Calf Update and Coupon Saturday #50

Well, she can get up on her own again now.  She is still sucking a bottle, no tube feeding.  

And she is eating the grass clippings alongside Red.  

Here is a little perspective on her size.  Remember, she is 1 month old.  I am still worried that at this size anything could cause another set back but at least we are moving forward for now.  

Needed a gallon of milk, so of course had to get a bunch of stuff to make it cheaper.  The Rolaids coupons were giving 50 cents of overage apiece, along with 50 cents of overage on the Pantene and it was $5 off $25 Saturday.  Plus, there was an additional 70% off already 50% summer stuff, thus the 24 inch beach ball and humming bird food.  One of my Chex mix coupons didn't scan but I let it slide and didn't make them ring it up again.  Sometimes the xx off 2 won't work unless you scan after every two.  

But I still got by with $1.63 plus tax for my $3.50 gallon of milk.  

Rough Start

I have been holding off on posting about this little heifer until I felt more encouraged about her chances.  She has had a rough start.  She was born September 10th, probably premature, to an older cow.  The calf was about 20 pounds and the cow ended up not having much milk.  J tried to supplement it with a bottle but it just wouldn't take it well.  J ended up selling the cow and the little calf just kept getting weaker.  I started trying to feed her 3 times a day but that just  made her take less at the other 2 times.  

So I decided to start tube feeding her.  The problem was she is so small and a normal esophageal feeder would be to big and I would risk ulcerating her esophagus with repeated tubings.

So I got a dog red rubber feeding tube and tried that.  You can see the size difference.  The red rubber one worked perfect.  So now I was feeding her 3 times a day and making sure she was getting enough but then she got scours.  I'm sure she didn't get adequate colostrum since the cow had so little milk.   So then I was tubing her with antibiotics, probiotics, anti diarrhea medicine and electrolytes along with her milk feedings. 

I don't coupon at Dollar General for nothing.  The powerades I got a while back worked great.  I would feed her milk in the morning, powerade in the afternoon, and milk again in the evening.  But now she was too weak to even stand and she definitely wasn't even trying to nurse the bottle.   I would carry her outside in the morning for some sun, put her in the shade in the afternoon and carry her back to the barn at night.  One morning looked pretty bleak when she wouldn't even lift her head up.  But things started looking up Wednesday.  That evening she nursed all her milk from the bottle and I didn't have to tube her at all.  I had been tubing her 3 times a day for 9 days.  Then yesterday, same thing, all three meals on her own, no medicine and no electrolytes.  Plus, she can stand!   Well, I have to pick her up, but then she is standing on her own.  She is over the scours and starting to gain weight.  I haven't named her yet because I didn't want to jinx anything.  Maybe in a few days if she can start getting up on her own again I will consider a name.  J asked if she was going to start living in the yard and staying in the garage.  I said I didn't even know that was an option, but yes, sounds like a plan.

Meanwhile, twin Red River is just about weaned.  He is only getting leftover milk from the little black one.  When I raked the grass clippings the other day, it looked and smelled better than any hay we had so we decided to take it to the barn for Red instead of putting it on the garden.  He loves it.

In Bloom At The 4R's

Cold mornings but no frost yet so I still have some color in the yard. 

The zinnias have really been spectacular this year.  I think they liked it in the garden better than against the house. 

But the blue salvia has thrived against the house.  Plus, it still hasn't blocked the sidewalk like the zinnias did. 

I dead headed the phlox and was rewarded with a second blooming.

More zinnias.  If you look close you might get a bonus Kit Kat. 

Lots of blooms with the hydrangeas along the front walk.   They have turned a little more rust from their initial bright pink but still pretty.

But I do have some pink still with the mandeville bush.  This one never did turn into a vine like last year's. 

You might not be able to tell from the picture but the crepe myrtles on the right are still blooming too.   And just as pretty as blooms, the red maple is starting to show some color.
 

Paint Night

Paint nights have become pretty popular around here.  I just made it to my first one last night.  Our great drug rep, (who has her own blog farminginstilletos) treated our clinic with a paint night at the Country Club.

We started with a canvas where the artist had already lightly outlined the painting.

And we had 3 brushes and a color palette of paint already set up at the tables. 

With a little guidance were were off to paint.  

First we outlined the drawing, then started shading it in however we wanted.  

Then we worked on the background.  The instructor offered to show us how to splatter it, but I chose not to do that step.  

Thirteen different takes on the same picture.  We spent about 2 hours total painting. 

I'm pretty happy with mine.  Sign me up for the next one, I'm ready.
 

Goats At Work

With the wet weather we have been having, we have been keeping a close eye on the goats for signs of worms.  The blood sucking Barber Pole worms are the major problem.  They can cause an anemia severe enough to kill.  We dewormed all of the kids back in July and decided it was time to get them all up again.  This time I checked conjuntival color, and just dewormed the pale ones.  After we were done, we turned them into the arena field for a little weed clean up there. 

They took their job seriously. 

But they also enjoyed their time with the tender grass I have been mowing in the arena. 

After a few day we turned them back out to the rest of the farm.  It's starting to look like we have a lot of goats. 
 

Just Kit Sunday #162

I caught Kit out in the garden enjoying some grass clippings.  We had a nice photo shoot. 

 

Rainy Days and Coupon Sunday

 I rained 2.2 inches yesterday.  What better time than that to go to the playroom and look for a project.  

I decided to sort through my fabrics, 

And I came up with this assortment.  I am in love with the big floral print.  Now we will just have to wait to see what it turns into.  

And yes, you read right, coupon Sunday.  There was a Sunday only deal on Tresemme and Suave.  

The Tresemme worked out, 

But I was $2 off on the Suave.  I still can't figure out why it didn't work out right.  I think it was because the $2/$7 wouldn't attach with the $2/$6.  It would have been free too had that happened.  I really need to stop buying shampoo anyway.   I hope nobody is still paying full price for this stuff.