A few weeks ago I spent a couple of days out of town attending meetings. As I was boarding the flight to return home, I received the following text from my husband: “I bought some first calf heifers today.”

Juggling my carry-on, boarding pass, book, and cell phone I made my way onto the plane and sent a quick text back asking him to tell me about these heifers. I got one final text

from him before the flight attendants insisted on powering down my cell phone. That text haunted me for the duration of the flight. It read: “They are first-calf heifers and they start calving in two weeks.”

We had never ventured into the fall calving territory before and I am not afraid to tell you that I was a little apprehensive about what lay before us in the coming weeks. Definitely a game changer for our ranch.

Amazingly, calving is going beautifully. No major problems. The heifers were all AI’ed and have been calving quickly and easily. I’m quite sure I have never enjoyed a calving season as much as I have the past ten days.

Something else I am enjoying right now? My daughter.

There are days when she and I are overwhelmed by the boys in this house! At those times, she typically starts begging for a little sister. I promise to buy her a puppy instead.

Boys are loud and smelly and dirty and make weird faces…

…and they make me laugh, reminding me that loud, smelly, dirty little boys are my favorite kind.

Late last night, or early this morning depending how you look at it, I was at the corral helping unload the latest arrivals on the ranch. When the last heifer walked off the truck, I played my flashlight over the group, closed the gate and returned to the house to get some sleep.

Yesterday afternoon my husband and I, along with our four-year old Top Hand, prepared for the arrival of these new heifers. In addition to setting out a couple of bales of hay we also set up some new water tanks.

Simple, low-tech water tanks. My favorite kind. The guys assembled the floats, while I hauled the tanks and water hoses into place.

Does this seem like an odd division of labor? Not at all. I have no mechanical ability whatsoever. None. Zero. Zip. I will happily lug around water tanks and let my four year old do the mechanical work.

I glanced at the heifers this morning as I was taking the kids to school, but it was still too dark to get a good look at them.

We purchased these heifers through an online video auction and hadn’t seen them up close and personal until today. A bit of a gamble, yes, but I think these heifers are going to work well for us.

They are a calm, quiet group of heifers; not bothered in the slightest by me or my camera.

Hardly batted an eye at the resident four year old who rode his bike from the house to the pen, ringing the bike bell and blowing a whistle the entire time.

Yep, I think these heifers will fit in just fine.

We are in the midst of weaning our own calves and receiving loads of calves that we have purchased. The calves require a little more TLC at this time of year. In order to ease their transition and insure that their nutrient requirement are met, we provide them with the best feed we have available. We also give them a high-protein, high-energy supplement.

Checking water and hauling out supplement falls under the heading of: Mom & Kids’ Chores. The kids love having their own responsibilities and I don’t have to tell them twice that it’s time to check the calves. (Odd that when I mention it’s time to do the dishes I have to repeat myself over and over and over…)

This is the first year we have used this supplement and we were curious how the calves would like it. This loose supplement is softer than the protein tubs we feed the cows. This makes it easier for the calves to eat and it doesn’t take them long to polish off each box.

Here’s something you may not know: hauling supplement out to calves is a job with a unique dress code. Today when the kids and I were loading the supplement boxes, I noticed my daughter hadn’t joined us. When she finally emerged from the house in this chore-appropriate outfit I couldn’t help but smile.

Purple ruffled skirt and cowboy boots. That’s my little cowboy-girl.

Last weekend we loaded up the kids and went to a bull sale. A Red Angus bull sale, to be precise. It was a good sale and lunch was delicious. (Bull sale lunches are always delicious, mostly due to the fact that I don’t have to cook!) The kids’ favorite part was the dessert table. They thought such a broad array of pie choices meant that they should sample one of each.

After the bulls were delivered, we put them through the chute and branded each of them. They were unfazed by this minor inconvenience. They were much more concerned about the lady with the camera asking them to pose for her.

Buying bulls is one of our more exciting jobs. We chose these bulls because we believe they will improve our herd genetics. It will be a couple of years before we see whether we were correct or not, but the potential is there and the anticipation of the calves these bulls will produce is exciting.

After their quick trip through the chute, we trailed the bulls out to pasture. We took our Top Hand with us, naturally. You’ll notice he’s not in his full cowboy uniform. Nope. Some days he wakes up and tells me he is a cowboy or a buckaroo. Other days he wakes up and is Officer Billy. This was an Officer Billy day. I am completely unable to predict who he will be when he walks out of his bedroom each morning, but no matter if he is a buckaroo, a police officer (or a pirate or Batman…) he always, always, wants to ride his horse. I find that reassuring; it gives me hope that he will maintain a cowboy connection and may even be a cowboy when he grows up.

On the other hand, “Mother of Batman” does have a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?