helpful hints from my Farmer

I had a harrowing experience the other day, (well, I thought it was at the moment) and it made me recall a few important lessons my Farmer has taught me over the years.  I thought maybe i would share them.  These are lessons I learned when driving our farm equipment, but have used them many times out side of the farm life.

Do not panic.  Panicking only causes more problems. This is hard for me, I am a really good panickier (person the panics).  Especially when i am going up a hill, try to stop, the brakes don't work, and i start rolling backwards down the hill.  Or my tractor jumps out of gear as I am going down a hill.  I just have to remember our hills are little and I will stop at the bottom....so my Farmer says.

Don't push in the clutch when driving down a steep hill.  If you do, you can get in a lot of trouble real fast.   Your tractor starts going faster in a hurry, and when you let the clutch out......well let's just say that it is not good, especially if there is snow on the ground.  My Farmer taught me this on bare ground, but I learned from experience on snowing ground.......not good......totally causes a panic moment.

Do not hold onto the steering wheel when you look behind you.  It seems that when you turn your head to look behind, you also turn the steering wheel, which in turn makes a crooked row.  So I learned to loosen my grip on the wheel, when I look behind.  I do not let go completely, just in case I might need to grab it quick. (Could be my controlled issue kicking in too)

Use your mirrors when backing up.  This lesson is one of the best he has taught me and has came in handy many times. When backing up, use both side mirrors and the rearview mirror (if they are not broken off).  This way you can still keep an eye on the front end of the vehicle.  I had to learn this when I started driving the field trucks and the Semi Truck, as you can not look out the back window (mostly because there isn't one).  This did take a lot of practice, but I can do it, very well in my opinion, even with a trailer......most of the time. (there is a small dent in my pickup caused by me backing up while hook to a trailer, but we wont discuss that).

So those are my important lessons learned from my Farmer that I am passing on to you.  I'm sure I will learn more to share someday, cuz I am always learning while I am Livin' life, the farm life that is.

Ranch Life has its ups and downs.......

The continuation of Saving a calf.......
This morning started out really good.  At the six o'clock session, Calfy (thought I would name him), was alive and looking good.  His gut area was still very swollen, but he was alert.  So we gave him his IV, (my Farmer is getting the hang of it) and then we rode through the cows to make sure nothing else was in trouble, sick, or thinking about being sick.  (Or as my Farmer says, trying to die).  We got back to the house to feed ourselves, and realized the someone hadn't had time to go shopping.  So my Farmer and I made a quick trip to the grocery store.  Then it was time for another IV sessions.  As with the other times, I once again was holding my breath, we open the door and and yep, still alive.  Holy moly this is tough.  This time we gave him some electrolytes along with his IV fluid.  He was not real keen on sucking the bottle, but I helped him along so he got it down.  After riding out through the cows again, we stopped by to check on Calfy and he was actually trying to get up.  A very good sign.  So on to the next session, a little over 3 hours later.  When we got to the calf house, Calfy had gotten up and wandered a good 10 feet away from the house.  A totally good sign I thought.  So we started the IV and I was just about to give him some more electrolytes and all of a sudden, boom, just like that, he dies.  Holy Shit was all that I could say.  Well, crap and a few other words but we'll just keep it at that.  We were devastated.  We could not believe it.  We kept expecting it to happen, but when it actually did.....Crap.  What a total let down.  No matter where or what, death is hard.  My Farmer always takes the death of one of his critters very hard.  Its just enough to make a person very moody and grouchy the rest of the day.......him not me. So all that work and it didn't work out.  But we did learn new things and are more educated when it happens again.  And I have a new job, riding through the cattle twice a day and making sure every calf gets up and eats, which is a little time consuming, beings how there are 70 of them to date.  (I learned that most times the calf dies from dehydration not from the sickness, thus my new job). And we did get in some fine quality bonding time, my Farmer and me.  And that is always very important when you are living' life, even the farm life.

A First for Me at Saving a Calf...........

Today we had a first.  We IV'ed a calf.  I have never seen this done before.  It is kind of cool.  We have lost 2 calves in the last week, and found another sick one tonight at feeding time so we took him to the veterinarian to see if he could tell us what was wrong.  The vet really couldn't diagnose anything at this point except that he was dehydrated, severely, to the point where he would have been dead in a couple of hours.  So he administrated an IV, and gave him fluids. Now when we arrived at the vet, this calf couldn't even hold up his head and had given up on life.  After giving him two bag of fluids, he was holding his head up and acting like he might actually want to live.  Amazing!  So we brought him home, put him in the warm calf house, gave him one more bag of fluids then left him until the next scheduled feeding, which was three hours.  I was really afraid to go back after that three hours.  I just knew he would be dead.  After all, the other two calves I had tried to save died, so why not this one.  My Farmer and I woke up at 2:00am and went back to the calf house.  I was totally holding my breath as he opened the door, I did not want to find this little guy dead.  OMG!  He was laying there, his head up and he had even moved around!  I was so excited I almost wanted to cry!  So we gave him another bag of fluids and even gave him a little milk.  Now we are back home, will try and get a couple hours sleep, then go back and if he is still alive, give him more fluids.  However, I am still holding my breath and praying, cuz I know we are not out of the woods yet.  Until tomorrow...... Or I guess it is already tomorrow.........wow I better get some sleep!