We LOST our baby Calf | No Where to be Found

Let me show you what we need to do this morning. I'm so excited. He got me up this morning. Boom! The wrestling ring for the luchadors. It's ready. Ben did a great job. Worked hard yesterday from Hollyhumps. Did an amazing job on this. Casters on all 4 sides. 16 by 16. Custom weld. Welded together. Door. Big broad door. We're gonna put them in at 3 inches off the ground. Let's put them in that. Let's put them in that. Let's get our chores done. Let's do this.

Good morning!

Such a beautiful morning. And I am headed to do the use. I am actually going to go test drive a vehicle today. Our van is on its last leg. Because you know we've had lots of problems with it. Part of the reason that we've just kept our van is because one, it was working fine until recently, and two, we didn't really know what we wanted. We've decided what we wanted, and we're gonna go for a Suburban because we can pull, and we can pull the horse trailer with it. I feel like it's a hard decision because I want to keep this vehicle Although I'm giving myself permission in case like we hate it and the Suburban doesn't work for us, that we can sell it and get what does work for us. I think some of it is me putting pressure on myself like, oh, you have to get this perfect, you have to get this right.

No, I don't.

Like, we can sell a vehicle. So I think that that's some of it too. But, um, so I'm gonna do a test drive one today. Because I found one locally that I like. So we're gonna go from there.

So look at this. Hay mucho comer por los chanchos. There's a lot of food here for the pigs. Well, that's for the chickens. Well, they're pigs with feathers. What do you have here, Jonah?

It's for carrying the mini chickshaw.

Okay, tell me about it.

50 inches long.

Yeah.

And what do we do?

We, um, put it under it, put this on the belly, put a ratchet strap, a ratchet, and go over, tighten it, and then I'll hold it.

How do we pull the chickshaw without the legs rubbing?

Good question.

Gosh, these guineas, we need to build a turkey shower for them, Jonah. Yeah, and get the water out without them jumping out. The chickens are the ones that get this worn out so fast. Jonah's gonna go in there and get them. Okay, good boy. Got two chickens. Okay, so hang on to that one. Buenos días, luchador. You ready to be moved? You ready to get moved? You're going to grass, guys. They're graduating. I guess they had to go to jail, the chicken tractor, because they were getting out and getting mom's tomatoes. But now Mom's tomatoes are down, aren't they? Okay. Hey, buenos días, chanterelles! I give them something to do, push those around. Whoa, I probably shouldn't have done that.

Are you really gonna feed them all this?

Yeah.

Hey, we gotta fatten them up. They're 3 weeks less— 2 weeks for butchering day.

Start second.

They're gonna make their rounds, eat the meat guaranteed first. Yep, he's going after the beef. Go after them pumpkin seeds too. He's going after his brother, natural dewormer. All right, I'll be back for you two guys later. It's gonna be one of the best, best days of your life on this farm. Well, the only thing that's going to top it is when we get to release them into the ladies.

Hi guys, are you ready for our training? I think they're unimpressed, but so I'm just gonna sit in here and kind of like let them get used to me. And then maybe the catching won't be so traumatic. I don't know, we'll see. They're still skittish, but I think we've made a lot of progress, and I think it's a lot better than it was. So, and I'm not— I'm gonna take my friend's advice and not get discouraged. Farming is hard work, and it's not like this easy thing that just happens overnight. Like, you have to work at everything on the farm. Sure, there are some quick wins, but— you've got to push through and you've got to just say, I'm gonna work. I'm gonna keep working at this and I'm not gonna get discouraged. I'm not gonna give up and— that's what these next couple weeks are gonna be because it's— It's gonna take a while, but I know in the long run this is the right thing to do, and I know in the long run this is gonna be the best thing for these animals, especially since these are our breeders. So even though it's hard, it's the best thing. So I'm gonna keep doing it, keep persevering. Next on my to-do list is bringing out the shade cloth, and we're gonna look at how it could go on our new wrestling ring for the luchadors.

Look what I did!

Oh, you worked on your contraption a little bit.

Okay, it goes under what? Under the shawl.

This part?

This part.

Which part?

From here to there. Okay, it was under. Oh, ratchet strap goes over, tightens, it's on the ground, this part lifts. Hmm, and it drags without the things on the bottom.

Close. That's not a terrible idea to like have an end that lifts up.

It's like to hold it like—

come on, we can try it. Okay, if you're willing to carry that out there, I'll show you what I'm talking about. But we would probably have to support— look, we'd probably have to brace this and everything, but I'll just show you. We're trying to think of a contraption to move the Chickshaw Mini-Me with the mower when it's way over there, way up there on the mountain. And we need to move it down here. It's a pretty big move. You can do it by hand, but that'd be kind of cool if you had the option to do it with the mower.

I'm gonna lift these both in. It's gonna go over, it's gonna ratchet strap tight, and then it'll lift and it should move.

Okay, let me see what I got at Hold the camera and watch.

Yeah, now that hitch is—

that'll work.

And it pulls.

Now what I was saying is, if this were longer, I'm afraid the motor is going to sit too— it's going to sit too low. See, we got to sit at that high, and then you're going to need a brace right here maybe. But you're on it, dude. I bet we might can do this as it is and then improve it. You could even put that in the back of the trailer.

I know, I know.

But then when we go downhill, it's going to want to slide forward. Good job! Look at this control. Look at this. Your building's coming in very handy, right? Okay, let's get the nets up. We had a real hitch there. Yeah, that would work.

Okay, okay, we'll buy another hitch.

See, I'm thinking that would just pull out and we'll lose the chickens, so we can't afford that. So let's do this.

Will that actually let it still turn?

Yeah. The problem is, hope this doesn't come undone. All right, we got it tied. Good morning to you too. Good morning, Josiah. You think it's gonna work?

Maybe.

You're just in time to find out. Afraid of. Hey, it's gonna work, Jonah. The cool thing is it's gonna work. There needs to be a brace here because that's just too much pressure. It's going to pull apart. I'm gonna have to just do this by hand today. This is showing potential, right? Well, at least it's down now. The cows are right there. 3 days ago they were right here. So Josiah, let's set up our chicken fence right here, they'll tackle this manure, they'll spread this fertilizer out and eat any fly larvae that are developing.

Jesse, you look like the little ball.

Where's the rubber mallet, Jonah? I'm so excited for these guys. Grain on manure just to encourage them to spread it, which I think you guys are very well trained. You don't need that anymore, but there you go. They're gonna be so happy. And today all this manure love is gonna be spread out. Ain't that right? Oh, and look, pretty soon sheep will be right there, one day behind the cows. Sheep one day behind the cows. Chickens 3 days behind the cows. Where are you going? Why do you want out? It's wonderful in here. There's manure. All right, we got 15 minutes till we need to milk. The cows are right here, so they're close. The house is right there. Should we move the luchadors? We're either gonna need to move them or feed them. I say we move them.

Rebecca, she just stepped out the door.

Okay, thanks. Rebecca, where are you? You said in here. I have no idea where that is. You're in the ewes? Okay, come on. You want to move the luchadors or you want to wait till after breakfast?

No, we can move the luchadors.

Jonah, get the rope halter please. Here we go. We'll get one. Let's get him rope haltered just in case. Uh, he struggles and gets away from me or something. Yeah, I'm gonna carry him. That's gonna be a backup.

Okay, shove it, dude. Okay, let's shut the gate all the way.

Okay, he was right.

I went too stressed before he— but he loves it.

He's like, are you kidding me? I love this.

Yay! This thing already is sagging a little bit in the middle because it's 16 feet across. Ben just got us something so we could use it for his trip. We're gonna put a vertical line probably down the middle, corner braces, maybe diagonal. But right now it's movable, so we don't want to make it too heavy.

Hey, Nacho!

You know you're supposed to say it like this.

Nacho! Nacho!

I just don't want to cause him to jump out of his thing.

It's okay. This is not light.

Yeah.

Now one cool thing about sheep though is they are manageable like this. Yeah, I could never pick up stud.

No, and like, I've been working with the ewes and I could even catch the weathers if I needed to.

Yeah, like 5 of those ewes will be as heavy as one cow, but you could pick up each ewe one at a time. Yeah, if you had to. Thanks, you come too. Watch this. You got it queued up?

Yay!

I want to see Nachos go at it. What's wrong, Nacho?

He's gonna poop.

Oh, he's pooping. Let's see if he starts eating after he poops.

If he doesn't eat, that's bad.

Yeah, he's probably just stressed out from the move.

Yeah, there it goes.

Cool, right there.

Papa. Yeah, he's going at it.

He's a little stressed out, maybe not as hungry. He might have just ate, for all we know. We're probably going to do actually white plastic paneling, sides and top in a corner, so we can protect minerals. Yeah, what do you think, Rebecca?

I like that idea.

Shade cloth is all they need, but we need to keep minerals waterproof.

Justin is getting the milking stuff and I'm going to keep organizing in the brooder room and this area. I started yesterday by cleaning some of these things, and then I'm gonna put them on the rack, but we ran out of— but Ben came and then he was gonna weld, and I couldn't be there for that because of the welding stuff. I don't know what you call it. Sparks? Anyways, so I stopped doing that and went upstairs and did some work, and so I'm just gonna keep plugging at it.

Hey, you guys halt to train a moose? Yeah. Is he cooperating?

No.

Are you not cooperating with them?

He sat in mud.

You did? You sat in mud? Are you giving them a hard time?

Yeah, he ran all the way up to there.

He's giving you a run for his money. All right, well, let's pour this into the reservoir. Nearly 2 gallons. I'll take it. I'd say together we got 3 gallons from these cows. Look, Moose is asleep. How adorable is that?

I've lost the camera.

Close your eyes.

Okay, closing my eyes. Lily's got a surprise for me.

Open them.

Oh my word, you have cleaned this room so nice. Oh, good job. That's what you've been doing in here? Aww, looks so good. Good job. How did you like your smoothie this morning?

I liked it.

Why? It's got special medicine in it.

Snuck it in there.

Snuck in some colostrum.

Oh, good, good.

Okay, I waited till after it was done, right?

Yeah, that's good.

You having a hard time?

I didn't even think about it.

Did you even notice? I didn't. Little saltier?

No, I didn't notice.

Couldn't pick up on it.

Where's the bottom of my shoe?

You're going on errands? Test drive a vehicle?

I'm going to test drive. No, you're gonna stay here. It's gonna be very boring.

Boom! Just finished editing. Rebecca is late. It's like 6:36. She's sweet at 5, guys. She's not home yet because she's actually found a Suburban for us. She's actually getting it. Hopefully it'll get here before dark and you guys can see it. What?

A Suburban?

Yeah, Suburban. 4-wheel drive, can drive in the snow, can pull a trailer, can pull a working trailer, can pull a livestock trailer. How you doing, luchadores? Como están? Okay, let's move them. I wonder if you and Lily can move them together.

What do we do? We need to push it.

Nope, let's not go that way. Let's go that way. Lily, get it down on that side. Let's see if you can do it.

Gotta move the wheel.

Gotta get the—

Lily, gotta move the wheel.

Keep it— try to push it up as close as this fence as you, as you can. They've eaten in here. Go ahead. Can you do it? Wow, I like it. Come on, you two little ones can push it. Push it to the brand new grass. You gotta do this twice a day. Look, look, look how much they appreciate it. Right there. Good, good job, guys. It may not be the prettiest structure in the world. It may look ferocious, as Randy Kleiman would say, but it gets the job done. Look at that. Keeps the ram and his buddy on pasture, keeps him away from the ewes. I like it. We can rest easy tonight.

I think we should give that wheat to me too. I think it's alive. Yeah, it's alive.

What are you gonna do with it?

Just feed it to the pigs alive. Yeah, that would kill it. You're a big bushy-tailed—

you're savage.

Why don't we cut it and then we'll give it?

Yeah, we could put it out of its misery. I agree. We'll take it to the other side. Okay. All right, let's go, Mr. Robot.

Ow!

What'd you say, Josiah?

What car did you have in the home?

The Suburban. Okay, we'll never see our minivan again.

Good. All our stuff.

Yes, she would have gotten our stuff over. There you go. How they doing?

Good, good. Look ahead of you.

We got him some fresh greens. Can anybody pet him?

Yeah, enough. Yeah.

Oh, slow movements, Lily, slow movements. Josiah's got the idea. Slow and steady.

Is that Chase? I wouldn't pet Chase, that's wild.

Well, I don't see Mom. It's 7:20. Let's check on her. Turn on some lights in here. It's calling her now.

Hi, you've reached Rebecca Rhodes' cell phone. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Oh, nope.

Do I answer?

Here, put it on speaker.

Oh, is it calling?

Hey, yeah, where are you?

Um, we're about to leave.

Okay, good. While we wait on Rebecca, we're gonna actually go look for Moose. The children said Phyllis is looking for it. He goes off and rests, sleeps, hides, and it makes everybody nervous. Including the mama cow, including us. Look here next to her pasture in these tall weeds. She's looking that way. Sometimes they know where the calf is, but sometimes they don't, so that's not really helpful. The creek's not deep enough to hide him. If somehow he fell off this— if he fell off the bank into the creek, we would see him. It's not that deep. He's laid here at one point. He's laid right there at one point. They let Phyllis in. Let's see if she'll lead him— lead us to him.

He's over there. He's smelling her way.

That's not very helpful. She's just gonna eat grass. I don't know if I've ever had to look this hard for a calf. We're having to get pretty far off looking way down here because maybe mom came down the lane and he got off here. I don't think he would have came this far though. I'm afraid it's going to get dark on us. We're just plowing through this brush now. I think it might have been a ploy. She's just wanting new grass. I think it's a con. Well, it's 10 till 8. We still have not found him.

Hey, hey, what you doing?

Well, we were just out hunting moose.

Did you find him?

No.

Oh really?

Yeah.

Is Phyllis mewing for him?

Well, she sort of was, and then we let her into the paddock. The new paddock, and then she just went to munching grass, so she's not being very helpful. We were hoping she would lead us to him. We have looked everywhere. I've done like 4 rounds. Okay, well, we'll see in a little bit then. Maybe he's in here. It's 8 o'clock. Mom should be here any minute. We're just gonna have to come out and check periodically later. Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa! We're not gonna make it a big old mess. No, no, no, no, wipe off feet. Hey, who's this good-looking lady in this white Suburban? You're that lady. You're that little lady driving the big Suburban. Hey, and you did this all by yourself. You just— you're Bob. You're just so healed. You just went and bought a car. You didn't even need me.

We needed one so bad.

So desperate.

When I was cleaning out our van at the dealership, I was like—

Man, it looks new.

I know, it's like new. It's not, but it's like new. Don't put your feet on anything but the floor.

I don't think they see this as something nice. I think they see it as a jungle gym. A new jungle gym just rolled up. What do you think, Jonah?

I like it.

So you got a tow package? Oh yeah, nice trunk room. So what's it going to be, the seating arrangement? So we're going to give this another effort to find Moose. I feel like we heard the calf bellow. Oh no, that was just a truck, wasn't it? Well, it's 8:30. We could not find the bull bull calf. We're gonna hope for the best, but we are gonna milk her out.

It's Moose.

Yeah, Moose. That's quite a bit of milk. We didn't go through the extra trouble saving it for ourselves. We're tired. It's now 8:45. We still haven't eaten supper, y'all. We're in— the kids are in bed by this time normally.

Oh yeah, we're already in bed listening to the audiobook.

That's right. All right, I hope your little calf comes back tonight. All right, it's 9:30. We've cleaned up after supper, put the kids to bed. Joan and I are gonna go look one more time for him. I'm gonna actually walk the creek. Silas, where's your calf? Look at that big frog! It's gigantic. Okay, I just fell in.

I just slipped.

We just trudged through the creek. We saw nothing. This is sad. Like, she's just standing there waiting for her baby. I must have walked every possible place for like 6, 6 times.

Let's try this. Is he trying this stuff?

We can. He could get this. This brush is so thick. I guess there is a way. That he could be in there. Normally I like to end these vlogs with a happy ending, but we don't know where our calf is. Maybe this is normal that they sleep this long. It's probably been since 6. I guess it's not so crazy. 4 hours unseen. I think there would be reason to be very concerned if the calf is not with her tomorrow morning. Look, that's my boot, man. So it's the next morning. The first thing on my mind was moose. I want this story to end happily. He's out there!

He's out there! Oh my gosh!

We got so worried! Are you serious? He is out there! Oh my gosh! Where was he?

I have no idea!

Rebecca, I walked through these bushes, through the creek, up into the woods, over there, like 4 times.

I walked across over on the lake. Property through the bushes.

Oh, that makes me sad. The little rascal. Now look, look, they're up. I got them into a new pasture. You guys can get a good look at old Moose, you little rascal, hiding. He is cute as a button, isn't he? You better not mess with Flossie. Aunt Flossie. This is no thank you. Come on. I'd have bet he was gone, huh?

I know, we thought.

So now, note to self, put it in the learning bank: calves can sleep and rest for over 6 hours.