Babies....

Back at the ranch it is calving season.

It is also -37 F. That's right, that's negative 37. Fahrenheit.

Little wet afterbirth-y calves sometimes don't do that well in extremely cold conditions - as you can imagine. Amazingly, many do just fine. But the ones that need it are getting some pretty great treatment about now.

I was talking to my sister (newly home from Antarctica. Hi!) who relayed the following story.

The cold calves are being hauled to my Mom's house and put in the mudroom (thank God for mudrooms). The floors have radiant heat which slowly warms the calf without shocking it. My brother's kids, Rhiannon (6) and Lars (3), are in charge of rubbing the baby calf down with towels. This stimulates and warms the baby.

Plus, it's just a fun thing to do.

The kids have decided that this gives them naming rights, and they fight over this right amongst themselves.

A few days ago two calves came in while Lars was there alone. This gave him clear and inarguable rights to naming.

And, well..... he is at that stage when learning new words - sometimes kind of "forbidden" words - is really taking hold.

He named them Fart and Penis.








This is Lars, calf's name unknown.