Man’s Other Best Friend

  I finally got to do my daily walk today (after suffering with a cold/cough for the last week).  It was not an easy walk as the tractor ruts were hidden by the 6 inches of snow we received yesterday.  The dog accompanied me and I caught our footprints up the hill…notice one of us walks a straight line while the other one wanders all over the place!  Looking at this picture reminded me of that famous footprints in the sand poster – the one talking about Jesus walking beside you or carrying you.

I thought about my other “faithful” companion, Jewel.  She is a great dog and comes with me on my daily walks.  Although she is pushing 13 (that would be well over 80 years old in people years) she is doing well.

Jewel and I have weathered a lot together.  Deaths, divorce, child rearing and cancer (the dog had cancerous lumps removed, not I).  Jewel was sometimes more of a great companion than some humans!  However, I must recount my experience with my “faithful” companion from just a few days ago.

I was hacking up a lung and sneezing my brains out.  It was cold outside.  The snow was coming down….and the steers needed fed.  35 hungry mouths do not take kindly to waiting.

I carried out my duties and fed the steers.  I decided to shovel some snow as there was to be more falling later that day and I didn’t want a heavier shovel load.  This is when I noticed that my faithful companion was not so faithful.  She had abandoned me and was standing on the front porch.

Actually, she wasn’t just standing.  She was barking.  You see, she was doing her “let me in” routine by standing at the front door and barking until someone opens the door.  The only problem with this is that I was the only human at home and I was standing outside with her!  I was shoveling and coughing.  She was standing and barking.   So much for faithful companion – she was ready to abandon me as soon as the front door opened!

Oh well, every so often there is a glitch in the ideal relationship!   Which brings me back to our footprints in the snow.  I hope Jesus doesn’t just walk beside people on the sand!  I am guessing he also has a pair of snow boots for those of us in colder climates – and it is a good thing because my other best friend has cold paws and wants in the house!

King of the Hill and that other one…

King...er, Queen of the Hill

Headed out to hay the steers this day and I caught the cows playing a game.   Most of these are not “our cows” because they are dairy and we have beef.  They belong to my brother-in-law and we are simply housing some of them at our place.  Anyway, it appears they like to play.  When I first approached the barn I saw this cow’s head higher than I would expect.  My initial gut reaction was, “Oh crap, the cows are loose.”  Imagine my relief when I got closer and saw the situation (chasing cows is not always a fun experience, especially when one is weighed down with winter apparel).

I can almost “hear” the group to the left making their plan to storm the hill and depose the Queen of the hill.  The cow on the right?  Obviously a renegade bent on taking the hill and not having to give government cabinet posts to those who helped take the hill 🙂   I easily thought up a few more scenarios and what the cows could be thinking….do cows think?  I mean, do they think beyond eating?  That is a topic for another blog.

As I continued with my chores the group maintained their positions and watched.  I am not certain what activity of mine signaled an “all clear” and they abandoned their game for ….. you guessed it …. eating.  I examined the rest of this particular group in our other barn.  This group is composed of Holsteins and some of our Angus.  We have been having an issue with some type of virus that has claimed 3 Angus cows thus far.

I checked the food status and made an observation of the live/dead status.  Everyone was alive.  And so my day continued back in the farm-house.  Things went well until the evening feeding.  My son spent most of the day sick so I got to cover his shift for the evening feeding.  My job, to fork the silage to the cows in both barns.  I tackled the above pictured group first.  They were jostling for positions in the headlock as I pushed/shoved/forked the silage.  It was active, it was noisy and I was cold.  My biggest concern was to get to the other barn and finish my duty.

At the steer barn I proudly recounted my story of the day – the King of the Hill game and the fact that I took care of both barns even with the blustery winds (I have told anyone within earshot how much I dislike the cold).  The Farmer merely grunted and continued bringing more feed to the steers.  When he gave me the thumbs up to return to the house I gladly ran for the warmth of the kitchen.  Sometimes, being responsible for making dinner has its benefits.

When the Farmer came in dinner was ready.  However, he had a weird twist to his face.  I paused in my dinner activity to wait for the reason.  He then said, “I guess you forgot to mention the dead cow in the barn.”   What?!  Where?!   I was so bent on quickly feeding the cows and getting back to the warm house that I never paused long enough to observe the cows.  Had I done that, I would have seen that one of them wasn’t getting up and was in an unlikely position for just resting. I am now upset with myself for not taking the time to observe.  I had observed earlier in the day and that one was alive, although she wasn’t walking around.  Should I have done something?  Recognized something at that earlier time?

To say another one bites the dust would only upset the Farmer.  This makes the 4th cow in just a week.  The Farmer told me there was nothing that could have been done.  The virus is a bad one, tests are still pending at the lab but most results are coming back “negative” for most of the assumed culprits.  I know that my next shift at the barn will have a little more ‘observation’ time.

Oh, and the Queen of the Hill?  She is doing fine, as are her playmates.  I will gladly welcome seeing another game….

Thankful for the Holiday Weight Gain

Bet you would never hear a woman make that statement!  I wasn’t thankful until this morning – you see, the extra pounds are actually a benefit in this cold spell.  My reasoning is as follows:

1.  I am feeding the steers and wrestling the round bale in 10 degree weather with a breeze.  The extra layer of fat keeps me warm, so much so that I really don’t need too many bulky layers of clothes so I have a better range of motion for forking feed and hacking at the bale.

2.  Padding, especially when I fall.  The quick freeze and slight dusting of snow has hidden all those tractor ruts.  Some of these ruts are rather deep and the snow obscures the danger.  A wrong step throws off my balance and down I go….thankful for that layer of padding on my derriere.

3.  I now have a goal for my exercise program – which had come to a halt over the holiday weeks.  What better motivator than to see the extra padding and formulate the plan to exercise it away for spring.

Ah yes, the holiday pounds – there is a benefit to them.   (Have I convinced everyone yet?  I am trying real hard to put a positive spin on this so I don’t beat up the scale in my bathroom).