I have been living back in this beautiful countryside for two weeks now (although it seems longer...) and it is so good to be back.  To see the stars again on clear nights, swinging myself back into the saddle, to go outside and hear absolutely nothing, being surrounded by all my favourite animals once more (especially Picket), to see the tracks of wild life in the deep snow and to breathe the cool, fresh, not to mention dry, air that is oh so wonderful!
We have had 8 calves born since the 13th of February, two of which have died.  I assisted in the first calf pulling of the season last night. The calf was backwards, so we had to chain its two feet and pull it out. Once the baby is out you need to make sure all the mucus is out of their mouth so that they can take their first breath of air. Thankfully this baby lived!
Again this morning we had to pull a calf, taking us almost an hour to do. This calf was in the right position, however, the after birth came out before the calf causing major problems and the calf sadly, did not make it. The babies that are alive and thriving however are so adorable and so fun to watch.
I have been doing the night checks for about the past week or so. This entails staying up until 2:00am or waking up at 3:30am to go outside and check for calving cows. Ideally we want them to have the calf in the barn where it is warm and sheltered, so we have to watch them to see who is the closest to calving out.
Anyways, this is about all the time I could manage to steal online today. I'm now headed up to Six Mile  and am going to be doing the 3:30am check :)
I will try and get an update out whenever I can to let you know what is going on up here!

And here I am, getting the last few things packed away in my bags, ready to head to the Vancouver airport. It will be an hours flight to Williams Lake and then a 3-4 hour drive out to Anahim Lake late tonight. I am just about ready for the calving season to begin!