Converse in the North Cascades: Mother's Day Weekend, a new cow and the big maple-again.

I had planned to go to the auction in Everson on Saturday to try to get a feeder cow to butcher this fall. We lost two calves last spring and will be short two come butchering time. I don’t usually like getting replacement cattle because it increases the chance of introducing disease into the herd and the new animal is always a bit of a wild card as far as behavior goes. But I wanted to get at least one replacement so we wouldn’t have to turn down any of our regular beef customers.

When I have to buy replacement cattle, I usually hope to, at best, break even. I once paid $900 dollars for a big steer and had it drop dead on me several months before butchering time. So I paid $900 with the end result of having over one thousand pounds of smelly dead beef carcass to deal with. The bears, coyotes and turkey vultures loved it though and had it cleaned up within a month.

This time around I was ready to go to Everson but tried an ad in the Little Nickel first and it sounded like as good a deal as I was likely to get at the auction. The guy I called had to work Saturday so we agreed to meet on Sunday.

I spent the rest of Saturday morning rounding up cash and doing a little last minute Mother’s Day shopping. The afternoon I spent working on the big maple. I was able to get most of the remaining tougher blocks split and got all of the largest logs cut into blocks before quitting for the day. The temperature in the morning had been pleasant but by 1:00 in the afternoon when I got started, it was in the mid-80’s and very muggy due to humidity spreading ahead of the rain that was coming that evening. It didn’t take much to work up a sweat and keep it up.

Sunday morning I was up at about 6:00 a.m. I was supposed to be in Marysville to look at the cows at 10:00 in the morning and we were supposed to have dinner with my mom and Sacha’s mom at our house at 5:00 p.m. I got up to the farm at about 6:30 and hitched the stock trailer to the farm pickup and made some final adjustments before walking the dog and picking some lilacs, flowering dogwood and serviceberry for a bouquet for Sacha.

I was on the road at about 8:00 a.m. I stopped and presented some European chocolates and the bouquet to Sacha (Vashti liked the bouquet too) and was on my way. The trip to Marysville was pretty uneventful. I took the back way so didn’t have to do too much freeway time with the old pickup and trailer.

There were several cows to choose from and I chose a yearling freemartin heifer. Freemartins are females with male twins and are usually sterile. Freemartin was a new term for me though, according to Webster, it has been in use since 1681. I had been aware of other problems associated with twin cattle. The trip home was uneventful as well and when I released the new cow in the pasture, it looked like things would go well. It is always interesting when you release a new adult cow into an established herd. Sometimes there are challenges and a lot of head butting, sometimes not, but usually there are a few laps around the pasture by the entire herd and the new cow.

Sacha was at the farm, working on her grapes. I helped her a little bit in getting the weedeater going and doing some minor repairs on the rototiller. She suggested naming the new cow Mary since she came from Marysville. I am a little cautious about naming this cow since she won’t be with us that long. In addition, she isn’t supposed to be able to have a calf but what if she did? And being named Mary? I am not overly religious but I don’t even want to go there.

The trip to get the new cow had taken about 4 hours so I had a few hours left to work on the big maple. I managed to get all of the blocks that I had cut the day before split. It was a lot cooler with rain showers this day but it was still muggy and the sweat flowed freely.

Dinner was very good. Afterward both our moms jumping into cleaning the dishes. I felt like kind of a slacker. Washing the dishes is usually my job and it was Mother’s Day after all and I ended up hardly touching a dish. In addition, Sacha cooked a very delicious dinner that I had not a hand in making (other than raising the beef that was the main dish). I know Sacha is worn to a frazzle trying to keep up with our toddler daughter. I wish I could have done a little more for her and our moms who were undoubtedly worn to a frazzle with us on Mother’s Day. There don’t seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done that needs to be done.

Start of day Saturday.

End of day Saturday.

Sunday. New cow apprehensive about leaving stock trailer.

The greeting committee arrives.

Much bellowing from both sides ensues.

Grapeleaf usually leads the way when a new cow arrives.

Grapeleaf is not the dominant, or herd cow but she is very pushy. She is also fairly small and often gets thumped in these situations.

Of course Lil' Blackie needs to check out the new girl in town.

And they're off.

Miss D is lagging behind because she is very pregnant.

They've made a turn and are headed back. Miss D has cut the corner and momentarily caught up. The new cow is actually near the rear of the herd at this point.