ger to ger #2, family #3

the mom took me and yichmer on the oxcart to ger #3 of this tour...ger #3 turned out to be where the six folks i'd seen the day before were staying...it was fun to chat with them for a little while before they left...they all live in UB...it was very interesting to hear about their experiences of living in mongolia, especially winter...it gets down to -40°C (-40°F) during winter nights!! and warms up to -35°C during winter days...that's COLD...really really really COLD...you have to wear 5 or 6 layers, covering every bit of exposed skin...if skin is exposed in that kind of cold, it really hurts...people aren't motivated to go anywhere in winter, becuase it requires so many clothes, and can be pretty painful...plus, it gets dark early, so people just want to stay home...anywho, after these guys left to get back to the city, i had lunch...i don't have it written down what i ate, but it was probably something i'd already eaten...
that afternoon there was no activity in particular for me to do, so i went for a walk...while on the oxcart from ger to ger, we'd crossed a couple still frozen rivers...i was keen to go back and walk on those rivers again...there is something about ice that fascinates me...particularly when i'm still seeing it at the end of april!! if i had done this tour a month or so earlier, i would've been able to go ice bowling with this family...as it was, the ice covered parts of rivers, but not the entire streambed...so you'd see ice, then dry rocks...i had fun walking down/up the middle of the frozen areas, taking a few photos...laying down on the ice...the cows happened to be walking home around this time and they watched my every move...(which was a bit on the creepy side, but who am i to tell the cows to keep their eyes to themselves...not that they'd have understood anywho, since the probably only speak moo-golian:)

after returning from my walk i helped feed the cows...several of them were pregnant, and got extra special food...my hostess indicated that some of them were VERY pregnant, and might be giving birth that night...they were definitely fat! i never did find out how long the gestational period of a cow is, i suppose i could look it up...
that night i slept in the extra ger, though one of the family members was in there as well...this family seemed to live in both of the gers, they were in and out of both of them all day long...the first time i'd seen that...
my hostess was right, two of the cows did give birth that night...i'm a heavy sleeper, so i didn't know anything had happened until after breakfast the next morning when she took me out to see the new calfs...they were cute, but not nearly as cute as the kids i'd seen while staying with other families...new calfs try to walk for a little while, but seem to spend most of the first couple days of their new lives on the ground, with their legs curled up underneath them...not a whole lot of moving at all...anywho...
i got to feed a lamb that morning as well...according to my hostess, the mother sheep didn't have any milk, so they were feeding the lamb every morning and night...a plastic coke bottle, and a rubber nipple...that lamb was hungry!!
i tried to ride a horse to the next ger, but it was walking sooooo slowly...my host was on an oxcart with my stuff, he was going to drop me off, then go somewhere else...as it turned out, since i wasn't able to make the horse go fast enough, i ended up dismounting, then riding the oxcart the rest of the way...