Yello!

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. ~Anne Bradstreet

January has come and gone and , hopefully, the bitter cold weather is gone for awhile too. We’ve had snow on the ground for several weeks, so we’re ready for a bit of a spring thaw now. Winter on the farm means extra effort goes into caring for the animals who are, by necessity, out in the cold during snowstorms and bitterly cold nights. Last week Francis went out early one morning to find a newborn baby calf that was nearly frozen by the cold wind and snow. So he carried the 90+ pound calf into our house and warmed it up in our downstairs bathtub! After a soak in the warm water, the new baby calf lounged for a few more hours snuggled in towels on the bathroom floor gathering strength before it needed to be returned to an anxious mama out in the barnyard. The problem was that the bath that saved it’s life also washed off the scent that the cow would have recognized and it took a day or two to convince her that the calf indeed was her own. Francis has been around cattle his whole life and is pretty good at knowing how to handle such delicate situations. Fortunately, mother and her baby are doing well and the calf is relatively unscathed by it’s ordeal with the exception of the frozen tips of his ears.
Here’s a couple of photos Francis took yesterday of some big snowflakes and the cows. Luckily the snow didn’t fall very long and the day warmed up a bit so we didn’t have too much accumulation.