Karbon Kounty Moos

cranky
sleepy
and dreaming of a shift without calfsicles…

It’s foggy and 14 degrees. Ty’s still outside, but I thought I’d try to post a bit. Okay, now Lucky’s out, too. Rocky is crunching, so I think I may have a minute or two. There was one new baby in the pasture. Mama looked fine and the calf was up and running, so I left them there. I fed and watered the two first-time mothers in the barn. They both had needed serious assistance (calf puller) a few hours ago.

Twenty four hours ago, it was snowing - heavy wet stuff (hooray!). It wasn’t cold - but very wet. There were four calved in the pasture. They were okay. In the corral I had one of the usual disasters. I radioed my sleeping husband. A recently calved cow was being harassed by another who hadn’t yet. The calf needed to get to a warmer, drier place and the cows needed to be separated. Anyone who has been around calving cows will recognize this behavior. A cow will get so interested in a calf - she forgets to have her own. This particular cow had her water bag broken with one leg sticking out. I went to the calving barn, opened the gate and moved a panel to plug in the calf warmer. Something hit me in the stomach and then the leg. I never saw it until it was running through the corral. It happened so fast, I didn’t have time to be as startled as the grey cat had been.

I went back to the other corral. The snow was winding down as my husband came in. We started to bring the two girls to the barn. The calf’s mother was okay with that, but the cow trying to steal her calf wasn’t. She thought that she shouldn’t let anyone near the calf (including its real mama & us). Aside from trying to run us over, she was roaring. Not one of my favorite bovine vocalizations. We did get it done. The calf wasn’t that cold, so we put her with her mother in a pen. The other cow went into the maternity pen. The others in the corral were fine. We double checked the pasture.

When we went back to the barn, the Baron checked the cow. The calf had one leg presented normal, but the other was cocked around its head. Still inside the cow. So he worked on it until he got both legs in the right place. While he was doing that the cow decided to help - by pushing - which was not helping his arm. I got the puller and he got her baby bull out. We came back home to doze.

The rest of the day was spent feeding, moving pairs, tagging calves, bedding down, feeding again and moving more pairs. The cows have been busy calving.

I need to close my eyes for a while.

You are a Radical. Right on!

What kind of Sixties Person are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I thought for sure I’d be a “Folkie” or maybe a “Hippie” -
but that’s not what the test results show.

Cautiously,
I cross the frozen turd tundra
avoiding opportunities
for tripping
and falling
to my knees
to the amusement
of my bovine charges.

A freshly charged lantern
beams over cattle
fat, calm, content.
Chewing their cud
wondering why
I disturb their slumber.
Wishing that
I would be
on my way.

No new babies
no cows in distress.
They simply
lift their heads.
Tranquility.

Once again
I close the gate.
Drive home
to remove
gloves, overshoes,
cap and coat.
Another layer shed.
Boots drop.
Moccasins slip on.

A specter
I pass the desk
too tired to write
or think
of anything
except bed
and sleep
elusive.
With eyes closed
I try too hard
to return
to my dreams.

Sleep comes
eventually.
Not soon enough.
Not enough.
The clock chimes.
Once more
it’s time
for me to rise,
get dressed
and do it all
again.

What a surprise yesterday! I finally had a couple of minutes and added a comment to my Range Wars post. Blogger has made commenting even easier. Blogger is sometimes sluggish, and other times repeats itself. That’s why there are often double posts & comments on Blogger or Blogspot blogs. I thought that the new commenting process looked good & was easy to use.

Any other thoughts? I hope that it makes the folks who shied away from commenting decide to start.

Range Feud is the title of this card - taken from an original oil painting by L.H. “Dude” Larsen.

Things have been hectic here with calving, feeding and chores. Then, just what we needed - a little more excitement.

Borrowing a format from Jason (”Are you French?”) of Extreme Unction, I’d like to share my husband’s recent correspondence. The names have been deleted to protect the innocent. And the not so innocent.

Dear XXXXXXX,

I thought that I should bring to your attention the events that transpired on Friday, February 4th, 2005. At about noon, my wife told me that someone had just driven from the east down XXXXX Lane and had turned down the private road into our pumping ground. By the time I looked out the window, two more pickups were following the first. They turned east on the narrow ditch bank road. I didn’t recognize the vehicles and no one has any business there, so I drove out to see who it was and where they were trying to go. They obviously had no idea of where they were. As I started up they were backing off the road to turn around and then head west - still on the ditch bank. Then they proceeded to back up again and turn up towards the hills. At that point I’m sure that they saw me behind them, but they never slowed down. I had to drive through a field to literally “cut them off at the pass.”

XXXXX XXXXX got out of the first pickup. No one else stepped out. When I asked him what they were doing he told me that they were going out to check the pump and that he’d been through there before. I asked him why he didn’t think that he should be notifying us when he drove through the place. He kept telling me that he had a paper.Which he never showed me. I told him that when XXX XXXX would come out or any crew would be out to work on the project, that XXX always notified us at least a few days in advance. XXXXX insisted that he had a paper that gave the XXX the right to go to the pump forever. I know that is incorrect, but it wasn’t worth continuing talking to him about, since he continued to insist that “he had a paper”. When I asked him about common courtesy, he just looked at me. When I asked him if it would be okay for me to just drive through his place - he had no answer. I told him that in this area people ask their neighbors before just going through their places. I also told him that I had left a message for XX XXX regarding fixing fences in Pasture One over two weeks ago, and have yet to hear back.

Which brings me to an earlier incident. Last December, my wife and I met with XX XXX and XXXXX XXXXX to talk about the XXXXXX allotment and pay our bill. At that meeting XXXXX mentioned driving through our place on a Sunday with one of our neighbors. This was the first time we had heard of it. He said that we must have had company that day and went on to describe the vehicles that were in our yard. And then he even remarked about our dead pile, and what was there. I was taken aback, but didn’t say anything, just chalked it up to bad manners. I was very surprised that he’d be working on a Sunday, let alone drive through the place without stopping.

This needs to be straightened out. If XXX employees want to be treated with respect, they should at least make an attempt to treat us with respect. If employees are making decisions and policies regarding cattle grazing, they should have some working knowledge regarding cattle. Not simply have heard and read about them.

Thanking you in advance for your consideration in this matter.

Sincerely,

The Sugarbeet Baron

Superbowl is over, isn’t it time for baseball?

Unused linen postcard titled:

The Polo Grounds, New York City

The back reads:

The Polo Grounds is located at 155th Street and 8th Avenue.
It is the home of the New York Giants and has a seating capacity of 45,000.

Three A.M.
appreciating
a garage
built last spring
saving me
no more scraping
frost from the windows
of this good old pickup
with its working heater
under a starlit valley sky
on this clear
February morning
driving through
contented cattle
coming home
a warm bed
beckons.

That would be me…

Nothing exciting to report other than it’s still 50 degrees outside! No new babies on this trip, all the girls looked content. We did have to pull a calf at seven last night. I fed and watered that heifer mama - her baby is up and around, and mom’s nervous - but they seem fine.

Most important thing - I set up the coffee pot for my next trip through the kitchen.

Later gators.

We put the bulls in last spring so the girls should start calving on the 6th of February.

I guess we should have informed the heifers and cows… they seem to be in a hurry.