Knock, knock…An exciting 13 hours on the farm…

It was around 10 pm last Friday night at the farm and I was just getting ready to head home for an early night when we got the knock at the door. Now, a knock at the door after 9 pm is not normal in Westhampton. And it usually isn’t good, unless it’s a night owl coming to buy syrup! An owl, this was not. It was a friendly and observant passerby informing us that our cows were out! He and his family seemed eager to help us out, but since his son only had shorts on (in 20 degree weather!) and I figured my dad, Ed and I could handle it, I excused them. It turned out Ed was out for a rare night on the town, so it was just my dad and I.

With a bucket of grain, flashlight and halter in hand, we headed out into the darkness. With just the two of us, herding the entire group of heifers at once did not prove successful. So, we bribed them with grain in order to catch them, one at a time, and lead them back to the barnyard. Once capturing all but one of the escapees, who had gone out to the corn field, it was time to fix the fence so that we wouldn’t get another knock at the door. My dad walked the perimeter of the fence to see where it was shorting out, while I sat on the grain bucket in darkness, preventing the remaining heifers from escaping. It was sort of peaceful, listening to the coyotes howling in the distance, the cool wind blowing and the cows chewing their cud. They enjoyed my company and I enjoyed theirs. At last, as I was about frozen, my dad chased the last cow inside and got the electricity working in the fence. We headed back to the house to find out that it was 12:30 am!!

Fast forward 10 hours and there’s another knock at the door. Déjà vu?? Please, no. Not the heifers. We have too much to do. Surely they must’ve been too tired from the night’s escapades to be out again. Phew! It was a nice couple with their 1-year old son that had come to see the sugar house and cows. We followed the cow path from last night over to the sugar house, stopping first to see the heifers, who were now looking so cute and well-behaved, as if to say "...not ussss..!". One of the heifers reached to sniff us and got a little too close to the electric wire, which thankfully was working!! (Though granted, it would’ve been nice to have help this time!)

It was time to warm up in the sweet smelling sugar house, where Ed was busy tending to the evaporator and feeding the fire. (Or, as seen in this picture...ignoring the fire and evaporator!). I explained the process from collecting the sap down in the orchard (Rachel told you all about that) to boiling off the water until it’s time to take off the sweet syrup (we’ll fill you in on that later). We tried a sample of syrup and a piece of maple candy. Meanwhile, another family had stopped in to check things out, buy some syrup and see the cows. Their three year old was not at all wary of the cows. He looked like he would’ve lent a helping hand with the cow-roping the night before.

I led our 10 visitors over to the milking cow barn to the see the calves. I promised them a chance to see the adorable jersey calf, named Maple Kreme that was born just two days before. As you see in the picture, she was last seen running from the sugar house with syrup dripping from her mouth! (Tune in later for a story about my first Jersey calf, Maple Sugar- when I was 8!). After visiting briefly with the older calves in the hutches, we entered the barn, walked through the hospital and that’s when I saw them. Uh oh!! My dad and Nelson were standing behind a cow tied in one of the pens. What were they doing? Was the cow sick? Do I want my guests to see it? I crept ahead and realized that the cow in question was calving, or at least trying. She hadn’t been getting anywhere on her own all morning, so they had to give her a hand, or rather four hands. My visitors snuck down the aisle by her with their hands covering their faces, as if watching a scary movie. As the cow pushed, my dad and Nelson pulled on the calf’s legs in sync. After a brief visit with cute little Maple Kreme and a few struggles in keeping their 3-yr old from tracking through the manure, the larger group decided they weren’t quite ready for a cow birth on their first visit to the farm. They must’ve missed that Dirty Jobs episode.

My initial visitors however were in it for the long haul. I warned them that it isn’t always a happy ending when a cow has trouble calving. We could see that this calf was coming out
backwards, hind legs first. They told stories of how it took 4 days of labor to bring their son into the world. Mom could relate to the cow’s pain and excitement for it to be over. At last, my dad caught the 100 lb baby as Nelson pulled one last time. My visitors cheered quietly, as I told them that the calf was alive and well. My dad carried the calf up to the front of the cow who immediately started licking her newborn enthusiastically. After all of that hard work, we were rewarded with a heifer (female) calf, who will herself become part of the milking herd in two years.

We headed back to the sugar house so that my now-very-excited friends could buy some syrup for themselves and their friends from central Mass. 80lb of it!! After 2 ½ hours, I think dad, who had successfully packed all that syrup was ready to drive home. Mom and her son, meanwhile could’ve spent the entire day on the farm. I promised them that they could come back any time to visit the cows and spend time outdoors on the farm.

As they drove off, I waved goodbye. For a second, I reflected on the excitement of the last 13 hours…chasing cows in the dark, a new baby calf born and new friends full of memories on the farm. I headed in for a quick bite to eat. Another knock at the door! 1:30 pm…time to collect sap!