeler and I took a picture of him.

little eskimo

He also found an old tricycle in the snow next to the house and was wanting to dig it out and try it.

finding the old tricycle

The winter coat that Andrea got for him is still pretty big, and his arms are too short to come down through the sleeves, so it’s a little handicapping when he wants to grab things, but it helps keep his hands warm!

long sleeves

Yesterday was also baby James’ birthday, in Canada. He’s now a year old. Granddaughter Heather sent us some pictures.

One year old!

James is now a yearling

Today was cold again, but by afternoon it got above freezing. We opened the barn doors to try to help dry things out in there—letting some sunshine in. Every summer the irrigation water subs in there and it gets really wet, and we need to get it dried out before we start calving. 

Michael plowed a bunch of snow up at their corrals and today they vaccinated their cows. They had hoped to do it sooner, but they’ve been too busy. It was a job getting their gates functional, with 2 feet of snow obstructing everything.

MARCH 9 – Last week Andrea and Stan shoveled the deep snow away from the water tank in the orchard so we will be able to turn it over and use it to water the cows when we put them in there for calving. Stan brought some tin around from the stackyard (some old tin that has been stored there for many years) and put it in the new pen below the calving barn, to use it to make windbreaks in the corners.

After Lynn loaded another big bale on the feed truck and took hay to the cows’ and heifers’ feeders, he bladed some of the deep snow away from the calving barn so it won’t all be running into the barn as it melts.

Heather and Gregory in Canada started calving, and sent us photos of some of their first calves.

new Canadian baby

cow & calf in Canada

We started getting ready for our annual water meeting and called a couple people to make sure they would be there. We’re hoping that Steve Adams will be our watermaster again. He did a good job last year and was the first one we’ve had that was impartial and wouldn’t be bullied by a couple of the water users who like to do things their own way and steal water. We also need to find someone for secretary/treasurer since Bob Loucks emphatically announced that he will no longer do that job. We were hoping Alyssa Peets might do it because she is a good accountant but she’s been very ill with an autoimmune disease and will not be able to. We then asked Vickie Colston, but she doesn’t want to do it.

Our water meeting was Thursday afternoon. We fed cows early and went to town late morning to do all our town errands, then went to the water meeting. Bob Loucks ranted and raved and yelled and left, and then we had a fairly decent meeting with him gone. We voted in Steve Adams as our watermaster, but since he will be very busy this summer with another job he will be training an assistant watermaster to do most of the work—and we will have to pay both of them. It will be a very expensive year, since we don’t have much carryover from last year (Bob Loucks didn’t think we needed to have water assessments last year); most of us will be paying 4 times the water fee that we’ve paid in the past. But if we can have a peaceful irrigation season with a good watermaster, and not have to be constantly fighting over water (like we have in the past when our earlier watermasters allowed themselves to be bullied or swayed by the ones who steal water), it will probably be worth it.

Since no one wanted to be secretary/treasurer Andrea said she would do it, even though she’ll need a lot of help figuring out all the stuff that goes with that job. It used to be pretty simple, but not anymore, with all the government stuff that has to be dealt with now in the accounting, workman’s comp for the watermaster, forms to fill out for the Idaho Department of Resources, etc. 

After the meeting Stan took Andrea, Lynn and me out to dinner (first time we’ve been in a restaurant since last summer) and it was a nice meal—sort of an early anniversary celebration for Lynn and me, since our 55th wedding anniversary was the next day.

That next morning Stan, Andrea and Dani helped me bring the young cows down from their field and into the horse pasture, to be ready for calving. We want them down here ahead of the older cows so we can take a few days to train them to go into the barn. This time it was easy to bring them down because Lynn had plowed a path through the deep snow through the little field below their field, straight to the horse pasture gate, and they came along that path and followed me down through the field Andrea took a photo of Dani on the 4-wheeler after we got the cows moved.

Dani on 4-wheeler

We’d already put a hay feeder in the horse pasture (it took a lot of prying with a bar to get it loose from the snowdrift and frozen ground where it had been stored all winter next to the bull pen) and a big bale of hay, so those cows were happy to come down to their new place. I’d filled the water tank for them that morning.

That afternoon Stan and Andrea went to town to do all the town errands and took Christopher with them, and Lynn went to Kirtley Creek again to locate a well site for a guy from Montana who bought 5 acres there and wants to put in a house and horse-training facility.

The last three days have been warmer, without much ice on the creek or the bull’s water hole. It makes chores easier, not having to break ice for the cattle. On Saturday we put a little hay in the calving pen and put the 6 young cows in there for about an hour, to get them used to coming into that pen when we want them to. We also need them to tromp around in the deep snow and mash it down and help it start melting quicker. Stan put up some of the tin around the corners of the pen below the barn, to make windbreaks. Lynn and Christopher “helped” while he laid out the tin along the corners.

putting tin along the new fence for a windbreak

Christopher helping Lynn

That afternoon Lynn loaded another big bale on the feed truck about the time Andrea and Christopher hiked down from her house, and he rode with Lynn in the tractor while Andrea brought the feed truck out of the stackyard. That kid loves riding with Lynn in the tractor! Then Lynn plowed a little more of the snow away from the calving barn (in the little pen in front of the barn) but accidentally hit the electric wire overhead with his loader, and broke it. We didn’t notice it until a couple days later, however, and then Stan climbed up on the shop roof and fixed it.

We put the young cows into the calving pen again on Sunday, to eat some hay and tromp more snow, and Stan put up more tin to make windbreak corners in the new pen.

Yesterday we put some good hay in a couple barn stalls and started the barn-training program for the young cows. The three that have been in the barn before (the second-calvers) were good leaders for the three young ones (first-calvers) that have never been in a barn. Andrea and Stan also helped me put another tire on top of Willow’s pile of tires (that elevates her water tub). We’ve always had her tub high off the ground to keep her from pawing it and putting her feet in it, since she plays with anything in her pen, but lately she’s developed a new trick—sidling over it and straddling the tub to rub her belly on it! Andrea took a photo of her doing that, a few days ago:

Willow itching her tummy on water tub

Her constant rubbing of her belly on the water tub is squashing it sideways a bit and also leaving hair in her drinking water, so we had to come up with a solution and decided to make it taller. Putting another tire under it will probably help.

After we got all the morning projects accomplished, Stan and Andrea drove to Idaho Falls and stayed overnight; she had an appointment with her pain doctor early this morning.

Today Lynn helped me put the young cows in the barn for their second training session, and then helped me feed the cows. We had just a small portion of the big round bale left on the truck and had to tie it on with ropes and hay twines to make sure it didn’t fall off when we came back down through the rough field with its frozen cowpies and frozen ruts. Emily didn’t work today, which was nice because she was able to take care of Christopher while all the rest of us were gone or busy.

MARCH 18 – Last week we gave the young cows a few more barn training sessions and they will probably do fine if we have to put any of them in the barn to calve if the weather is bad.

On Friday Jim left to start his trip to Colorado for his summer job on the ranch he worked on last year. Bad weather (parts of Colorado got several feet of new snow) but his roads weren’t too bad. That afternoon Stan shoveled snow out of pen corners.

These last few days have been warmer and the snow is melting a little more each day. It’s actually gotten up to 45 or 50 degrees the past few afternoons. Maybe by the time we start calving we won’t have snow drifts and mud puddles!

Andrea and Christopher hiked down from their house to help feed, and she took a photo of him when he climbed up on the old land plane that’s parked along the fence.

Christopher checking out old land plane

Most of the field by Andrea’s house is baring off where we’ve fed hay, and we were feeding on the last few “clean” snowy areas. On Monday we fed down on this end, near the gate, partly because there was still some snow, and also to have the cows come down to this end so they would be more willing to come down out of that field the next day when it was time to bring them down to the calving pasture. The last part of that bale was not very big so we laid it down on the truck bed and tied it on—and then it wouldn’t teeter back and forth and fall off as we drove back down through the bumpy field. 

The next day we used the feed truck, with its partial bale of hay, to lure the cows down out of that field. Andrea drove, Stan pretended he was going to feed them, and I followed them to make sure the suspicious stragglers kept coming. Since they last time we brought them down was when we put them through the chute to vaccinate, they were a little reluctant to come back down to the corrals, but the greedy ones followed the hay truck and I kept the stragglers coming.

We took them through the corral and around to the horse pasture and orchard to join the young cows, so we can watch them more closely and not have any of them calve up in the field. We have too many opportunistic coyotes hanging around, and we also want to monitor the calving cows; if a cow has any kind of problem calving we want to be able to assist.

The sunrise was a golden glow the next morning and I took photos from the back porch when I went out to do chores.

golden sunrise

Lynn put another bale in the horse pasture—so there are bales in both feeders, to accommodate the additional cows. Then he used the tractor to smash the deep ruts in Andrea’s driveway (the thaw has made a lot of mud) and plowed the snow from her upper driveway so it can be used until some of the deep mud dries up.

Lynn and I dumped and cleaned out the heifer’s water tank and unplugged the tank heater. With the warmer weather we probably won’t get really thick ice on it now, and we won’t need the tank heater.

Yesterday I did chores early, and we didn’t have to feed cows (they are all in the maternity pen with hay feeders). Andrea had a doctor’s appointment (to check her swollen thyroid glands and swallowing problems) and Lynn and I went to town for our first COVID vaccination. We stood in line outdoors for about an hour but it was a fairly warm morning—about 45 degrees with just a slight breeze—so it wasn’t bad. We will have our second shot in early April while we are calving, so we hope we don’t have any calving problems that day when we have to come back to town!

Today was fairly warm again. Dani helped us put 2 big bales in the cows’ feeders and move some little bales from my hay shed to the barn for future bedding. Last fall when I was feeding the horses, I saved some of the coarser hay to use for barn bedding and it works better than straw because it’s not so dusty. We hauled it into the barn with a cart and I took a photo of her as she put the cart away.

putting the cart away

Then we checked out the new pen below the barn –where we will put mamas with new babies—and the windbreak corners, and I took pictures of her in the corners. We will eventually put some bedding in those corners for the calves to snuggle into.

windbreak corner

Dani checking out the windbreak

She also made a new calving calendar to put on the wall --over top of the old one from last year – with all the cows’ names/numbers on their respective “due dates” in the month of April. It’s handy to have it on the wall so we can check to see when a certain cow is supposed to calve (even though some will calve a week or more ahead or their due date, or sometimes a bit later), and Dani likes to cross them off as they actually calve.

Dani making calendar