Im not running my "normal" run today. Why? Well, Mother Nature hit us with what is one of the worst and hoepfully LAST (got that MN...LAST!!) snow storms of the season last night. She dropped off 12 inches of snow in 12 hours and then, cause that wasnt enough, sent in 30-50mph winds.
These are the times when most people hunker down in the houses and wait out. Which is what we also do, for part of the night. Being a ranching family, during calving, the worse the weather, the more there is to do.
Hubby, his dad and brother were on cattle watch last night, all night. Every 3 hours someone was outside, driving in the above mention conditions, hanging out the window with a spotlight, looking for newborns and out calves that might be need some help.
My "run" today was from the barn to the trailer, grabbing the extra horse blanket, and back to the barn to cover the shivering calf.
Animal rights groups forget to tell you that part when they slam agriculture based familes.
Actually, they dont forget...they just dont
They havent looked in the barn, under the pile of horse blankets and the heat lamps, to see the calves that were brought inside, so they didnt freeze.
They forget to mention the near ditch experice when hubby hit his brakes while driving through a 2 foot snow drift, because there was a calf on the side of the road who got blown through the fence.
They dont watch the ranchers and their wives sit and bottle feed the calves, so they can get strong enough, or walk out to the barns to check on them every hour or so, they dont drive through the cows and calves that are outside still, watching and waiting, making sure those babies are doing alright.
After all that is done, then chores can be started.
Im new to the ranch wife job....its only been a 2 years. My heart still breaks when I look at the calves, their noses peeking out from under the blankets and yes, I send up a few prayers for the little guys. Ultimately I know that nature will takes it course and what is going to happen, will happen. I also know, that it wont be because of lack of trying on the ranchers part.
I also know that the animal activists wont mention that part, either.
Great way to tell it like it is...
ReplyDeleteYou and your family are rock stars. The work you do is hard and I admire ya'all!
ReplyDeleteEveryday, unsung heroes that make this Country strong; that's who you and the rest of the family are, along with all the ranching families in Arthur. So proud of all of you.
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