KoolAid is unusually brilliant today. Five flavors all somehow in magic layers. Then a vivid spill on the white shag carpet. Cat's to blame. in These titles mean nothing.

  • Feb. 26, 2022, 5:13 p.m.
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  • Public

I regret playing tricks. Who said I was a nice person?

171 divided by 866 rounds up to 20%. Still a good book. Paul Auster’s 4321.

Sunny day, towards the end. Sixty laps so far. I anticipate at least another twenty.

Jim is having too early calves. It’s the bull’s fault of course. He found a set of twins yesterday morning - one dead, the other very weak. He took the weak one to the calf warmer and fed it colestrum and maybe electrolytes and maybe milk replacer. Calf was miraculously better this morning. He took it back to its mother and she looked in the other direction. She was busy keeping the eagles away from her dead calf. That is not the end of the story. Jim brought the calf back to the warmer and he will try again tomorrow.

We have some pretty new snow. The squirrels beyond the clothesline are having a field day, a field month? a field season. There are trees the children of the Esthers of black walnut fame, and the squirrels last fall industriously buried the hard nuts. And now they are scurrying in the snow finding them. There are chickadees and blue jays going through the cracked nuts looking for morsels. All are great fun to watch. I feel sorry for people who don’t have squirrels.

Gracie did some stair walking with me today. She can make it up and down the shallow riser, wide tread stone steps that go down from the landing to the laundry room and furnace room of the basement. I like to think they are as old as the house and that they used to be outdoor steps covered with a slanted door, only enclosed when the house got its final over the top addition in the 1920s. The three wooden steps up to the kitchen are steeper and there is no such thing as a run for them. so when Gracie wants to come upstairs she asks to be let out the door of the landing, and then walks around the house to be let in back porch door. She does that fairly often. All through the night as well. There is quite a bit of life left in the old girl. The 1 mg of prednisone works wonders.

The grandmother of one of my old old job friends has died. She was 90 and I’d worked with her too at my old old old job. She had raised him and he wrote a very touching message in Facebook a day or so ago. I need to send him a card. He said she had made him the man he is.

I hear Gracie whining at the landing. Guess I will go let her out, so she can bark and maybe pee and walk around the house to be let in the door at the back porch.

Have a good weekend, friends. I wish you all happiness - and good luck in all endeavors.


Last updated February 26, 2022


woman in the moon February 26, 2022

I'm always surprised no one brought squirrels to your side of the world. They are very entertaining, can be tasty, plus they are great tree planters.

NorthernSeeker February 26, 2022

That poor calf did not get a good start in life. I hope Jim and you can keep it alive.

Florentine February 26, 2022

We love waking to fresh powdery snow in the mornings so the girls can see the bunny and squirrel tracks. Sometimes it is hard to tell them apart when the snow is deep.

Jinn February 26, 2022

I think when we lived on the farm we had breeding schedules ? The bulls were kept separate from the cows and they kept a book on which bull to breed them to and when . It was all very strict :-) I hope that poor calf makes it .

gattaca February 27, 2022

I hope the calf survives. Nature can be - as we perceive it - cruel.

noko February 27, 2022

Much cycle of life stuff here. I guess te move from winter to spring is like that.

Purple Dawn February 28, 2022

My bother has 4 too early calves. No twins yet thank goodness. The bulls were turned out June 1st but I understand one evil one is to blame for the 4 early calves, of course it is the Bull's fault.
I hope you don't a freemartin heifer with those twins.
Take care,

woman in the moon Purple Dawn ⋅ February 28, 2022

Does your brother have a calf warmer? I think maybe we talk about this every year. They really help in taking care of early calves and help them get good starts. No more calves in the bathtub.

Purple Dawn woman in the moon ⋅ February 28, 2022

No, they get put in a school bus on hay with a heater at times. He needs one. I was going to check them out online, we did talk about them :)

Serin March 02, 2022

I hope mom cow has more time for the surviving calf.

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