The Red Poll Ladies

Scarlett was drawing close to her theoretical calving date - if indeed she was impregnated via artificial insemination. If so, she would be the only cow for which A.I. was successful this year:

Amy was always one of the calmer, friendlier cows, but she became even more so as the cold strengthened and she became accustomed to getting grain every morning. I had pulled out my camera to snap a photo and she came lumbering through the snow, hopeful that I had come bearing grain. Alas, I had none with me:

One thing the grain has done is to make me more interesting to the cows. They stop what they're doing and watch me whenever I appear in their yard:

Scarlett's udder began to swell, likely a sign that she was going to calve soon. I've been wrong before, though, so I snapped a photo of her udder (on the left), then compared it with a photo of Violet's udder. I had planned to compare it to Rosella's udder because she is Scarlett's daughter and built much like her, but her udder was so small I couldn't even see it to take a photo. As each day passed, Scarlett's udder became more swollen and I became more worried about the brutally frigid weather we were having:

Jasmine was herself through it all. She's not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but she's calm and friendly and easy to handle:

For two days, our weather warmed up and all our snow melted, even the 6 foot drifts. Alas, all the melted snow began to flood the pasture and I then worried that Scarlett might drop her calf in the water, where it would surely drown:

But our two day warm spell ended suddenly and spectacularly with a snowfall of two to three feet and temperatures nearing -20 F. I went out the next morning and found this pitiful face looking through the partially open barn door. They were all crowded by the door, hoping for grain:

They had up to 8" of snow piled on their backs and faces:

And icicles hanging off their bellies:

They ate their grain, shook off a lot of snow, and went back outside for a drink of water and more hay:

Our weather finally moderated to near normal temperatures, still not ideal for calving, but better than it was. As I type this, I am still waiting for Scarlett to calve:

I keep moving the bale feeder and try to replace it before they really get low on hay. They probably like the extra hay so they can pick and choose, but all the wasted hay is making quite a mess: