Betty Beefsteak & Sir-Loin Alot

It would seem that I've been sleeping, breathing and obsessing over calves for the last 4 days. Monday morning the little heifer was not quite herself and was completely uninterested in her bottle of warm milk which was a huge sign that something wasn't right and her bowel movements had been looking pretty runny. I checked the cupboard for the emergency electrolyte and mineral replacement powder that I try to have on hand all the times for calves that get the runs to help replace what their bodies loose with all of the loose stool and I was so happy to see that I had some.

By the time I returned she was lying down making little moo noises as she lay her head on my lap and really did not want to get back up. I was really getting worried that I was going to loose her :( So I spent most of the day in and out of the barn trying to get her to take sips of the electrolytes which was going painstakingly slow but a little is better than none. You shouldn't underestimate how fast one of these little guys can dehydrate but I had one more little trick up my sleeve to help her to feel better and that was to give her 30cc's of pepto bismol with one of those little baby medicine syringes every 4 hours. Some people swear by using pepto for calves with the runs and others will say it's an old wives tale and doesn't do anything at all but I have used it a few times in the past and it always does the trick!

Later that evening she was ready to take her bottle of milk again, drank a little more than she had managed in the morning and was back on her feet again. Yay! Over the next few days we continued our regime of electrolytes and pepto and I am so relieved to say that today her appetite is back and growing in leaps and bounds and her bowel movements are all back to normal :)

Sometimes the change from being moved to a new home, or the switch from fresh cow's milk to a milk replacer can trigger the upset or even the stress from so many new faces and hands wanting to pet her can do it to them but all is well in the barn again and oh by the way that's her up in the first photo... Betty Beefsteak herself. All bright eyed and bushy tailed today as she bounced around *grin*.

Heehee, don't you just love her name?! Hubby came up with them :) Well actually first Betty Beefsteak was going to be T-bone but we didn't think it was girly enough and the little boy has been named Sir-Loin Alot :)

There never seems to be enough milk for the little guy either! He makes the cutest little face when he's finished with the tip of his tongue hanging out...

but watch your backside or front side for that matter *grin*. When the bottles are empty they sometimes look for more and bump you in some not so nice places LOL. Yeah, we're going to have to break them of that habit :)

Hugs,

Rosina

Meet Our New Babies

We picked up our baby calves this morning and they are adorable! We had thought we were getting two little bull calves but actually ended up with a little heifer and one bull calf which is even better :)

They were little troopers on the long ride home, laying down nicely in the back of our horse trailer under the little shelter we had built for them to keep any wind off of them so they didn't catch a chill as they are only two weeks old and still quite susceptible to the cold and damp.

As soon as we had them unloaded and into the barn the kids were right in there with them petting and brushing them and falling hopelessly in love with them *grin*.

They seemed to settle in pretty well but they're still a little skittish and unsure of us...

but I know that as soon as we bring out the milk bottles tonight we'll win them over :)

Hugs,
Rosina

I'm In A Magazine!!!

I can't believe it!!!
I've been featured in a magazine and I think I'm going to burst from being so darn excited!!! *grin*

When my little project of recycling and reusing my children's old rubber boots that I had saved and turned into hanging flower planters had gone viral last year and started showing up all over the internet it was fun to see. But then earlier this year I was contacted by the editor of Cottages & Bungalows Magazine to see if I would allow them to print my photo with a little comment on my inspiration in their May edition and I was SO excited that they would even ask me :)

It made me think of the Dr. Hook song 'On the cover of the Rolling Stone'.... and I was going to go and buy 5 copies for my mother! LOL. Okay while I didn't quite make the cover I was definitely doing the happy dance :)

It is quite a lovely magazine full of home and garden ideas...

projects to make and tons of inspiration.

Thank you so much to all of you wonderful readers some of you which have become wonderful friends over the years as well for stopping by and saying hello and sharing about my blog as I know without all of you this wouldn't have happened :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Catching Up & A New Magazine

Somehow the few days I had intended to stay off the computer during the Easter holiday have turned into nearly 2 weeks! The days are flying by me at great speed but we had a wonderful holiday baking cookies, making and sharing in big family dinners, chasing down clues hidden all over our property for our easter hunt and getting ready for the new members of our family to arrive :)

No we're not having another baby although I really really want one *grin*, but we're adopting two new baby calves just barely a week old that we're going to bottle feed and raise. I think I may be more excited than the kids!! I just melt over their little doe eyes LOL. So we've been cleaning the cow barn and doing some repairs to it that were needed and as soon as hubby gets home from work we're going to load up the trailer and pick them up. Yay :)

I had wanted to share some pictures with you tonight as well but for some reason Flickr's new photo program Aviary and I are just not getting along and it wouldn't work for me :( I'm crossing my fingers that it's just some sort of glitch and I can get back to business soon but in the meantime I wanted to share with you this really great homesteading e-magazine I found.

The Homestead Community Post is a brand new online magazine published by the Harrison family over at Homestead Drying Racks and right now they are offering it as a free preview for anyone and totally worth checking out!

It's 40 pages long and looks just like a professionally laid out magazine unlike some of the newsletter type mags I've seen and it is full of stories, helpful tips and tricks, recipes and more. You can click on the link below to go directly to PDF of the magazine or save it to your computer or ipad to read at your leisure and check out their website as they are having a fun giveaway to kick of their magazine to :)

Homestead Community Post ~ Spring 2012

Hugs,
Rosina

We're Sending Egg Mail!

How did I not think of this?!

Mailing large plastic Easter eggs for friends and family is like having the cadbury bunny lay an egg in their mailbox but even better LOL. When I ran across the idea here I went to the nearest dollar store to see if I could find eggs big enough to hold a bunch of goodies and accommodate a mailing label that I could write on large enough to be legible.

Two stores later I hit the jackpot! Brightly colored eggs that were a good 7 - 8 inches long and didn't feel to flimsy so that they would be able to take a good knocking around in the mail truck.

We filled them with chocolate, stickers, easter stamps, bunny masks and felted eggs that we had made. Nestled it all in a bit of paper easter grass and taped them tightly shut :)

Watch your mailbox... one of these just may be for you!

Hugs,
Rosina

Easter Bunny Masks

My daughter totally loves to dress up. Full length princess gowns, ballerina tutus and hand me down halloween costumes from her cousins. She especially loves all sorts of masks but somehow I don't think her hairy beard and moustache disguise or her bandit masks are going to cut it on the Easter scene. I was going to have to come up with something new and preferably of the 'bunny' variety *grin*.

So what I did was take one of her old masks and traced through the eye holes on to the center of a plain piece of paper so I got them spaced pretty much where they needed to be and then just winged it and drew some bunny ears and a simple face shape to go with the eyes. A little trick to getting both sides of your drawing symmetrical when you're finished drawing your pattern is to fold your paper in half so both halves of your drawing are back to back and then pick your favorite side that looks the best and cut out your pattern while folded with the good side up so you end up with both sides exactly the same :)

After pinning my pattern onto some felt and cutting out two pieces for our bunny mask I had some worries that the ears might flop over my daughter's eyes when she was wearing it because they were so narrow where they met the rest of the mask.

So to remedy that I sewed in pieces of stiff clear plastic onto the ears on the inside back layer of the felt, putting in a few stitches at the very bottom of the plastic. I also made sure that I placed the plastic far enough down close to the eye holes so that it wouldn't still flop because it wasn't far enough past the brow line of the mask. The plastic we used came from some of those 'windows' they put in some boxes. That's why there are still some strips of cardboard leftovers still stuck to them :)

With the ears reinforced, I sewed on some contrasting white for the centers of the ears, added a little triangle nose and some elastic to keep it on her head and then pinned the front and back pieces together to finish sewing it together which I fully intended to do until L asked to do it herself. Of course I said yes! I love that she wants to join in and do more and more sewing. Her growing confidence in herself and her budding skills are so heartwarming to this crafty mama :)

So slowly and surely she made her way around the mask keeping a close eye on her seam allowance and getting a good lesson on how to maneuver curves *grin*. She did an awesome job and kept it darn straight. Atta girl!

With the threads snipped my little girl transformed into a fuzzy little bunny and promptly hopped away LOL.

I wish I knew how to take my paper pattern and turn it into a PDF for you! Maybe someone reading this will be able to share the secret with me *grin*. And in the meantime I hope you'll grab your pencils and whip up your own bunny version :)

Hugs,
Rosina