Rain..Thunder..Wind Shears of 59 mph and...then

I had an apppointment to be at this morning. 9 AM Sharp they said! I was taking a steer to the locker for processing. I had the pickup parked in the alley run by the pens to load him last night, then it rained and rained. I stressed most the night about getting the pickup stuck trying to get up on the road with the steer loaded. Its hard enough taking one of them you raise...but to delay it was going to bother me all the more.

So I head out this morning at 6:30 and it is just before dawn light. I check on Pearl, my fainter I have been waiting and waiting to kid.. Yup...she did it..all by herself but had them sorta scattered in two spots. So gathered the little fat munchkins up and put them back together and made her comfy. Then on to the cattle to sort the steer.

I got to the yard and found one of the Heifers who I also have been waiting and waiting to calf was down and straining hard. I saw a very very swollen head and one foot out, tongue was so huge and swollen also...I just knew I hadn't gotten there fast enough and it was dead.

I hurried back to the house and grabbed chains and pulled out the phone and called Son and Neighbor while I was kicking myself all the way back to her about not being there soon enough.

I just kept telling myself, it happens, it will happen sometime and you can't do anything about it. It is the way it goes sometimes even though I really try hard to watch everything.

I was by myself yet and attached the chains and felt around for the other foot and finally finding it and pulled it forward enough to get a better grip. I kept poking my finger ups his nose and in the mouth to test for life..but found none. I pulled a bit to see if I could do it and he seemed to move a bit. THATS when I saw a sign,,a sort of a gurgle,,and then my adrenaline kicked in. When I was telling my Dad this morning about pulling this one by myself...he just laughed and said "If you could pull it by hand with chains, then she would of eventually had it". I said he UNDERESTIMATES the strength of a determined frantic woman. I DID IT!! And I was ready to do mouth to mouth when he rattled some deep breathes. And more and pretty soon...he was jumping when I stuck the straw in his nose. Just then Son and Neighbor showed up as I am patting myself on the back and just beaming that I didn't lose one!

We loaded the steer and I headed to the locker shortly, but was back home after a couple hours. First thing I did was check the baby calf- (another Bull calf)- and find him dry and his Momma standing waiting for him to nurse. I made short work of it and got a quart of Cholosterum milk I had saved from one of the other Cows. Since that tongue was so swollen and his head was swelled like a basketball, I wasn't going to let him have such a tough go of eating, so fed him a bottle...just to get the taste of Momma milk. He LIKE IT...ALOT!! By noon I was back to work at the office and since it is April 14th, I had a mountain of stuff to tackle (tax firm office). Well..it is now 4:49 in the afternoon and I can finally settle down and do a recap.

The only photo I took was one of him getting his first taste of good Milk, but notice the swelled head..Poor Baby. He'll get some extra attention for me not getting there fast enough. I am just soo Glad he made it. It sure had my adrenaline pumping and with that I tackled my day with a ton of energy. I needed it!!