Welcome to the World

Yesterday afternoon I was able to 'help' birth a calf! William called me to let me know a cow was about to give birth, so I headed over to the farm to witness it. It has made me decide I may never want to have kids (!!!) but was really, really interesting to watch.

You can tell a cow is in labor because its back tailbones droop down. The calf comes out front hooves-first (and with their tongues sticking out). William tied a rope on each hoof and then ties the opposite end of the ropes to a jack. He then has to crank the jack which pulls the ropes. Because this calf was so big (he estimated about 50 kilos- or 110 lbs), he said it was a lot harder to pull. I was very impressed with the momma cow- I honestly did not hear a PEEP out of her the entire time. Once the head of the calf gets past the tailbones, the calf really just 'slips out'.

The calf (a baby bull!) was absolutely exhausted when it slipped out onto the hay. He was panting and seemed very lifeless. William had to stick a piece of hay up it's nose and pour water in it's ears to wake him up. He also had to do physiotherapy on its legs to loosen them up some. I think you are supposed to do that with all of the calves, but especially this one because it was such a hard pull. Despite the stress that it put on the calf's legs, William said he'd be up and walking in 30 mins- unbelievable!

The thing that was the funniest to me about the whole thing was the mother's inability to control her bowel movements during the labor. The poor calf had quite the welcoming to the world as he was being pulled out!!!

In other news, the weather here has been BEAUTIFUL. Evident in Eoghan's beet red face, we have spent the past two days outside entirely. And I love it! After daylight savings time, days here are so much longer here than at home. The sun rises around 6:30 AM and doesn't go down until 9 PM. Its so bizarre to me because their winter days seem so much shorter than ours (sun up at 8 AM, sundown at 5ish).

Eoghan asked me today what I wanted to be when I grew up. (wish I knew!) I asked him the same question and he said, 'A shephard. First, I want to be a shephard and then I'll be a pirate.' Glad to know he dreams big!