A Very Hard Day

Twenty-something odd years ago, we had a Chocolate Labrador Retriever named Judy.  She was a beautiful dog - full of life.  She would run around the farm, chasing rabbits.  It was a favorite pastime of Judy's.  One fall afternoon, we were harvesting in the very last field right next to the shop, ten minutes from being finished.  Judy was doing her thing, chasing rabbits in the field.  As you harvest, the area that the rabbits can hide gets smaller and smaller.

The rabbit saw its chance to run and took it.  Trouble is, Judy ran, too - right into the cutterbar of the combine.  The sharp teeth on the combine cut deep into Judy.  She was cut up - really bad.  She looked up at me with those big yellow eyes, whimpering in pain.  I remember Dad asking me if we could save her.  I shook my head, no.  She was injured very badly and could not be saved.  Reluctantly, I got the gun from the truck and put Judy to rest.  It was a hard thing to do.  We buried her right there in the bottom cut of that field where she had gotten so much joy chasing cottontails.

Why am I telling you this painful story?  Because, sometimes animals we love get hurt.  Animals we get attached to are suffering, and a hard decision has to be made.  Last week I told you that Clarabelle, one of our Jersey cows that we JUST dried off after milking her for a year and three months, got injured.  It was a freak accident.  The two heifers, LuLu and Elsie (Clarabelle's heifer), were horsing around.  One of them was in heat and they were all jumping on each other the way that animals do.  Somehow, one of them jumped on top of Clarabelle and injured her back.

We called the vet out for a farm call.  He looked her over and theorized that Clarabelle had a back injury (slipped disk) or perhaps a pulled muscle.  He gave her a shot and said she may get up later that day or the next morning.  He also prepared us that she might NOT get up.  Clarabelle was on the clock.

Every day following, Tricia and I went out to the pasture where she had fallen and flipped her over, two times a day, to make sure her leg wouldn't go to sleep and give her a different vantage point.  That's not an easy thing to do with a large animal.  It was hot and it rains every day.  Lots of mud and mosquitoes and deer flies.  We'd bring her sweet feed and fresh water, gave her a shot of BoSe, drenches of molasses, and we'd pick fresh sweet potato vines for her to eat from the garden (her favorite).  We'd sit with her and tell her what a good cow she was.

She would try to get up, but her back legs would not work.  It was hot and so we built a tent of sorts out of t-posts and a tarp to keep her cool.  She never stopped eating and drinking water, but she was deteriorating day by day.  The other animals would come visit her under the medical tent.

She would get week and fall sideways, struggling to breathe.  Tricia and I would rush out there in the mud, pushing and pulling on her to get her back upright.  We finally got a bale of hay down from the hayloft and positioned it against her body to keep her propped up.  It became all too apparent that this wasn't going to end well.  She was breathing heavy and groaning.  She was suffering, and I couldn't allow it to go on.

Early Friday afternoon I got my handgun and made a slow, long walk to where she lay.  I didn't even tell Tricia I was going.  Clarabelle had fallen once again and had mud all over her and was panting.  I talked to my girl and told her how sorry I was that it had come to this.  I told her again what a good cow she had been, giving us good heifers and winning many ribbons and plaques for Russ and Benjamin in livestock shows.  She was our family cow and had produced hundreds and hundreds of gallons of milk that nourished our family.  But is was time.  Rest in Peace, Clarabelle.

Something's Not Right With Clarabelle

This morning at feeding time, things were a little wild.  The two heifers, LuLu and Elsie were jumping all over each other.  Rosie and Clarabelle were getting in on the action as well.  This happens when they go into heat.  They will bellow and follow each other around and jump on one another.  800 - 1,000 pound animals doing this is not something you want to be around.  I quickly fed them, opened up the laying boxes for the hens and got out of there.  It was about time for church anyway.

This afternoon when I went out to do evening chores, something was amiss!  Rosie and Elsie and LuLu were all out eating in the pasture.  Clarabelle, however, was sitting in a grassy area near the barn.  It has been raining almost every day for the last two weeks.  It is exceedingly muddy everywhere.  I walked over to see what was going on with her.

She had been trying to get up with no success.  The ground was matted down and she was all muddy and out of breath from exertion.  I tried to help her get up, but it was of no use.

I went inside and got Tricia.  We first flipped her over to the other side to give her legs underneath her a break.  Then I gave her a drench of molasses and some sweet feed and hay to eat.  She ate it.  She appeared to have no fever and her ears were perky and erect.

I gave her an intra-muscular injection of 20 cc's of BoSe, a medication for selenium and Vitamin E deficiency.  It appears that it is something with her back legs - almost a paralysis.  She tries to get up, but her back legs aren't cooperating.

This was late afternoon on Sunday.  Tomorrow morning, if she's not up and feeling better, we'll make a call to our vet and see if he'll do a farm call and check her out.  Cows that are down are not a good thing.  We sat out with ol' Clarabelle and swatted mosquitoes and deer flies off of her and prayed that she'd get better.  We'll report back on the diagnosis/prognosis.

The Cattle on a Thousand Hills

 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.  Psalm 50:10 KJV

The LORD owns it all.  We don't have hills where we live.  We are in the flat, Cajun prairie.  There is not much slope to the land.  We do, however, have a manmade hill on our property.  A while back we had a load of topsoil delivered to the house.  It's always good to have topsoil to fill holes in the yard, to add to the garden and to build up low spots.

The load of topsoil came with a little something extra (lagniappe, you might say).  It came seeded with rye grass.  Tricia has been getting the momma goats out to come eat on the rye grass that's growing on the hill and today, she got Clarabelle out to feast on the rye grass.  Clarabelle was a happy old girl.  She has a mouthful of rye.

Clarabelle rushed to the hill and grabbed a big plug of grass with her tongue.  You'll notice something about Jersey cows below.  They have blackish-gray tongues!  Their tongues are coarse as sandpaper.  I guess that assists them in latching onto the grass and pulling into their mouth.

I happened by as Tricia was grazing Clarabelle on the hill and she asked me to photograph Clarabelle.  

Many trade magazines show the cows standing on a hill, and Tricia wanted to imitate that pose.

Clarabelle wasn't too terribly interested in posing.  She was more interested in skillfully mowing down the remainder of the rye grass.

Rosie, You're on the Clock

Clarabelle, had her little heifer, Elsie, two months ago tomorrow.  She's a healthy little thing, for sure.  Elsie is our first heifer in several years.  For some reason we hit a spell where every baby was a boy!  So now, Rosie is on the clock.  To the best of our knowledge, her due date is June 18th.  Below you can see the daily procession in the evening as Clarabelle heads to the barn for feeding, followed by Elsie, and then Rosie bringing up the rear.

Speaking of rears, Rosie's rear is fat and her girth is wide.  She must have a big ol' baby in her.  Tricia and I were talking about the ol' girl.  Rosie is twelve years old and to the best of our recollection, she's given us seven calves. 

We gave her half a scoop of sweet feed in her stall in the barn.  We have a rule that you only get fed an appreciable amount when you're in milk.  Otherwise, you are on grass and hay.  After her feeding, we put her back outside the barn.  In this photo, you can see a couple things: #1 is that she is FAT! #2 is that she is beginning to bag up.  What you can't see in the photo is that on her back end, she is starting to have some mucous leak out.  All signs of calving coming soon.

Ol' Rosie has been a good momma cow for us.  Hopefully, she'll give us a heifer.  Regardless, it'll be fun to have two little calves frolicking out on the pasture, kicking up their heels and running with their tails high in the air!

SOON!

Learning to Share

Through Him then, let’s continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips praising His name.  And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.  - Hebrews 13:15-16

I'm not a psychologist, but I firmly believe that the act of sharing is not a natural thing.  It is not the default.  As humans, we tend to gravitate toward selfishness.  It's sad, but true.  It is part of the human condition since the fall of Man and sin entered the world.  Now, we must be taught to share.  We are to love our neighbor as ourselves, right?

Believe it or not, animals need to be taught to share as well.  Just like humans, it is often against their will.  I'll show you our nightly ritual, in which we forcefully teach Elsie to share.  Elsie is our little Jersey heifer just born to Clarabelle.  Clarabelle produces more milk than Elsie can drink.  Clarabelle's production of milk is based on the principle of supply and demand.  

We keep milk cows so that we can drink the milk too.  In order for Elsie to get her milk and us to get some too, we've instituted a formal schedule.  Here's how it goes.  Ever since Elsie had been a week old and enjoyed the colostrum, Elsie has had full access to Clarabelle and her milk all day long.  In the evening, we bring both Clarabelle and Elsie into the barn.

Clarabelle is given hay and we milk her out completely.  Hopefully, Elsie has gotten all the milk she wanted because if not, she's going to bed without supper.

You can notice below that Clarabelle's bag is now empty after milking.  The next step is moving the bench, unhobbling Clarabell's leg, and leading her out of the barn.

We lead Clarabelle out rather quickly as Elsie wants to be with her momma.  We distract Elsie, lead her out and close the barn door.

And here is what happens next.  Poor Elsie sadly, longingly looks out of the gate.  She'll spend the night in the barn.  Her momma will spend the night outside the barn, making milk for us.

The first thing in the morning, we tie Elsie up, lead Clarabelle in and milk her out into a clean, stainless steel bucket.  Once done, we put them together for the day.  As Clarabelle makes milk, Elsie drinks it.  We share with one another and we BOTH benefit.  There are few win-win situations in life, but here's one of them.  

Introducing "Elsie"

Clarabelle, our Jersey Milk Cow, was due to calve around April 10th according to our record-keeping.  As time stretched on during the nine month gestation period, we wondered from time to time if she was pregnant.  Over the past week or so, we could tell that she indeed was due to the "blossom" of her bag.  Yesterday Tricia said, "I bet it's gonna be tomorrow."  She was right!

Shortly after 1 pm she sent me the following photos with a text that said, "I think we have a heifer!"  And we do.  As I stated before, I had a stern talk with Clarabelle the other day.  Both she and Rosie have given us nothing but bulls the past several years.  It is time for a girl.  Clarabelle gave us one.  

We began thinking of a name for the little one.  First, due to her color, I thought 'Honey' would be a nice name, but I also call my wife that.  That would be confusing.  Tonight we began tossing around names.  I liked Buttercup, but Tricia said that had too many syllables.  We settled on "Elsie." Elsie was the spokeswoman mascot for Borden milk.  That seemed like a nice name for the little one.

It is always very important for the calf to get colostrum the first day for health and antibodies to give strength and fight off sickness.  

Elsie is a cute little thing - solid brown, with big liquid eyes.  She spends most of her time sleeping, but she was very quick to get up on her feet.

We are always very protective of our barnyard babies, nervous that the cows will accidentally step on them or the chickens will peck at them.  I always want to help with the labor and delivery, but nine times out of ten, it is best to just let the animals be.  God created them and He knows what He's doing.  

Clarabelle was very weak when she was born.  It was a challenge to make her nurse and hard to get her to even stand up.  Although strong, we are seeing some of the same things with Elsie.  We are keeping our eyes on her and will update you more about Elsie's progress on Sunday Night.

A Close Call for Clarabelle

Here is Clarabelle.  She and Rosie were just led back into the pasture after eating more grass, clover, and wild geranium in the back yard.  She is pregnant (we're 90% certain) and she should be calving in mid-April.  She looks fat and happy.  Well, fat at least.  I'm not sure cows ever look happy.  

This morning things were a bit different.  Tricia walked out to the barn this morning to take care of the morning chores and found Clarabelle in distress!  Rosie and Clarabelle have gotten in a habit of sleeping right next to the barn, under the overhang that protects them from rain.  It is dry and built up high. The hens will dig holes in this dry spot bordering the barn and "dust" themselves to take baths.  You can probably see the holes where the chickens have created a slope that goes downward, directly to the barn.

Clarabelle slept last night right beneath the window.  (We've moved the wagon so she can't sleep there again.)  Anyway, when Tricia walked out, Clarabelle was out of breath.  No telling how long she had been like that, but she was struggling to get up.  She was situated in such a way on the sloping ground that she couldn't lift her head, could not get herself up.  She had kicked around on the ground in her struggle and had even pooped all over the side of the barn and bent the tin walls of the barn in her struggling.

She was very, very weak when Tricia found her.  Tricia thought she may lose her, but after much work pushing and pulling, Tricia was able to get her up.  Clarabelle was flustered and out of breath, but she's gonna be okay.  We hope her calf will be fine, too.  So this afternoon, while Rosie and Clarabelle were eating grass in the yard, we positioned an old wagon that doubles as a hay bale feeder over the hen dust baths.  We don't want any repeat performances.  You can see the poop on the walls from the commotion.

Who's to say what would have happened had Tricia not gone out when she did to do chores?  We could have possibly lost both Clarabelle and her baby and chickens would have been the perpetrator.  Oh well, All's well that ends well.

Talking With An Ol' Girl

Yesterday when the cows were eating in the yard, we noticed something.  Maybe you can too?  Rosie is in the background and Clarabelle is in the foreground.

It is early, yet, but we think we can see Clarabelle's bag just barely starting to "bloom."  Others say that cows "start bagging up."  It just means that their udder begins to swell, indicating that they'll be calving.  We aren't sure, but when a cow is dry, you can definitely tell.  Her bag is just beginning to get a little bit bigger.  

Now, we haven't had the veterinarian come out and palpate to tell us definitively, so this could be a false alarm.  But it excites us.  With both of the cows dried off, it has been a welcome break to not milk cows twice a day, every day, but we do miss the fresh milk.  A spring calf would be nice.  Getting to share some of the milk is nicer!  Clarabelle's bag is enlarging, but I see nothing from Rosie.  We're hoping that will be a little later.

So while both cows were together, I pulled them together for a little conference.  "Listen," I told them, "You've given us nothing but bull calves the past several pregnancies.  It is time for some heifers.  We want some girls!"  Rosie and Clarabelle looked at me with dull confusion.  They didn't understand a word I said.  I'm not really going to complain about bull calves, because our freezer is full of meat, but we are looking forward to a heifer!  Hopefully, we'll find out in a month or so.

And Then There Were Two...

Now that Aussie and Clarabull are gone, that leaves only two cows left on our homestead farm - Rosie and Clarabelle.  For the past couple of years we've have five Jersey cows on our little pasture.  To be honest, that was a strain - a strain on us and a strain on the land.  By employing rotational grazing you can increase the number of head of livestock on a pasture, but we have learned that five animals is too much, especially when that pasture is also shared by a flock of goats and chickens.

Feeding time now is less of a 'rodeo,' trying to separate animals all trying to eat at once.  It is just the two old faithful milk cows, still bossy, but overall gentle and easy-going.

Both Rosie and Clarabelle should be bred.  We haven't had them palpated yet, but we're pretty sure that they'll both be dropping calves next year.  With fewer animals on the pasture, the carrying capacity will greatly improve, leaving more green grass for all.  Additionally, the animals won't eat the grass down as far to the ground.  This will reduce the parasite load and eliminate or greatly reduce the need for worming.  The pasture will be healthier and, as a result, the cows will be overall better conditioned and healthier.

Since November when we started feeding hay, the five cows and four goats were consuming a round bale of hay anywhere between 4 - 6 days.  Now, the bales of hay will last longer!  We buy a minimal amount of feed (just sweet feed - we buy no dairy ration when the cows are dry), but our feed bill will go down.  Overall, things will be more manageable, and for that, we are happy.

Pasture management is key.  We may like to think that we are raising animals, but what we really are, when you think about it, is grass farmers.  For the health of the pasture is what the health of the cattle is dependent upon.  This upcoming year, with fewer cows on the pasture, I want to aim to improve the health of the soil of the pasture so that we can grow better grass and sustain our animals.  I have got to figure a way to lime the soil.  

That'll be on the list for 2021.  I wonder how many other people have "Lime the pasture soil" as a New Year's Resolution?  Crazy, I know.

An Update on Clarabull (Clarabelle's bull calf)

Three bulls on the pasture now.  Astro, and then Rosie's little bull and finally Clarabull, Clarabelle's little bull.  Clarabull likes running in the pasture, kicking up his heels and chasing the chickens.  We enjoy watching him from the backyard while he puts on a show for us.  He started out as a little weak fellow, but now he is strong and healthy.

Even though we rarely keep bulls on our pasture for longer than a year and a half, we don't want horns on them.  Horns can be dangerous.  They can gore other animals and can gore you!  We wait until about 7-14 days after the calves have been born and then de-horn them.  It was time to do this for Clarabelle's little bull.  Although we won't go through all the steps, by clicking on this link: DEHORNING CLARABELLE, you can see step by step how we dehorned Clarabelle.

Clarabull was not too happy about the procedure.  Here he is with his duct tape protective covering.  This keeps the de-horning paste from getting in his eyes or on other animals.

While it may look silly, it serves it's purpose.  Dr. Naylor's De-horning paste is a caustic paste.  At night, we trim the hair down to where we can see the horn bud, we apply a nickel-sized amount of De-horning paste over the horn bud and the put a ring of petroleum jelly around the de-horning paste to contain it.

The duct-tape protective cap will stay on until the morning.  In the morning, we take it off, wash off the area around his horns and hopefully, the horn buds will not grow.  In a month or two, we will be able to tell if the procedure was successful.

Clarabelle Calved!

Clarabelle was due last week.  We were watching her closely.  We were hoping for a little heifer as we've had five little bulls in a row.  Time for a heifer!  Tricia happened to be home on Saturday afternoon when things started happening.  Clarabelle was way out in the front when a hoof poked out.  It seemed to be pointed the right way.

Then the hoof disappeared.  Clarabelle started walking all the way to the barn.  Tricia figured she wanted some privacy.  Once in the barn, things started progressing again.  Two legs, a nose, a pink tongue.  Tricia noticed that the calf was breathing.

Contractions continued and Clarabelle soon had the calf's shoulders out.

And in no time at all, the baby, in all its slimy glory, was out on the barn floor.

Clarabelle began cleaning the calf up with a complete 'lick-down.'

Here is a "post-lick" baby portrait.  Cute.  But I regret to inform you that IT IS ANOTHER LITTLE BULL!!!  Six bulls in a row.  Unbelievable.

Clarabelle made a big mess in the barn with all the after-birth.  After a few hours she had him mostly cleaned up, but when he would move around, he would get all dirty again.

Then Clarabelle began the task that is instinctive.  She began to eat the placenta.

Clarabelle's little bull is weak.  After four and a half hours, he still hadn't stood up and hadn't drank any colostrum.  We worked with him for a while, but he was just too awkward and weak to stand.  We figured we would get some colostrum in him one way or another, so I milked out a quart of colostrum into a big baby bottle.  Tricia gave him the bottle, and he quickly drained it, so we milked more out and gave him another.

By Sunday, the little bull was able to stand up, but still wasn't drinking on his own.  We milked more into the milk bottle and gave more to him to give him more strength and vigor.  We tried to direct him to Clarabelle's udder, but when he would get close, Clarabelle would kick him away.  We put the "Kow Kan't Kick" device on Clarabelle and urged him to try to nurse, but it was a no go. 

The little bull has gotten stronger and is standing now.  He has the nursing instinct as he is walking around Clarabelle "bumping" into her to try to find milk, but hasn't been successful yet.  We're making sure he is getting colostrum in him as that is so very important.

We made some good progress today.  Hopefully we'll have some good news to report tomorrow.

An Update on the Cows

As I watch Daisy, Rosie, and Luna eating grass in the front yard on a gorgeous, albeit hot, afternoon, I realized that I hadn't given an update lately on what's going on with each of our four Jersey cows.  First, Daisy, the herd matriarch is getting up there in age for a milk cow.  She's eleven years old and for some reason hasn't been going in heat.  We want her to calve again and did some research on the Internet.  We gave her a vitamin A injection and brought her and Clarabelle down the road 5 miles to a friend's house who has a registered Jersey bull.

Two days later, the friend called and said that he observed his bull breeding Daisy and that we could go pick her up.  For some reason Clarabelle did not cycle and was not bred.  We left her for another 21 days for her to cycle again and we received word today that the friend's bull bred Clarabelle.  So if all goes well, we'll have two Jersey calves in late March or early April 2019!  Hopefully, Benjamin's truck will be out of the shop tomorrow afternoon and we'll go pick Clarabelle up and bring her home.  In a month or so, we'll have them palpated to ensure they are pregnant.

Now Rosie and Luna are still in milk.  We're milking Rosie mornings and evenings and Luna once a day in the evening.  We'll begin marking the date they go in heat so that we can bring them down to the friend's bull to be bred too.  Daisy didn't calve this year.  Rosie and Clarabelle both had little bulls, Junior and Astro.  They are growing and we'll likely put them in the freezer when they are big enough.  Luna had a stillborn bull calf and we almost lost her in the process, but she's recovered nicely.

Clarabelle's Feeling "Under the Weather"

After the livestock shows, we were ready for things to settle down to normal around our little farm.  The rains came and never stopped falling, however.  The cows were all mired in knee-deep mud and were just miserable.  Then, all of a sudden, Clarabelle got sick.  She just began looking very lethargic and week.

Tricia called me at work one day to tell me that Clarabelle had fallen down in the milking stall and Tricia was unable to get her to stand back up.  Tricia got a saw and screwdriver and took the stall apart and was finally able to get her back on her feet. 

Sickly & Weak

Then she stopped eating her dairy ration.  She lost her appetite and the only thing we were able to get her to eat was alfalfa mulch and hay.  Clarabelle began rapidly losing weight.  You could count her bones.  Dairy animals are bony anyway, but this was alarming.  We were worried about ol' girl.

On Friday, Russ was off work, so he and Tricia loaded Clarabelle into the trailer and brought her to our veterinarian.  He's located about a mile away, so it is very convenient.  Our veterinarian put on rubber gloves and got a fecal sample.  Then he put it in a solution and waited for "things" to rise to the top.  He then looked at it under a microscope.  He diagnosed her with a high load of parasites.  Worms.

Worms are easily treated, but there are some medicines that cannot be administered to dairy animals or there is a long period during which you cannot drink the milk.  Due to Clarabelle's condition, he advised us to "dry her off" (stop milking her) and wean her calf, Astro.  During her sickness, her milk production had dropped to almost nothing anyway.  The vet gave us meds to give her that hopefully will help.

35 cc's by mouth should do the trick.  We administered it by using a syringe without the needle.  We held her head, stuck the syringe in the side of her mouth, and slowly pushed it down her throat, ensuring that none leaked out of the side of her mouth.

All we could do at this point was wait.  Tick, Tock...  I put up the temporary electric fence in the yard and she picked around at the winter grass.  Amazingly, she wouldn't touch the white dutch clover.  Pretty soon, she was ready to go back with the other cows.  Things weren't looking good.

Yesterday, I began to wonder if perhaps she had a virus and was running a fever.  I got the rectal thermometer we keep in the barn and lubricated it with Vaseline and then took her temperature.  It registered 100.5 at its highest.  A cow's normal rectal temperature is 101.5.  So no fever.  Perhaps we just need to be patient and let the meds work.

At last night's feeding, Clarabelle began eating.  Not a huge amount and not fast, but it was progress.  We fed her as much as she'd eat.  This morning, she didn't eat as voraciously, but she still ate.  This afternoon, she ate a little better.

Get Well, Clarabelle!

I think she's turned the corner.  Hopefully, she'll continue to get better and make a full recovery.  She has a lot of weight to gain back, but we'll keep working with her.  Get Well, Clarabelle!

Showing Clarabelle

On Saturday morning we woke up early and got the morning chores done and then drove to Lake Charles for the Southwest District Livestock Show.  Benjamin would be showing Clarabelle and the show started promptly at 8 am.  We had to get to the barn earlier to feed, hay and water her and to re-groom her. Cows have a propensity to lie in their own poop overnight.  We checked the judging sheets to learn that Jerseys would be showing last. 

Clarabelle's udder was full of milk and began to drip, but we can't put Astro, her little bull calf, on her until the show was over.  Her bag was tight and she moo'd a little bit for Astro as Benjamin walked Clarabelle to the arena.  Tricia spoke calmly to Clarabelle to relax her.  It is important, especially in Showmanship, that the animals are well-behaved.

Benjamin chatted with his Dairy Showing buddies to pass the time while the Holsteins, Ayrshires, Brown Swiss, Guernseys, and AOB and Commercial showed.  Running around having a good time during the shows and missing school are a couple things I fondly remember about the shows when I was younger.

Finally, it was time to get in the ring.  The judge surveyed the animals and paced back and forth in the Jersey Division...

He did the same thing in the Showmanship Competition, except this time he judged the exhibitor.  The judge is always helpful and gets on the microphone and gives praise and constructive criticism to make everyone better.

In the end, Benjamin won Reserve Champion Louisiana Bred Jersey and second place in his Showmanship age division.  We had him pose with Clarabelle and his rosettes for a picture. 

The shows are fun, but they tend to be long days.  We weren't released until almost 8 pm that night.  Clarabelle and Astro took advantage of the "down time" and rested.

Astro was doing what I wanted to do.  Z-Z-Z-Z-Z.....

When released, we loaded the animals up and got them home around 9:15 pm, unloaded them, and unpacked all the showing supplies.  This weekend we travel to Gonzales, Louisiana for the State Livestock Show.