Congratulations! It's a....girl!

In the summer of 2011 my Uncle Steve had a cow that had twins.  We were asked if we wanted a bottle calf - to which we answered YES!  We thought the boys were old enough to help take care of her.  So we cleaned up the cattle shed and made room for our new calf.  Of course we had to decide on a name - Hawkeye!  I guess the boys must have decided it was TJ's calf because he was the one that basically took care of her!  He did a pretty good job.  In fact for his 10th birthday he asked for a rope halter, scotch comb and pitch fork.  I do believe he thought about making her a 4-H project for the next year.  However, TJ got sick and Hawkeye quickly became everyone else's project.  We couldn't bear the thought of getting rid of her, so last summer we turned her out to pasture with my Dad's (Grandpa and uncles) cows and bull.  We made sure to put a green ear tag in her with her name on it!  This is not quite how Ferguson Angus do it - but we wanted to make sure we would know which one Hawkeye was if we were ever to go visit her in the pasture!  Well turns out a different Ferguson bull got in with the cows - so we weren't exactly sure when and who bred Hawkeye.  We've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of her calf.  We stopped over at Mom and Dad's to wish Mom a Happy Mother's day and thought we would go check on Hawkeye.  To our surprise she was getting ready to have her calf!  Jon was able to help Dad get her in a pen.  They had a graduation party to go to so we left and decided we would come back later - to see if she had had the calf yet.  While we were over at Jon's parents house my phone rang - it was my dad.  Here is what he said:

Dad, "well you lost a heifer!"
Me, "Yea?!  She became a cow!?"
Dad, "yep!  She had a heifer and it's all black!"
Me, "We will be over after bit to see her"

(Just a little background information...growing up we quickly learned the difference between a heifer, cow, bull and steer!  If we ever mixed them up we were quickly corrected.  It bothers my dad when you generalize cattle by calling them all cows even if they aren't!  Well since I spent so much time with my Dad growing up - I quickly developed this same characteristic!  This explains why Dad told me I lost a heifer!)

So, after we spent some time over at Jon's folks we stopped back over at Mom & Dad's to check out Hawkeye's calf.  The boys were excited and are now trying to decide what we should call the new baby!  I know that animals don't celebrate holidays - but I found it fitting that Hawkeye became a mom and Mother's Day!  TJ would have been so excited to see his bottle calf have her first calf!  Kind of a bittersweet moment.  Of course I didn't have my good camera with me, so I took a picture with my phone.  It's not the best picture, but it will do.  Here she is:

I think Hawkeye is going to make a good mommy!  I'm anxious to get over there again and see how they are doing.  Now we just need to come up with a name.  My sister suggested Cyclone!  I don't think so!!