Days 3 and 4 of merging the calves/weaning the older ones went without incident, and today is day 5. However, watching the smallest calf be lonely on this side of the fence made me worry. I also was worried the he was not learning as much from the older calves as he needed to. So today, I decided to get brave and add him in with the rest in the pasture. 
Sure enough, shortly after I added him in, he went to join two other calves at the mineral bucket.
Another sight while I was out there surprised me a bit. One of our older steer, Meatloaf, who hasn't shown himself to be the most nurturing in the past, was actually grooming the calves. They seemed to be really liking it and/or were extremely comfortable. While this was happening, the youngest calf was going closer and closer to the group. As I had seen the cattle sniffing each other in the past, I was afraid that the older steer would recognize the baby as a newcomer right away and come to see what was going on. That did not happen. Of course, unlike other animals, the steer do not seem to mind pooping in their sleeping area. As they all sleep in it (one can only clean it out so much), I guess they should all have smelled pretty similar. 
On the calf barn, we are slowly progressing. It seems that lately we have either been sick or not had the right materials (no matter how often we go to Lowes.) This weekend we got the last outside post put up, then started with the back wall. This time, we ran out of wood screws and had to stop. I love the way my husband took a small amount out of the 4 x 4s and wedged in the header for the door. Of course, we also toe-nailed that in.
As far as wedding progress, we got the dirt pile flattened out so we can grow grass there, as well as put down a new coat of rocks for the driveway.
Harvest news: We harvested and put in the freezer 9 1/2 gallons of bell peppers, as well as 5 1/2 bushels of sweet potatoes. Some of those sweet potatoes were huge.
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