a calving story

After picking up the girls from school yesterday and starting homework, Jake calls to tell me he will be in soon for dinner. We were finishing up studying for Jacie's spelling test, when Jake calls back to tell me he wanted to check one more group of cows before coming in for supper.  I said "how long do you think?"  A farmer's wife's famous question, where you are looking for a ball park time in order to make a meal that will be hot when they show up. When asking you know all along that the time he gives has a give or take of 1 hour or maybe even 3 hours.  Jake says, "oh about 30 or 45 minutes".  I am thinking perfect, that will be just long enough to make dinner.

As I start supper, I hear that it is raining very steadily outside.  The phone rings and Jake says he won't make it in for dinner, he found a cow giving birth.  The calf is actually most of the way out and Jake could see the head but only one leg.  Jake started trying to get her in the barn which is about 1/2 of a mile from where he was.  To do this he needed to move her from the calving field (a smaller pasture) through a grazing pasture (too large to find cows in the dark).  As he was moving her he thought he may need his lasso, so he went back to the truck to retrieve it.  As he was gone she ran off in the grazing pasture.  By this time it was getting dark and raining steadily.  He thought if he didn't find her she may lay down and the calf would most likely die and the cow was at risk of dying also.  For an hour and half he continued looking for her in the dark and rain.  He then came back to the house disappointed and upset.  He ate his dinner, took a warm shower, put the girls to bed and fell asleep on the couch.

He went to bed at 10PM and awoke again at midnight and then again at 5AM.  He was really worried about the cow and calf.  However until the sun came up there was little he could do.  He left at 6AM and went to find her.  He searched most of the morning without finding her.  He later called Steve to come help him.  Steve disappeared into some brush and in no time came out with a smile.  He had found her with a live calf.  Jake was so happy and relieved. We wish good fortune to all of our friends calving this spring.