Sit down and grab a snack , this might be a long one ;
We got rain!!, bunches of it! And while it was raining? what was I doing?
As usual , I was out playing in the mud. And yes Feral, I was out playing in puddles with my good friend Deb, again.
If anyone is wondering, in my last post Go west Feral woman was teasing me and asked if Deb and I play in the mud too. I answered , oh yes we do and said I would tell her a story about just that.
First though , why were we playing in the rain yesterday? we were moving horses, trying to get as many out on grass as we could and get the "ladies in Waiting " separated into a pen up close for me to watch. We dodged the early part of the storm, and were lucky to be safely ensconced in my sister Heather's house for coffee and snarfing biscuits (hungry girls ) when the hail hit, but that is where our luck ended. Went back out to move the geldings and essentially got as far from shelter as possible , before it his again with a vengeance! Totally soaked we made our way back slowly toward the house, stopped to fix a board on the fence (why not you can only get so wet before it stops mattering ) on our way. Laughing about some of our past adventures in the rain and mud ...
Some of the ponies who were moved
Many years ago, we had a particularly wet spring, and when I say wet I mean gooey slippery sink the pickup to the axles kind of wet , and no end in sight!
We had a couple incidents with calves getting stuck in a bit of low ground that had gotten boggy(we have since put in a culvert and it is much better) And I am glad there are not photos of me ,up to my hips in bog, dragging a calf out while my sister fended off the fire breathing momma!Or the second indecent which involved me pulling the calf out , my brother in law Marc, dragging me out and Heather on dry land pulling all 3 of us out !!! I tell you , mud is the worst thing ever, I know how draining being stuck in the mud was for those calves , when you are in over your knees and can't even bend them it is pretty easy to panic.
Figured enough was enough and we needed to get the stock out of the close pens . and out to the open field, wet and cold are deadly to young calves and even our rotational feeding program seemed not to be preventing it that year. So Deb and I saddled up, and headed out with the herd. Sunny spring day ,all good right?
Wrong the clouds rolled in and it began to pour again! Plus we had a straggler fall behind . I stepped off Catana to help the calf and promptly fell on my ,um yeah you know, on the creek! Nice, Deb stepped off to help me and fell in too!
Perfect! we are now soaking wet, the straggler has caught up to the herd and we are back on horseback and good to go. One good thing about being soaked through to the skin,is wet jeans and a suede seat on the saddle means. dang ! can you stick a buck!! Catana, my wonderful horse, got a wild hair,and decided to get a little broncy for a minute, I didn't even move, couldn't have come off if I had wanted to!
In the fracas , we did miss one more calf who was lying in the shed, so when we got back, cold wet and tired we decided to call in the cavalry (my dad) and take the calf out in a truck. Got the horse unsaddled and went out to bring the calf into the barn till dad got here with the big 4X4 . Keep in mind this is several years ago, and at this time I could still easily sling a calf over my shoulders and carry it in , if it was not a real big one. Well, after all we had done I was pretty tired, so I got Heather (my sister in case you missed it ) to bring the truck out and Deb and I headed across the pasture to the calf shed. I got down on one knee and got the calf over my shoulders and could not for the life of me stand up. So (again so glad there are no photos ) Deb grabbed me around my waist and hoisted me to my feet with the calf on my shoulders , meanwhile Heather was frantically looking for the truck keys , and finally met us at the gate. Got the calf to the barn and headed into the house to get cleaned up and dried off while Heather made hot toddy's and we waited for dad.
Now you may be wondering, why we did things the way we did, and how we missed that last calf, At the time I bet so were we, but keeping in mind this started to be a ordinary deal moving the herd and the storm blew in and hit hard and fast , and critters tend to scatter in a storm or just hunker down somewhere to wait it out.We had some of each .
There is more to this tale,about how we got the calf out in the end and a little about a Blue bird,yet another about a bunch of us building a makeshift bridge out of railroad ties when the road washed out and I might tell it all someday but for now we will leave it at, Yes.my friend Feral , we do play in the mud, and do some puddle jumping from time to time, and you would be more than welcome to join in if you are ever up this way.
Stay safe my friends
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