It's Feeding Time....

This is Olivia posing with her calf 'Livi'. This tale starts out a little sad as the reason Olivia has to feed her calf by bottle is because the mama heffer died this spring. When our girls were babies their Opa chose to name a calf after each of them in honour of their Daddy who runs the farm. This has been a wonderful experience for our girls, and will be for Isaac one day too...once one of the girls' cows has a bull then maybe we'll name him after Isaac and get him going on a calf too. The girls love going to the farm and checking up on their calves and they get really excited when it's calving season! As Olivia's mama cow was already 8 years old, she'd had a few calves along the way but it was hard to see her go this year. We're not sure what happened to her. The vet came out a few times to help but she didn't make it. Abby's mama had her first calf this year too so that was pretty exciting! Her's was a bull calf that she named 'Arlyss' after the renter at the farmhouse! This is where I should explain that on our farm if you get a calf named after you it's an honour! Anyway, since Olivia's mama calf died shortly after her calf was born, we needed to get it onto a bottle so it would stop sneaking milk off other mamas. Rob got the calf used to the bottle and then introduced Olivia and now that little calf calls to Olivia when it sees her, then kicks its legs up and runs on over to greet her! It's the most wonderful feeling for Olivia. The feeding process is fast but messy! By the time Olivia was finished feeding yesterday her shoes were covered in white foam from the calf drooling! Having a daddy who's a farmer has been such a great experience for the kids....and I have to admit that even though it's had its tough moments, I love the career he has and that I've been able to be a helpmate to him in his job all these years. He is a wonderful farmer and is so passionate about what he does.