New Mama Cow Suddenly Frantic | How I Deal

Everything went well until we started bringing Flossie in, who's got the brand new calf. Tried to bring her through up to the lane, she just busted it, didn't she? Yesterday, Flossie didn't cooperate. You gotta stop her quick! Where is she going? Oh no, come on, before she gets too far! Hey, that's enough! Can we stop before we get cheese all over the entire kitchen? He left his cheese. All that commotion. And he left his snack behind. Really? Really? That's my new saying. I catch myself saying that a lot. Really? You haven't put on your shoes. See, there they are right there. Put them on. You see, ever since summer, fall the cows gone, we're not as physically busy on the farm. I've been getting a little soft, like, uh, 15 pounds too soft. Did you guys get the little animals? Is that for Grandma's right there? And then let's soak while I'm milking, okay? Take good care of them. Even being on the GAPS diet, like no grain, no refined sugar, It's still a struggle. I link it all the way back to when I started having the symptoms of chronic Lyme disease. Turn this around for them. Did you feed them? How's their water? Good. Grandma's posse jamming. So with Lyme disease, I struggled with it because it got me physically. It hurt me physically in my feet and my legs, now my lower back. It caused inflammation, so therefore the weight gain and depression. Depression, brain fog. But there was one thing that took from me that bothered me more than anything else. Okay, y'all ready?

Well, this time—

all right, let's go get the cows in. We got Moose in the stall last night. We didn't put him with the sheep because the sheep are way up there, cows are right here, for the sake of ease. That's worked out great, having the cows down here for this new calf. I think we'll try to time it where calves are born down in here. All right, let's get, uh, we gotta get Moose out and let's go ahead and tie him up where he goes. We want to tie him real close because we don't want him getting in Stud Muffin's way. Well, that was easy. All right, she went in the stanchion. She wasn't supposed to. Stay in there, Gideon. Stay in there. Don't bring Stud yet. All right, come on, get out. They're usually afraid of the umbrella. Oh wait, her stall open. Yeah, get out of there. Can you come hold this open? Get in.

Come on.

There you go. Good girl. Not yet, not yet. We're gonna do it later.

Come on, come on, come on, come on.

My door— I don't know why I didn't prop my door open before I got her in here, and so she just went to the stanchion.

Come on, come on.

Good girl. We'll get you in a minute. Lock that in place. That door's open. That's for Stud. It's been going so smooth getting the other cows in here first. See if just walking at him with an umbrella works. Why is he looking at me?

Come on, come on, come on.

Okay, there we go. All right, we got you a treat in there, buddy. It'll be more eager to come next time. Did you put the alfalfa in there?

Yeah.

Well, he hadn't found it yet.

Yeah, but Poppy, do you want me to walk it on the light?

All right, Flossie, all you gotta do is step in there. Everything went well until we started bringing Flossie in. Just got the brand new calf. First she went under that one, then she went under that one, and I said, all right, this calf's still little, let's go back, let's go back. We gotta catch the calf. We won't always be able to catch the calf.

There we go.

Whoa. Okay. Once we catch the calf, we can get this incredibly good mama to go anywhere we want. We tied the calf up behind there so she'll get more lined up with the stanchion. Now we have to just trick her into getting in here. Come on, you know you want it. Here, there you go. Here, I'll give you a sample.

Come on.

I want to go so bad and get a cat.

She ain't going for it.

Come on, Flossie.

Come on, come on.

Hey, Stag, can you promise not to bother the camera right here? Okay, looks like he's found his alpha. Let her have a bite.

All right, all right. There you go.

Now come on.

I want to get her calf up and lead her.

Whoa, that's a little nervous with you there. Can you come back?

Hi, Papa!

Let me get some— man, she's really— boy, that first day made us look really good, and now she just won't go in there.

Here she comes. Here she comes. There she goes.

I got your cat. You've been tapping me. And then she peed. Bucket's right here. See the pee on that? I don't know, that's, that's why we had the lid. To stop that kind of stuff from happening, and it worked. But I'm just afraid some got on the edge. I don't want to, but I'm gonna go clean this up. It's gonna be one of those days. Still not ballooning yet, so full-on milk hadn't come in yet. Still colostrum. But shoot, we got a half a gallon yesterday. Are you putting the calf wet? Here, dry them off. Is it—

is this wet?

Papa doesn't really work.

He's adorable. Aren't you surrounded by cuties? That's the morning's harvest.

Are we already done?

Well, with, with Flossie. I'm gonna go put it up and I'll come back, okay? I mean, what other farm enterprise Can you harvest— I don't know how much a gallon weighs, let's say 8 pounds. Uh, Phyllis gives me a gallon and a half, 2 gallons, so 12, 16 pounds of food a day for like 9, 10 months a year. Hands down, cows win. All right, Mr. Brown, you ready to get some people out of here? Mr. Brown, where are you? He's out in the field. Okay, sticking your tongue out, are you really? Are you really sticking your tongue out? All right, come on, I won't, I won't pester you anymore today. How are we gonna get— all right, we gotta get this loose so that we can get you out. There we go.

There we go, there we go. Good boy. Go on.

Look how careful he is with these guys. Moose, you're going to need to get out of the way, honey. There you go. See how this goes, you never know.

Oh, let's go.

Really? Really? She doo-doo. It's not the milking, guys. It's not the squeezing of the teats. It's everything else. I don't get my ground wet. Okay, okay. Where am I bent? You're doing good. Oh, don't pour it that way. Here, we're always pointing it out. Bring it over here. Oh, should we say it? Really? Maybe we have enough. All right, that's exactly what I didn't want to do because now I'm gonna be standing in the mud and it doesn't dry out quick in here. Let's get the shovel and scoop that up, please. We just want to get the surface up, okay? If we dig a hole, I'm going to be deeper down in the ground. All right, get me some of those shavings, please. All right, you ready, Miss Thing?

Yeah, you ready?

An hour later, guys. That took an hour. Normally it takes half an hour. This may be the most productive, best harvesting element possible on a farm. Like, no trees don't give you fruit for 10 months, is it? Maybe it does, maybe like a tropical or something, I don't know, but it sure is stepping up your game. It's a whole nother ball game. It's a whole nother level of work. Don't— I appreciate you. Okay, we also get our poop wheelbarrow. Yeah, thank you. And then put shavings down there too. You need some alfalfa. Back to my story about lime. The biggest frustration, most difficult thing on my spirit was it took away my running. You see, that was my time alone in the woods. I just really enjoyed it, you know, getting in nature. I got a lot of thinking done, a lot of fresh ideas, and it was something I had been doing for like 15+ years. Basically just sucked up all the remaining water into this cloth. Thank you guys for the shavings right there. I used to be so upset about it that I couldn't— I mean, I couldn't run because I was in too much physical pain on my feet and legs. I used— I can remember I would kind of sneak off, get in my bed, dark, and just cry, just weep. And I was mostly mourning the loss of my running. Jonah, bring me that bucket on the trash can, please. Why do we need more shavings?

He thinks we need more.

Oh, we're good, Gideon. First round of milking Phyllis. Look at that, gallon and a half. You sometimes give as much as a gallon after the second milking. Let's get Moose over here and get some more down. Let him get the milk, the hind milk coming down. Y'all can't see me now, it's terribly backlit. So that was, I want to say, a year back. Probably correct me, it's probably like 2 years. I really struggled with that and got really depressed. And just with a grind, just finally, somehow, eventually got through it.

I didn't know you were so upset about your having to not be able to run.

You didn't know that? Oh, I was so upset. I mean, there, there were thoughts that I was just gonna die. Like, I, and I look back on it now, it was just depression. We're waiting for him to get some. See how he's going back and forth? Watch, he'll butt his head, he'll, he'll bump it. He hasn't got it to come down yet. She'll let it— that maybe, maybe he did, maybe he did. Let's pull it and pull him off of that one. He's got it, he's got it. All right, you got it. Give her another scoop. So this was 4 or 5 years ago, and where's my soap rag? That's no good.

I think—

is it soapy? No, that's my drying rack. Oh, why didn't I leave that in there? Are you kidding me? I must have thrown it over there. We're gonna have to go up and get a soap rag. I just have to get a soap rag.

I haven't—

just multiples of problems. Wouldn't be farming without problems. There we go. So we finally figured out— no, I think after you— it's been years now, years, if not like 5 years. I think I finally figured out what was wrong with me in losing my running. I'm gonna tell you and my family at breakfast, so hang tight. It's good enough, right? Oh my, check it! Look at that, guys.

Mucho leche, mucho leche, and mucho niños love.

I've tried running a number of times as I've started to feel better, but still it's just not, just not as fun because it just hurts. And we're a very busy farm. Okay, I'm fixing it, I'm fixing it. Thank you. It's so full, it's— you can't even tilt it in the least bit or it overflows. Busier farm than ever, and I got a family now and we like to be together, and running is kind of a solo sport. All right, did you find Mom's brush? All right, look how full, Becky. I was gonna say, oh, give me another half a gallon. It's a good problem to have. So much abundance, I can barely manage it. So I finally figured it out, I think. Let's do something productive on the farm that's more aerobic, like more continual moving, and do it together as a family. It's raining today, so I don't think that's very conducive for hauling wood. Do you think we could wrap it away style, like not stop moving, clean up in here and it'd be a workout?

Maybe. I don't know. I'm looking for some bins to put candles and—

you look very excited to be organizing.

I am. Candles and I don't know if this one will work.

It's gonna be a hard— you know, this is maybe not gonna be a— you're gonna have to stand and go through stuff. I don't know if we can count this as a workout, honey. Uh-oh. Hey Jonah, get me another jar please, quick. I don't think we can justify the loft as an aerobic workout, so let's do an indoor full-body workout. You ready? We have some insight now from Running with Sherman, the same guy who wrote Born to Run. There were two teenagers in the book who were crazy swimmers. Were great swimmers, competitive, swam a lot, so they were high-endurance athletes. Well, when they went to college, for whatever reason, they quit. And two, they both, both the, both the kids got depressed. If you spend half your life getting a daily super dose of dopamine, you get a dose of dopamine, that's nature's pharmacy. If you're getting a daily super dose of dopamine, what happens when you suddenly quit?

What?

You ever thought about that? Do you go through withdrawal like anyone else kicking a chemical habit? The most perilous moment is when athletes face injuries, career termination, decline in performance, or catastrophic performance. Because guess what happens? A dangerous chemical imbalance caused by a sudden drop in dopamine dopamine, especially in solo athletes.

Wow.

So much of why I was getting depressed is because chemical imbalance. I wasn't getting my dopamine. Vamonos, niños. Well, it's still raining, so instead of doing some cool project, some cool outdoor farm project like clearing forest store, clearing an access road, or setting up the Animal Garden Miracle. We're gonna go to Lowe's because between the both of us, we've searched probably 2 hours for your brush.

Oh, longer than that.

Your hairbrush.

Yeah.

And the count and the kids probably together slipped an hour. Well, we went to 2 grocery stores. Nada. The brush Mama likes, not there. Uh, we went to Lowe's to see if we couldn't find— rig up some sort of device for when we do get a brush. Do you want black or do you want silver?

Okay, have it out, but they don't have it.

Nada. We're back at 4 o'clock now. If we want to be able to eat in an hour, let me show you how to make that possible. Go to the back, one side of the backbone with some Poultry.

Excuse me?

You just sneezed on a bird.

No, I got my hand.

I got my hand. Oh man, I felt it on my hand.

Sorry. You know, tell Mama that.

I'm gonna wash it off.

Yeah, you can do that all you want. Don't tell Mommy.

Mama's gonna find out. She's gonna see it in the vlog.

I don't care if she can see it in the vlog. She's not ready.

Oh, you think she'll forgive you a day later?

Yeah.

Instead of it taking an hour and a half to cook, and you don't have to use a Dutch oven, just cut it along the backbone. There you go. Boom. We put some butter on there, some quick salt. You want to do the pepper too? You want me to do it?

I want to do it.

All right, sprinkle some salt and pepper on there, put it in the oven, 350 for an hour. All right, talk to Mom. She's gonna hunt a brush in Hendersonville tomorrow. And she found us a stainless steel chain. We are the crazy stainless. All right, the countdown's on. 59 minutes and 37 seconds. Well, timer's ticking and Mr. Brown can't find his shoes. I thought I saw— come on, help look. I thought I saw your rubber boots somewhere. Here they are. Get in. I remember seeing them when I set your winter boots by the fire because you got them in the creek this morning. We got everything done save the sheep and pigs. 25 minutes, y'all. Can we do it?

Yeah. 9 minutes.

All right, we got the sheep set up. 6 minutes. Still got the pigs. Oh my word. Well, they're one hour getting done on time.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, fix it, fix it.

Hey, I'll give $12 cash money if somebody finds Mom's brush. 1 minute. That timer will be going off. Wait, we got to be prepared. They'll come barging out if you don't have a bucket.

Come on, come on.

Why is it wet? Oh, we must have sideways rain, huh? It doesn't look like sideways rain because this would be wet. This would be wet. No, it can't be that much urine. Guys, we have to cover this. Take some mulch right there and cover it up in here where it's all wet. That's, that's a recipe for disaster, wet bedding. Uh-oh, look at that, timer's going off. How long has that been happening?

It just started.

All right, do you make the— did you happen to make the other stuff? I did. Oh good. Ooh, delish. Looking good. Just put the kids to bed. There's been a development with the hairbrush. This long-lost hairbrush. I want to talk about that in a minute. But first, you're going to be ironing? That's cool. That'd be a cool backdrop. I got an email I want to share with you guys from Debbie M. This is a lady who signed up for our 12 Days of Christmas, which is going on right now. Like, what day of Christmas is it right now, Rebecca? 25th was first. 6, 7, 8, 9. 5th day of Christmas. Have a merry 5th day of Christmas. Debbie got in there and watched the Great American Farm Tour documentary. This is what she had to say. I just spent today watching the Great American Farm Tour. Such a great story. Thank you, Debbie. I laughed and I cried and I learned. That's great, right? It was our original goal. What'd you say?

Exactly what we wanted.

That's exactly what we wanted. We really achieving something there. Original goal with these vlogs and our content is that you would laugh, that you would learn, and it was a blessing that we can also make you cry. So you're such an inspiration to me. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Thank you, Debbie, M for the very— thank you, Debbie M, for the very kind words. We appreciate you for getting in there and watching the show. Those of you guys who cannot watch, uh, The Great American Barn Tour on Amazon Prime, uh, or you don't have it right now, you can go and watch it for free. All you gotta do is give me your email, email list. That doesn't make no sense. All you gotta do is give me your email. Yeah, sign up. And we're about to get to this brush. But I just want to let you know, guys, you sign up for 12 Days of Christmas, you get on the email list. You just fogged up. I've been fogging up. And you'll soon, uh, you'll be the first to know when we open up our Do-It-Yourself Abundance New Year's registration. And it's only going to be open for like 3 days, and there's going to be limited spots. So you want to get in, sign up for this free stuff. There's going to be no obligation to buy, but, um Get in there. Get first dibs. Rebecca. Yes. We're all wanting to know, how did this come to appear after hours of searching, after 3 stops in town?

Yeah.

Looking for a brush.

Some tears were in there.

Plenty of tears.

Um.

And complaints.

I just knew. I was just like, it's somewhere. Like, it just doesn't disappear. So—

We figured it was Lily.

I thought, I— thought that it may have been Lily because— we have a— she loves my hairbrush. She knows where it's always in the bathroom. So when she can't find her hairbrush, she just comes to borrow mine.

Yeah.

And she doesn't always put it back, so I was I was like, thought it was just another case of that. But then when it didn't appear and we couldn't figure it out, and often she doesn't remember where she's left it either, so, but she really didn't know, and so I was like, this is just so strange. So I thought, I'm just gonna look one more time in the bathroom, even though I've looked a lot in the bathroom. And I looked up on the top shelf like, how would it have gotten up there? I don't know. And as I was coming down, I saw my makeup bag and I thought, I'm just gonna peek in there. And we found it.

You should sing a song of joy with that.

I'm so happy I found you!

Good.