Da Baby

Update/Disclaimer: The title of this post has nothing to do with the similarly named supposedly homophobic musician (rap star?). I'm far too old and out if it to know who he is and he only just popped up on my newsfeed 2 months after I posted this.

I have a new addition on the farm, a little heifer calf. So excited. She's 3 days old in this photo.

She popped out right on schedule at around 7:50 a.m. on the exact day she was due. Jonny looked out the window and said, 'Lily's been pushing the other cows away, I'll bet today's the day'. I looked out the window and said, 'Yeah, more like right now's the time, she's absolutely in labor'.  Because somehow I've reached a point in my life where I can tell when a cow is in labor. Thankfully all went smoothly and I suspected she was a girl because she was up and nursing fairly quickly. Supposedly the boys take longer and that's been my experience so far. I left mama and baby alone for a few hours before I went out to put in her ear tag and confirm she was indeed a she. She's way smaller than our last batch of calves because her dad is a Lowline Angus which is a smaller breed than the regular sized Angus I have right now. I'm trying to breed down the size of the cows I have so I'm beyond thrilled to get a female especially out of mama Lily because she has the most awesome temperament and this is the first female I've gotten from her. I'm planning to keep this little one as part of my breeding stock provided she has a nice temperament. So far she's pretty awesome. Lucy, my other mama, is a fantastic mama and good cow in general but she's a bit skittish and her calves have all been skittish so far so I'm not keen to keep them for breeding. They don't have bad temperaments, just a little more difficult to manage than Lily and her babies have been. And Lily is smaller.

The little bug gave me some worry for the first few days because she seemed to be sleeping an awfully lot but now 2 1/2 weeks later she's up and rocketing around. Phew.

I'm finally feeling recovered from my vaccine side effects. A whopping 9 weeks later. I kept thinking I was better after 2 good days then I'd relapse and be dizzy and tired again then another good day or 2 and so on for 9 weeks. I've finally had a full week of feeling reasonably normal and feeling like I'm able to push a little harder on the bike and get some strength back. I'm probably a few sessions away from being back to normal with my weight lifting and my heart rate is nearly back to what it should be for various types of efforts on the run and bike. The outdoor pool opens next week!!! SO excited about that. I haven't been in a pool in maybe a year and a half. I'm hoping getting a reserved lane won't be a problem. Once I feel confident in the pool I'll start going back in the open water as well. Not sure about Xterra Nationals this fall, it doesn't feel feasible at the moment but you never know. I'll see how the swimming goes. I bought an e-bike which I don't think I wrote about, more about that later but in short I think it'll really help me with my hill climb bike training which has sorely been lacking since I moved out here. Xterra Nationals bike course is a point to point course with a net elevation gain, it's all about the climbing and then being able to climb some more on the run. I'm so not prepared, especially after 9 weeks of being on and off the couch, but I'll see.

Now that my brain fog is gone and my head feels more or less back to normal I'm hoping to write more. The past few weeks felt like such a struggle to sit down and string thoughts together in a coherent fashion. Not sure I'm there yet but hopefully this all made some sort of sense.