Baby Boom

A photo from Todd of twins born to one of our mamas, No. 775. We were in Topeka at the time, watching our granddaughters' activities. The twins got to stay awhile in the shed but are now out in the lot with their mama and the herd.

I have a pretty cushy job these days. I get to be the paparazzi for our new baby calves. But I don't have to staff the overnight shifts. Or - come to think of it - the daytime shifts either.

Tye and Todd, who handle the day-to-day care for our mamas and babies, had several days when they took catnaps in their pickups instead of getting into REM sleep their nice cozy beds. Sub-zero wind chills and newborn baby calves are not a good combination. 

The twins have their own "earrings" now. Tye and Todd use a different system than we did. They tag the babies with the mama's number.

I don't think the few cookies I delivered make up for the sleepless nights. But we sure appreciate all their work. It wasn't all that long ago that we were the ones watching the maternity ward and warming up new babies. 

Come to think of it, maybe another cookie run is in order. 

Snow and chilly temperatures haven't made calving easy on man or beast. But - ready or not - it's calving time in Kansas for us and for lots of other folks. We always had people ask why we calved in January and February. Like many Kansas farm families, our operation was diversified. Crop farmers are busy in the spring, summer and fall with those duties. They have time for the extra work that feeding cattle and calving entails during the dormant winter season.

Our mamas and babies have the yellow tags. Tye and Todd use other colors. 

For the last few years before retirement, I was the hired hand who helped with feeding chores and did my best to help when Randy needed to pull a calf. I can't say that I'm missing the time in that rather drafty feed truck every day. But I definitely enjoy the drives through the cattle lots with camera in hand.

 

Some extra hay spread out gave babies a place to snuggle down.  

On one of our trips through the cattle, we saw a mama cleaning off her brand new baby. 
 

It's good that Tye and Todd have a liberal visitation policy. I'm sure the paparazzi will be back.