Then, we headed through the sheep pen where the flock started raising an uproar as soon as they saw their shepherdess. They sounded like they were absolutely starving, even though there was still hay in their feeders. As Konstantijn piled in fresh hay, they buried their heads in it up to their shoulders, huffing and snorting as they chawed down.
Moving on to the cattle in their respective pens, we fed Archie, the bull and the two girls that keep him company. Then, there was Holly with her twin steer calves. She gets a pen to herself because she has horns that she knows how to use on the other cows to be first in line at the feeder.
"So, Konstantijn, why did you want the job of feeding the cattle?"
"I wanted more work to do and asked what there was. Daddy said I could help Uncle James with feeding the cattle. I feed them in the afternoon, and he does it in the morning."
(Strange teenager, this one, asking for more work.)
As Konstantijn was feeding Holly and her steers, I walked over to the bigger corral to look at the main beef herd. There's a variety of ages and sizes of animals because the calves from last year are still with their moms that will calve after the middle of May.
Looking through the herd, I saw four tiny legs.
"That's strange. There aren't supposed to be any new calves here. Am I seeing things? Maybe I didn't hear Martin correctly."
"Konstantijn, there's a new calf over here. Do you know what's going on?" I called out.
"No, I don't. This is my first day on the job. I don't know the cows, yet."
"Okay, I'll get your dad."
I caught up to Martin and Jeannie walking towards the barn and told them what I had found. Martin was incredulous!
"No way! That can't be! What cow? What's going on?"
Seeing the new calf, Martin realized he had another problem. The calf couldn't be left in the big corral with all the other cattle milling around it. Where can mom and calf go where it would be safe, warm, and dry?
"The barn that's being renovated will work!"
Martin grabbed the little guy while mom followed closely behind. All went well until they had to go through the dairy corral where Cherry jealously guards her turf. When Cherry saw this new cow come into her territory, she became aggressive and was going to show this newbie who was boss. What a rodeo that became!
Finally, Martin was able to get cow and new calf into an improvised pen that was comfortable. Problem solved for the time being.
Sad footnote: the little guy didn't make it. He was at least three weeks premature and not ready for the world. Martin wasn't wrong. There weren't supposed to be any calves until mid-May, but things happen.
Being a farmer isn't easy. There are times when you go over what happened, wish you had done things differently, wonder what the differently could have been, consider what you can do in the future, but still keep going and do your best.
Konstantijn and I finished feeding the beef cattle and headed in for dinner discussing our recent adventures. She has more than a job. Valuable life lessons will be learned that will serve her well. There are always problems and solutions and you always have to do your best in every situation.
Challenges are the stuff of life. With all challenges addressed, where does one go from there? Is there anywhere to go?
