Easter Excitement

We had a super busy Friday and Saturday with 19 calves in 36 hours......yes, I was very glad R is home to help out!  There were a couple of calves Saturday morning while we were doing chores, but then nothing by the time R came over for lunch.  He and J went off-roading to get to a stack of weed bales so they could burn them.  R thought they would take the snowmobiles, but J thought it would be a pain to haul gas, etc. so he opted to take the pickup.  He loves to go off-roading with it and thinks he can go anywhere.  R said they did a lot more shoveling than he would have liked.

While they were off doing that, M went to check cows around 4:00 and all hell had broken loose with 8 more calves.  On Sunday morning we woke up to 2" of new snow.  Just what we wanted!  It was a bit weird to have fluffy snow that came straight down, some of it while the sun was shining!  We had to put one cow in the maternity pen and get her milk going since it didn't look like the calf was having much luck, but we didn't have any new calves.

We were headed to Scobey to M's parents' house for Easter dinner when the cell phone rang.  It was our neighbor, fencer Bob.  He is a gruff, old, independent guy who lives in a camper at the neighbor's.  He was originally hired to fence when our neighbor bought the place but has turned into a cow watcher and all around handyman.  He used to have a home in Chinook, but the house was falling down and he eventually sold the land, so I guess he's here to stay.  Anyway, he called and said he needed help.  If Bob says he needs help, he REALLY needs help.  He had gone out to feed his cats and slipped on the ice and fell and dislocated his shoulder.  I think he was attempting to drive himself to the hospital and decided he couldn't do it.  We turned around and met him where his gravel road meets the highway.  He wanted M to drive his car into town so he did, and I followed in mine.  We took him to the ER and waited while they assessed him and then went to our Easter dinner while they worked to get his shoulder back in place.  It was obvious that he was in a lot of pain, and he is a tough old bird.  I felt so bad for him.  We checked in a couple of time during the day, and they weren't having any luck getting the shoulder back in and had him pretty drugged up.  They eventually sent him by ambulance to Sidney.  In the meantime, his dog was sitting in his car in the parking lot so we took her with us.  He called us about 10:30 that night and said he'd be ready to come home in the morning.

M made a quick check and did chores Monday morning and then headed to Sidney to get Bob.  I was at work when they stopped to get a prescription for some pain pills on the way home.  He looked like he was back to his old self...except for the arm in a sling.  He's not supposed to do anything with that arm for six to eight weeks.  Like that's going to happen.  It might put a crimp in his fencing duties this summer.

R came home before dark to check the cows and there were no calves at all...the whole day.  M was a bit disappointed that there weren't any calves on his birthday.  I told R he'd better be ready for a bunch on Monday, and I was right.  I think we had 10 so we should be close to half done calving.  Now we just need some of the snow to disappear so we can kick them into a pasture.  We're starting to run out of room for everything.  And M wonders why I always say no to more cows.  We're just not set up for any more.

Looks like we should have above-freezing temps all week so the water will be running and we'll be dealing with mud.  Spring may be on it's way!