So Much Change!

So, I realize I've been absent for a couple months, but it's been crazy around here.  We went for a Sunday drive about a month ago and stumbled upon a for sale sign on a much larger farm (like seven times larger).  We got the owner's number, called, looked around, AND SIGNED A PURCHASE AGREEMENT in very quick order (like a week).  That meant we had to sell our farm, so that same day we listed our house with a realtor.  That began a tailspin of chaos.  We cleaned and tidied and straightened up around here, had people coming through to look at it, and had multiple offers.  We accepted one of the offers yesterday, so we are almost able to breathe a sigh of relief that the new farm is ours!  

An aerial view of our new property:  the blue outline is the boundary.  Seventy-five acres of paradise!

All this is going on while I'm on cow-calving duty.  Lola calved without issue, a beautiful white faced heifer that my daughter named Lizzie Ann.  Reba was doing great, over due by a couple days, but nothing of concern and suddenly she went downhill (one day fine, next day dead).  The vet came up when she first seemed off, and mentioned it might be a twisted uterus or gut--he gave her some medicine, but it was of no use.  I was heartbroken that I lost both her and her unborn calf, but that is the reality of farming.  I stayed by her side almost every minute between Saturday night and Monday morning.  I even pulled a straw bale over next to the gate to be able to lay down a bit and still keep an eye on her.

Lola and a just-dry Lizzie Ann.

Lola has been making lots of extra milk (I milk her morning and night to relieve her udder of the excess milk the calf can drink).  I had been just dumping it (which is a horrible waste), but a buddy had a bottle calf, so I bought him to fatten.

This is Wimberly, the new bottle calf.

Told you it's been a whirlwind around here.