Tag Archives: Luna

You all don’t mind if today’s post is just a bunch more pictures of Stella, do you?

She’s been getting her fill of colostrum, too! In a few days, Luna will stop producing colostrum and start producing milk, and we’ll be able to start milking her! She and Stella will start spending 12 hours per day together, and 12 hours per day apart, so that we each will get half of Luna’s milk.

It’s happened, you guys!!!

Sometime this afternoon between 2 and 4 pm, Luna walked into the copse of trees in our front pasture and delivered a beautiful baby heifer. Around 4, Zac walked into the pasture to check on her and found her with her baby.

She looks exactly– uncannily– like Luna. Same kohl-rimmed eyes and the same black-tipped ears, the same black muzzle and speckles.

Luna’s softly mooing at her to encourage her to stand up, licking her all over, and generally acting like a textbook new mother. It’s such a relief to see that all’s well with mama and baby!

We’re leaning pretty heavily towards naming her Stella.

I just am so grateful that a) it happened and b) that it happened so easily! Stella’s just as jaw-droppingly gorgeous as her mother. She’s about the size, I guess, of a medium-sized dog– maybe 40 or 50 lbs– but with long little fawn-like legs.

My heart is just melting. We are all so happy!

There have been a few questions about Luna, our sweet and beautiful dairy cow, and so I’d like to answer them all in one post.

1. Luna is doing fine– happy and healthy, eating grass and drinking water. This is a picture of her from this morning.

2. She’s still pregnant. You remember that Doctor Grover came out to confirm her pregnancy back in June– the direct quote, and most memorable picture in my mind is our vet, reaching all the way up to his shoulder into Luna, and saying, “Yep. Feels like a face.”

3. Zac wakes up every single morning before dawn so that he can check and see whether or not she’s calved. We rearrange any and all travel plans so that someone is always at the farm with Luna, in case she calves. Every waking hour at the farm, we’re on hair-trigger Luna-watch– jumping up from the dinner-table because it looks like she’s lying down is a not uncommon occurrence. If she were in labor, it’s well-nigh impossible that we wouldn’t see it.

And every waking hour, this is our answer from her. Believe me, I know it’s frustrating.

4. Thank you so, so much for your intelligent, insightful, love-motivated comments– we love hearing from you! I promise that we’ll tell you when the blessed event occurs.

5. Even if she weren’t pregnant, and even if she never calved, we would still love her to pieces. She was a wonderful gift from a dear friend, and is just as sweet and affectionate as you please. I hate to make Luna feel like we only care about her calf.

We had a comment recently asking us how Luna, our expectant milk cow, was coming along. Since she and our two Christmas calves, Madison and Monroe, are nearly inseparable, I thought I’d let you know how the entire bovine family was doing.

Luna is about to break some kind of record, or, at the very least, redefine “long-awaited”– I’d be lying if I said she wasn’t driving us all a little crazy. It’s been a month since Dr. Grover came out and checked her out, so, any day now, Luna!

In other news, I figured out why I think Monroe is cuter– but also sillier-looking– than Madison.

It’s the polka dots on his nose.

Of course.

And Madison is growing like a weed into a right old βούπαις (this word, Boupais, is one of my favorite Greek words of all time. Bou, “cow,” when used as a prefix, can sort of slangily mean “large,” or “big.” So, when used in front of pais, “child,” or “boy,” it means, “a big ‘ole kid,” not the ultra-literal “cowboy.” In the same way, a “cow-hunger” isn’t a hankering for beef, but a hunger that’s particularly ravenous.)

Anyway, Madison is still a shade larger than Monroe, but smaller by far than Luna. They both tag along after her as though she were their mother, and she sticks close by them, too.

I’m really curious to see how they act towards the calf, and how Luna acts towards them after she’s calved. Cross your fingers for an easy delivery– and soon!