I didn’t realize just how long it had been since I last wrote on here.

I ended up milking Olive once we got her mastitis cleared up. Over the last year she has had another bad case of mastitis. We thought we were going to lose her. She stopped eating and got lethargic. We called the on-call vet and he had us give her a heavy dose of antibiotics over a few days. That had her back to normal almost immediately but we still had to hit her with two treatments of “Today” to clear up the mastitis. Even then we thought she would lose her right front quarter. It was hard with a solid mass but with a lot of milking and working the udder she is 99% back to where she was. She is such a good milk cow. She is still giving us about a gallon of milk at each milking.

The winter and spring were relatively uneventful. Except for all the rain. I don’t know if it ever really stopped for more than a couple days. Maybe it was a good thing because we’ve had the best garden in years.

Made some changes this summer that were hard to do and then suffered some heartache. We sold Marla, her heifer calf and several others. Leaving us with Olive, Rosie, BobbyJo, and Violet(Rosies heifer), Mike. We also have two steers ready to go to the freezer, and one for next year. Rosie has a bad hip so she has been retired and is just a pet now. I don’t know if she could handle the bull or calving so she is just a pet for the rest of her life.

We traded five goats for a full grown KuneKune boar named Baccon. We didn’t need another boar but we did need to get rid of some goats. They had been causing me trouble jumping and pulling down fences. That and Waylon had some health issues and at the time I wasn’t certain that we wouldn’t lose him. So now we have three intact boars. Willie, the registered AGH; Waylon a year old red KuneKune; and Baccon is several years old and proven black and white KuneKune with wattles.

It’s been a rough summer. I’ll be glad to see a change in season. We’ve lost three dogs to old age or health issues. First was mom’s dog Bo. He was suffering from heart failure and had to be put down. Then we lost Brutus (BooBoo). I think it was his heart as well but don’t know for sure. He started acting off and had a heavy cough. We brought him inside for a few days and he seamed to improve a little. Then after letting him outside for a little while I found him dead under the front porch. The hardest loss was our Little Man Oliver. We’ve had him since he was only a few days old. He was blind and born with a cleft pallet. Lisa tube fed him for about four months until his mouth could be fixed. We almost lost him several times during that time. He was getting old but should have had several more years. Over the last couple of years He had developed severe allergies and none of the treatments were working anymore. He was miserable, losing most of his hair, skin infections, constant itching, etc,… His last day was a good one. We let him spend time outside, something he loved but hadn’t done in about two years. He had his favorite food and snacks, also something he had been denied because of a special diet trying to control his symptoms. He, BooBoo, and Bo are sleeping in the pet cemetery now, never to be forgotten.

Then, another gut punch… About a week ago BobbyJo wasn’t with the others when I went out to feed. The morning before she was pushing her way into the feed barn and getting in my way. This morning she was a no show. I figured she had a new calf and after feeding I went looking for them. Sadly I found her dead. Probably late the day before. No marks or signs of injury, nothing. I have no idea what killed her. She was not only our backup milk cow but my buddy. A BIG dog. She was Olives first calf here and while not bottle raised you wouldn’t know it because she was so friendly. She was always in my way looking for a hand out or an ear rub. I miss her every morning I go to feed.

On a positive note. Violet gave us a little heifer calf Wednesday (8/12/2020). I will most likely keep her if she is short like Violet and Rosie. I’ve named her Tulip.