He's coming home!

I got up early this morning to keep an eye on things at Heathrow airport.

LONDON HEATHROW AIRPORT - DEPARTURES

Live flight information - departures

Sched. Time	Flight number	Departing To	Status	Terminal
Wed 19 May 2010

14:15	LH4729	FRANKFURT	SCHEDULED	Terminal one
14:15	LH4797	STUTTGART	SCHEDULED	Terminal one
14:20	BA374	TOULOUSE	SCHEDULED	Terminal five
14:25	BA277	HYDERABAD	SCHEDULED	Terminal five
14:25	BA818	COPENHAGEN	SCHEDULED	Terminal five
14:25	DL041	MINNEAPOLIS	SCHEDULED	Terminal four *
14:30	AA079	DALLAS/FT WORTH	SCHEDULED	Terminal three
14:30	BD058	EDINBURGH	SCHEDULED	Terminal one
14:30	BD967	FREETOWN	SCHEDULED	Terminal one
14:35	BA197	HOUSTON	SCHEDULED	Terminal five

THE GATE IS OPEN!

14:15	LH4797	STUTTGART	SCHEDULED	Terminal one
14:20	BA374	TOULOUSE	SCHEDULED	Terminal five
14:25	BA277	HYDERABAD	SCHEDULED	Terminal five
14:25	BA818	COPENHAGEN	SCHEDULED	Terminal five
14:25	DL041	MINNEAPOLIS	GATE OPEN	Terminal four *
14:30	AA079	DALLAS/FT WORTH	GATE OPEN	Terminal three
14:30	BD058	EDINBURGH	SCHEDULED	Terminal one
14:30	BD967	FREETOWN	SCHEDULED	Terminal one

HE'S BOARDING!

14:20	BA374	TOULOUSE	GATE OPEN	Terminal five
14:25	BA277	HYDERABAD	GATE OPEN	Terminal five
14:25	BA818	COPENHAGEN	SCHEDULED	Terminal five
14:25	DL041	MINNEAPOLIS	BOARDING	Terminal four *
14:30	AA079	DALLAS/FT WORTH	GATE OPEN	Terminal three
14:30	BD058	EDINBURGH	SCHEDULED	Terminal one

LAST CALL!

14:25	BA277	HYDERABAD	GATE OPEN	Terminal five
14:25	BA818	COPENHAGEN	GATE OPEN	Terminal five
14:25	DL041	MINNEAPOLIS	LAST CALL	Terminal four *
14:30	AA079	DALLAS/FT WORTH	BOARDING	Terminal three

GATE CLOSED!

14:25	BA818	COPENHAGEN	GATE OPEN	Terminal five
14:25	DL041	MINNEAPOLIS	GATE CLOSED	Terminal four *
14:30	AA079	DALLAS/FT WORTH	BOARDING	Terminal three

THEY HAVE TAXIED!!

14:25	BA818	COPENHAGEN	TAXIED 1424	Terminal five
14:25	DL041	MINNEAPOLIS	TAXIED 1426	Terminal four *
14:30	AA079	DALLAS/FT WORTH	GATE CLOSED	Terminal three

HE'S COMING HOME!

14:25	BA818	COPENHAGEN	AIRBORNE 1437	Terminal five
14:25	DL041	MINNEAPOLIS	AIRBORNE 1441	Terminal four *
14:30	AA079	DALLAS/FT WORTH	TAXIED 1440	Terminal three

This boy is coming home;

He went off to University in Plymouth in September.

He's had wonderful adventures, seen marvellous thing's, made new friends, spent time with our/my British family, did well in his studies, voted in the British general elections and was right there when history was being made.

He'll be home for four months then returns to the land of hope and glory for another excellent adventure.

Last night, as I went to bed, I told Bobby, "Listen,,, William is coming". Her eyes went straight to the window and she started to dance around and bark. I would tell her that every day when William would come home from school. This morning I said it again and she ran to the window to look out and wag her tail.

One thing will be very different though, for the first time in his entire life William will be on the farm without Foxsun here. Foxsun, my middle boy, died a week after William left and is buried under the apple tree in the garden.

Tragedy

The grim reaper made another visit to our farm yesterday.

I was driving for Brad as he laid out irrigation wheel lines down the draw. As we rounded the corner we were met with the horrendous sight of one of our cows dead in the fence. As we drove closer I was just hoping it wasn't dear Dandylyons. It wasn't.

I was pretty upset and I wanted to know what happened to her. Her head was through the fence and her neck laying on the bottom three strands of a four strand barb wire fence. At first glance it looked like she got her horn caught in the fence but we decided she didn't. There was plenty to eat in the pasture and just dirt the other side of the fence so she wasn't doing any illegal snacking. If her horn was caught she could have torn the fence out easy and also there was no sign of any kind of struggle. The fact everything was pristine and no sign of struggle ruled out that she got cast or bloated.

Brad didn't think it was grass tetany because there was no evidence of thrashing and also the pasture is not by any means lush...it's just the native grass that grows around sagebrush.

We concluded it was sudden death.

Brad remembered she was the cow who was ill last Fall when we got them in off pasture to sell the calves. If I remember right, she was panting or out of breath and couldn't keep up with the herd. Brad treated her and she seemed to get better. She must have had a bad ticker and keeled over with a heart attack. My guess is she staggered about till she hit a fence. We suspect Wildairo sorting them out the other evening probably didn't help her any.

Poor thing. She never had a calf this year so we not stuck raising an orphan. Anyway her eyes were closed and she had a peaceful look on her face.

It was the second time the grim reaper had been to the farm this year. One evening as Brad and I were having a walk about we noticed a calf sleeping when all the other cattle were up and about, so we went and had a gander. The calf got up and walked off but didn't have much of a spring in his step, so Brad went home to get him a shot of something. While he was gone the calf went down again and the cows were very concerned and sniffing him. I went to check him and his head was floppy. I called Brad and told him the little fellow was checking out and to bring the crash cart...code Blue and all that. Poor Brad had to carry that calf to the corrals and he was big, at least a few week old. His mum was bursting with milk so he put her in the chute and milked her out. We gave the little fellow some of the milk in a stomach tube and some shots of selenium and whatever Brad handy.

Generally when a calf is flat out like that he's a goner but Brad wanted to take him him home and do what ever we could. Also it was dark by now and I really wanted to know what was wrong with him because I was worried that it might be something the other calves could come down with. Brad used a wheelbarrow to get him to the Jeep and we got him in the house.

While getting him comfy and warm I noticed something drip from what looked like his dried up belly button. Closer inspection revealed a navel infection that had gone into his blood stream causing toxic shock. Brad gave him a broad spectrum anti-biotic but it was too late to save him. I had never seen a navel infection before. I read the infection can settle in the joints making them painful and swollen. This little fellows infection went septic and we happened along just as he collapsed. I was really relieved to discover what his aliment was because I was scared witless it was something that was going to happen to more calves because not long before they'd all been galloping around in their own little calf posse as healthy as could be....or so it seemed.

Echo grazes and other stuff.

Yesterday Brad said what he says every year, "Hooray, hooray for the 8th of May, it's outdoor intercourse day"! He's not sure why he says it but I like to think it might have something to do with the fact it's the time of year the bull goes out with the cows. Yesterday, right on cue our neighbour brought a bull out.

Because we have a very small herd we rent a different young pure-bred Charolais bull every year to prevent inbreeding. We always ask for a friendly bull and have lucked out every year except one year when we ended up with the spawn of Satan. Speaking of Satan, one year we had a bull who's ear tag number was 666 and he was one of the nicest bulls ever. In fact a few years later our neighbour grazed about 40 bulls on our 80 acre flat and when I went to the fence to say hello they all moved away expect this one bull who approached me...it was 666 and he remembered me!

When we had a bigger herd we owned three Charolais bulls for the older cows and a black Angus for the heifers because of the lower birth weight.

Brad tries to enjoy a nap at lunch times and this what he has to put up with every time.

Blondie likes to snuggle. Tommy is just a pest and has slept under peoples chins since he was a kitten. Bobby tries to get as much attention as she can.

This is what Bobby is waiting for.

This afternoon I took Echo for another little excursion outside of his corral. This time I was able to get him to graze by getting down and feeding him until he said 'to hell with the rope snake' and dived in.

This is the first time he has grazed for a long time but I have been picking him fresh grass by the tote full all Spring. He got so into grazing that he was a little startled when I went towards him. It's like he wasn't sure if it was okay for me give him a belly rub out there but he realized it was just the same as in the other corrals.

He didn't want to go back in and then begged to go back out again, so we did...several times. The sun was setting by the time I put my foot down and took him in for the night.