A Busy Monday
It all started off as usual. Except when I went up the road at 6:30 AM to feed the heifers and dry cows I found one dry cow going into labor. We usually give them a while before we go back and check on them. If she had been a first-calf heifer we'd likely have brought her back to the barn ASAP. So I went back and finished chores.
Then at about 8:30 AM, when everything was winding down, a guy comes by and needs hubby to help with his well pump. He'd been out of water for TWO WEEKS trying to fix it himself. To make a long story short, hubby had to go up there and pull the pump again and fix the wires on it. This took until nearly noon.
Meanwhile, I took mother-in-law and Ellen to town. MIL had a doc appointment. When we came back I checked on the cow.
Uh-oh. NO calf!
Hubby came home, ate, then we took Ellen to her grandma's and took both 4-wheelers up the road for a cow round-up.
We got her back with no problems. However, when hubby went in to the trailer to do an examination she kept turning around on him. Sooo...we had to lasso her and hold her. Well, I end up holding the rope, while hubby does all the exploring and pulling.
About the time we are trying to get her lassoed, another neighbor pulls in. He's all excited to get in on the action. He's a trucker, says all that driving is really boring and this is the most excitement he's had in a long time. So he climbs up on the trailer and starts booting at the cow to get her to turn around. (He's in his 60s by the way)
She gets turned around, hubby is ordering Harlan around, "hand me this, hand me that," Harlan is having the time of his life, I am hanging on for dear life to the rope and the cow is wondering; "WHAT is going ON back there. I was trying to have this calf and suddenly these 2-legged fools are messing with me!"
Hubby finds that the calf is backwards. Not a good sign. Frequently when they are laid in that position the umbilical cord gets pinched and at the end you have a perfectly beautiful, perfectly dead calf.
But as soon as he had the legs and hiney of the calf pulled out, the calf's tail started switching around. It turned out to be a huge bull. He was irritated at the whole operation, too. "Get me OUT!" his switching tail seemed to say.
He was soon out, the cow was loosed, Harlan (along with the parts he'd originally come for) had a great tale to tell his wife and family and we were finally free to rest up a bit...
Until this evening when we had to move said calf to a shelter so he wouldn't get soaked in the storm that's now coming.
Bye for now.
Then at about 8:30 AM, when everything was winding down, a guy comes by and needs hubby to help with his well pump. He'd been out of water for TWO WEEKS trying to fix it himself. To make a long story short, hubby had to go up there and pull the pump again and fix the wires on it. This took until nearly noon.
Meanwhile, I took mother-in-law and Ellen to town. MIL had a doc appointment. When we came back I checked on the cow.
Uh-oh. NO calf!
Hubby came home, ate, then we took Ellen to her grandma's and took both 4-wheelers up the road for a cow round-up.
We got her back with no problems. However, when hubby went in to the trailer to do an examination she kept turning around on him. Sooo...we had to lasso her and hold her. Well, I end up holding the rope, while hubby does all the exploring and pulling.
About the time we are trying to get her lassoed, another neighbor pulls in. He's all excited to get in on the action. He's a trucker, says all that driving is really boring and this is the most excitement he's had in a long time. So he climbs up on the trailer and starts booting at the cow to get her to turn around. (He's in his 60s by the way)
She gets turned around, hubby is ordering Harlan around, "hand me this, hand me that," Harlan is having the time of his life, I am hanging on for dear life to the rope and the cow is wondering; "WHAT is going ON back there. I was trying to have this calf and suddenly these 2-legged fools are messing with me!"
Hubby finds that the calf is backwards. Not a good sign. Frequently when they are laid in that position the umbilical cord gets pinched and at the end you have a perfectly beautiful, perfectly dead calf.
But as soon as he had the legs and hiney of the calf pulled out, the calf's tail started switching around. It turned out to be a huge bull. He was irritated at the whole operation, too. "Get me OUT!" his switching tail seemed to say.
He was soon out, the cow was loosed, Harlan (along with the parts he'd originally come for) had a great tale to tell his wife and family and we were finally free to rest up a bit...
Until this evening when we had to move said calf to a shelter so he wouldn't get soaked in the storm that's now coming.
Bye for now.
Comments
boy we were needing this rain