What A Week!

The past week I have literally been all over the place! I don't think I did the same thing twice very often! This might be a long post, but it's been a good week so I feel like it's worth it to take the time to write about everything.

Monday:

We started the day with the vet checks. Yosemite, Clauss, and Sunwest dairies recently hired an on-staff vet that will work for all three dairies. Her name is Dr. Adams but she prefers Dr. Liz. One new thing that we are starting with her is sexing all of our calves before they are born so that we can make educated decisions on whether or not to keep a cow around if she gets sick or hurt. This was the first week we've done this and it took almost twice as long as it used to. Dr. Liz thinks it will only get faster as we keep doing it.

For vet checks we divide into two groups: one group goes through and finds the cows that need to be checked by the vet and the second group goes with the vet later and records everything. The second group also gives shots. That took all morning.

In the afternoon I finally got to try my hand at driving the skidloader because we had to clean the calving pens. For most of the summer the guys haven't let me anywhere near the inside of that Bobcat. I didn't know that it is controlled the same way as our New Hollands back home so when I got in and started driving around, I was thankful for all those times that Grandpa made me drive the skidloader back home even if I didn't want to.

Tuesday:

On Tuesday everyone started at 5:30 walking the show cows. Once they were walked I went and spent the rest of the day with our breeder, Steve. He taught me to breed cows, look for cows that are ready to be bred, keep the breeding records, and how to tell when a cow is almost ready to calve. Steve is a lot of fun to work with because he is funny and he likes to have fun while he is working. We laughed a lot on Tuesday. It was a really good day. Another thing that happened on Tuesday was that Colin and I got a lesson in cow reproduction from the retired breeder, John. It was probably more funny than it was educational for me because I'd seen it before in school but I think John repeated the lesson 4 or 5 times before we were done.

Wednesday:

Wednesday was a big day! A group of 9 people from Yosemite and Clauss Dairies, as well as another intern and his manager, went on a hike to Yosemite National Park. We climbed Clouds Rest. It's probably the most intense hike I've ever been on but it was well worth it.
We left Hilmar around 4:45am and made it to the park around 8. It was a crazy drive out! The road we took was carved out of a cliff and the drivers were making time! I didn't really notice because I'm used to my dad's driving in the Black Hills back home in SD, but everyone else was making comments about how fast we were going. 

When we made it to the park we found the head of the trail with only a little difficulty. Once there we unloaded and started down the trail. 100 feet later we came to a snow-fed creek. We were slightly confused because it looked like the trail went right where the water was. There were people on the other side and when we asked them how they got across they said they went across the creek. Well, most of us still wanted to go on the hike so we took of our shoes and socks, hiked up our shorts and waded across the creek. It was only 3ft deep in the middle and 40 degrees cold... no big deal. 

When we were finally all across we set out again. The next obstacle we faced was keeping to the trail when it disappeared under 2 feet of snow! We only lost the trail a few times but the views made it well worth it.

When we stopped for a rest Antonio broke out his camera and started taking pictures. Thanks, Antonio, for sending these to me!

Brett, Zach, Erin, McCallister, Dr. Liz, Brenda, Colin, and Sabino

Brenda and me

McCallister, Brenda, Dr. Liz, and Sabino

Brenda, McCallister, and C.A.

After our break we started up again. This time I'm pretty sure we lost the trail until we reached the top of the mountain. It was a long, hard hike. Antonio broke out the camera to keep us smiling but we weren't buying it.

By the time we were almost to the top we were exhausted, only to find out that the most difficult part of the hike may not have been the climb. In order to reach the summit you had to walk the ridge of the mountain with a drop-off cliff on both sides. The path was so narrow I could see the drop-off on both sides of me when I looked at my feet. This is what the path looked like looking up at it from the bottom:

 And this is what was below:

The views were well worth it and I'm glad I pushed myself. Once up there we stopped to rest and eat and relax. That's when the marmot decided to make an appearance! The guys had lots of fun feeding it Goldfish and turkey and whatever else they weren't going to eat. 

The way back down was much easier because we followed the path this time! There was still a lot of snow but it was fun.

  When we finally made it to the bottom and back across the creek we were exhausted but we had all had lots of fun. We got back home around 9:00 and in bed so that we could work the next morning.

Thursday:

On Thursday Brenda, Dr. Liz, Danny, Oscar, and I went to Vlots Custom Heifer Ranch by Chowchilla. This is where we currently send our calves to be raised. We went to scan the calves (like taking an inventory) and to make sure that they were healthy. Thursday afternoon Dr. Liz necropsied two cows to see what they died from and Brenda and I got to watch. 

Friday:

I was with Steve again on Friday morning but I also got to go to a weekly management meeting. There all of the managers and higher ups from the three dairies met to discuss problems or new things that were coming up. 

Saturday:

I helped Colin in the hospital on Saturday when I wasn't working with the show cows. It was a relatively easy day which I was thankful for. That night Brenda and I were planning on meeting people at the Turlock fair but we were running late and told not to bother coming because the seats weren't worth the $20 to get in. So instead we went to Redbox for a movie and I ended up locking my keys in my car along with both our cell phones. I couldn't remember the code for my door which frustrated me all the more! We ended up going into the store by the Redbox and asking or a phone book. The manager was very nice and even went to look at my car to see if he could get it open without a locksmith. Thankfully that's when I remembered the code and we got in but we did panic for a second!

Today Brenda and I went to Monterrey but I have to work in the morning so I will write about that in my next post.