Saturday, April 28, 2018

Saturday Work With the Help

       Today I start finishing up the work I have hired a 16 year old to do. We are going around the fences and limb lopping off young cedar trees and anything hanging over the fence I can't drive by with a tractor. I almost have all the outside fences done on the Sires place. We have it started on our home place but I will finish the outside fences when we get done with the other places. 
    My method of doing it is I go to all the places and clear out any new growth along the outside fences first. I like to be able to drive around all the fences on the inside so we can repair and do whatever is needed. 
    Once I get the outside fences done on all the properties I start working on the inside cross fences one place at a time. 
   If I don't get this kind of thing done we will lose our fences to overgrowth really quick in just a matter of a few years. You can't afford to clean out and replace fences every few years with a bull dozer for sure so much better to do this. 
    I am trying to get as much done as I can before we get to hot so we can avoid snakes and ticks to some degree. I sure as heck don't want to get someone hurt while doing it!
    I will take the fence bucket with us in case we see some fence clips that need to be put on or whatever while out.
     I hope I can get a pipe dug out that popped up in one of the pasture roads that isn't being used for drainage any more. I have been after hubby about it for over a year because we have to go around it when driving. I am afraid we are going to hit it with a tire and get a flat. He argues with me but I'll be darned if I'm going to let the chance to fix it go by now that I have some help! 
    If we get done in time and the guy still has energy  I'm going to put him to work picking up rocks south of the barn. It's a place where the cows are a lot and where they have eroded the ground and exposed them. Just perfect for hubby to trip over out there when he is putting feed out. 
    We have a pipe H for the fence the cows walk by constantly hugging the fence. Cows do that a lot about hugging fence corners. It is also eroding and I'm going to have him fill up the hole there so maybe they won't walk there so much and if nothing else it will keep the dirt from eroding and weakening the fence. 
    I love having help! I can supervise and get things done I have been bugging hubby about that he doesn't think is important.! 
    It is surprising how tiring it is to supervise someone for 5 hours or more! Wears you out even though your not doing a lot of anything but watching and instructing. 
    I'm going to be worn out when I get back into the house but I have been gathering ingredients together the last few trips to town to make me a Lemon Blueberry Cake for my birthday. Hubby said that isn't his kind of cake I told him too bad! It's my birthday and I am going to make something I have been wanting to try for a while now. Naturally it is a complicated from scratch cake somewhat so I can actually make it in stages and put together on a different day. The saddest part is I don't have anyone to share it with! When you don't have family around it's hard to enjoy cooking. Hubby has such stupid picky taste buds and doesn't like so many things I swear it has ruined my ability to cook good! So I figure I will get to try a piece or 2 of cake and give the rest to the helper. 

gotta go, help will be here soon

Love
Ranchmama
   



Sunday, April 22, 2018

One L of a Week !@#!#


I guess you can say the week started off like the classic Monday on the 16th. I was trying to show and supervise some 16 yo boys on how to do things in the birdhouse. They do good but I was trying to iron out some stuff. I have never been able to go into the birdhouse because it makes me sick. I have been lately trying to give hubby a helping hand. I always cover my mouth and nose even if I don't have a mask handy. I haven't been staying in there but maybe 10 minutes or so but this day I had to be a little longer. I was watching and seeing why there was such a big mess in the feed room. So there was a lot of watching the way he did things. I figured it out and showed him how to sweep up between batches of feed so it wouldn't get all over the feed room floor and also waste a lot of feed money. I had been having some breathing issues the last few days and croaky sounding but doing all the magic tricks I knew to fix it. Before I was done in there with him I had to step outside. I was having a problem breathing and it was hitting hard and fast. I struggled to make it the few feet to the truck. I turned on the A/C full speed to get me some air. I sat real still while trying to drive to the house. I used my inhaler several times. When I pulled up in front of the garage I honked madly for hubby to come out. I just couldn't hardly move! I told him to open the front door because it was quicker and shorter distance to my breathing machine. I had to take a few steps and stop to try to breathe. There was no O2. I felt like I was going to pass out. I made it into the house and hubby was there trying to get me anything I wanted. I had him get my clothes so I could maybe look decent and barely got those on. I told him to get me the pulse ox and a water pill. The pulse Ox said 85. No wonder I felt like I was dying! I told him we were going to the ER. I took my machine with me to use in the car if needed. I did my Advair since it was time. I mean I did everything.I could, I think we were there by 3:30?? I remembered some homeopathic asthma meds on the way and took them. That finally did help relax some stuff so I could function just sitting there.  We were out by 6:30 or so with antibiotics and steroid scripts. They gave me meds to get me through till the morning. That helped a bunch. Naturally my water pills kick in and every time I had to find a bathroom my O2 would drop down again to 87 or so. It was really rough. I need to get some kind of portable small O2 canister for emergencies like that. The hospital is too far away in Shawnee. Nothing closer will take BCBS insurance. 
    Tuesday --- It was go get the meds in town while hubby took care of the man that was coming to till up 2 plots that were 20x20 in 2 different places. He didn't want to deal with someone but I wasn't going to be out in the pollen after the night before. 
     Here I went through cancer surgery and the flue season and thankfully missed that and then the oak pollen kicks my butt into the ER ! 
    I have a government contract for 5 years to plant and maintain a wild flower plot. I had shown hubby where I wanted both of them. A few days before I had shown a man where to put them also. He could get it done a lot quicker with his tractor attachment than we could with what we had. The man was reeking of booze. One of those with a bottle in the hand at all times but functioning what appears to be fine. 
    As I was going to town I stopped on the road and I could see where the man was putting the garden plot. I called hubby and told him that didn't look right . I told him I wanted it more away from the fence like I showed him. Oh he's going to do it a lot bigger than what you wanted. It will be fine. I went on to town. 
  Wednesday --- We made a trip to OKC. I was still not breathing great but I could function and walk without being in a mess. 
  Thursday was a feed cow day so after breakfast I got ready to go with hubby and feed the cows. On one of the places we noticed a cow down by the creek. We drove over and it looked like one of Nikki's cows had died trying to have a calf. It was a strange place for her to be for sure. She was a old cow probably since it was on one of the places with the oldest cows.  While I was in the area I wanted to go see the garden plots that were done and plant the 1/2 pound of Government approved wildflower seeds since it was going to rain on Friday or Saturday. Figured it would be perfect timing. 
    Well low and the H@#$ I have definitely proven that one woman is a L of a lot smarter that ANY 2 MEN ANY DAY !!!!
     I look at the garden plot I stopped on the road and told hubby it wasn't right and it sure as L wasn't! I couldn't believe my eyes! After me showing the tractor man, then showing hubby, then stopping on the road and calling him to tell him it wasn't right ...... it was no fricking way it was anywhere near where I said I wanted it! 
    Hubby couldn't see what the big deal was! I told him I wanted it in that spot so we could drive around it will all the hay equipment or brush hog so it didn't take over the field. He said you can still do that ! I told him what the heck is wrong with you???? I didn't have a choice and planted the flowers anyway. 
   We get done there and go to feed cows in another 160. I want to go plant the other flower garden that was tilled up in a hay field where the government wanted it. So we open the gate go up there and guess what...... They did it damn again!!!!!  Hubby said the man said this is where you wanted it! I told hubby I thought you and I talked about it and I showed you where I wanted it! Well it is over in that area where you said you wanted it! I flat out told him L no it isn't! I said here in the middle of everything! You put it way the heck over there! He said well that's close enough what's wrong with that??!! I had to point out where I originally said to put it there was sunshine from all angles and I could brush hog around it with plenty of room. Where you guys put it There are huge cedar trees on the west and east side of them blocking the morning and afternoon sun!
   I was so so so furious! I could not believe he actually did that too me. I couldn't get out in the crud if I wanted to breathe. So I counted on him to do it for me. You would think that between 1 1/2 men (the other guy was a drunk ) they could figure it out. I was so mad I could cry! I would have but it would have just made me sick and couldn't breathe. Anyone that knows me around here knows I don't get mad. So that is just how bad this whole thing was. I boil just thinking about it. I didn't say much for the rest of the day and night I was so mad. I didn't dare. I would have said a lot of not nice things. 
Friday was a semi normal day. I actually got to stay in the house and get a few things done I have been trying to do all week in the kitchen. 
Saturday - I don't remember what was going on much other than we finally got some much needed rain. We decided to go skip breakfast and just feed cows before it started raining. We finished up and we were making a round on the road to check some other cows and noticed a big heifer up by the road fence trying to have a calf. I mean right up against the fence! They don't usually do such weird things. We looked from the road and she had to feet out pretty good. We didn't know to leave her there or try to walk her into the coral into the head catcher. It was raining and everyone had been doing good having calves so we decided to eat breakfast and then check her. 
    After breakfast we went in the pasture and thought maybe if we give it a little tug she will just pop it right out. We got the rope from behind the seat and hubby placed the loop around it's feet. He doesn't have the strength he used to so I was putting all my weight into the rope and pulling with all I got. Even with contractions we weren't getting anywhere. We could see the nose now so it would probably be ok but his tongue was starting to swell a little. We backed up the truck to the rope and I gently drove and we pulled the calve out that way.
    All the time this is going on we are in a cold dark dreary rain. What a heck of a time. The calves tongue was pinking up and all but he was just laying there. No telling how long she may have been trying to have that baby. We just left her alone  to do her job. 
Sunday -- After breakfast hubby went to check on the calf to see if it was still alive. It was he said, just barely. He couldn't get it to stand up and lock his legs in. The cow was being good and doing her job the calf just couldn't. I told him I would try to get some milk down it if he wanted me to. He said it never works like that they always die. I told him I would do whatever he wanted me to. I tried to get it to drink out in the pasture but it wouldn't suck. It was sooo cold and soooo wet. The poor thing wasn't going to make it for sure like that. We loaded it up in the truck took it too the shop and put a heater on it to warm it up and dry it off. I opened it's mouth and drizzled some warm milk down it and had to watch to see if it swallowed before trying again. It was too cold and weak to sit up or do anything. It would bite my fingers but never suck. After a while it tried to sit up but couldn't unless we propped it up. He would even bawl a little bit. 
    All this time I am on a little stool, bent over more than my back hips and legs want to and about to die! Ouchie for sure. 
    Took a 2 hr rest went back to try it again and this time I couldn't even get him to blink. Tried rubbing him to get him to respond. He was breathing just barely and died in a few minutes. The really sad part is the cow is at the fence looking for him an walking around the pasture at the last 2 places she saw him. We hauled it back to her to see it was dead so she would know but she didn't understand and went the other way. We dropped the calf off deeper in the pasture so maybe she will find it and know what happened. Cows morn when they lose a calf. That is why we were trying to show her. 
    We saved the cow. She will be a good mama. The baby was a bull and his head was shaped a little rounder and bigger. We got the head out then the hips were hard to get out. 
    After all this I told hubby lets make a round. I like to check things from the road and it relaxes me sometimes after a tough day. We get in old blue and make a round. D!@@# if we didn't see a cow laying down on Grandma's in a new field we just opened for them to graze in. We went on around to the other places and said if she is still down when we come back we can check her. All the cows thought we were going to feed them so they came out of that field. We could see then that the one cow was still down. This is the place where we had the old cow we had to help up a couple of times. We went home and hubby got in the tractor to check her since the truck would get stuck after the rains. I reminded him she may just need help getting up. He called and said no she was dead and he moved her away from the road and other cows.  At least she passed away in a nice new green field of grass. 
    That's what happens sometimes. The weather turns from warm to cold and rainy and anything with a weakness out there gets thinned out. After a day like the last two we had we were lucky it wasn't us because we really have to struggle to do those physical things now days. 
    It's been doing good the last few years on heifers I guess it was just time to have a bad spell with cows. Sometimes no matter how hard you try stuff just happens. I did learn something. I used to think a calf was just too weak but I think this one was o2 deprived and had some brain damage and couldn't suck or stand.

Love
Ranchmama
(Tired, still aggravated, and hoping it all gets better now. )