Welcome Stormy & Stella

Our weekend was a busy one.  Friday was a long day heading to Madison for a follow up appointment.
The follow up went well and things are moving along as expected and a PET scan is scheduled for September.

During our last storm we of course had a calf.  Annie finally had her calf and the next morning as we were checking fences and picking up branches we were delighted to see 'Stormy' up and about.

Speedy who was born in around June 1st was checking him out.

Speedy likes to think of himself as the tough kid on the block.  Well he is as he is fully almost 8 weeks older than the others!

Then Speedy had another adjustment to make.

Stella was born during the hottest spell we've had this summer.  The heat and humidity were incredible and nasty.  Yet Stella was born.

She is our only heifer this year, but she is Dun colored and seems to be polled.

I have to admit, she is a knock out. 

Speedy and Stormy will become future meat projects and Stella will become one of the 'girls' eventually.  She and Bunny are both polled heifers.  Bunny is about 15 months old and is pure black like her father Black Bart.

It is a delight to see healthy calves in the pasture.

I imagine when the youngest calves get a bit of age on them, there will be plenty of running and chasing in the pasture.

Trip to a Dairy Farm

Some things happen in odd ways.
On FB, I admired an old acquaintence's dairy cows.

She said I ought to come out and take some photos for her.
I decided to go ahead and plan it as best as one can plan for the weather and working with animals.

I headed out early because her 'girls' are out in the cow yard for an hour or so each cold winter morning.

I wanted to catch them outside naturally.
The drive was beautiful.  We'd had an ice-fog which turned the winter landscape into a fantasy-scape.

 

Her cattle were out when I arrived and I got to work.
Photographing cattle or other animals is not an easy job.  There are a lot of 'wait' and see moments, and sometimes you get very lucky ...or not at all.

I felt I had some good luck.
First is the calf pen, then a young calf, and two of her Aryshire milkers who thought they'd give me the 'eye'.

However I had two favorites from the time I spent there.  Tag #71 and the cow peeking around the silo where you can see her expression and the mist of her breath.

My subjects were difficult at best but that made it all the more fun I think.

I posted these to FB in an album and shared it with the Wehling Farms.  She shared it [with my persmission] and the folks on the Vernon County Board of Tourism ~~ of which she is a part of have contacted me for next year's Tour Guide.

All from a visit to the farm.
Who would have guessed.