Some Days are Rough

Here we are in the thick of Spring, we’ve waited all winter for this. We’ve rested up and are ready! Well as ready as we can be. Most every piece of equipment has needed some repair or to be replaced in the past 6 weeks (tractors, 4-wheelers, wagons, skid-steer, side by side)- you name it we’ve poured money into it. And that’s ok, it’s part of running a business, especially a farm business where nothing you own is very new.

But the last couple days have just been hard. I’ve laughed a lot because otherwise I’d cry, and I’ve also cried some. I mean when your daughters 4-h project dies it’s hard not to feel the feelings.

First a funny - when I was bottling milk, I noticed something pushing in the door from the milk parlor to the milk house, nothing should be in the parlor….especially the handful of cows who had pushed the gate to make their way into the basement of the barn and then into the parlor. The basement is only for holding cows in the morning when they are waiting to go into the parlor to be milked.

Then….I was being a good farm wife and on my way home from my Sam’s Club run I stopped and grabbed feed from the feed mill. Got most of the way home to look back in my mirrors and realize I had lost a few bags, broke open on the road, at the cost of almost $20/bag you back up and you pick up what you can. So I did. I also saw the city girl come out as I wasn’t happy I had grain dust in places that it just shouldn’t be! I drove really slow the rest of the way home (thanks to the suggestion of a passerby who stopped to see if I needed help).

When I got home I found Jason and the two youngest kids tending to a bloated sheep. But not just any sheep, Maizie’s 4-h project sheep. This girl LOVES her animals, she cares for them SO well and has got this one trained. After a call to the vet and quickly putting my Sam’s Club order away I took back off to the next town to grab some medicine for the sheep. Ran it home and they started treatments, Jason gave the last one about 10:30pm before we crawled into bed feeling defeated. When he got up to go milk cows this morning, he first checked on the sheep, unfortunately he didn’t make it through the night. Then Jason had to come in and wake Maizie up and tell her. That is HARD! There’s just no other words or way around it. Even when you are born and raised on a farm, like our kids, losing an animal, especially your 4-H project you’ve bonded with just hits hard.

Onto Thursday. Boys got a new pasture area up that we’ve been wanting to get to for over a year. Yeah! Jason had been watching a cow closely that isn’t due for another month. She was in labor but not progressing. He finally got her tied up in the barn and that’s when he realized the calf’s head was twisted and that’s why momma couldn’t push. He pushed and twisted and had his armpit all up inside her trying to get it twisted around the right way. I had to walk away, remember- city girl! Henry came out just a couple minutes later to tell me they got it pulled and the calf is alive, and momma is doing good cleaning her off! It’s a little girl (heifer) calf. She is not in the clear just yet, in fact her lungs are pretty full of fluid and Jason is working on getting those cleared. He did get colostrum in her and we are praying she makes it through the night.

Most days are long this time of year. And that’s ok. We love serving the land and community we are called to serve. As we approach hay season please keep in mind the farmers that are working day and night to put up feed for your tables. Pray for them. Smile and wave at them as you pass by the fields they are working. We are all honored to do the work, but sometimes it’d be nice to catch a break!

Thanks for being here with us!