Photo Finish Friday, Bonus Edition

 The Bag Lady has been so busy, she hasn't had time to update you on all the calves being born, so here are a few of the newest.

This white cow had a red/white faced calf

This red/white faced cow had a white calf!

This little girl arrived early the next morning

And the following day, this guy arrived

This guy is only a few minutes old

And if you look in the dictionary under cute, you'll find this picture!

Just in case the Bag Lady missed some, here's a group photo!

The girls definitely outnumber the boys this year, although there are still about 6 cows that haven't calved, so the numbers may even out a little yet.

Oh, and here is the bonus picture (might have to click to enlarge it.... unless that no longer works with the new Blogger interface!)

Hawk

 This hawk spent so long on the ground in the same position that the Bag Lady finally went to see whether it was injured. S/he was fine; simply guarding the afterbirth buffet. S/he allowed the Bag Lady to get fairly close before reluctantly flying off to a nearby tree. The Bag Lady trudged back to the house and when she looked out the window awhile later, the hawk was back on the ground!
Photo Finish Friday can totally be blamed on Leah at the Goat's Lunch Pail!

More Calf Pictures

Yesterday morning, the Bag Lady watched as one of the cows calved. (Not unusual, considering it's calving season on the ranch!) The cow had been wandering the ranch, looking for a suitable spot, with another cow dutifully following along behind. She finally settled on the perfect place and got down to business.  The Bag Lady strolled down a little later and took a picture:

Late in the afternoon, she glanced out the window and saw the cow still in the same spot, still licking her calf..... then thought to herself, "wait! That's a newborn calf....."
The cow that had been following the first cow had decided that the spot chosen was absolutely perfect, so had her calf in the same place! The confusion arose because, at a glance, the cows are identical. Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that, although the cows are very similar in appearance, the calves are quite different. They may be the same colour, but the one born in the morning is a female and the later one is male.

And one more tiny difference.... the calf born in the morning has two white feet and a teensy tiny white mark on her face!

The Bag Lady is having difficulty deciding what the mark looks like.... what do you think it resembles?

Photo Finish Friday - Random Ranch Photos

Here are a couple more calves that have made their debuts recently.....

"Lift butt, then bring front feet under .... at least, that's how it worked last time!"

"Another photo? Sheesh, I'm napping!"

"Why are you ignoring me?" (calf from last year)

The sun rises out of the tractor?

( Leah at the Goat's Lunch Pail is totally to blame for Photo Finish Friday!)

And We're Off.....

Calving season has started (early) at the ranch. According to calculations, the first calf should have arrived April 12th.

The Bag Lady has some cows who need to brush up on their math skills....

Both these calves were born on Good Friday.

Shortly after the calf pictured above entered the world, the cow in the following picture decided she wasn't to be outdone.



They are both female calves, and almost identical in looks. Temperamentally opposite, though! The older calf never stops running around, exploring and bouncing. The second calf is calmer and more placid, although she has been seen cavorting and gamboling with her buddy.
'Tis the cute season around here.

Birthday Girl

The Princess will be seven years old this month! How time does fly. (the Bag Lady knows she has a "baby" picture somewhere in her computer, but can't find it right now.... sigh.)

Photo Finish Friday - Last Year

Last year about this time, there was still so much snow on the ground that the deer were sneaking under the gate into the Bag Lady's hay storage area, looking for something to eat. She caught them red-hoofed one morning......


... and used the tractor to herd them toward the gate.

Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah, at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Baggie has her Cranky Pants on Again!

The Bag Lady has a complaint. (Okay, to be honest, she has far more than just one complaint, but she'll spare you the whining about her personal problems).

Why can't they make things the way they used to? (She knows the 'good old days' weren't really all wine and roses... well, except a few times.... okay, once! And then she woke up with a hangover and the freakin' flowers died.)

She understands that in order for companies to make money, everything they make has to have a built-in "shelf life" - this includes cars, appliances, clothes, etc. - everything wears out (including the Bag Lady, but she promised not to whine about her personal problems.)

The thing that is annoying her today is that even when things are almost new, they don't perform the way she has come to expect, based on previous experiences with similar products. To be specific.... she had to buy a new dishwasher last year when her new flooring was installed and it was discovered that the old dishwasher (which she loved dearly for it's almost mystical cleaning abilities) had burned the linoleum under it. This made her sad (and it also scared the crap outta her and made her look askance at her formerly beloved dishwasher...." all this time I've been trusting you and loving the job you've been doing and you've been betraying me by trying to set my house on fire?? Wasn't I paying you enough? Was I mistreating you? Did you feel unappreciated and taken advantage of? Why didn't you say something?") but she trundled off to town to buy a new one. In her haste to purchase something, she made a bad choice the first time around. She bought a cheap model, which sprung a leak after a short time, but she had also made a good choice in where she purchased it and they took it back and refunded her the entire purchase price (bless them). The second replacement model took her a little longer to choose, and she shopped around a bit, looking for a reasonably priced model that had most of the bells and whistles that her previous model had.

Fast forward to this morning. The Bag Lady has learned that her first dishwasher was exceptional (at least, compared to this one) - she did not have to rinse her dishes and everything came out sparkling clean, regardless of the type of dishwasher detergent she used. This model has been a little different, but she has adapted. She cannot get as many dishes into this one (the racks are not as conveniently configured) and she has to rinse a lot of things that she didn't worry about before (Hello corn, and potato pots).

Yesterday, she made cinnamon buns (and regular buns. And donuts. And discovered, after she had set the buns to rise for the second time that the element in her oven was burned out. But she promised not to whine about her personal problems. Suffice it to say, she now has a greater admiration for her table top roaster oven, which she has previously only used once a year to cook her generally enormous Christmas turkey.)

She filled the dishwasher with the dishes she used for baking, plus supper dishes (and breakfast dishes, and probably the previous nights' dishes) and turned it on. This morning, she emptied the dishwasher and was dismayed to find streaks on several of her white dishes.....
Streaks of cinnamon.
Cinnamon, fer cryin' out loud!
Her dishwasher can't even handle cinnamon.
Sheesh.
She understands the built-in shelf life. She understands that not everything can be perfect but she cannot understand a dishwasher that can't even get cinnamon off her dishes.

She feels better now. Thanks.