Bringing in the New Year…..in a corral, at the backside of a heifer

Every New Years Eve, my Farmer and I have the same conversation……”Remember that year we spent New Years Eve in the corral pulling that calf?” Oh yes, how could I forget….a very memorable, bonding experience. My Farmer and I have had many of these bonding experiences over the years. (click here to read about another time) We have come to appreciate our bonding times. They make us stronger, or at least that’s what the counselor told us. (haha, smiling here) This one bonding moment came on that one New Years Eve that was 9 months after a bull had gotten out and into where he was not suppose to be….with some heifers. Thankfully, Mr. Bull only introduced himself to one heifer, soon to become known as Miss New Year.

We do not normally calve this time of year….for a very good reason….it’s cold (sometimes extremely cold) and snowy (sometimes very snowy) around here. But livestock do not always play by our rules, so we found ourselves with a heifer ready to have her first calf around the first of the year. I guess she was trying for the “first baby of the year” title.

When you have livestock, and make plans to do doing something fun, they will pretty much always interfere with those plans. This one New Years Eve, we had dinner plans. Someone had given us a gift certificate to a nice restaurant in town. I was really looking forward to dressing up and going out with my Farmer for a nice evening to bring in the New Year. As we were heading to town, we, of course, had to stop and check on the heifer. Sure enough she was starting into labor. She must have overheard us say we had dinner plans. I was NOT a very happy farmers wife! My Farmer decided that we would give her a little time and come back in an hour to check on her. He was like, “Sorry, guess no dinner out”. I was like, “Oh no you don’t! You are NOT getting out of this dinner!!” We went to town, had dinner, and was back to the corral in an hour. I was happy. I got my dinner out.

We spent the rest of that New Years Eve, in the corral with Miss New Year. To be honest, I was not real thrilled with the idea, but it ended up being really was kind of cool. Actually, it was really, really cold. Freezing cold. That was one of the reasons we had to stay with Miss New Year. It was cold enough that the baby could have froze to death once it hit the snow covered ground, if we were not there to make sure it got up and dried off.

That night, the night sky was so clear and dark. The stars were shinning so brightly. It was so incredibly peaceful and beautiful. Then the fireworks started. I had no idea so many people in our little valley set off fireworks on New Years Eve! It was really cool! You could almost call it romantic. Except for….well, we were in a barn yard, with a pregnant heifer, pulling her calf, in a foot of snow. As I said, a real bonding experience. I remember being in ah over the fireworks, and my Farmer getting a little annoyed at me when I would say “oh wow! Did you see that?” while he had his arm, shoulder deep, inside the backside of the heifer, checking the calf position. Hey, what can I say. I like to watch fireworks.

We did successfully pull the calf and got the little dude and momma all settled in a nice, warm place for the rest of the night. Then we were finally able to go home, warm up and get some sleep ourselves.

It may not have been the typical romantic evening, but it was definitely a memorable evening. I suppose it could be classified as romantic, from a “stuck in the barnyard at the backside of a cow” perspective. And possibly from my Farmers perspective. (yes, that is a DO NOT TELL my Farmer statement!) Yet, it was an interesting and unique way to bring in the new year.

No mistaking it, it was an evening of bonding and making memories. Not the kind originally planned, but when you are Livin’ the Life, the Farm Life that is, you take what you can get and make the most of it.

My Farmer and I wish all of you a very blessed and prosperous New Year!!