This Vibrant Calf Took Us By Surprise

Aunt Flossie is having her baby. She's gotten something out. That's not her placenta, is it? Remember last time she had her placenta first and the baby was dead? So hope for a better go-around this time. Aunt Flossie, she's pushing. Mom and Jonah went back to the house to get some— well, we're gonna get zoomed in so you guys can get in on this. Yeah, and we're gonna put Teddy away just in case he's making her nervous.

I think she's about to push again.

She must be pushing because she's moaning. She's sitting down pushing. We got hoofs! That's a good sign, guys. We want hoofs first. We want hoofs. It's a good thing she's, she's progressing. We got a nose. Gosh, poor lady. It's the next day. Let's go see how this calf is doing. Right now it's looking pretty good. She's up and at 'em. You can't see it, I don't think. But I can see it. I think he or she might even be nursing. Let's go figure out what it is. And uh, depending—

You know what we should name it? We should name it P or C.

Oh, you know, Big Daddy had a good idea. We should name it Autumn. Because it was born on the first day of fall.

If it's a boy, we can name him Walnut.

Really, Gideon? It's 50. No, not 30.

Henry's first fall.

You dressed up like an Eskimo for 50 degrees.

Well, I, I have a coat on, but I have— but I had this.

Okay, day what, 2, 3? Uh, maybe give y'all one more day. Hey, John, I need the heatproof gloves.

What for?

Grabbing a rabbit. We're gonna breed Lily's rabbits. I don't want to get bit. Jenna, thank you. How you doing? You ready to get something to eat? How you doing, beefcake? You ready? You're beautiful. Oh my, well, you get a feast today, beef. Oh, he just engulfs it. He just— oh, you're just pigging out. This is where they get that saying, pigging out, making a huge mess, just digging right in. Pound cake going at it too, man. Look, hey, we got the beautiful one out! She's pulling a Kim this morning. Kim, Mrs. Kim, that's your childhood friend's mom who always had a cup of coffee. It must have been before like mobile mugs and stuff were popular, but she didn't like them.

I'm pretty sure they didn't have those mugs.

That would have been the '80s for you. He's doing it, he's making the noise. These guys have been holding out long enough. It's time to breed the rabbits. Which one's the male?

So this one's— this one's the boy.

That one's the boy? That one's— you call him Peter? Lily's hauling manure. Mom's gotta go find out. We forgot. Do you put the male in with the female, which I think is the case, or the female in with the male? Look at that, it's still growing. So this— this sacrifice garden wasn't a complete utter disaster. We're getting something out of it. We've had this wood chips down and we had cows on it one season, and we're gonna have them on it this winter. So next year we ain't gonna have this problem, I guarantee you. This garden is gonna jam. She looked this up in our member area. What?

Try to get free follow-up.

Rebecca, how, how did you find that so quick on Abundance Plus?

I just went to the Vlog.

The vlog on Abundance Plus. Oh, okay. Some people made comments on that rabbit vlog. I didn't know if she was in the community group or text even. You know, uh, premium members can text me, but yesterday I texted a premium member and was like, what age? Because I know they are good at rabbits. I said, what age are we supposed to put them together? So it kind of works both ways, doesn't it? I help them, they help me.

Nice. It's a two-way relationship.

Yeah, that's how it's supposed to be. Why does the doe go to the buck? It seems like it would be so different.

Those are very territorial and can hurt the buck.

Oh, so they don't want anybody coming into their territory, so we gotta go to his territory.

All right, so always watch when you put them together and remove the doe if she's aggressive towards him. I breed at 20 weeks and bred back around 3 to 4 weeks. You can't really see fat on a rabbit. They carry it.

People say the rabbit will— they got their rabbit scars. I don't want any rabbit scars. These aren't terribly tame. I'm gonna try this. I don't know if this is— this is probably too bulky. That's the doe— the buck. So we gotta grab her.

I just gave her some grass.

I don't think I can grab her with that because if we drop her and she gets out, it's over. Like, you can't catch her.

Don't drop her, she'll get hurt.

Is this one nice?

This one is not the tamest. It's the most—

this is a doe.

Okay, here's some more information, Justin.

I've never caught a rabbit in my life.

Remember, you're supposed to grab them behind the—

like, yeah, on the fly. Yeah, I remember that.

Also, most breeders look for 3 fall-offs before they take the buck out. It takes usually 5 to 10 minutes max, and you will definitely know when he gets it right on his end. With a buck, you sometimes need to help him figure it out. And sometimes you need to hold a doe still the first time so she gets to know the drill as well. Oh look, there we go.

All right, here we go.

Oh dear.

Oh, be careful, don't put your hand under.

Oh shoot, she's not in heat.

Well, no, I think that she'll ovulate when they breed is what—

cuz that's not how it worked with Daniel when he he did it. They went at it right away.

Well, this is a virgin buck. He's still not knowing what to do.

Really?

That's what the person was saying.

Yeah, but they're not always in heat either though.

No, it's like 17 out of the 21 days.

He has never done this.

So the one comment said you might need to help him.

I'm not helping him. No, I don't want to help. All right, we put her back. I don't know if it's because we're rookies or he's a rookie Or she's not in heat, but we're gonna try this lady. Okay, the camera slid down the tripod and you didn't get to see that, but boy, that doe kicked. It took all I had, two hands. Keep it. My two arthritic hands to keep her from falling on down. Well, I don't know, and they have no interest. No, it's better. That was better. That's a lot better. Next problem: getting Flossie into the stanchion. That's always tough when she has a brand new baby. The first step, get the bull, Phyllis, and all the sheep up. That calf is the most vibrant calf I've ever seen. It was so alive. Look at that. I think the calf's so vibrant we can herd mom and the calf over. Let's get some alfalfa ready for Phyllis Flossie. In the past, Flossie hasn't even gone after that. I've had to pick up her calf and carry it, half scared to death that Flossie's gonna pound me into the ground. She never does, but that's a good idea. Now you keep herding the calf to the bait, to mom. There you go. Keep calf close so mom doesn't freak out and turn around. This is good. We got to get back into the routine. Bossy, you know the routine. If it's a female, we milk it half out. If it's a male, what happens? Male, we milk it all out. Well, she's in this vibe right now. Yeah, yep, you got you a female. Well, there's no half out. It's pretty much out. That's to prevent milk fever. I don't know why, but you want to milk it out halfway if it's a female calf and all the way if it's a milk— a bull calf. But that calf's pretty much ate it all, so there's not much we can do. She looks light brown compared to Flossie. Look at them, they're so curious. I pulled tail hairs a little earlier. That's to see— we'll send those off and we'll see if she's what you call A2A2 genetic, which means her milk will be easier to digest. There's only like a— is it 50% chance? Because Stud Muffin is A1A2 and Flossie is A2A2, so I think that's going to be a 50% chance that she would be A2A2. Get Flossy over. Phyllis, come through. That calf is just so vibrant. I mean, running up that bank, just keeping right up with her. Now if that calf's A2-A2, I don't know, that's going to be awful tempting. That's an American Milking Devon-Jersey cross. I mean, uh, You know, Flossie doesn't look Jersey. She's, she's all Jersey except for 1/8, and that's Friesian. So let's just pretty much call her a Jersey. Here we go again, 80-something. This pile of books is dwindling. She loves this. This is her kind of job too. You've been all about it. Why is it? I don't know. When I think about it, nobody's She just gets up, just prints it out, just comes over here. There's no having to remind you or nothing. You just love it.

It's something I'm— I don't know.

The way she rubbed that sticker on there, she just enjoys that. Look, she knows too. She knows what I'm talking about. Watch. Yeah, I'm gonna overdo it. He's over there. You call him out.

Uh, hold on.

It's like you're giving them a pat on the back.

Leslie.

Leslie. What's the last initial?

Leslie B. Cody S. Cody with an I.

Cody with an I gets a pat on the back from the beautiful one. Arun helps too, man. You get the hauler love when you get the micro polyface micro book. Give me a couple names. I've got Autumn L. Autumn L. Okay, Autumn L. You know, we're gonna name our cow Autumn. It's a female.

Is it Doug P?

Autumn L, Doug P. You keep calling them out while I pull up this quote. Uh, Brooks R. I got a quote for you guys. Brooks: An emergency fund of cash in a bank won't put food on the table. He's talking about in an event of a crisis. A larder and some backyard chickens will. That's the kind of things homesteaders think about, investing in resiliency wins hands down. We want to invest in resiliency. So do you guys win? And I know this is, you know, $35 book, that's a stretch for a lot of you. If you use offer code Joe, you get 10% off right now. I know it's tight for some of you because some of you forget to do that and then you email us like, can— is it too late, can we get it? And we, we always work it out. But so this is an investment. For many of you guys, but you're investing in resiliency, and that puts food on the table.