On Topic For A Day

Okay so I thought it'd be best to actually throw something in 'bout "sawdust" and "cowpies" or my thematic calamity is gonna be lost. So here's the stuff.

We're knee deep in new calves and despite the mostly beautiful weather for calving... it's been kind of a deal. I got yet another phone call about 7:45 yesterday morning about another dead calf. It's starting to affect me. The expense of loosing yet another calf and starting my day off with it kinda sent me into a spin. Actually a pretty good one.

In trying to figure out just what the Hell is going on, a call was made to the Vet real quick and I had to be at his office before 9 to catch him there. I tossed the dead calf in the truck and burned it to the clinic. My vet posted (autopsied)the calf. First thing to see was it's lungs never inflated from birth, second... a ginormous hole between the chambers of it's heart. So, this one was just "one of those things". A genetic abnormality that couldn't be helped.

All together, we've lost 5 calves so far this season and we've got a lot to go yet. That mortality number is NOT normal for us. For the unwashed that means about a $3000 loss at sale time this fall. Yes... I'm dwelling on it.



So after all of that doom and gloom here's some happy pics of some of our new calves.




"Come a little closer and I'll dole out an ass kicking Mr. Cowguy"








Brand spanky new, about 1 hour old. Momma's having a tasty meal of placenta. YUM!







A mime is born.








The iron curtain.








And to prove I'm not a total jackass I finished up Sally's Christmas present (for 2008);-) and got it put in our home. A ginormous entertainment/media center. Stands about 7 foot tall, all quarter sawn white oak. Has a brand new little hot rod of an Acer PC running Windows Vista Media Center down in the bottom running the whole show. It's hardwired into our wireless router here on our home network so it can access any of our MP3's or movies or transfer any data from one machine to another with ease. The flat screen tv pivots and pulls out on a base that I designed and the hidden keyboard pullout was my design as well. Hell the whole thing was. All of the shelves in the bottom are on full extension 100 pound slides too.

You boys from TWW have already seen it so just smile and wave.











That's bout that.





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