A Halloween Surprise

This summer was miserable for all of us here, human and critter. Both cows had their milk dry up as there was no grass and the hay was poor and the heat was incredible. We had started to dry one of the gals off because we had it on the calendar that she was due to calf in early June but in a couple of days we realized she must have slipped her calf because she was not showing signs  of being PG anymore. We started milking her again but she had dropped the amount and the summer was getting worse and we gave up in about mid-July. We have been without decent milk since then. Not sure at all when we would be seeing more. About a month, month and a half ago we opened a gate to the neighbors field to let the cattle graze it since we got rain and it was turning green (and yes we had permission, it was even suggested by said neighbor) and we have hardly seen them since. Hubby has been driving up there every couple of days just to check on them.  A few days ago, Monday, we woke up to mooing. The eldest cow was in the front yard, her daughter and grandkid were in the paddock; they are not as good at getting out of fences as o' Lil'. Lily was put in the paddock and hubby came back to bed. When I got up and opened the chickens I noticed Lil's bag was getting full--OH! She is going to calve soon. I told hubby what I saw but by the time he went out, which would have been the normal time for him to do so, the cattle had gone up the hill to the field again. He went up the hill the next day, Tuesday, to check on them and came back telling me that Lily's bag was getting full and her teats were getting fat. He thought about two weeks; I gotta say I wondered about that because Lil' is about twelve and her body is well used to giving birth and producing milk and it just wouldn't need as much prep time as a younger gal (production milk cows are usually retired after just two or three lactations). Anyway, we were discussing this yesterday morning, Halloween, and it suddenly occurred to me that it was Halloween and I said (almost yelled) "Oh shit! She is going to have it today!" Hubby looked at me confused like and I could see it dawn on him; he said, "It's Halloween, it's a holiday." You see, Lily *always* calves on a holiday, it doesn't have to be a major one, but it is *always* a holiday. Come 11:00 last night and the cattle were still up the hill so hubby went to find them. Lil' had had her calf around 10:00 to 10:30 pm judging by how wet it was: it is a pretty little bull calf. We will have milk in a few days, real milk.

To put a little frosting on the wonderful Halloween surprise, the chickens, who haven't been laying for about a month and aa half, just started giving me an egg or two every couple days. I have too many young gals that were not old enough to lay before the sun stared its downward track, they won't start now until spring but my older gals we coming back from being broody and I should be starting to get more eggs soon since it started. I need to clean the nest boxes though.

We also need to come up with an appropriate Halloween name for this little guy too.