Good Bye Norma Jean

Well it's that time of year again.. when the big game guides come down from northern country and back into life with humans ;) Their hunting stories all brand new and their bodies worn from 3 months of hard work, little sleep and almost no 'days off.' They come back and shower and sleep for a week :) Well maybe not a week but several days anyway. Our favorite big game guides say they shower, needed or not, every day  for the next 6 months.. just because they can. This year is a year of changes for them and we wish them well but we miss them terribly. Love you guys!!

ANYWAY!! I'm sure we'll get into all that in a later post. The title of this post is GOOD BYE NORMA JEAN!!

Remember Norma Jean?? She's a Holstein cow we were 'cow sitting' for some friends of ours. Besides being one of the DIRTIEST cows we've ever seen she fit right into our little place for the 3 months she was here. After that 1st week of training her to the stanchion and electric fence she did really well on the homestead..she upped her milk production right off and gave 6 gallons a day which Star, our Holstein heifer, really enjoyed and the piglets and laying hens did too :)  Until last week that is when she stopped eating, started squirting junk out a back teat and spent a lot of time laying down doing nothing. Now if you know much about cows you know they chew their cud. Constantly. She stopped chewing hers. She also stopped coming in to be milked which resulted in several frustrating days of chasing her in morning and night to be taken care of. Turns out she had a kind of mastitis that affects their whole body. We'd already babied her through most of it when we found out and she was already recovering nicely when we found out how bad it COULD have been.. and we are forever thankful. Thursday is when she got sick. Sunday she was already much better and by this morning she was giving 2 gallons and perky as ever when they came to pick her up. We did a little farm tour; the house building we've been doing, the weaner pigs (Their little boy really seemed to like them! :), and finally the cows. Norma Jean seemed to know she was under scrutiny and stared at us as we stared at her. When the Mr. of the two fetched a lead rope and went to catch her she turned her head away and I commiserated with him.. she doesn't like me much either.. In the end Papa put some of our sweet cow candy in her stanchion and she walked right in allowing herself to be caught and lead to the trailer. She trailers better then most horses I've seen. Too bad I left my camera on the our truck!!! (The camera is fine as the truck was parked, but I forgot to take a picture!) Anyway both the Mr. and Mrs. said she looked great. Papa and I couldn't see the changes too much as you tend not too when you see them daily but we did notice that she no longer had ribs showing. Her hips and front shoulders looked bony, as they should, but not thin. I'm hoping to get a picture of her in her new barn from the Mrs soon and I'll be sure and share it with you! They are excited to have her back and as they left were talking about cheese and butter and all things dairy. If I know those two they'll be eating ice cream tomorrow night :) YUM!! Good luck Norma Jean.. I doubt we'll missing your dirty bag and your stinging wet tail, but I'm glad we made your acquittance. Tonight at milking I almost missed your big brown eyes... almost but not quite :)

I have to add that the kids were very sad to see her go even though they knew she would leave when she came. They loved her. She would let them pet her and Isabel will not. Apparently every time they'd walk through the cow pen Norma Jean would come over for a pet and they loved her for it!