A Helping Hand

The evening of Friday, February 26th, 2016:  With my Dad out of town for a few days, we were doing his feeding and taking care of things for him.  When filling up a water trough for the beef cattle, my wife noticed something odd.  All the cows came up to the manger except for one.  When it is feeding time and and a cow doesn't come up to eat, it is a big deal.  They are either sick or injured, and timely care can sometimes make the difference between life and death.

As she took a closer look, she noticed that the cow had just given birth, and the place she chose to do so was right next to a deep, mucky corner of the pen.  This poor little calf, in trying to stand up and take his first steps, had managed to get himself down in a hole and was stuck.  His mama was standing there, licking him off, trying to help him up, but could do nothing for him.  As soon as I came home from work, I changed my clothes as fast as I could and ran up to see what we could do.

To our great fortune the cow calved close to the fence, so getting to the calf was not difficult.  I was not familiar with this particular cow and had no idea what her temperament was going to be like.  All the beef cattle are pretty docile, but when a cow has a calf, that can change.  The most dangerous place in the world is between a mother cow and her new baby calf.   But, we needed to help the calf.  I decided to chance it and climbed over the fence and down next to the calf.  The cow stood about 6 feet from me.  As soon as I grabbed onto the calf and started pulling, she snorted, bawled, and closed the gap between us, sending me scrambling back up over the fence.  So much for plan A.

Feeling that our time was running short to save this little calf, we quickly formed a plan B.  Reaching through the fence, I was able to slip a rope around the calf's neck and pull him out of the muck and through the fence, out of the pen.  That angry mama (later to be named 'Grouchy') head butted the fence rails a couple times and just about came through after her calf (and me).  I ran and got my loader tractor and put the calf in the bucket.  Driving around to the front of the pen, I opened the gate, pulled the tractor in, and set the bucket down to show the cow where her calf was.  After a couple of minutes she found him.  With the cow now sticking like a magnet to the front of the tractor, I backed out of the pen and over into a smaller pen used mainly for sick cattle.  Halfway there, though the cow became distracted by my barking dog and went after him for a minute.  I hurried and backed the tractor into the pen, jumped off, and ran to get the cow turned around and shewed back over to her baby.  She finally ran into the pen with the calf and I closed the gate behind her.

My moment of jubilation was cut short, as I realized that my tractor was still in the pen, and this distressed mama had just about enough of me for one day.  I wasn't sure how we would get it out.  She gave me the death glare as I climbed up on the fence, then started snorting and pawing at the ground when I made a move to get down off the fence to get on the tractor.  It was about ten feet away from the fence, and I needed to get it out of the pen.  Standing on top of a fence post (railroad tie), I took a flying leap, and to my great surprise, actually stuck the landing on the tractor!  I looked over at my wife, who was staring at me with wide eyes and her mouth open.  I still don't know if it was a look of admiration at what I had just done, or a look of disbelief that I would attempt such a thing.

With the tractor now outside the pen, we backed off and left them alone for a few minutes.  Grouchy eventually calmed down and went back to licking her baby off and trying to get him up.  We waited and watched to make sure the calf was going to be okay.  We weren't sure how long it had been since the calf had been born, but it had to have been at least a couple of hours.  Newborn calves typically stand up on their own and start looking for food about a half hour after being born.  This calf could hardly hold its head up.  He did try to stand a couple of times, but only to fall back down and lay flat on his side for a couple minutes.  He seemed to have exhausted all his energy while he was stuck in the muck, and now was too tired to stand up and drink the colostrum that would keep him alive.

We made a quick trip to town and bought some colostrum replacer to feed the calf.  Now the only problem was that the cow was still on the fight and not about to let us get anywhere near her baby.  The only solution was to repeat what we did the first time and rope the calf, now in the middle of the pen, and pull him out through the fence again.

I got a lariat rope and, standing at the fence on the outside of the pen,  managed to get a loop around his neck.  We slid him out of the pen and gave him the milk with a probe bottle.  He was too weak to stand, but still put up some good resistance towards having a tube placed in his throat.  Once we got it all down into his stomach we slipped him back through the gate and in with his mama.  After that, we fed the cow and called it a night.  That was all we could do.  In the morning the calf would either be up and around, or dead.

The next morning, to our great surprise, the calf was not just up and walking around, but was actually trying to jump and play.  The cow's teats were sucked clean and her udder hung empty.  We kept a close eye on him all day Saturday and Sunday, but he seemed to be out of danger and doing well.

Expressing the 'I am going to eat you for lunch' look.

This was a great lesson for our kids, who witnessed the entire ordeal from safely inside our van, on having compassion for animals and putting everything you've got into helping someone and solving a problem.  I enjoy working with cattle and am glad this story had a happy ending.

Helping someone in need always makes you feel good.

The Hardest of the Hard Things

As a parent, one of the hardest things you have to deal with is health problems with your children.  That is simply because there is little to nothing you can do to take away their pain and make things better for them.

When one of our children was born, he had a virus and a couple other complications that landed him in the NICU for the first week of his life.  He was 5 days old before my wife got to hold him for the first time.  We soon after discovered he had severe food allergies.  Because of his struggles at birth he also had a weakened immune system, which basically meant that he got sick every time we went to town.  The first few years of his life were difficult for all of us.

An unforeseen source of difficulty during that time was the lack of understanding and compassion people tend to have for children with food allergies and medical complexities.  When our son was old enough to start eating regular food, we had to be very careful with what he ate.  Any exposure to food containing dairy, peanuts, eggs, tomatoes, or barley would result in hives, severe abdominal discomfort/pain, followed by 2-5 days of diarrhea.  The pediatrician equipped us with an epi-pen and trained us on what to do if he had a severe allergic reaction.

All of our friends and extended family knew about our son's food allergies, but some of them didn't really understand or seem to believe us.  They acted like we were just being unnecessarily strict and superstitious.  When we went to family gatherings we had to watch him closely, because some people, who felt bad for him, would try to give him things he could not have.

A few times things did get slipped past us.  Once someone stuck a spoonful of whipped cream in his mouth, and another time he was given a glass of 2% milk.  When the milk was handed to him it spilled all over his arm and mouth, which instantly broke out in hives.  The shocked look on that person's face when they saw the blemishes appear on his skin was something I'll never forget.

Around the time he turned 3 we were able to began introducing foods he had been allergic to in his diet.  Today he has completely outgrown all of his food allergies.  What a blessing it has been for him to be transformed into a healthy regular kid.  What a blessing it has been for my wife and I to be able to empathize with other parents who are dealing with similar issues with their children.  Some struggles you can only fully comprehend after you have been there yourself.



Through those hard times with our son we received a lot of help and advice from my sister, who had a child that was dealing with medical issues far more complicated and severe than what we had faced.  Brandis knew what we were dealing with, and we now understood a little better about what she and her family had faced over the last few years. To see her blog, go to: agirlandhertube.blogspot.com.

There are 3 things we learned during the first 3 years with our son:

1. Even though his struggles were a difficult trial for us, we didn't have to look very far to find someone who had it much worse than we did.  We had a niece that required a feeding tube, a relative with Crones disease, and we also were friends with a family whose daughter had been recently been diagnosed with leukemia.  We were fortunate, because our son had the possibility of outgrowing his medical issues.

2.  If a parent has one or more of their children on a 'weird' diet, respect their wishes!  Though it may be tempting, conducting your own experiments on their kids by giving them foods they aren't supposed to have will never yield positive results.

3.It doesn't do any good to spend time feeling sorry for yourself and comparing your problems and issues with those of people who appear to 'have it easy'.  Everyone is fighting a different battle, some just can't be seen from the outside.

While in the pursuit of happiness, one should stop, and just be happy. -Eleanor Roosevelt

Tails of Gold

March 26th 2016

There are a few types of creatures in existence that are of questionable purpose.  Skunks, mosquitoes, and yes, you guessed it, gophers.  The only benefit they can offer is a meal for their predators when they get caught.

On flood irrigated ground gophers are driven to the ditchbanks and outer perimeter of the field where it is easier to stay out of the water when it comes.  But, because sprinkler irrigation systems don't saturate their tunnels with water and either drown them or force them to relocate, gophers thrive in fields irrigated by handlines, wheel lines, and center pivots.  In spite of many efforts to eradicate them, since the farm's sprinkler irrigation system was put in in about 1995, the gophers have been gradually increasing in population.

In June of 2014, I took my boys, then ages 4 and 2, out to the field with one of my old box traps so I could show them what a gopher looked like in real life.  The first two times we set the trap the gopher plugged it with dirt.  On our third try we finally caught one.  It was big, ugly, and had the nastiest teeth and claws ever seen before.  I told the G. and R. about how you can cut their tails off, take them in to the irrigation district office, and get a dollar for each one.  They were so excited that we had to keep setting that trap so we could get more gopher tails.  I rounded up a couple more traps and we were officially in the gopher trapping business.

There are 3 reasons we are doing this:
- It is an opportunity for my family to spend a little time working together outside every day.
- It is an opportunity for my children to earn a little money and learn about working hard for it. (most purchases in town are discussed in terms of how many gophers they had to catch to pay for it).
- It is an opportunity to help reduce crop loss and equipment breakdowns caused by gopher mounds.

Since June 12th, 2014, we have caught more than 535 gophers on the farm.  In 2 of the fields we trap in it is finally starting to appear as though the gopher population is in a decline.  We have actually had a difficult time finding fresh gopher mounds to set our traps in.  But, we are far from running ourselves our of business.  There are other fields we haven't been able to trap in as much.

First gopher of the year

Below are pictures of our young gopher trapping professionals and how they identify recent gopher activity, dig the fresh gopher mounds, find the holes, and set the traps.


Step 1.  Find a fresh gopher mound.  There are two ways to do this.  Either look for dark brown dirt mounds, or simply follow the dog.  He has a high success rate of identifying good holes to set traps in.

  

Step 2.  Find the circle in the mound and start digging.  On a typical fresh gopher mound you should be able to find the hole after removing 2-4 shovels full of dirt.








Step 3.  Stop everything to pick some blooming weeds.



Step 4: Clear out the entrance and smooth the dirt in front of the hole.  (Keep in mind that gophers will bite fingers).  Set the mechanism on the trap and carefully place it directly in front of the hole.  Lightly cover all the gaps between the trap and the hole (except for the hole in the back of the trap) with dirt.  Mark with a flag, and you're done!





Step 5:  Pull up the traps.  After 24 hours, any trap that is not set off will either be plugged or was set in an abandoned hole, so pull them all up.

 

After you have completed steps 1-5, you will hopefully have a gopher caught.  The last step is to smile and do a happy dance (and then fill in the hole).

  

Trapping gophers may seem like an odd topic to spend so much time doing and talking about, but this has turned into valuable and rewarding family time for us.  This is one thing we do together, but you don't have to live on a farm or trap gophers to find new ways to bond with your kids.  For the innovative thinker, opportunities are everywhere for families to spend time together doing fun things that will create fond memories at little to no cost.

Easter Bunny in Distress

The Easter bunny came ahead of schedule this year.  Saturday morning a letter was found on our kitchen table.  According to the letter, the Easter bunny was early because he was trying to stay ahead of a fox who wanted to eat him.  Since he was running for his life when he came, our kids' Easter goodies were left in a ditch up in the field.  Clues that led to the 'treasure' were left in 5 different places on the farm.

Reading the note left by the Easter Bunny

The first clue said to go the the 'Mule'

Clue 2: The Lagoon

Clue 3: The cow known as 'Grouchy"

Clue 4: The place where we found some buried treasure (some scrap metal) 2 years ago

Clue 5: The ditchbank where asparagus can be found.

G. was getting a little frustrated we hadn't found anything yet.

When they finally spotted something I was asked: "why is there a bike and an old dresser in the ditch?"

After working out the clues all by themselves, they finally found the 'treasure'!

The Easter bunny found out from Santa Claus what sizes the kids needed.

At a time when families are being pulled apart by the diminishing morality of our society, holidays are an opportunity for families to grow closer with fun activities.  This little Easter treasure hunt was very simple and inexpensive, yet the kids all loved it.  Even now, almost a week after it occurred, they are still talking about it.  Simple and creative activities create the best memories.