The Empty Nest Syndrome

Many of you will remember that back in April, we had Blackberry, the black Angus heifer, join our barnyard family.  She was only one day old and had been orphaned by her mother and would have died had we not intervened.  My parents brought her from the cattle herd in Oberlin to our house and after two weeks, Daisy, our Jersey milk cow, adopted her.  Here is a baby picture of Blackberry:

Blackberry's first baby picture with her baby bottle

Now fast forward about 6 months and Blackberry has been weaned from Daisy and is eating grass and is all grown up.  It has come time for Blackberry to join her family back at the farm in Oberlin.  Our 3 acre pasture is simply too small for Daisy, Rosie, Stryker, Maggie and Blackberry to all have enough grass.  Blackberry was last to arrive, so pulls the short straw as far as seniority is concerned, so Russ and Tricia went and got her in the pasture.  She's really tame and friendly.  We're going to miss her.


Russ leading Blackberry to the cattle trailer

Here is a side angle of Blackberry, the big galoot!  She's fat and healthy.


 

Blackberry looking back to tell her adoptive mom Daisy goodbye

I pulled her and Russ pushed her and we got her up and loaded in the trailer.


Where am I going?

We needed to remove her weaning plate so Russ held her while I got some vise grips, loosened the wing nut, and opened the nose clip and removed it from her nose.


"I'd appreciate it if you'd remove this contraption from my nose, please."

Here is Blackberry minus the nose plate weaner:  

"Ahhhhh.  That feels much better."

Here we are leaving in Russ' pickup truck with the cattle trailer en route to Oberlin - about a 30 minute drive from our house.  It's actually a homecoming for Blackberry.  She first traveled to our home in the back of a truck.  She's way too big for that now.


Blackberry's second road trip

I pulled into the cattle pasture at the farm in Oberlin opened the gate, got her out and removed her halter.  I intentionally let her out by the water trough so that she'd know where the water is in her new home.  She looked at it, but I don't know if she'll remember it or not. She heard the cows in the herd moo-ing in the distance and started walking toward them.


What's that I hear?  Are you my mother?

 And off she goes, literally walking in to the sunset... 


Sniff, Sniff.  Does anyone have a tissue?

I ran out to tell her goodbye one last time.  Very sad.  We've enjoyed having her join our family for the last six months.  We've become attached to her. 


Farewell Blackberry.

I took a picture below of a goldfish in the water trough.  Dad released some in there as they help eat the algae and mosquito larvae.  I think the cattle herons ate the others, but this goldfish has survived and thrived.  He's about big enough to eat!  Blackened goldfish, anyone?


Goldfish in the water trough

With the skies darkened, I turned back to the cattle trailer.  The opened door with Blackberry's halter on it and the empty trailer made me sad.  Blackberry, though, will undoubtedly join the rest of the herd and mother many calves and lead a long happy life.  Dad will be checking on her to see if she joined in with the herd and we'll be by to visit her as well.  So long, Blackberry.


Empty trailer...  Empty nest.