On the Farm Friday ~ Butter

Sorry if that post title was a little misleading. Mmmmm butter.  Yah, baby!  Melting on my blueberry muffin as we speak.  It also happens to be the proud name of this little gal:

That's our little Butter Baby, the newest member of the boys' 4-H bucket calf clan, proudly belonging to Henry. Mr. Henry is a big 4.5 years old, but he's a tad too young to really care for a calf and enter it in the county fair. One of the mammas in our herd abandoned the little darling, so we scooped her right up and brought her home for Henry anyway.

I'm not exactly sure how his ornery little mind narrowed in on the name butter.  The older boys' calves all have names that begin with "B" - Billy, Blaze and Blake - so maybe he was just keeping step with his big bros.  He also automatically assumed that his calf was a boy, just like the others, and when we told him that it was a she, he began rethinking this whole baby calf gig. His disappointed response was, "It's a girl? Girls are creepy.  I don't want a girl!"

I, on the other hand, was super-pumped.  I mean, so what if the only other girls around here are a golden retriever and a calf?? You really have to celebrate the little things when you're outnumbered as big as I am!

Once he decided that he would keep her, even though she was a girl, the boys quickly took him under their wings, teaching him how to bottle feed her, and of course conversation regarding the all-important name soon followed:

What are you going to call your calf, Henry??

"I dunno.  How about Bob?"

Well, Hen, Bob is not a girl's name. How about Daisy or Princess?

"What about Jed?"

No, Jed isn't a girl's name either.

"Okay, then, I'm going to name her Butter."

Oh, like, Buttercup or Butterbean??

"Nope, just Butter."

Just Butter??

"Yep. That's what I said."

Alright, Butter it is.

That's my son.  Follower of practically NO ONE.  Just himself.  Silly and ornery and smart, but not gifted in the creative calf name category.  Love him, love him!! The county fair is just around the corner. This weekend, we'll be haltering the calves and working with them for show.  More to come on that! 

Have a great weekend, everyone!!