Latest / Ranch Wives Unsupervised / 2026 Calving Season Update: Untagged Chaos, Massive Calves & Morris the Moose

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2026 Calving Season Update: Untagged Chaos, Massive Calves & Morris the Moose · Ranch Wives Unsupervised

• Trinity Dirks: All right, ladies. Let's talk calving 2026. Do we need an update? Yeah, we need an update. You guys have started? Yes. ⁓ We have Lacey is done. Lacey's done. I have a couple stragglers. But I don't think they're gonna calf. They're open. Or they're gonna calve Or they're gonna calf super late. They'll just like pop really late. Trinity, you guys have just started a month in. Okay, so we started May it was like eighth or ninth, I think, was our first kind of set. But that was also like the day that we started seeding. Of course. So ⁓ it's happening. We're in the thick of it. ⁓ normally we track of like every calf that hits the ground, who's the mom, what it how much it weighs, like we keep all of that. ⁓ This year has one calf tagged. no. And then I think like this past week went out and he's like, Yeah, there's like eighty calves on the ground. days later, we ended up having one that was 141 pounds. 141. Yeah. Big old boy. ⁓ yeah. And he was He was ⁓ ⁓ but he has no idea who's who And you guys are all black too. You were all black. So you can't even have like a differentiating You're not like ⁓ everyone has their own cows anymore. Like at least you're incorporated, right? Yes it's And I think that's why we're more lenient this year. Yeah because it doesn't matter. Because it doesn't matter. We have one brother in law who has like five cows. I mean he came out just fine, breathing happy, a little a little less ⁓ vigor than the first bit. A lot less spunky. But like we so try to bring this cow in, it's midnight. The amount of confidence I went into this night thinking we're just going to bed. Because generally speaking, when they go on grass and are actually eating grass, yes, we're still feeding hay because we don't have enough in our pastures. Our calving way easier. Yeah. When they're still on hay for like the first couple weeks. It's harder calving. But Jorims like, I'll go back. And he was joking last night. He's like, You better give me the best five calves that are on the ground. And Jorims like, you know what? take it. Take it. I don't care. If want to go out there and tag the best five, ⁓ go it. Yeah. You can do it. Go tag your own. ⁓ You go find yours. Yes, exactly. So that's we're at. And we've just been seeding like we had our seeder dropped off and everything went working. ⁓ Thanks for hanging out with us today on Ranch Wives Unsupervised. If you've enjoyed the chaos, hit the like button, drop a comment with your own ranch story, and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. And follow us on social media @ Ranch Wives Unsupervised for more unfiltered fun between episodes. We'll catch you next time. Stay unsupervised, ladies. It seems like there's more complications all the time. Interesting. And so typically it's colder at night too and it is. There's different things going on, I suppose. But yeah, like it seems like we hit like May fifth May tenth, May fifteenth, and things just start getting easier. Easier. Smooth. Just way smoother. so how many do you have left? To count. Like twenty five. Okay. So stragglers. Yeah, some stragglers. But we're also right at the end of It's really good. There were a lot of bumps in the road, but we got there, people. Tell us about the bumps. We're here. yeah. So we had bought 'cause this is the new this is the new fancy schwancy. The Avatar. Okay. It's a Horsch seeder Okay. And so Jorims related to the Horsch's Like his mom's cousin owns Horsch in Germany. Okay. They started it. first and second cycle. So I assume we normally have like a week kind of breakup almost in between. Yeah. And then we're hoping we'll pick. they also went to grazing tenure. Okay. Which is all bush. ⁓ like that's quite a lar because we're not able to fence like electric fence it into smaller things. smaller paddocks, I guess. So they're grazing like ⁓ Right. And so we were in Germany, we Jorim got to go visit and like hang out. And he has a cousin who's working for Horsch and he's like the Europe division guy that goes to different places and ⁓ on things and Yeah, it's really cool. It was ⁓ did not go because it was gonna be a lot of standing around and talking about things about farming and I was like I'd rather not. ⁓ not really my thing. You go ahead, honey, have fun. ⁓ we got it delivered like ⁓ just the way that the electric fence doesn't really work in bush. Well it does. Like we have creek ⁓ clear cut trails. ⁓ you have to do clear cut cut trails. So that's part of it. And then also you have to get because it's a a grazing tenure, you have to get like clearance, two clear trails. So we only have I think it's two that go straight yeah east to west and we we really do need like two or three more. But anyways, that's a whole nother the day we wanted to be in the field, basically. They did not send a tech with them. Like So you're free for all it? So we basically free for all in it, but we couldn't figure some stuff out. ⁓ Like could not figure things out. Finally, ⁓ a came. Topic. But yeah, we pulled. had so much confidence in like ⁓ it's gonna be fine. Cause the other two calved fine Yeah. I get a text at 11:45. We're gonna have to pull. ⁓ could so much I was I shower late. I had put my lotion on. I had my eye mask on. I was ⁓ no, the confidence I had that this was gonna be a early night. Questionable at best. He called the Horsch people and was on the phone with them, like trying to figure out like what's going on. Like all of this is technology nowadays. Like it's not just like It's all a computer. Yeah. So it's not like you can just go like wrench something and be like, this part is ⁓ or this needs to be these hydraulics need to be hooked up. Yeah. That's like basic. But that computer, that is not. No. You guys But honestly, in the end it was hydraulics that were just labeled wrong. ⁓ So I go out there to help Keith. He's chasing this cow around. He left the gate open. So he also must have assumed Yeah. It would be fine. They go and check and leave right away. So then when I pull up, our calves are just mo moseying out of this out of the gate. This gate. Even though it's late. But like I think it's because he was chasing that one cow around there, just like, we're out of here. So they're moseying out. I'm like, I'm pushing everybody back. He's like, what's taking you so long? the gate, somebody left the gate. I don't know what's going on with this gate. It's open. And Jorim said, like, him and his brother had tried a bunch of different combos of like, you know, maybe something's hooked up wrong, but they just didn't try the right combo. So it was like a day and a half or like two days of just like trying to get this thing going. That also has to be sorry to interrupt, but that also has be super frustrating. You're buying a brand new machine. And like ready to go. I'm bringing the cows back in. So then we get her like sorted out. It took us, I kid you not, like forty five minutes to get her in. She was not having it. And this isn't a crazy cow. This is like a cow that's very calm, loads like when we bring ⁓ in in the fall. This was not having it. She was not having it. She's like, it's midnight. You would hope so get it. And we were supposed to get it like Jorim and I went to Germany, we were supposed to get it we didn't get it. And we finally got it a month later. Like it took a very long time. It was quite annoying. ⁓ That's frustrating though. Yeah. Because it also puts back 'cause I'm assuming you're using that seeder for majority of your Yeah, so we have a seeder and a planter. So what's the different what plants or what do you use for what? Do you know? Yeah, so then he's too big. We finally got her in. And you're like so mad at this cow, you're like, ⁓ we just need to bring you in and pull. Like please, like just let us help. We're trying to help. Trying to help. Because you're obviously not having this calf. Yeah. And she was like grunting when she was pushing, like, like really giving it. And I was like, this is bad. So she we finally get her into our system. She jumps the fence. Well the planter does the corn. Okay, yeah. For sure. And it does quite a bit of canola, peas, I think. And the seeder does all the grass seed and the wheat. Right. So depending on the seed, maybe probably is how they decide. Yeah. So anyways. So we got it. We're seeding. There were other hiccups in the road, but we're here. And we just finished last night our fields. We have a ⁓ So then Keith jumps on the quad and he is trying to get her turned around and he hits the brakes so hard he like kickstands it. All and it's it's dark. It is like pitch black outside. Other than like Do you have good lights on your quad? On the no well not on the quad, but he's got like his headlamps on. Yeah. ⁓ then like we've got lights like the corrals or whatever. ⁓ But you see is like his headlamp just like going back and forth and all of a sudden you just see his tail lights in the quad. ⁓ bit of custom work that we're doing. So like I think there's three more days of seeding or something. And then there's spraying. ⁓ my gosh. There's so much spraying. I was like we are just getting our field disc right now. Like the guys out there right now. ⁓ so are you putting in new hay? Yeah, we'll put in green feed and then underseed to hay. So we'll do that. There's only like two hundred acres. Yeah. But we have like a I think our seeders like All the way up and I was like, oof, that's bad. And he is not happy. We get her in We get her loaded. We had to like rope her to get her in the head gate. Like she was not having it. Keith was so mad. And then he was like, ⁓ my gosh. I'm so sorry. This calf is huge. I'm so sorry. You have no wonder you're running everywhere. Yes. Like so much compassion for And you have compassion. You're like pulling, you're like, ⁓ Yeah. ⁓ Yeah, like you feel instantly bad. I thought she was gonna get hip-locked. Cause we were pulling every time she we were like, as she's contracting, pulling, and like it is up. I wanna say fourteen feet. It's it's a wee little guy. Okay, yeah. This takes us a bit longer. But it's good. It's good. I would like to hire that out one day. Yeah. Cause we don't seed not that it's not a yeah, like it's not efficient. We be doing all fencing and things, but And seeding is calving. That is Okay. However though, I will say this. This is the ⁓ year since I've around, and I think if I looking at w Keith and I like looked at each other like this this is a big big calf. And so we're going. And so it was all in the right position. Everything was fine just a big calf. So I kid you not, we pulled for like a decent amount of time, probably longer than we normal but it was moving just like ⁓ a little bit. A little bit but but the head come out so we just made sure his airways were nice and open, but poor guy was a little bit squished in there, I think, 'cause he didn't really want to get up and he was kinda wobbly for a few days. So yeah, it was pretty Dave can correct me, but pretty sure the first year we had a hundred and fifty calves in the first thirty days. Whoa. It has been our tightest calving ⁓ I've been out here. But it sounds like dad said it seems really tight. ⁓ ⁓ seems a little less stressful. Because you're basically done. Yes. Like like we've like, I don't know, I guess as of now But you're seeding late. I don't know, weird year for big calves. Have your calves? Then they don't know. ⁓ they don't know. I have so many. You know what though? We actually did have one die. I just remembered. You guys did lose one. Yeah. No, just a normal one. It was born for a couple days and then it died. Yeah, we had one like that too. He was big, healthy, good to go and died. I remember I don't know what the heck happened. Yeah, I don't know. Weird. We do. Comparatively. But also your guys' fields ready yet. We're still wet. Like he just is getting in the field today because he came on Tuesday to do it. No. Monday or Tuesday and it was too wet to get in. You guys are too wet over here. So it is that is also the Like I know people over here that can't garden yet because it's still too wet. Whereas my garden's like bone dry. Yeah. I think they're just starting to get in the field and buick too and stuff. Calves just don't have the will to life. Yeah. I've heard people who like do that lambs are horrible to keep alive. Yes, I've heard that too. Also, speaking of things, this is not calving related, but two days ago, ⁓ my went out to like check fence ⁓ and sees this moose take off out of the field. doesn't think anything of it. She's she ditches, she's gone. She left her baby. It is interesting how that works. It's funny how different it is. Yeah, and it's not that far, but it does make a difference. And but yeah, so for us, I was like, Huh, we've never had calving was chaotic, but not, I guess, in a sense, because it was like steady. Right. Like there was some days there was like ten or eleven calves hitting the ground that day. Which is crazy. And then there was some that there was three. But if you like equal it out, it was like five calves a day. And that was so smooth. She had calved and left the baby ⁓ in the bush. And he's like, so it he seen it. Yeah. Like, I don't know, a couple minutes later. He seen it was like, ⁓ she had a calf. Was it fresh? Yeah. ⁓ It was fresh. So then she came back. He's like, he left. He's like, Yeah, I gotta leave. Like she's gotta come back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You can't you can't have to get He realized there was a calf there and just left. Came back to the house, whatever. But then so then at like Yeah. but hold on. How do you just have a set I you don't know, do you know? How many twins do you have such a twins? I have no idea. Because it's a free for all of you. It's a free for all. Jorim has pulled one calf and that's it. Is that the one you sent us the picture of the bag? Do you have any deads? No? why do think us as ranchers ⁓ talk about what made it? I don't know. It was like ten o'clock in the morning when he did this. So at about six o'clock he was like, Well, took out. I need to finish my job. Yeah. Gotta go fence ⁓ went and well, no, he was like, I wonder if she ever came back. Because she didn't look like she was coming back. Most of the time if there's a mama moose and she's got a calf, like she'll kill you before she likes to get close to that thing. I was gonna say I seem it seems out of the usual for them to I mean, I've never seen them freshly calved, but it does seem weird that she just she just ditched. ⁓ didn't come back. Do you notice that like in conversation when somebody's like, ⁓ how's calvin going? Yeah. They're like, did you have any not make it? Do you have any any why do we why do we think we do that? Have you ever noticed? I have never no. But no, it's one of the first questions even I asked you, how many did you guys lose? Lose. Yeah. Like it's an actual common question. It is. And I wonder why that is. Because it's not really one that anybody wants to discuss, I suppose. ⁓ no. So he went out, found the baby. And it followed him to the house. Pretty much all the way to the house. It just followed him. ⁓ then he's like, You're my mom next. Yeah. Can you please be my mom? She doesn't love me. We tried to so then I mean I find it But we also want to know like okay, you have twenty-five cows and so you had three die Like that's five die So then I don't know. But it's not like I'm doing math in my head. I'm not like, wow, she lost this many. Okay, she's out this much. Like I don't think that. No. But that's like, ⁓ yeah, that really sucks. You had a major Yeah. Maybe that's Because it goes to like the losses. Also though, I think it is really tricky. ⁓ The boys like tried to bottle feed him and get him sucking, but he went downhill fast and with an hour he was gone. Yeah. I feel like he needed I don't think he ever sucked. No. So I think he needed the colostrum, but my son was very sad. Yeah, that was very sad because he tried to save this baby. That's so sad That's sad. I didn't yeah, like I feel like moose are like so protective. But they're they're like little. calves. when you lose them and you're like, Man, like could I have done something better? Was it a freak accident? Like Yeah. Or we ask if advice for each other. Like okay, so how many did you lose? Okay. Then we like try to help each other. Like, okay, you lost this many. How did it die? How did it and then it's like, ⁓ yeah, well maybe it had a twisted uterus or whatever, right? And then it's like I don't know. We're interested in that. I guess so. We had another twisted uterus. Again. Again. So wait, I don't know. We didn't They're all leg and they weigh like thirty pounds. Really? Yeah. That's what made me think of like the hundred and thirty pounds. Yeah. yeah, like they're way smaller than cows. Huh. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. It's just walking by ⁓ pop out you don't know your It's probably like a first time. ⁓ This is our first one this year. Okay, okay, okay. We took it to the vet, got that all sorted out. Well, we tried to pull it because it wasn't like the first one I called like a couple years ago. Yeah. I was like, I think this is a twisted uterus. This one didn't quite it was not the same. We're like I'm like reaching around not the same, same. Because we could feel the calves like head and stuff. Okay. Everything seemed slightly positioned. He was like a little bit angled, but the other one was like very First time mama. Yeah. It fell out and she's like, ⁓ no, what happened? And took off. Okay, bye. Have fun. I don't know what this is. Okay, bye. She didn't have time to like lick it off or anything, probably. I don't know. She just Yeah. She just took off. And I don't know if she took off because David. Or she just decided. Or if she just was like, This is not for me. I mean, fair, whatever. But Mom life is not for me. I mean not a mom. Yeah. There, you couldn't get your you couldn't even get like past your forearm. Like he there was no we got all the way in, but you could reach better, like Keith reached better, I think, with his left versus his right arm or something like that. Yeah, so I guess that should have been our first clue, but we tried to pull it, and then Keith is like we're pulling and we're trying to like angle the head, and Keith's like, something's not right. Dad shows up very nonchalant, which is so funny because. That's so interesting. Yeah. That would have been very interesting if you guys had like Saved it. Saved this moose. Uncle saved a moose when I was a kid. His name is Morris He chocolate bars. moose. Uncle saved a moose when I was a kid. His name is Morris He chocolate bars. ⁓ What? ⁓ Who's feed who's gonna feed this? How did you figure that out? because so they bot they bottle fed him, right? Yeah. So he's friendly. He always came onto the porch into house and eventually he starts eating real like. In the times that like we've had to come out help dad pull or like he's called us because something is like, We gotta go, we gotta go, we gotta go. Yeah. That day he was just like, doo doo doo doo doo, like pulled up on the quad. Keith is like, Are you coming? Like, what are you doing? So we're laughing about that. Anyways, we tried this like head rope technique that I seen. Right. From it actually worked to help guide the head down. However, it was not a big enough opening. So then we shoved that poor guy in. ⁓ he was fine. Real food is in grass. Grass. Trees. And then we started giving him treats and one thing led to another. And one thing led to another. He loves chocol he loves chocolate bars. There's no way that's good. Morris loves chocolate. Morris Morris the moose. How long He eventually got too big to like come in the door. Yeah. Yeah. And he wasn't real impressed. And then We took him to the vet, everybody lived. It was good. It was great. But the vet ok so you know, like after hours, they go to like an automated system. And I get that they have to like filter things through I I get We like I'm calling because there's I'm like, well, we're gonna have to bring this thing in at this point because this is a weeks ago. It's still muddy up there. Yeah, yeah. So Keith is rigging up something on the tractor to pull them out. Pull them out. ⁓ I think a herd of moose went through a couple years later. And like he hung out in the fields and stuff and every s once in a while. He like never went to the ladies or anything? He's like, no, celibate life for me. ⁓ no no, there was a herd that came through and he went and joined them. I think. ⁓ okay, okay. So he's like you'd see him wandering around. We gave him an I think he had an orange ear tag. So that you could pick him out of a herd. That is so funny. That's so funny. So did he ever see him again? Like for the trailer. For the trailer. Okay. Because we can't get the truck up. Yeah. And I can't remember if I shared this in a previous episode. I don't think I did. No. Okay. Anyways, he had to rig something up to like pull it on the three-point hitch of the tractor. Anyways, we get up there, they get the cow ready I'm trying to get a hold of the Well, you get you talk to somebody, but it's not it's like a vet tech out of an automated system. So I'm like, hey, like I you know, I called twenty minutes ago, they told me if I didn't hear from the vet Yeah. We've seen him a few times and then all of a sudden he disappeared. Yeah. In ⁓ right after or right around hunting season. yeah. So I'm guessing that somebody tagged out. ⁓ Did the ear take say Morris? It say Morris. ⁓ Could imagine like being a hunting season? I imagine hunting and you shouldn't have waited you killed somebody's pet. Can you imagine you like pull it up in the scope? It's just Morris. ⁓ just say like I'm not shooting that. To give a call back. Like nobody's called me, but we're coming. We are on our way. We're coming in. So like am I what am I doing? She's like, ⁓ okay. And you don't talk to the same person. No. So this chick is like trying to find the other person. The other person or whatever. I don't know how it works. So we're like trying to get that started. Keith's like, did you get a hold of vet? Because I said I gave both numbers because we do have bad service. I was like, if you don't get a hold of me, like call my husband or vice versa. Like somebody will text. Yeah, like somebody will figure it out. That's wild I see you get to live, you have a tag with your name on it, you're living, big guy. I don't care how big your rack is, you're living. Like I would never. I mean, I don't I don't do any of it. Like all I can think is like, ⁓ we have a Morris. We have a Morris. He didn't live, sadly. ⁓ think he needed Colostrum way sooner. Yeah, if he went all day without Yeah, because like the one we got as a kid, his ⁓ I think my uncle's neighbor or one of his buddies Our one vet who's been out, she knows the service is really bad. So we're like, hey, who's who's on tonight kind of thing? Because it kinda helps to know that expectation. Anyways, so yeah, we never did get a hold of the vet. Well then my father in law decides he's gonna go in with this cow, which in the five years we've been out here, my father it's always been Keith and I going with the trailer. He just wanted a town day or what? No, no, he we just got a new truck. So he wanted to drive ⁓ yeah, I'll go to the vet. had a donkey or a mule and it would steal a calf moose every year. ⁓ Every year. It would steal a calf moose. just break them up. . Most of the time he could pull it out and then the mom would take it back. Okay. Yeah, donkeys do you like to protect though donkeys? This time it didn't just donkeys with horses. he stole and the mom didn't come like wouldn't wouldn't come take back. So then we My uncle took it home and bottle fed it. But I think donkeys protect That Christmas we all got we all got shirts with a picture of him. That's like Morris the Moose. Do you still have this shirt? Probably not because I don't keep anything. You need to find a picture. Like a picture at Christmas with your shirt. You gotta find something. Find a sibling that does keep stuff. And I need to see this thing. And we were laughing about it because we were like, of course dad wants to go because the truck's new he gets to go. Which I mean, okay. You know what? Let him have it. Let him have it. You know what? You finally get to enjoy it. Yes, I agree. I support it. But it was so funny. Because I had like ⁓ in a bunch of things in the truck. Cause we didn't eat dinner yet. It was like five o'clock when we realized this is gonna have to be going in. So I had thrown a bunch of stuff in. I like threw Keith's wallet like all the stuff in the truck. And of course you're like just after hours A hoarding sibling. Yeah. Yeah. We all have one of those. We have one. There's one in every household. One in every family, I suppose. Yeah. Are you the hoarding one or no? In my household? ⁓ Exactly we missed I think we were after hours like 17 minutes. Like it was like close. Anyways. ⁓ we're like laughing because Dave's like, yeah, I'll go. And Keith's like, you'll go. Okay. ⁓ What? okay. So then I'm like unloading the truck. ⁓ Well I was like, okay, well vet still hasn't got a hold of us. My father in law doesn't answer his phone on the best of days. Yeah. I actually don't think me or my brother really are. I probably do more than him, but not by not like not really. I don't like clutter. No. I d things need to have a home. If they don't have a home then I apparently traumatized my sisters 'cause they're six and seven years younger than me. Yeah. And ⁓ I'm like, if you don't clean this up within an hour, I'm throwing it in the trash. He just started carrying his cell phone. Okay. year that the fires came through, he got a cell phone. Or maybe he started using the cell phone when that fire came through. Anyway, so I'm like, like they're gonna I'll Bluetooth it and he was like, I I don't I'm like, well, okay. So I called mom, I like, Hey can do you want to have a date night, like going to the vet with dad? Because if I need to get a hold of somebody, he's not ⁓ answer his he's not gonna answer because I was worried, like what if they have to reroute what what if? Like you know what I mean? ⁓ You're ruthless. Apparently I I just like the room is gonna be clean. And if you're not doing it, I'm not putting your toys away four hundred times. So you either put it back where it goes or it's going in the trash. Cause I will clean this thing up once. Yes. Yep. And you will never see it again. Apparently I threw out some very precious items to know. So then But they still like you. I didn't think it was a big deal. So then when I have kids, I did the same concept. Get your toys out of the living room, you have ten minutes. Yeah. If they're you don't have them put away So, anyways, that's all fun and games. They go to town. And it was like a bit, I don't know, they they were going off about something, and dad's I don't need to he's kinda I don't need to be babysat. Like, you don't, you you absolutely don't need to be babysat. That's not why I'm sending her. need her to answer the phone ⁓ the vet calls. Because ⁓ need to call I need to know whats going on Well, also I called it in thinking we were going. You're going, which is fine. It doesn't matter. That cow needs to go anyways, but if they call about or tell like ⁓ you're not Away in your room, not just piled in your room. You have to go away. I'm sweeping it in the trash. And I didn't realize how bad it had traumatized my sister when she had like came over to visit and I was like frantically trying to like clean up the living room. And I was like, You have 10 minutes, get your toys out. And my kids like straight for the living room. They ran. And the look on my sister's face, she's just like, You do that to them? And I was like It's not gonna work out. Do you know what I mean? Like anyway, so we were laughing about that. So I felt bad, but I sent my I felt bad because they were kinda like Dave's like dah, like we know whatever. And so I was like, I called my mom because she had originally was gonna make us dinner. Yeah. And I was like, hey, ⁓ Helen and Dave are coming into the vet. Do you wanna bring them ice cream? I was like, I feel like they could use it. You know, like I feel like they're gonna get stu they're stuck at the vet. We don't know how long it's gonna be because it it turns out that vet was actually in another surgery. Why? And like, you have thrown a lot of my favorite things in the tr trash and I was like okay. And then she like acted like them and she's just like protect me. She's like I'll I'll help you, I'll help you. It's fine, it's okay. That's all right. So why at what age do you do this? Because I don't think I could do that to my three year old. ⁓ that'd be too traumatic for her, I feel like. No. I did it when they were three. ⁓ and that's why she wasn't getting back to us because she was already in. So that's kind of what we suspected, but we were also like, is there somebody else coming in ahead of us? We don't know, right? So, anyways, I was Yeah, do you want to just bring them some sundaes or something like that? So my mom made up like a cheesy, like ice cream delivery kind of whatever I think it was really cute. It was very sweet. ⁓ so yeah, we had another twisted that was a really long story. Twisted uterus, calf's fine, everybody lived. We've had seven sets of twins. Like as soon as they could learn to clean up toys. Yeah. I didn't like you have to put it away in your room. All the toys have to be in the toy box. Yeah. Yeah. And if they were working at it. It doesn't need to be organized, just like put it away. Yeah. And if they were working at it in like a timely fashion, then I didn't. Mm-hmm. And sometimes they had like shellac animals. So sometimes I'd not actually garbage them, I'd pull out. Right. I think my sisters just went straight to the trash. But my kids is ⁓ were a little bit. ⁓ and then I'd just give away to somebody who my gosh. I think your nieces have some of my toys I believe it. yeah. And I got a bunch of Barbie stuff from you. Yeah. Have some of those toys. Yeah. That's so I do feel like that's trashed. Probably ⁓ my goodness. Seven. All have lived having a hundred and eighty-five head. Okay. Mind you, a couple that were pregnant or pregnant have come up open. So I've got my suspicions. Mm. Either that or they slipped. The one I d I we know for sure slipped. The other one was said to be pregnant last year, I think. And still came up open. I guess we had one slip. But that was like in the winter. I don't know, I don't know if I'll be like that, but I can see myself. 'Cause I I'll go a frenzy. Like I can't Yeah, I can't My daughter's pretty good at tidying up though. I'm like you better tidy that up and then sh on it. Yeah. It'll be interesting to see how your son is. 'Cause I feel like there's also a difference between firstborns and secondborns, but also girl and boy. My daughter will sit in her room and reorganize and clean and reorganize and my son has ⁓ food. Yeah, ours o the one that we knew slips slipped in like January. Or sorry, like in February. But she maybe slips in fall. Like right after. But we didn't check until January. The first week of January. Because remember I had all that bad weather. Yeah. Yeah. It was too cold Yeah. Anyways, all this is to say we've had seven sets of twins. That's crazy. Five sets have lived fully, and then the other ones, one make it out of each set. So like In his room. ⁓ my gosh. And it's like been hanging out in a bag for like weeks. And I'm like, Boys, why are they like this? It's like full of granola bars. And I mean it like at least it's like rotting. My sister had fruit flies in one of her boys' rooms and she's like, I don't know where this is coming from. That's like we had the kids, the nieces and nephews. Yeah. I knew that something I could smell it. We're not That's pretty good. Pretty good. But a lot of sets of twins. That's crazy. do you pull the second calf then? Or does ⁓ have the cows been able to keep both? We had one that was completely ⁓ no. how did that work? We one one set, two set And I could not find it. And normally I don't let them like walk around with snacks. Yeah. I found a piece of pepperoni in the back bedroom. That was a science experiment. And I was like who was coming back for I know exactly who did it. I said, When were you planning on coming back for this? Were you saving it? It was in one of those pink ⁓ Were they saving it? I don't Three sets. How did that work? Tell me. Three out of the five have been kept. With the mom. With the mom. They're fine. One has been grafted. Okay. Two. Sorry. Have been grafted. To a cow that has To a cow that lost a calf or bottle. Yeah. And for the viewers, what is grafted? ⁓ grafted. That means should we give the It was in one of those pink we've like these little like to go. No, they're like a dollhouse thing. ⁓ they're like I don't know, like a little cat house or something. I d a friend of mine gifted them to me and the the kids use them. And I was like, I know for a fact somebody put that in there, slapped it up and said, I'm done with it. That's I could so gross. Mind you, I can't say anything. I was a disgusting kid. Okay, I'm gonna give how we do it and then you guys can put in how you guys graft because that might be different. I don't know. The definition would be you'd give a cow a calf that's not hers and you have to put it together. Put it together. So we we put on like we call it the fur coat or like the fur vest. Because we will ⁓ yeah it sound it sounds gruesome, but we will skin out the calf that didn't make it. Yeah, that's what we do. My brother's gonna out me on it anyways, but like I was really bad for like eating in my room as like a young teenager. ⁓ and then I would just like let my dishes pile up. No. My mom hated it. I was so I was just gross. I don't ever remember bringing food to my room when I was a kid. I used to bring like cereal I was a cereal. Yeah. Our parents We didn't even own had cereal. Yeah. You didn't even own cereal. And then put the vest on it so that she will accept the calf. Yeah. So that the calf smells like her calf. Her calf. We had one where her calf didn't make it. And then it was like quite a it was probably four or five days later. So we didn't save the hide because we didn't think we had anything to graft to her. Right. Then we had a set of twins. So we grafted one, but we just grabbed her juices and rubbed them all over the calf. And she took it. But she also the Herfords, in my opinion. That's true. That is true. Very fitting. I knew I'd bring food up, but I would take it down at some point. Like I never let it get that bad. But I let my piles pile up. ⁓ I too. Yeah. I had one friend who was like, But I would always do like a once a month like deep clean pretty But you guys had your own rooms, right? Yeah. You shared rooms. I shared with all of my sisters. I love how you never told me like like when I was young, she would tell me to go clean my room, but when I was like a young teenager, she quit doing that. So I was on my own. Yeah. Are more willing to like mother up to anything. Okay. I think it depends on the cow. Very true. The ones that have accepted this are good at that. Yeah, like sometimes we don't even skin ⁓ out. We just put like an essential oil on the cow the nose of the cow and the back of the calf that's the same. What do you use? I've never heard this. You use essential oil? It just like what? Peppermint? No. No no no. Like calf claim? Yeah. I don't I think that's why maybe I don't like clutter now is because I l had a lot of clutter like I let my life get cluttered. Yeah. Maybe I don't know. I love how this is a calving episode one was a whole. We just moved on to clutter. ⁓ Well we're getting really into it. Yeah, that's fine. No, like a lavender anything that's like kinda mild, bit more mild, like lavender, whatever ⁓ have. Yeah. They just have to smell alike. ⁓ never heard of this. I mean I knew that they had to smell alike. I didn't You just thought it like So if you put it on the cow's nose, yeah. That's what she smell that's her smell. And then that's his smell. ⁓ that's good. Interesting. I've not tried that. I would be curious to. I would say we only maybe fifty percent of our grafts. Yeah. And sometimes it's been too long. Yeah. Right? That you can't skin. And sometimes it's like fresh enough that the cow just wants a baby and you can throw it in. Yeah. Yeah. We've also just ⁓ oats or chop on the back of the calf. Right. When they're wet. Yeah. A cow wants it, she licks it. When she licks it it smells like the cow then. Because she's she's been all over She's been all over it, so she just takes it. Hmm. Okay, that's interesting. Okay, these are fun facts. Because sometimes it's really not ideal to have to no put a fur coat on the other one. It's a graft. It's gross, yeah. Like ⁓ I mean I understand why it has to be done or why you know, I'm not against it, but it's just like kind of a yeah, like it's gonna be a harder graft. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, so that so yeah, we've had three sets go one So far, three sets and two that have been grafted over. And then we had one. No, did we have one or two? I can't remember. Anyways, one of the twins that didn't make it was attacked by a predator and we were not sure. But like how would I word this? It doesn't look like one of the predators we've seen out here before. ⁓ It looks like it could have been an eagle. And there was an eagle hanging out in our calving area. Interesting. But it's not confirmed. Yeah. Don't know. Anyways, it could But it's not like a wolf. No, we have Since we've got those Kangles. our wolf like our predator kills have gone. Yeah. So Brianna has dogs that live with her cows. Cows. I have three. We've got two males and a female. And they live out with our cows pretty much bef just before calving. They live in our main yard, which is in between like all three herds of where we feed. So we originally got them to protect our After our calves have been weaned because the wolves would run ⁓ through the fence. And you have such a bad wolf problem. We have a really bad wolf problem. But we don't have any wolves where we are. The year that the fire is Did your parents have wolves? Yeah, that's a good question. 'Cause they're not they're n No. ⁓ that's crazy. We didn't struggle with wolves. We also I think is Is there like a river in between that you guys that maybe the wolves just like don't cross? I don't know. I know, you guys have such a bad wolf problem. We do have a bad but we're also in a lot of bush. Yeah, you're Like there is so much crown land to the west and north of us. We just have coyotes come and lick up the afterbirth. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, like honest attention. We do still like last year we did still lose two calves out in the grazing tenure. Right. Or just before the grazing tenure. But our so what it happened, it's like a pack of, I think Keith said at that point there was a pack of seven. So we only had three dogs. So they were outnumbered. Yeah. So our oldest male came home. And you can tell, like, there's a different sound. Silly, they have a different call, and you know something's not right. And he never comes to the deck, he was on the deck. Your dog, dog was on the deck, our oldest male was on the deck, losing it, and so it's different. So Keith got up right away. It was like really early morning and went to go check what was going on. And there was a wolf kill out there. He had interrupted it. Like and okay, this sounds like super gruesome, but something I don't think I had a debate with a lady when I worked at the accountant's office. There was some fadition, what is it? Petition petition out like a few years ago for protecting the wolves or something to that effect. And I she was like, ⁓ you should sign this. And I got into a very like heated conversation. Yeah. Because she's like, Well, they're just such a like magical and majestic creature and like they deserve to be like respected and all this. I said, I think they should be respected. I'm not against that. Not when they're eating my calves. No, because now the wolf population is out of control. Like there was a boun the cattlemans had a bounty out, whatever, the government, however that works. Yeah. Because the wolf population was so out of control. She well, they shouldn't be, you know, doing anything wrong. I was like, have you ever seen how they like kill an animal? I said, they'll eat that calf, they'll take out its Achilles, like take out its knees in the back hind end and eat it alive all the way up. And so they just drag themselves along while they die. And she was like, no, that I was like, nope, they do. I have pictures. Do you want to see it? Because she was like, well. And I'm like, no. I understand ⁓ the need to protect wildlife. And I do think there needs to be respect. But when they are coming after your livelihood because they are ample amount, we had a pack of thirteen because there's way too many out there. We had a pack of thirteen out here. Yeah. The year of the fires. To the point that they weren't even scared. This is the year before we got the dogs. They weren't scared. Keith and I were walking in the field, it was like six AM behind our house. Yeah. And they just came running down the field. They did not care. ⁓ yeah. That's And that was the most eerie eerie thing. It's too much. Yeah. And so when you're losing like that year we lost fifteen head to predators. That's crazy. That's ten percent. That is crazy. Of our herd, easily. Yeah, we don't have any predator killed. To predators. We do have bears, which the dog We black bears, but they don't They're very happy in the grain field. Yes. They don't feel the need to go. Yeah. But that's just it. And like I mean, we did lose one last year to a to a bear. Yeah. But you don't have like a bunch of grain fields right around you. Not over the bush, basically. Yeah. So it is. Because I was talking to Jorim, I was like, Yeah, they're grazing like you guys graze in the bush all the time and Jorims like, I hate grazing in the bush. But we have ⁓ the of having our fields to graze. Yeah. Well not just are you guys bush graze or what are you kind of both bush mostly bushly bush yeah okay hold on I know I'm doing a majority of the talking I'm sorry for calving I we have had some massive when I say massive I mean massive huge calves this year we had one that was like 131 pounds this is like That is insane we had to pull it poor girl was having A tough time. And she's not like a small cow. But this calf was huge big boy. Huge calf. So we ended up playing So typically calves are like ninety to a hundred. Like a hundred and ten is like big. Yes. Like for our weights. Yeah. Yeah. For our weights. Like we go. So like a hundred and thirty is like massive. It was so big. And then and it wasn't the cow that it was out of, I like I mean, I know who you should have been bred to, and none of the birth weights are high enough. Yeah. That I would think that this would be like a wow. Like, ooh. So was it a whoopsies with a different bull or what? Well, there's nothing around us. I think it was just a mashup of genetics. Or he was severely overbaked. I don't know. But then five days later, I kid you not, we pull so that one was a bull calf. Totally fine. He was up, sucking, happy, good to go. The day before, my sister, she pulled a calf and it was 135 pounds. Whoa. A heifer. Like bull calves are normally big. Yeah, this is a heifer. This is a heifer calf. She up sucked right away. And then one of her neighbors had another, I think it was 130 pound or something like that. And then somebody on Instagram, like the same day that you told me, she also had like a huge calf. Huge calf.