I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: living on a family ranch in Colorado means you get to experience life up close. Births, deaths, traumas and triumphs are all just part of the job. Today’s post is about one of the happiest (and cutest) parts of the living on a Colorado dude ranch–the babies.
We had our first baby calf towards the end of last week. She is a heifer (girl-cow) and comes from one of Randy Sue’s newest cows. Isn’t she just adorable? Baby cows are some of the cutest things you’ll ever see at a ranch. They are all awkward and leggy but fluffy and full of energy also. It really is a shock to the system watching a baby calf run and play and hop around like a little puppy. You almost think they must be a different species than the big, slow, chubby-chicks they have for moms.
Don’t get me wrong, the moms are no joke. Can you imagine getting pregnant every year, being pregnant for nine months, then having your baby in an open field laying in the snow and cold? Seems like they’d get sick of it. But, every year they guard, protect and care for their little calf with the utmost of seriousness and concern–just like any other mom. Honestly, having cows around was part of my reason to decide to forgo much medical intervention during Peyton’s birth. If a cow can have baby after baby while laying down bellowing in an open field with no help, then, by-golly, I should be able to have a baby just fine in a warm room surrounded by a swarm of attendants catering to my every need. Sure, like people, it’s not always that simple but cows seem to live through the experience no matter how painful it might have been. That was the lesson I learned from them and it’s a lesson I wouldn’t have learned if I didn’t live at Drowsy Water Ranch.
Once again, I’ve digressed from this family ranch blog to odd topics of motherhood. Lucky for me, we have many more calfs on the way that will need ample ooh-ing and ah-ing.