Star’s Baby (and Star’s butt)

Good Things

organic strawberries + cream from a cow who loves me

I blended it up and had it for dinner in my outdoor tub last night.

It’s the little things.

And also the big things! My first (only) angus heifer had her first baby yesterday! Remember this story? The calf that 16 barreled down the mountain for, through fences and over cattle guards to return to, was a girl and Mike gave her to me for Christmas that year. She grew up to be the most gorgeous heifer ever ~ she is the femme fatale of angus cows. Short hair, round little body, very distinct face… Her name is Star.

Star inherited her mother’s disregard for cattle guards, but while 16 only crossed them out of maternal duty, Star walks the cattle guard daily to go to a neighbor’s abandoned field to graze. We knew she was getting close to calving, so Mike and I locked her in the corral two days ago so she wouldn’t have her calf on the county road ~ sometimes heifers don’t know what to do with their first calf and walk off and leave them, and sometimes they have trouble with the birth ~ it’s always good to keep a close eye on them in case they need help.

Not so with Star, on either count. She calved at three in the afternoon and was instantly, obsessively, in love with her baby (also a girl!). Also the noisiest mother I have ever seen, honking (there’s no other way to describe the noise she was making ~ a flashback to her uncle Ricardo?) at her calf between licks. The calf was up and sucking right away and then bounced around on wobbly legs, exploring the corral as Star honked along behind her, trying to call her back to get in a few more licks.

Fiona says..

“COME RIDE ME!”

She’s my Goldilocks cow.

Daisy & Frisco are too bony.

Sir Baby is so plush but I have to do the splits to straddle him.

Fiona is just right.

Cracked Out On Eggs

About a week ago, as I fought to emerge from a Mini Egg stupor, I twittered: “MiniEggs are going to be the death of me. And WHY do they now show up in stores in February? The season of my addiction has become too long.” The responses proved I am far from alone in this affliction, and included this video:

link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8LNPXtwXxU

Mike, however, clearly does not have the mind of an addict. He hid a bag of Mini Eggs from me (upon my plea) but a few days later I needed a fix and went up to his house while he was at work. I looked everywhere for the Mini Eggs, including in the pockets of rarely-worn jackets hanging in the guest bedroom closet.

I couldn’t find them anywhere. Finally I said eff it and opened his pantry to see if he had any decent food. AND THERE WERE THE MINI EGGS. Who hides food in the pantry??? It almost worked, because in my demented brain that’s the last place I thought they’d be.

Cookie Crumbs

I told Mike the name suggestions left in the last post
and he loved the name Oreo.
So that is her name.

Most of Mike’s cows are solid black but he had one white-faced cow ~
sometimes this cow would have an all black calf and sometimes she would have
a white-faced calf. Sometimes the calf was male and sometimes it was female.

One year, she had a white-faced female calf who is now a mama cow, and her calves follow the same pattern of probability.

Oreo’s mama was born to this cow in 2009, and last year she had her first calf,
a female calf with nearly identical markings. You can see a picture of the two of them HERE. This calf was born a few months before Fiona and is now Fiona’s BFF.
{Seriously, they are inseparable.}

Confused yet?
Original White-Faced Cow –> Second White-Faced Cow –> Oreo’s Mother –>
Oreo’s Mother’s First Calf (aka Fiona’s BFF)

Like her sister, mother, and grandmothers, Oreo will stay part of the herd.
She’s doing so well! Hopping around with a hearty appetite and no lingering ill effects from her rough start in this world.