Gabriel, the Scottish Highland bull born to Scotch broke the hay bale feeder. I know this because he broke off the end of his horn, silly boy. He was bleeding in the snow, saw it up close today, not bleeding anymore but can see the pulp. Think he must have a rather sore head, poor boy.
No puppies, calves or lambs, checked the doggie calculator and Anni is 6 days overdue, if she was impregnated. Have 4 puppies bespoke, and maybe she's not preggars after all :(.
Took the little tractor out this afternoon to clear a path to the lower barn enclosure. When I went to check on the cows, Star was just miserable, so I led her out the veggie garden. She follows so well. Was walking through 3 ft deep wet snow. Really got a work out. Some steps I couldn't pull mu legs out to move forward, and you can't use your hands to help, and Star was just chugging along behind me. Took her down to the lower barn, put straw out for her to lie on, went up the ladder to fetch her hay from the sheep bale, put it into one of the huge 2,000 lb barley seed bags, dragged it down the ladder and tipped it into the alpaca feeder for her. Tried to give her water down there, but the pipes were frozen, so had to come up with plan B. There is a 50 gallon water trough in the lower barn yard but was completely buried in the snow. Fortunately I had an idea where it was, and went digging for it. Was too heavy with ice for me to tip over, so needed to melt it for Star. Found an extension cord and a water de-icer, slugged through the chicken house yard, more 3 ft snow to get through. Plugged it in, fed it through the fence, plodded around to feed it to the water trough. Plugged it in, and it didn't get hot. Went and found another one, trying to step in my previous leg holes. Switched them out, the new one sizzled and sparked, then filled with snow but didn't get hot. Damn.
Fetched the buggy, attached the hose, and discovered that the whole window well was full of water ! That means the house basement would be flooded. Scooped water out with a bucket, then filled the big buckets on the back of the buggy and drove out to the troughs in the veggie garden. Took the 2-rung step-ladder out the back, climbed up and tipped one for them. Unplugged their de-icer, drove over to the lower barn enclosure, tipped the other bucket into that one for Star, and plugged the de-icer in to defrost the little trough. Rigged a double strand of wire across the gate-way, as the gate is frozen to the ground in a wide open position. Thank goodness the cows are trained to the wire.
Wanted to take Dolly with her so that she's not by herself down there, but Dolly didn't come when I called. Maybe she'll go tomorrow. I feel much better that Stars' calf should be born in the lower barn so it'll have a better chance of survival. Think it'll be in the next day or 2. She had mucus yesterday although her udder is not ultra-huge yet.
We are the proud owners of an elliptical trainer. Herbie needs to walk after driving the truck all day, and in the Winter we've had we cannot move outside. Got the real basic one from Sears. Wow, Sears is amazing, they sell everything. I've been walking on it, can only do a minute at a time, I'm sooo unfit.