City Slickers

The week after Christmas we went up to Portage to visit Grandpa Gunnell.  The kids always love going to the farm but this day was especially fun.  I have never enjoyed myself more there.  A day on the farm usually consists of tractor rides, four wheeler rides and recently, horse rides.  Plus, there's always a trip down into the field to feed the cows.  That's not really very eventful because everyone just watches while Grandpa and Dad load the truck with hay and then drive through the field pitching it off the back of the truck to the cows.  But this trip was special, Grandpa needed to tag some new calves (7 to be exact) that had been born just a few days earlier.  Who knew that could be so entertaining?

Anyone that's a mother understands the "mother bear" instinct and cows are no different.  Those new moms did not want anyone messing with their new babies. Before going down to the field all the kids (mine, the cousins, the in-law grandkids) were told to be quiet during this expedition because the mother cows were already going to be anxious and unpredictable and we didn't want to aggravate the situation with too much noise. The kids were totally willing to obey because being in a herd of large animals makes most of them a little uneasy anyway but they didn't expect to see a red neck rodeo and it's hard not to laugh at that.


JayDee and his nephew Jordan were in charge of catching the calves and tagging them while Grandpa tried to separate the mothers from their calves.  The trouble was those mommas weren't about to let their babies out of their sight or away from their side. It became even more difficult after the first calf was caught and tagged because the other mothers were watching and it was like you could see them say "No way are you doing that to my baby!" JayDee and Jordan totally got their workout that day.  They were running all over the place trying to catch the calves and not be trampled by the mothers or other cows. Hilarious! 


I happened to catch the best tagging on video because I was trying to figure out how to use that feature on my new iPhone.  A little background:  When they caught a calf they would put it up on the flatbed of the truck to tag it so there would be more distance from the mother. All the kids were also on the flatbed, which proved to be a popular place during this particular tagging.

 Sorry for the poor cameraman-ship it was my first video and in my defense, I was trying to get a better angle when the cow made her move. Then everything was in disarray. So obviously, I couldn't stop laughing, but if you notice there is not a peep from behind me in the kid section other than a tiny "I'm scared." Those kids really took the be quiet suggestion from Grandpa to heart.

 Yeah, hardly room for all of us plus a calf and a cow.

After the tagging adventures, and laughing until I cried, we next went over to the hay stacks to unstick a stuck cow. Grandpa had been told it was bull wedged in the stacks but after moving 6 stacks of hay to get it out we found out it was just a greedy cow that had pushed its way in to eat more.

Here's Grandpa moving the hay

Here's the poor dear causing all the trouble.

Waiting for the cow extraction

So we had crazy mother cows, men running all over the place, calf wrestling, muddy four wheeler rides, and a cow stuck in a hay stack. And it just wouldn't be a day at the farm without a little horse riding.  Isaac loves being on the horses and I love watching him because he looks so small on top of such a big animal. So I'll leave you with another video of my little cowboy taking a ride.