Shayna is one of those amazing 21st century women: she is a stay-at-home mom with 5 children (between about 3 and 11), she has her Masters degree, and she runs her little farm, with the help of her kids and husband, to supplement the family's income. What a gal!
Holly told us that Shayna had a new calf to show off so we were anxious to see that little sweetie! This is Bambi. Isn't he cute? Sadly, HE won't be on the farm long... only SHE cows get that privilege. The rest end up in someone's freezer.
This is Bambi's mama, Amy. What a pretty little jersey cow. She just looked so sweet tempered.
What I didn't realize before we got to the farmyard was that there wasn't just one calf on Shayna's farm! No! There are 6 tiny calves all in these holding pens. (Plus another bunch from teenage to almost-ready-for-slaughter cattle.)
They will suck on anything that holds still long enough for them to latch on. Shayna's been bottle feeding them until last week when Amy had her calf.
Now Amy is feeding ALL SIX BABIES! Look at that udder! It makes me hurt just to think of it, but I guess cows don't suffer with engorgement like humans. Shayna will either milk Amy and bottle feed the calves or let the them nurse, two at a time, for a determined length of time based on their size. I didn't know that if a calf is allowed to nurse as much as it wants it will get scours (calf-diarrhea). Of these tiny calves only one is another little female jersey, Daffodil, Daffy for short, who will stay on at the farm and help Amy with future babies.
Shayna's been taking care of cattle since she was old enough to hold the bottle on top of her little head to have it tall enough to bottle feed a calf.
She let Bambi out so we could see him better but it ended up being a romp with the kids chasing after him with Bambi kicking up his heels and trying to figure out how to get to his mama. All the while mama was calling him in her sweet, mellow, bovine-voice. Shayna had to intervene and carry him back to his pen.
No farm is complete without chickens. I've never seen so many different breeds of chickens in the same coop! This spotty-dottie hen was one of my favorites, but there were little Bantams and some ginormous I-don't-know-whats. There were a few with fluffy faces and one even had her feathers on upside-down (looked very similar to what I call Utah-Hair!)
There are also pigeons. Several made a get-away this last summer and have roosted just above the patio... so you can imagine what that corner of the patio looks like. All efforts to capture them have been unsuccessful.
Nanny is a sweet little miniature horse. I'll need to do some research and figure out the difference between a miniature horse and a pony. Anybody out there know the difference?
The older children are all very involved with the animals as part of their 4-H projects, what a great program... makes me miss the rural life... well, just a little bit.
It is safe to say that a good time was had by all.
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