Dandylyons gets a break.

We were greeted by an horrible sight yesterday when we went to have a walk around the cows.

It was Wildairo sleeping with his mouth open.

He is a very heavy sleeper and doesn't wake up easy.

Soon as he got up he herded Dandylyons away from everybody.

Dandylyons asked me to rescue her from him.

I told her to follow me....

....while Wildairo was looking at the Rock Chucks, (Yellow Bellied Marmots).

Dandylyons hid behind Brad.

Wildairo lurks around waiting for his chance to steal Dandylyons away. I tried to give him carrots, but he wouldn't let me near him. Brad was joking and told him he was going to end up in Canada.

She was happy to be with us.

Sparkle enjoyed her first mothers day.

Tinkerbell is a yearling now.

Stella looking hot.

Levin looking sexy....the bull arrives any day now.

Picture taking came to a sudden end when in my eagerness to get a photo of every cow/calf on the place, I stepped back into a cow pie.

We let Dandylyons graze around the farmyard where there was lovely tall grass for her to eat. I curry combed all the built up dirt off her back and she was in heaven. Wildairo stood by the gate watching her and so I took him a bag of carrots, he ate them and let me stoke his face. It'll take a bit of time and plenty of carrots, but he'll come round again.

Wild life watching with Echo.

It was a nice day and so I thought I'd go for a walk through Echo's pasture and take some pictures of his pasture pals.

Echo follows us everywhere now.

Echo stops for a quick nibble.....

but he soon catches up. He has some of his winter coat still and as you can see it's a reddish brown. He's turned out everyday in his break away halter, but he doesn't need to wear it.

There were lots of bunnies

but I missed all the good shots of them frolicking because it's hard to be stealthy and take good pictures when you have a horse breathing down your neck.

The last of the cottontails got tired of posing and left.

Blogger seems to have a glitch tonight. I cannot make these pictures come out the same size. It's very weird. :(

Still nippy.

Rain and hail today and still no blossoms on the trees. I notice the cooler temps haven't slowed down the lawn dandelions at all. Speaking of Dandelions, my dear cow Dandylyons turned 20 two months ago and she still looks fabulous. Her boss, Wildairo has gone almost feral again. He's nervous about coming to the fence to take a treat from me now. His mane had a big knot in it and he must have been having a scratch and pulled that part of his mane out and and down to almost the top of his leg .... giving him a real nice wild horse look. I'm dreading having to work him again. He's a big lad and is not afraid to fight.

I only had to clip one Airedale this Spring because old Montie died last month. She was 13. She had a heart attack and past away in a patch of sunshine in the kitchen a little while later. Not a bad way to go after one hell of a fun filled life. Montie was a prize from Brad for attending a dinner with Hillary Clinton in Seattle. Don't get me wrong, I think Hillary is great but I don't like going to events like that, so after the dinner we went to Tacoma and picked out Montie. She was with her seven brothers and sisters and both her parents in the breeders back yard, in the rain.... covered in mud. Ten excited Airedale's jumping around and me in my 'going to meet the first lady clothes' lol.

Bobby made a big fuss at Montie's funeral and will not be allowed to attend another one. Montie's hearse was a black wheelbarrow and Bobby guarded her body as she 'laid in state' from all things real or imagined, while Brad has his lunch. Remember she also stayed at Foxsun's side during his last days and came unglued when he went down and had to be shut in the basement. Letting her attend the actual burying part was a big mistake and she's lucky not to have ended up in the same grave with Montie. Bobby is very high strung, intelligent and when she's not driving me up the wall, she is also very amusing. She's really a wonderful doggie pal but she has joint problems now and has a hard time getting about sometimes.

Here she is guarding her old friend;

Henrietta, who's blind in one eye, likes to come in the kitchen for a peck about. I toss down bread for her. She wasn't keen on the lettuce...

...neither was Tommy Two Tone.

Something is missing this year...

Spring! What happened to Spring?????

Here is what was going on last year on this day;

Here's the same tree today;

It's been so cold. We have had only a few days that were warmish.

Updates on the horses, ducks, chickens, dogs, cats, cows, garden and the occasional rant, starting again....YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.......and you thought it was safe to go on the internet again, lol.

Wildairo becomes a dad.

Wildairo is spending his first Spring with the cows while they are calving and has proven himself to be a very good dad horse.

Keep in mind that he never shares his hay with the cows.......not even Dandylyons, his comfort cow. So this is pretty amazing.

He might have realized that the calves are not really eating the hay, but copying him. These calves are very young, maybe a few days old and are just nibbling the hay.

I can't believe he's being this gentle with them. He has bonded with the herd and seems to have the role of the babysitting dad. I notice he has let Dandylyons go out further into the sagebrush to graze, but he keep close to her. Last year he wouldn't let her walk out of sight of the corrals. I'm really happy about this. If I'd turned both mustangs out together they would have stuck with each other and not the cattle. I know from the past, when Foxsun was the dad horse, when the cattle got out, he would stay with them for awhile and then do his best to round them up and bring them home. He usually came home herding 5 or 6 cows. Sometimes he'd manage to bring home more. I noticed though as long as Dandylyons was in the bunch he was happy. The cattle never go far from home and always come home eventually, so when both horses are with them they will stay with 'their' herd if/when they get out.

The first calf was born to the heifer, Sparkle.

Sparkle had her calf the end of February when the weather was so cold, I think around zero. She did well and had the calf with no trouble. I was glad she had it when Brad was here and not when he was in Utah. I thought we were out of the woods because all the other cows are old pro's at child birth.....but no.

When Brad was in Utah the last time, I saw a cow calving when I was out feeding. I went back out a little while later expecting a calf but she was about as far along as she was half an hour earlier. I started to get worried and tried to get behind her to have a peek, but she kept turning to face me. For a spilt second I got a glimpse of a leg sticking out the back and it looked all wrong, which made my heart sink. It was very cold and windy and I hid behind some tree stumps waiting for her to go down. I had started taking steroids (again) a few days before and they were just starting to give me some help, otherwise I would have been in trouble with all that walking around.

When she went down I was able to walk around and have a look at the calf's legs and my biggest fear was realized.....the foot sticking out was a hind foot and it was covered in meconium, which is the calf's first poo. If they poo before they are born it's a sign that the calf is stressed. (I had two emergency C. Sections and both times my babies were covered in meconium because they were very stressed). I called the Brad and he called someone to come and pull the calf. I thought about asking my neighbours, but their cows are calving about 8 miles from here and they have maybe a thousand cows to watch over and so I know they are busy.

Our cows are good cows and can handle a big calf and she managed to push it out. She sat there stunned, probably tired and in pain, with the calf behind her. When I went to her she jumped up and started to lick the calf very vigorously, but the calf was still. She tossed her head at me and I was too chicken to go to the calf. Wildairo and Dandylyons came up right then and Wildairo wanted to see what the cow was licking. This made the cow back off and so I dashed in and pulled the membrane off the calf's head and shook it's legs and slapped it's head around. Then I put my hand in it's mouth for some reason. I really tried to wake her up, but she was gone. Funny how it's instinct to know what to do with a newborn, even if it's a different species. Heck, I didn't even see my own boys when they were first born...lol, probably a good thing because I would have slapped their heads around, shook their legs and stuck my hand in their mouths. (Both my babies were born unresponsive but quickly recovered). Brad called then and I got my cell phone all slimy when I answered it. Like usual, I was really upset. I wish I could toughen up or had some of these pills;