Happy Birthday to my ruggedly handsome husband! Now, in his honor, I will share another ranch life story, starring him...
Calving season has begun, which is a time of year I love, if only it were in April and not February. It is against nature to calve this early in the year, why do you think elk and deer do it in June. They know what they are doing, yet man has changed nature and made it so we have to calve in the dead of winter. See, I have issues. Well, on a cold night (and by cold I mean below zero, because anymore, anything above zero is considered almost tropical) we had a cow decide to try and calve prematurely. I decided it was prematurely, because she was not in our drop herd right next to the calving shed. No, of course she was in the Ramada a 1/2 a mile away. So, when Mike found her in a not so pleasant manner (warning: graphic... the calf's head was out and nothing else and it was dead) he knew she needed help.
Well, who better to employ than his trusty right hand girl, me. "I am just going to rope her and trail her back to the calving shed so we can pull this calf, " he said confidently. Well, that sounds easy enough, and for the most part it was. Well, up until we got her in the shed. You see, we have this chute and head catch, that in theory, is supposed to "catch" the cow and hold her in one place. We also have this cow who has been in labor, and has had a calf part way hanging out of her for awhile. As a mother of 4, I have sympathy pains watching such horrors. She was mad, she was honky, she was wanting to eat one of us for lunch. Well, by all means lets lock our selves in a confined space with her I thought to myself.
Mike, seeing my reluctance, fear, I don't know what I portrayed, but it was something, kindly told me to get up on the fence by the head catch and work the bar that should gently "catch" the cow. After I swiftly climbed to my safe position, I watched as my husband influenced her to head my direction, into the jaws of life, or the place where we would trap and torment, I mean help her. Well, as she worked her way up to the desired destination, Mike told me to close it. So, with great force I pushed down on the bar and much to my dismay, nothing happened. Mike looked at me as if I was somewhat incompetent, and then quickly observed that we had a bar blocking our progress, and even admitted it was not my fault. So, she escaped and we started over.
The second time around, it took a little more influencing to get her back into the scary contraption, but she stuck her head through the catch and with all my might I pulled that bar. And with all her might she pushed against the entrapment and the bar came flying up at me, risking life and limb, as I fell off the fence. But never fear, my handsome prince was there to catch me. Let's just say after a few rantings, we decided that there was something not so right with the head catch, and we had to do this a different way.
Lucky for us, she still had a neck rope on and was dragging it around. And by lucky for us I mean me, cause Mike grabbed that rope and wrapped it around a post and said, here hold this. Yes, he did, he put me on the end of a rope with a 1200 lb. cow who had been laboring for hours. On very unstable, shaking legs I did as I was instructed and held that rope. You can imagine my dismay as I watched my husband, father of my 4 children, climb into the area with her. I held his life in my hands, a little dramatic yes I am, but that is what I felt like. "Just keep pulling that rope and I will get her to trip herself up," he instructed with no edge or reluctance in his voice. And I did just that, in just a few minutes time, he had her lying on her side and was asking me to let go of the rope. I carefully unwrapped my end from the pole and watched as he drug it towards him. Wouldn't you know it, it worked. He was able to get the calf pullers and help get this poor "aunry" cow out of her misery. And I lived to tell about it.
2 comments:
I remember the first time I had seen a calf need to be pulled I was at your old house. It was a hard thing to watch I thought I could hear the cows back breaking during the process only to realize it was the old post they had her hitched to that was making all the noise! Mike must of seen all your great qualities you would have after you grew up and you have and he is a great guy!
Now that is a story! Glad it all turned out ok,....at least for you, Mike and the aunry cow. Sad about the calf tho'.
Happy Birthday to Mike! He is the best,....good job in roping him.
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