Teaching Sadie to Drink From a Bucket

Before I show you how I'm teaching Sadie how to drink from a bucket I thought you would like to see a cozy cat.

It's been cold and rainy and everyone, even the cats, want to snuggle up somewhere warm and take a nap.

I love looking at cats who are taking a nap.
It makes me feel so peaceful!

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Babies often drink from bottles. Calves do, too!

After a while it's a good idea to teach children how to drink from a cup, and calves to drink from a bucket.

It's easier for me if Sadie drinks from a bucket because I don't have to clean the bottle and I don't have to hold the bottle for her.

It's kind of a mess while she's learning, but that's ok. Once she learns it will be so much easier! She'll also know how to drink water from a bucket.

First I wet 2 fingers with milk from the bucket. Sadie knows what milk smells like and tastes like. As soon as she starts sucking the milk off my fingers I lower my hand into the bucket of milk. 

She keeps sucking my fingers and she's sucking in milk at the same time. I pull one finger out of her mouth so she gets more milk.

I pull the other finger out of her mouth and she still sucks briefly and then pulls her head out of the bucket because she doesn't know how to drink the milk yet without sucking on something.

I'll do this for a day or two and she'll figure it out. Then no more bottle for Sadie!

Echo had to learn how to drink out of an automatic waterer. She knew how to drink out of a bucket. This new contraption was a little confusing at first! She has to push the lever down with her chin so the water flows into the bowl.

BarBarA Automatic Waterer

I'll show you how we put in the waterer next week. We had to dig a big trench, lay pipe, and get the water hooked up properly so it would work. It took all day!

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I bet you use hand sanitizer at home and school. We use something a little different in the barn.

Once I'm done milking the animals I use something called a 'teat dip' It's usually iodine. Iodine kills bacteria that cause infection. It's also used to clean wounds on animals, and it's used on people in the hospital before and after surgery to keep their wounds free from infection.



After I'm done in the morning, I head in from the barn. Of course the dogs are ready to follow me anywhere. They follow me around while I'm doing chores, except when I'm milking Echo. Mishka loves to roam around the barnyard and explore while I'm milking.

It's a mess right now with all the rain!

JJ and Scout manage to keep clean, but not the puppy!

She comes in looking like a muddy mess!

We love her anyway! She's been a very fun puppy and she's learning so much!

The Big Turkey and the Little Calf

How was your Thanksgiving? Did you get to be around your family and friends? We did! It was so much fun!

Everyone was here for at least a little while. And we had a few visitors, too. We ate lots of food and had lots of fun conversations.

I'm very grateful that my children all close by and that we get to spend time together often. I'm grateful that there is enough room at our table for people who would like to come spend Thanksgiving with us.

Our turkey was 44 pounds!
How much do you weigh?
An average 2nd grader weighs about 50 pound
so our turkey weighed almost as much as you do!

We cooked our turkey outside on the smoker
because the turkey was too big to fit into the oven!

It took two people to put it on the smoker,
and two people to bring it into the house.

Look at the size of that turkey leg!

It was too big to fit on the roaster so we had to do something a little different this year. We spatchcocked the turkey. What a funny word! You can see how to spatchcock a turkey here.

We had 6 bags of leftover turkey. That's a lot of leftovers!

Did you have leftovers, too?

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Sadie was born around noon on Friday, November 22.
It was a bit chilly outside so we dried her off with some towels.

Echo cleaned her off, too.


We moved her into the stall where it was out of the wind.
Calves learn how to walk right after they are born,
but they are a little wobbly.

Here's Sadie all dried off and resting under the heat lamp to keep her warm.

Can you believe that Sadie is running around like this the day after she was born?

It's been cold so we got her a coat. She'll grow faster and stay healthier with a coat on.

Her coat is a bit big, but she'll grow so quickly that it will fit her just right in a few weeks.

Calves are so cute! Sadie is so sweet! I feed her with a big bottle every day. She gets four feedings of 1/2 gallon of milk. That's 2 gallons of milk every day!

Wow! That's a lot of milk!

Have a great week! Try new things! Learn new things!