Guzzlie Blackwagger and Miss Pearl

Every Spring, there is at least one calf to bottle feed.  Rancher has had up to 5 at one time.  This Spring, there have been 2.  Rancher assigned Kate and Ezra to feed one of them. They lovingly named her Guzzlie Blackwagger Cow, or just Guzzie for short.  

Calves need to be fed a bottle twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening.  So on non-school days, like this one, and in the evening, Kate and Ezra mix up the giant bottle (with help putting on the "nibble") and dutifully go out and find Miss Guzzie, who is always excited to see them.

Oh, this is Guzzie.

She's a cute little thing.

Kate and Ezra do not always love going out to feed, especially when it is cold or when we get home home after dark, but, nevertheless, the job must be done; Guzzie must eat.  

And, might I add, feeding a full 1/2 gallon bottle to a strong, head-butting, hungry calf can be hard work for a 6 or 8 year old.

K and E always like it best when we all go out to feed her, like we did on this Saturday morning in jammies.  

The littlest of the littles are always glad to go out.

When Guzzie went across the creek a couple of weeks ago with some of the other cows, Kate and Ezra had to cross the log and go find her.

But it is so pretty over there, they hardly mind.

The creek is sooooooo low right now.  It's actually pretty scary how low it is.  This is a little comparison from a couple of years ago:

See how it usually looks in April/May?  Flooded and raging.  This is what it looks like right now:

It looks like it is the mid/end of summer, not the end of April (when the picture was taken).

Okay, so now onto the "Miss Pearl" part.  

On Tuesday morning last week, Rancher Weston checked on Cookie, our milk cow.  He knew that she'd be having her calf any day; any moment, really.  He went off to do his work, then when he tried to find her at  5:00 that evening, he couldn't find her.  He said that was so not like her.  (I like how he knows her well enough to say, "That is so not like her.")  

He went up on the hill by our house to get a better view.  He couldn't see her, but he heard a wee "maaa".  It was coming from up the creek.  (I was at K and E's soccer games, and he called and told me this whole story.)  He went up the creek, way farther up than Cookie had ever gone, and saw Cookie standing next to the creek.  The calf was in the water.  Its head was out, but the rest was soaking wet.  This is where it was a blessing that the water wasn't so high.  But, I guess if it was as it normally gets, Cookie wouldn't have tried to cross it.  Anyway.  Weston plunged in up to his knees, picked up the calf and carried it up the hill to his 4-wheeler.  Cookie followed the whole way.  He drove to the barn and put the calf in the calf warmer, and put Cookie in the milking stanchion.  He milked colostrum into a bottle and tried to feed it to the calf.  As soon as the calf starting sucking and drinking, Weston knew that she'd be alright.  And she is.

We named her Pearl because she was born in the water.  She is super shiny and pretty, too.

With Cookie having Pearl, Kate and Ezra were freed of their job.

Pearl on the left and Guzzie on the right nursing

But Rancher has an added one.  Milking for us!  Hooray!

Cookie, I think, is just glad to not be pregnant anymore.

I totally get it.