Saving Angel who is not so Angelic (pics)

Am I the only one who puts a cow in the back of her car and drives home? Isnt this a normal thing to do haha!

So I got the phone call! The one phone call that I always know I want to say yes to. My friend called and said "We have a three week old Calf that doesn't have a mom anymore". I said YES and she hadn't even finished her sentence. Since I am 2 months post op from surgery however I had to go through a little more than normal to get the calf. Instead of my normal YES meaning something I had to get approval from the hubby and a text from him to her making sure it was him saying yes haha!


Normally its not a problem. I am known as Farmer Rae. If you have an animal that does not have a mother for one reason or another....CALL ME! All of our cows have been bottle fed and didn't have moms. Some moms died, some kicked them off etc. I called my husband up as he was helping someone put in a water heater, asked him if it was ok and he just laughed as if he could ever say no!


So the next morning we went to get the Calf. My good friend Lesley named her this time. I always have other people (mainly my nieces and nephews) name my bummer calves, lambs, goats etc. Lesley named her Angel. What a cute name as its the Christmas season.


Angel however is nothing but an angel! She is spunky!!! You know she is spunky when the first text I get from my friend who gave her to use was "How many times did you get kicked today". Angel is the size of a newborn. When they were loading up cows she had no mom. I am so thankful that they gave me the call. She is actually 3 weeks old but soooo tiny! She was eating grass which is amazing since she is just a baby. I think that's what kept her alive.


It took 3 times of trying at different hours to just get her to put the bottle in her mouth. I didn't want to scare her as she is already jumpy enough. At one point she jumped into her water bowl and got stuck. I had to try and lift her out. I tell yah! Spunky! We had to put in a different water bowl. I mean good gracious.


Its snowing pretty bad outside so we have her inside in part of a barn where the chickens  and goat are. I don't want her freezing to death as she doesn't have mom. Plus it helps her to get use to us and come for the bottle.


The sixth time is a charm? That is when she finally figured out the bottle. I just kept trying to be patient and hold it in her mouth over and over. She was chewing on the nipple like it was hay. Then all the sudden 15 minutes of doing this again she latched on. Then it was ON! Her eyes got bigger and she drank with gutso! She drank down the whole bottle and then head butted me for extra uhmph to tell me how good it was.

Yes I am wearing PJ pants still ha!

Angel will be an angel one day. Even her look she looks kind of mad at the world. She is a sweetheart though. I am so blessed to have her. Once she is bigger she is going to love to hang out with all our other bottle fed calves. Thankfully those ones have been weaned

since Fall. Angel and I will be spending a lot of time together having four feedings a day to start. Just wait till I get lambs...they are coming soon too. Its going to be a busy winter for me with my animals! And I love it!!


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Freezing Feeding Frenzy! (PICS)

Jack and Leroy

California you think as great weather. Not this California ha! Ok so its Northern Cali that can be full of weird weather from sun to rain to snow to sun to rain to snow again. Today it happened to snow almost 8 inches. My animals were not ready for that but thankfully we were.

Its FREEZING outside. So doing our daily chores of feeding felt a little more like a FRENZY this time. All my babies were happy to see it. We checked their water to make sure not frozen. Pulled out the heating elements for their water so it doesn't freeze. They all have shelter to go to and lots of feed.

Our rescue bottle fed RJ

Minnie our Cow we bottle fed since birth

Jack in front and Leroy in back

It does amaze me though that they don't go into their shelter more. I mean if I was a horse or a cow I would be under that thing in a minute. But NOOOOOOO they think its more fun to be in the snow under a tree or something. What do they think they are? Animals? These are my babies....get under the cover ppl! :)

Suzy Q our bottle fed goat

Suzy Q

It was a long day. We moved some of the animals to different pens to be closer to one another. I happen to like being on the quad with my husband moving our calves closer to the horses. Just makes it easier to feed when its FREEZING outside. Its kind of romantic too I think. You know....freezing but making something better by putting heating lamps for the chickens or our goat Suzy Q. Making sure the horses and cows are doing okay and have everything they need. I love my animals. I would be upset if anything happened to them.

Fatty our Rescue Horse

Our Dogs thought the snow was the coolest thing ever. They have their own 15 by 20 room that is heated with a million dog beds that is attached to our house. Used to be our game room but with the weather like this it has become the dogs room. They love the snow. I keep telling them to go back into their room but they go out the doggy door and just have a grand ol time! As you can see.

Ninja...Jacksons Dog

Sebastian going crazy in the snow. Had to Warm up Cassies Dog

Maggie is Jasons Dog. She is a Rescue Whippet

Sassy is the youngest of the bunch. MILs Dog

Our oldest and very loved Princess Sierra

Can you see my dog Molly trying to be incognito

All in all it was a beautiful day! A busy day with snow as my husband had to plow at the ranches but a good day! We always wanted a white Christmas.....who knew it would be a White Thanksgiving.

Nope I don't wear make up in the snow

Ryan giving extra apple snacks

One of the barns

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Three New Babies

We have three new babies! The best part about that is we don’t have to change any diapers! I wanted to get some more bottle fed calves because #1 I love them and #2 if I could get a bull that would make Ryan super happy because he always talks about wanting a bull. I looked and looked and looked for bottle fed calves. Ended up finding three in Redding that the lady was practically giving away because her Jersey cow needed a break and she was sick of milking. I am thinking to myself, “This is great! Father’s day is coming up and Ryan will get his bull! Not one but two!”. She had three bottle fed calves. 2 bulls and a heifer. All we had to do was go up there and get them, take them to the brand inspector, get calf milk and go home! Calf replacer is pretty expensive. I think we walked out of the store paying 350.00 for three bags and a couple extra bottles. Going rate for Calves right now is 600.00 someone told me at the auctions so this really was a steal. Glad she got sick of bottle feeding because I never will.

As many of you already know I have bottle fed all of our lambs. Then we have my baby Minnie who was born by C section who has been bottle fed since birth. She is the cutest calf ever! So I was thinking that bottle feeding three more calves wouldn’t be THAT much of a chore! Our lambs are weaned now but Stevie Wonder our blind lamb doesn’t feel like he is weaned at all. He is a fat pig (well lamb) now but he still will push the calves to the side to try and get the bottle. What a piggy! This is my favorite all time picture of him because it cracks me up.

Anyways, we got home with our three new babies. It take about 20 bottles a day to feed all four calves. We will be feeding them till they are 7 months old so about another 4 months. They get 2 bottles in the morning and 2 at night. If they want more they get more. They are also eating grass and grain. They do love their bottles though. It’s nice because it makes them all so much more used to humans.

Princess was our bottle fed baby 1.5 years ago. She is now a big ol girl who will be a mommy come Fall. It’s funny because RJ thinks she is the mom and keeps trying to nurse off of her. RJ is Ryan JR. This is Ryan’s Bull Calf. He is so cute! Great coloring too.  He is 3 months old. His mom had died but he is bigger as he did get some nutrition from the mom before she passed. RJ is an Angus/Herford Cross.

This is Tulu. She is a pretty Heifer. She is only two months old. Her mother passed also. They were at a ranch with over 900 cattle so I am sure this happens a lot throughout the years. I love her eyelashes. Is it weird I am obsessed with a cows lashes?

This is Quinny. He is a Bull and a Herford Cross. He is a sweet little bull. He will eventually become a Steer though. This means he will be “fixed” so to speak and not be able to produce. This is still up in the air though so we will see. My BFF kids named Quinny and Tulu which is super cute. All of our animals have been named by kids in our family. My Nephew is naming the pigs when they come in a month. It’s fun for the kids.

So our little herd is growing by leaps and bounds. I think I started looking the day my teens all left and went to their other parents house for the month because its summer. I have this thing where I want to nurture everything! It took me a couple weeks to find another bottle fed calf that we could get for practically nothing. I just lucked out and got a three in one deal!

I know you are probably wondering why in the heck I would do this. I love it! I can’t help it. I love watching them grow. I was raised a city girl and only had one dog growing up. I want my kids to remember all the animals and be able to bring their grandkids back to see them too when they are older. Like 30 years older ha! In reality too these animals can help be our kids futures too if we ever decided to sell them later on. I don’t see me being able to do that but you never know.

This is what happens when I get bored because my kids aren’t here. They better hurry back because I am looking for pigs and more chickens now. I get excited too when family comes to visit because the kids get so excited to be able to feed. This week my cousin and his family came (that will be my next blog) but here is a sneak peak at my little cousin Brock feeding animals. What more fun for City SlickersJ Next my BFF and her kids are coming and then my Sister and her family! It’s so fun! Who wouldn’t want to do this?

Love,

Farmer Rae J

 

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Ranching Easter

Easter was a ranching Easter with lots of friends coming together. Love love going to the Albaughs for Easter. It's becoming a tradition. Lots of food and fun. I thought I would just show it in some of my favorite pictures since I am late getting this blog out and already onto my newest adventure which you will hear about soon enough :)

Yes this is real and where we did our egg hunting at our friends ranch

Guys putting the eggs in barn in the snow...Lamb Following

Ryan coming back after loading up barn with eggs

Cooper posing in the snow with his Easter Basket

Yes its snowing in California on Easter

Looking for eggs and of course all parents are taking pics

So Darn Cute

The Amazing Hostess and Host of Easter

Eggs with $ in it

Cassie, Austin and Ms. Lewis

Trying to stay warm but got a lot of eggs (Jason)

Having fun with my hubby

The lamb so adds to this event

All the Easter Egg Hiders and the Easter Egg getters lol

Jason and Cassie pretty happy

Austin loving his stash of candy and money

Look Grandma!

Chillin and having fun!

Josh and Seth chillin and talking up a storn

Long Amazing Day and even the teens are out cold

Thank you to the Albaugh family for the fun at the Ranch. Its become a tradition that we love. The teens always feel like they are too old to hunt for eggs and yet.....they run around like chicken every year with smiles on their faces. I have many more pictures but these were just SOME of my favorites. I hope everyone had an amazing Easter. One filled with friends or family and lots of smiles. Remember your kids are never too old for an Easter basket, dying eggs or Easter fun. 

Subscribe to my blog by Google+, Bloglovin or email. Have a Blessed Day and watch out for my next post. My daughter and I drove 11 hours today.....stay tuned for when, where, why and how!