Down on the farm...What a day

What a day!

It all started when the roller mill would not work. This put the morning helper I have behind...he has to leave for school by 7:00 a.m. Then, I don't get the chores done, but have to get home in time to take my middle child to school...my youngest is going to stay home sick and my oldest is so old he moved out.

2007 Manitowoc County Grand Champion Steer

Raised by my daughter

I get home and my 5 year old greets me at the door. Instead of hi mom, I get; Sissy is staying home today, sick. I check on my 14 year old and sure enough, she is staying home sick. I say ok, this will give me an opportunity to get a few of the undone chores done right?

I go back to the milking barn, finish a few chores, go back to the house where I start chores in the horse barn. Keep in mind the day before the hydrant was frozen in the heifer shed and I had to have a specialist come out and thaw it. Here we go...

I unload some cat food, horse grain and leave the garden hose for later. The door was left open as I had to go back out to get the hose and it let more light in. I decided to start with grain...gathered the amount needed for my daughter's beef steer project...open the stall door and instead of using the usual bucket, I used the grain bag. This spooked Patches and he and Cowboy bolted past me and out the side door.

Panicked, I ran to my front door and beat on it until the kids answered. Told my daughter to get her stuff while I grabbed the truck and headed down our road. The steers had already gone quite a ways away.

I called information and tried frantically to reach the neighbors about a mile down the road hoping to cut the steers off from the highway. No answer, tried information again for the neighbor's on the other side of the road. This time the operator did not speak good English, nor did he understand the spelling of my neighbor's last name. After trying to spell for him 5 times; I said "never mind" and hung up. In between me and my neighbor's at the end of our road (where the highway is) there is another neighbor (my husband's father). I, however, do not get along with this particular person at all. Now what? The steers are already more than a 1/4 mile from home with my daughter trailing us on foot.

I swallow my pride, say a prayer and call...he says he will come! Prayers do work people. As I hang up the phone the steers seem to be mellowing, they turn and look at me so I slowly get out of the truck. My best hope is to get around them...I think!

Just as I get around the truck, the steers start heading back towards our place. I look down the road and see my daughter coming towards us, I try shouting for her to get back and stop them at the drive way; she is too far away and can't hear me. Finally, we get close enough and my daughter starts to move back. At this time, we have more than 6 inches of snow on the ground and the steers had been staying on the paved areas. My thoughts were that they might go back up the driveway. Just as they turn up the drive, my husband's father comes up behind me. I park the truck at an angle in the drive to block the steers exit, open a gate to the south pasture and start running around the side of the house, circling the steers.

I shouted for my daughter to get some grain and sort of cornered the steers between two fences. The south pasture is vinyl fencing and the north pasture is electric wire. Patches, the larger of the two steers, decided to bolt through the wire fencing to visit the horses.

What Patches doesn't realize, is that the paint mare (Ginger) does not like strange animals. Ginger starts chasing Patches and Cowboy has not decided which way to go yet. My daughter comes out of the barn at that time and Cowboy then commits to running through the fence where Patches did.

We get the animals separated and all is well...I send everyone back to their homes and try to calm myself enough to finish chores. I get them all fed, go out to the truck for the hose and find that in all the excitement the hose has already started to freeze. Not that it ends up mattering as the hydrant is now frozen as well.

I guess having the hydrant guy out is much cheaper than having to replace my daughter's steers.

The moral of the story is, prayer works and NEVER leave a barn door or gate open!

Down on the farm...Life With Koda

Life with Koda

Last year my daughter started asking for a puppy. You need to understand that I need another animal and responsibility like I need a hole in the middle of my head. We already have 1 farm dog, 2 inside cats and numerous barn cats. The barn (shed) is filled with dairy heifers and horses.

The previous summer (2005) I had to put the farm dog (he adopted us when we moved here) on joint medication. During the winter he became increasingly stiff and I knew he would not be able to make it for very much longer. So, in the spring I started contemplating a puppy to ease the children's inevitable loss. I was not looking for a replacement for Snickers, but something that would take their mind off Snicker's passing when the time arrived.
In July my middle child's best friend got a Golden Retriever puppy. The puppy, of course, was adorable and my husband fell in love with the idea. Naturally, he doesn't take care of the animals, so why not?

We set out to find a Golden Retriever and all the kids came along. There was an advertisement for a puppy that was last in his litter, no papers, price reduced. I am no rookie when it comes to puppies so when we got to the home and the puppy was completely obnoxious, I had no problem saying no thank you. Not far away there was another litter and off we went.

The puppies were placed on the floor and the kids (18, 13, and 3) all joined them. As I watched, the kids begged for their favorite puppy. My 13 year old decided we needed a female (so she could have more puppies) and my 18 year old acted like he didn't want to be there (not his choice in breeds) and my 3 year old just wanted a puppy to love.

Well, after about 30 minutes of watching, a particular puppy kept sitting quietly behind my 18 year old and was not shy or upset about my 3 year old picking him up or petting him. We took him home.

On the way home, my 3 year old decided to name him Koda after the little bear on Brother Bear. Koda settled in quickly and learned to stay out of the way of our Snickers (border collie). My 3 year old really wanted a dog that would fetch with her and chase her, poor old Snickers just couldn't do that anymore.

Well, this February Snickers passed away. We miss him daily and remark about him regularly. I don't believe that once your pet dies that you just forget about him. We all talk about how we miss him herding the cows and horses away from the fence when we come home and his incessant barking.

Koda with my youngest child...he sat there for 2 hours while she slept

As I said, Koda was not a replacement for Snickers, but he is a new addition and is living up to my (now 4 year old's) expectations. He fetches, chases and even drags Bry around the kitchen.
We are approaching 1 year with our new puppy and feel that the experience will be lasting for our last child to grow up with her own dog. He is the best baby sitter, friend and companion we could have found. We know that dogs are not immortal but the unconditional love and adoration we get and give from our pets is priceless.

Down on the farm...Lethal White

Lethal White

I was so happy last year (2006); I found the perfect stud to breed my beautiful (yet old) Paint mare to. I happily drove her 150 miles dropped her off, before leaving I whispered to the stud that I wanted a loud tri-colored filly. A few weeks later, I picked her up and took her home to wait the 11 months and 5 days. Her due date: May 17, 2007.


I brought her home and started to have some troubles...she was losing weight, having trouble walking on all four of her legs and seemed to be cranky no matter what I did for her. I got her weight back up with the help of three nutritionists and a great feed mill. For her legs I called in three veterinarians (one was a chiropractor) and an equine massage therapist. She hated the massage and all that the veterinarians could tell me was that she was suffering from severe arthritis. I started her on some Bute (a pain reliever), glucosamine and several other joint supplements. The Bute seemed to help but did not stop her from limping. Needless to say the mare was not feeling well and if she was not pregnant I probably would have ended her suffering as I hate to see any animal suffer. As winter progressed Classi had good days and bad days but the good seemed to outweigh the bad. Winter progressed into spring and I finally stated to think that Classi would make it to the foaling date and I would just have to try and hope she would make it through the nursing portion. Nursing a foal takes a lot out of a mare and I was hoping she was up to the task.



On Saturday (May 5th) I went out to the barn to find that Classi had foaled two weeks early. At first I was elated that the baby seemed to be alive; then I looked closer...there was only white on this foal (Paint horses are supposed to be a combination of at least two colors or a solid red, brown, black etc.). I had heard the term lethal white and was so scared that I ran to the house and called the veterinarian.



While waiting for the veterinarian, I ran back to the barn to get a closer look at the foal. I turned the baby over and got her to stand up...no other color, then I looked at her eyes, they were not only both blue, but a very light blue. I thought, okay, this might not bee too bad...an albino. I can live with that; I wanted a filly and that is what I got...Right?



Wrong...
The veterinarian came out and checked the baby over, I asked him about the difference between lethal white and an albino. I was shocked by the answer. The difference is the lethal white baby would not have intestines that worked properly. A portion of the intestines grows together instead of being hollow; in essence the baby could not pass any digested foods. He gave the baby an enema and hoped for the best. This poor beautiful baby could not pass anything. She had to be euthanized.



I called the stallion owner only to find the answers to questions I did not know to ask. Lethal white is a gene that is specific to Overo Paints. My mare was an Overo and so was the stallion. This does not mean that you can not breed Overo to Overo; but it does mean that you should know if your Overo carries the gene. Her stallion had been tested for the gene after the time my mare was bred and he tested positive and I knew nothing about the gene, but now know my mare is positive.

I hope that my heartbreaking story will help others learn from my tragic mistake. If you own an Overo paint horse and plan to breed it. Have it tested for the gene or make certain that the other horse is either negative or not an Overo.