It has been a week and a day since we brought the calves up to our house so that the sheep could go to Susan's. The girls are doing great! Every morning I get up and feed all of our animals. After Fawn and Cocoa are done with their milk, I halter them both and lead them over to the pasture to be let out with our horse. They are both doing a lot better at halter leading, except Fawn has discovered that after I let her go, and walk back to get Cocoa, she can turn back around and come back out, because, of course, the grass on the OUTside of the fence is MUCH sweeter and tastier than the grass on the INside. So I have been getting my husband to help me lead so that they both go in at the same time. This morning he was still in bed, so I haltered them both and tried to lead them both at the same time. Hmmm... One great leader who likes to trot alongside me, and one not so great leader whom I have to place a hand on her backside, at which point she'll trot along just fine. So I had one calf trying to race to the pasture, and the other trying to go eat the grass on the other side of the barn... that doesn't work so well lol I finally got them both pointed in the same direction, and through the fence, where Cocoa immediately tried to race off to say hello to Paige, and Fawn immediately tried to race off to eat the hay.... with me in the middle, trying to hold on to both of them! Oops! They both quickly realized they were still attached to me and waited patiently for me to undo their halters so they could walk off.
By the way, we obviously need different fencing in the lower pasture. We have 3 pasture areas. One is at the top and not fenced in yet, one is where the horse is and where the calves spend their days, and one that is fenced with hot wire fencing instead of stock fencing. We opened the lower pasture up the other day because it was nice, and my husband and I were working on the barn roof so figured we could keep an eye on them. Suddenly a lady came running into the yard yelling out to find out if we owned the baby cows that were... halfway down the road. Great. Race across the yard, grab the lead lines, and go try and catch the uncatchable. Seriously, the pigs were easier to catch! But we finally got them back into their pasture and closed the lower gate. Those girls sure are inquisitive! But so sweet. There is nothing quite like hearing the low mooing sound they make when they hear me coming, and nothing quite like a rough yet somehow slimey tongue coming your way when they can't quite reach the bucket you're trying to mix their milk into.
9 1/2 more months until they can be bred :)
