That was Thursday.
It is amazing what happens when you no longer have use of your phone. You become totally aware of how linked you are to it and how often you think about sending a text to someone, checking email, etc.
SO - Scott, of course, had been trying to call and text me all afternoon. And you know that feeling when you do not get a response after sending a text like "call me" and no one calls. So, by the time dance practice was over and Katie and I were coming up the road, I could see dust up ahead of me. I thought to myself how great that Scott and I were getting home at the same time, we could start the grill, get everyone cleaned up and then I could head to the gym. That was all I really had wanted to do all day!
But when we got up to where Scott was, I found it odd that his truck was facing the wrong direction and Betty was running down the road and I could see Scott in the truck scratching his head. Now anyone who has ever done a project with Scott or had any kind of confrontation with him knows that when he does "the head scratch" things are not going well and you should just nod and smile and say yes to whatever he needs. ;)
Betty had followed Scott up the road and she refused to get into his truck after several attempts. And it was really getting under his skin. Here you have this dog running along side the truck, but refusing to get in despite having have stopped many times and encouraged her to hop in. But when I get there, I stop, Betty comes running and I open the back and she just hops in! I don't know what she is thinking sometimes. We all sort of have a love/hate relationship with her, but she is so darn cute she is quickly forgiven!
The first thing out of Scott's mouth is something about if I have not had my phone on me or if it is off or whatever and he is smoking annoyed with the situation.
The day before we had had a calf and she did not seem to take to her heifer mom. And the mom was just this mad and crabby heifer and charging Scott so it was near impossible to really do anything so we decided to wait. The other man that works at the farm was on vacation so it was all on Scott. He had given the calf some electrolytes and that had seemed to perk it up some but still, none of us had ever seen it nurse and its nose was starting to get dry so we were going to have to intervene, which was why Scott had been calling and texting me all day to tell me to meet him over at the ranch.
So, we fly down the dirt road, gravel flying, a dust cloud behind us and head over to the ranch. The calf is so weak at this point it is really pretty easy to lift and carry down into the ally where - in an ideal world - the mother would recognize her calf was being moved and follow along (and you just hope she does not charge you and take your legs out!). Scott heads up into the pasture with the four wheeler and flops the calf up onto his lap. Of course, I would have taken a picture of this if my phone had not taken a toilet dive. He's holding her like a lamb and she is just sort of draped over his lap. The heifer is paying NO attention to this whole process and the calf is just getting weaker and weaker. So, Scott drops the calf off in the ally and tells me to stand there with the gate to the ally wide open and he is going up to single out the heifer mom and run her down.
Now as much as I as sympathetic to the heifers, cows and calves - some are awfully stupid and just do not get what you want them to do. The cows are usually a different story because they kinda get it. But the heifers - they have no idea. They can sometimes turn on their calf and just be mad at it ... here is this thing that hurt so much coming out and now I am mad. And this heifer was that way. She had practically pushed the calf the morning it was born down a rocky hill, just being nasty to it. And she is nasty to everyone. And I start thinking about how I am going to rescue Scott out of the pasture if she charges and connects with him!
So, Scott goes flying up on the four wheeler and is attempting to "cut out" this heifer. Might I just insert here how EASY this would be if we had some dogs! (Which ironically Scott had gone and looked at a couple earlier in the week.) I am down below manning the gate and petting the calf, who is almost too weak to even walk so is just standing there propped up on all four legs just how Scott had left her.
From a distance, I see Scott racing back and forth on the four wheeler doing his best to get this heifer to come down and she is just not going to have it. She keeps getting around him and running back to the herd, then Scott goes racing over and gets several other heifers on the run while still trying to cut this one out and he is getting pissed! From where I am standing I cannot really see his face, but I can hear him! And every time the heifer gets around him, despite that he had got the four wheeler up two wheels turning and reeving up and racing after it, out comes a bad word. Finally, he yells to me to come up there.
Now I am thinking in my head, what the hell am I gonna do - wave a stick at it and throw a rock? And then I start to wonder what I am going to do when that mad mamma comes charging at me because by now she is pretty worked up. I have this vision in my head of me high stepping it through the pasture as fast as my little legs will take me with a heifer hot on my trail, hurtling the fence and collapsing into the pasture on the other side! So? What do I do? I pick up two of the biggest stick I can find and start waving them!!!
Scott is bringing her down using the four wheeler and I am running all over the pasture making sure she does not get around me because I am not about to get the wrath of Scott on me! After several attempts, numerous swear words, and a lot of running and heavy breathing on my part - we finally get her into the corner of the alley. She FINALLY turns and sees her calf and goes to it and we shut the gate. One step down - three to go.
So, now the next step is to get both the mom and the calf into the smallest corral. Scott backs up the heifer to the farthest end of the alley and tell me to pick up the calf and carry it to the corral. I am thinking running/cardio and now weight lifting....I suppose it might be ok if I skip the gym tonight! I scoop up the calf who, by the way, still weighs about 60 pounds and carry it into the run that leads to the small corral. Scott steps out of the way and the heifer goes running in to be by its calf.
The next step is to get the heifer's head into a head squeeze which is at the end of the corral. Then there is a smaller gate that swings in and locks the heifer into place. This will hold the heifer still while we attempt to get the calf to nurse. With precision timing, we get it done and the heifer is in "lock down". We take the calf and set her up in nursing position and she just does not get it. So, Scott starts milking the heifer and shooting the milk into the calf's face to help things along. The calf gets it and FINALLY starts to nurse which, unfortunately, does not last long so we are stuck there holding the calf up and putting the teet into its mouth and hope she will latch on. She does get some milk.
We leave them there for the night in hopes that when we return things are looking better.
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