20 Days

 We spent the day trying to graft a new calf that we had bought today onto the mother cow that had lost her baby yesterday.  It is an interesting process, one that I was not sure I wanted to witness.  Yet, since having married my husband I've developed a bit of a tough stomach. 

For those not familiar with the grafting process, I'll give a brief detailed summary.  My husband located a calf that had been born only a few hours from a dariy farm.  He brought the calf back to the field in which we keep the cows during the winter

and throughout the birthing season. 

Once back, we had the ardous task of skinning the dead calf.  I had never seen the process done before and wanted to be there to help my husband if he should need it.  The cape off the dead calf is then placed on the new calf so that the smell will approximate that of the dead calf in hopes that the mother will accept and allow the new calf to nurse. 

It was all quite the process, but one that I'm hopeful will be successful.  In the picture to the left, you can see that the coloring from the calf differs from his head to that of the color on his back.  That is because at this point he is wearing the cape of the dead calf. 

                              


He is such a sweet calf, and I'm crossing my fingers that his new adpotive mother will attach to him and willingly take care of him.  Time will tell though.  Today was definitely a better day than the previous, at least for now. 

I also was able to cross two more items off my to-do list, so, happy day.