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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To Shoe or not to Shoe

We have 5 horses. All of which we have saved from one place or another. Our horses are our babies and we do everything we can for them. From Vaccinations, Worming, Teeth Floating, Brushing, Loving, Feeding and also Shod  their Hoofs.

To Shoe or not to shoe. There is always a debate on this. We actually do both. Our Ranch horses that move cows get their Hooves Shod. We do that because they walk through some rough terrain and it helps their Hooves.

Our horses are part of our family. May sound odd to some but we have Fat, Jack and Leroy. Then we have Foxy and Elvis. Elvis is an old boy who we never ride. He is more of a pasture pet that I love dearly. He was an ex Racehorse that we saved because he was almost skin and bone. He is a healthy old boy now. So we just get his feet trimmed regularly. Jack is our crazy huge horse that only Ryan can ride who was also an ex Racehorse. He gets trimmed also. The ones that get shod are Leroy (Ryan's main horse) and Fat. Fat get shod every 6 weeks without fail because he has navicular so he needs the horse shoes to help his legs to feel better as he walks. Leroy is the one that is ridden the most and Ryans baby so he definitely gets shod.

To shoe or not to shoe. As you can see we do both. I have heard pros and cons with both but in the end I think its what is best for the horse. We have an awesome farrier who has done this for many years. She is the best in our county and we are thankful she treats our horses so well. She even let me take some pictures this time with a little bit of coaxing.

I am just thankful that we have our babies and the ability to save and take care of them. This summer I will also be taking lessons to feel more comfortable on the horses. Ryan and Jack are pros. The rest of us are more of trail riders. Its fun to ride as a family but the part I tend to like most is brushing and caring for our horses. Especially Elvis my old boy.

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Saving Minnies Life (caution pics)

What I saw yesterday was something I had never seen before. To me it was amazing, educational and a wonderment. This is the story of how my Minnie was born.

As you can see by the pictures Minnie is a calf. Her mom was 17 years old which is cow years that is very old. I looked up the lifespan of a Cow and its normally about 15 years. So she really had lived her Cow life in the big pastures of California. I love the Ranch she lives on because the people who own the ranch are such loving, giving people. They treat others and their animals like Gold.

Minnie's Mom was able to calf throughout her years and have many babies. Minnie however was taking all the nutrients from her mom growing inside of her. The Mom was like any other Mom out there....giving to her baby.

Today the Mom couldn't get up. She was struggling and it was so sad. Even when I saw her I wanted her out of her misery. It had just started that day so they knew they would have to take the baby before both the baby and the momma were gone. Her mom lived a good life.

I prepared myself to see what I was about to see but in the end I didn't even think about the blood or such because I was so worried about if the baby would come out alive. After putting the mother down you have less than a couple minutes to get the baby out. I watched as our Rancher Friends cut open the momma and a couple of people gathered around to help him out. A baby calf is about 60 pounds or so and you have to pull it out. It was a moment I will never forget. The sacrifice the momma gives for the baby. Our Rancher friend was worried and worked fast. I was amazed at how calm he was even though you could tell his heart was pounding.

Then with a little struggle he pulled her out! Feet first and hung her up so they could take the Mucus plug out of her mouth. She was breathing!! He did it!!! Two of my children Cassie and Jason were able to be there too. They didn't even get grossed out because they were so happy the baby was alive like the rest of us. Lots of questions were asked and they answered them all.

We all wiped her down with towels and rubbed on her like the mom would. She was taken to the barn to get her first bottle of colostrum so she could have the antibodies that she will need. It took two to  feed her. She was 2 weeks preemie they figured out so we were worried that her stomach would be able to handle things. Normally a calf would be grafted onto another Cow so they can eat that milk but this one would be bottle fed. I was pretty excited because we were going to take Minnie in the morning to our ranch and raise her.

She was pretty slimy at first so it was harder to feed her. HA! She wasn't standing on her own yet either but that was pretty normal I was told.

Next day Minnie was a feisty little calf! She made it through the night and we were able to take her home. She eats about 2 bottles every 4 hours right now. She is doing really well. You kind of have to stand over her and feed her. She is learning to eat her bottle still. Natural instincts will kick in and soon she will be running to us for her bottle. Ryan and I both take turns feeding her. We bring our bucket full of bottles to the barn for our four lambs and bottle fed calf. We feed the lambs first because they are more demanding and then Minnie.

She is precious and so pretty. How can a cow be pretty? Well she is! I am still in love with our other bottle fed calf Princess who is now a big ol teenage cow. Hey I am not a Real Rancher so I forget the name of a teenager cow lol.

In the end I was really glad that most of us got to be there to experience this. I love that she lived. Sometimes that's not the case. Its hard on Ranchers to lose a cow or a calf. This is their income. This momma though did her job for many years! Look at the beauty that came out of it all. I am so thankful to our Ranching Friends for inviting us to come. For answering all our questions and for making it a learning experience. For this story it was a happy ending. Here is our little Shorthorn Calf Minnie!

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Saving Animals and Jasons First Steer

I know we live on a Ranch and my husband takes care of 9,000 Acres of Ranches but we don't own a bunch of Steers or Cows. You see we moved to Adin about 2.5 years ago to take on this opportunity. It all started with the fact my husband was a Contractor and would come to the ranches to fix houses, buildings, roofs, Etc. He did that for a couple years before we finally decided to move to this little community because we all wanted to be together every night instead of seeing each other on weekends because it was 6 hours away.

To be honest....I did not want to move. I thought it would be like moving to the middle of no where (which it is) but be like solitary confinement or something. To my amazement....Its nothing like that at all. I am often TOO busy. I have good friends here now and we talk all the time. My kids are in so many sports its hard not to see everyone all the time. Its an amazing community. One full of life and one full of helping others. We may have a sign on our one little corner store that says "60 miles to the nearest Starbucks...our coffee will get you there" but it adds to all the charm of the town. You cant go anywhere without being stopped and chatted to which is great. Everyone waves at each car that passes.

Anyways back to the cows. When we first moved here I was so into the fact that we could have more animals than just dogs or cats that I wanted to save every animals alive lol.

Elvis our horse we saved before and 4 months after

Cassie and our Main Horse Leroy

Patroling the Properties (Ryan, Cassie and Jack)

Within our first year we ended up saving 5 horses, a bottle fed calf and numerous bottle fed lambs. I love bottle feeding them!

Josh with Baby Lambs one and two:)

Ryan feeding them grain as they are bigger

Its something that I feel is so cute....and relaxing. I like waking up early and trekking out to the babies to feed them. The lambs we help our friends with and give them back when they are bigger. Then there was Princess.....that's my bottle fed baby cow! She is the prettiest cow in the world and I get laughed at all the time when I talk about her (in a good way). I always tell our friends who are TRUE ranchers how wonderful she is and how she is the best thing ever!

My baby Princess. Cutest Cow EVER

She definitely is not a little calf anymore but rather a cow that we are hoping to breed. Then I will have mini princesses all over the place! A pasture full of beautiful cows ha! I think I am biased of course. I am hoping to have another bottle fed calf sometime this year too. I just feel like they are more of pets than the food we eat.

Side note: I name the animals by what they are to be later in life. Princess will not be eaten as she has a real name. Our pigs pork chop and Bacon were well....just that! Then we had lamb chops and a couple of her friends. So if it has a true name...its safe. lol

Pork Chop or was this one Bacon

Anyways back to the topic. What was the topic again? Oh yah.....our first steer. Jason our youngest is in 4H this year. Our other three did it two years ago but since we came late they learned more about animals than they showed them. We had pigs and rabbits and learned about sheep. This year we are all in so to speak. Jason is doing Leadership, Shooting Sports, Beginners Beef, and cooking. So we decided that for him to show and sell so we had to get a Steer. Again we aren't cattle owners. The land Ryan runs has tons of cattle on it but we lease the land for the REAL cattle ppl like our good friends the Albaughs. I don't even know how many head they have but they raise the BEST beef! If you are ever interested you can look them up at FROSTY ACRES because the Beef and Lamb is USDA inspected of course, Flash frozen and vacuumed sealed for highest quality AND its ALL NATURAL GRASS FED Beef and Lamb. Which is harder and harder to find. Plus if I am being honest they are the nicest most genuine people we have ever met. Seriously if you need the number put it in the comments and we will help you out. They would probably kick me for putting this on my blog but oh well.....Its too good not to share!

Jackson looking cool in front of herd

So we decided to buy our first young Steer from the Albaughs. Hey why not....He is the Beef Leader and also we know they have great stuff. Jason at the end of this will have to pay us back. Its not cheap getting a small Steer to raise. Couple thousand dollars and then feed and hay etc. Jason's plan is to raise it and show it at the first fair at the end of the school year. Then he will show and sell the steer at the end of summer at our big Intermountain Fair. I love that he has a steer. This will give him something to look after and care for himself. He can put pride into what he is doing and learn all about beef as we go. This is TUB TUB Jason's Steer. I honestly think Ryan might be a little jealous because now he wants to buy a couple for our household lol. Taking care of ranches he has down pat but learning about how to be a cattle owner we are learning everyday. Thankfully we have a lot of good REAL cattle ranchers that are teaching us the ways:) That's another thing I like about living here. Everyone treats their animals with respect and its not like this horrible farming environment. Its a human and kind way of treating their animals. THEY ACTUALLY CARE!

Princess all grown up and our first steer Tub Tub

So yesterday was the first time we got TUB TUB. He is a beauty too. I personally think no one will be better than my princess cow but hey I am a little biased. I cant wait for each day as he gets to know his Steer and Tub Tub starts to get attached to him. Its going to be a process but its going to be pretty amazing! We are all rather excited but mostly Jason is. Spring is around the corner. Hopefully I will be back to my bottle feeding lambs and calves. Its truly something really fun. I wish everyone could experience it.

Here is Jason with his steer. I will get better pictures as we go. I am excited for him!

Jason's Steer Tub Tub

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