I did not realize how much I missed Don and Barney until we picked them up in North Battleford and I could not get the grin off my face for many, many highway miles. Now, I cannot stop kissing and hugging them.

They were happy to be in the van with us and glad to get home, too. As much as they enjoyed their time at their dad’s, and told me they were not ready to leave him, they are not downhearted. It is just obvious they are glad to be home.

Loverboy and I saw these fancied-up hay bales on the way to the city, and pointed it out to the boys on the way home.

A new calf was born last night, with help from Pa, Loverboy, Sonnyboy and L’s brother. One of the calf’s legs was bent backward or something so they had to reach inside the cow’s vagina and straighten it, and it sounds like they tied a rope to the calf and pulled it out, too. I got to the barn while the baby was still wet and steaming in a pile of clean straw, shaking its head and looking innocently around. In the adjacent stall, another cow/calf set looked curiously on, the cow standing next to her week-old offspring and mooing (encouragement? welcome? excitement?) to the newborn.

“You did real good,” Pa said to the new mother in a tone of congratulation and affection. She hadn’t stood up yet so he prodded her with a pitchfork (“I hate to do this, but it works,” he apologized to the cow, or maybe it was to the onlookers) and she got up and walked the few feet to where the calf lay curled up on the floor. She began to nose it.