Day Writing: Filling In
My dad had to have eye surgery. As I am writing this he is in recovery. He had a macular hole that was getting worse, so instead of meeting with a surgeon and scheduling surgery in early April, they moved surgery up to today after a meeting on Monday. He and my mom’s heifers are also due this week, because that is naturally when eye surgery would need to occur.
They called me to keep an eye on my sister Holly, who has Down Syndrome, and the heifers. However, they told Holly to make sure to show me how everything is done and works. She took that statement to heart, and hasn’t let me out of her sight, yet. It’s a tough gig, but over a decade of marriage and two kids have mostly prepared me.
First, the heifers are to be fed every evening. Holly went along last night, and made sure I knew what to do. We could not find a single knife to cut twine with. After careful consideration, I used scissors over a kitchen knife – that’s part of what becoming a wife and mother will do for you in clutch decision making scenarios.
Then, most likely because mom and dad were gone, I had to pull a calf. It was immediately clear I was in the place where I learned how to do such things. Everything was the way it had always been – a real novelty and treat as the person who moved to another ag operation when I got married. Calf pullers, chains, etc… were hung on the wall by someone under six-feet tall, which made a me chuckle as I easily grabbed them. My husband is six feet, three inches tall, and he still regularly forgets that I am a foot shorter when he puts stuff “away.”
I completed that task, got mama and baby situated, and wrapped up for the night.
In the mornings any new calves are tagged, recorded in Holly’s Iphone, then sorted out of the calving lot if they have their legs under them. We easily maneuvered the first pair out of the gate. Then, I said we were going to feed cows before sorting more pairs because a newborn calf was right in the middle of where we would be trailing pairs.
My sister pursed her lips and let me know that was not the usual way things were done. But, being the older sister, I won, and we fed before returning to the calving lot. We completed our sorting, purposely leaving behind the calf I pulled until we know he is eating well. This resulted in another purse of the lips, but no disagreement.
Now, as I continue to write, I see another calf has arrived, which means I will be soon be directed to get it tagged. At this hour, I do believe it can stay the lot until morning, but we will see what upper management, AKA Holly, thinks.
Tomorrow we have to feed cake to the mature cows and the bulls. We are also going to prepare for potential moisture over the weekend, and will have to make a plan on how that should go.
It has been an unexpected treat to spend this time with Holly during this time of year. She is fully in her element during calving season, as am I. We are a lot alike when it comes to cows, and we haven’t been able to do this together for several years.
March 21 was National Down Syndrome Day, and I try to write about Holly on this week every year. There are too many things in the world that say any baby that might not be “normal” should be terminated. I am here to tell you that every baby is a gift from God. The extra special ones that are different can reach people in ways we normal people simple cannot.
In my personal experience, they’re pretty good help calving heifers, too.
