The Light is Yellow

My niece, Hailey, is visiting us for three weeks. My good friend, Becky, and her daughter are visiting for the weekend. Today we took them to tour a local dairy. I knew if Becky ever came to visit that she would love to visit the dairy because visitors are almost guaranteed to see a calf being born.

One of the things we saw was the cows being milked on a carousel. They are trained to get on and off without assistance. I really could have pulled up a chair and watched the cows get on and off that thing all day. Yes, I am easily entertained. Once a cow boards the carousel it is properly cleaned before being milked. The cows wear an electronic device on a collar that tracks how often they are milked and how much they produce.

We had grilled cheese and quesadillas with cheese made on the premises for lunch. They have really good grilled cheese sandwiches. I think they are the best. Here's Aaron enjoying his.

There is a building called the birthing barn. Outside is a stoplight that lets people know when a cow is close to giving birth. Red means nothing is happening. Yellow means the hooves have appeared. Green means the baby is being born. Today was a slow day. The technician who monitors the cows who are giving birth said it could possibly be because of weather changes that were occurring today. Becky and I thought sitting in the birthing barn awaiting the chance to witness one of God's miracles was awesome. The kids thought it was o.k. the first 15 minutes we made them sit and watch. We finally gave up and took them for ice cream. We thought maybe the light would be on yellow before they finished, but no such luck.

We let them play a while longer and then decided to load up and head for home. After we were all buckled in the car, we drove by to check the light. No luck. It was still red. I was so disappointed because I so wanted Becky to see a cow being born. We turned on to the road heading away from the dairy and at the same time Becky and I looked back and saw that the light was yellow. Big U-turn!! We made it in plenty of time to witness a somewhat difficult birth. At first only one hoof appeared and the vet (or the person who oversees the birth...not sure of the title) had to go in and get the second one out. They let the cow labor a bit longer and then put little straps around the calf's ankles to help pull it out. It took three people to help that momma deliver that baby. Two adults were pulling the straps with everything they had in them and a third was trying to help from the inside. At this point Becky's daughter said she wanted to just pet the cow to make her feel better. To which Aaron replied, "I would rather drive the tour bus." He made it perfectly clear that he wanted no part of putting his hand inside the cow. Cracked me up!! Finally we were told it was a girl and momma and baby were fine. My camera battery died so I missed pictures of the delivery, but here are a couple more pics of the the girls in action.

Rachel with Ms. Cowline

Rachel tried her hand at milking.

Hannah also tried her hand at milking.