Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

High winds, deep snow forecast for wide area

Beginning today, a two-day winter storm is expected to bring a dramatic turn in the weather - in the form of 12 to 18 inches of snow for residents from Livingston to Miles City. Winds between 20 to 35 mph are also expected.

"We're looking at some pretty severe weather," said Scott Carpenter of the National Weather Service.

I keep hearing people say we need the moisture but I don't think we need it this way. I personally would like to see some warm weather to grow some grass, not get no moisture but it's not up to me to decide. With calving going on the last thing I need is 12-24" of heavy, wet snow to stress my calves and kill some of them. It's going to get rough around here that's for sure.

My Darling Wife and kids are moving to town so that school can continue and to be safe from any problems like power outages out here. This is a normal precaution we take with severe weather around here and it usually happens once a year. It can get damn difficult to get out of the place in bad weather and the school does not allow kids to miss school for such reasons and only allows 2 such absences, unexcused, before they will take drastic actions against the students and parents.

They keep comparing this storm to the April 3-4, 1955 storm which dumped 4 feet of heavy wet snow in the area. Believe me, this is not what we need around here. Some words from the Billings National Weather Service site.

TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 12 TO 20 INCHES
ARE EXPECTED BY THURSDAY AFTERNOON. LOCALLY HEAVIER AMOUNTS OF UP
TO 30 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE IN HIGHER ELEVATED LOCATIONS. SNOW
DRIFTS OF 3 TO 6 FEET WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE IN AREAS.

THE HEAVY WET SNOW WILL TRANSLATE INTO SIGNIFICANT LIQUID
PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS IN EXCESS OF 3 INCHES.

WITH A TWO DAY
TOTAL FORECAST OF 16 INCHES FOR BILLINGS...WHICH MAY BE
CONSERVATIVE...THIS STORM WOULD RANK AMONG THE TOP 5 BILLINGS
SPRING SNOWSTORMS AND TOP 10 STORMS OVERALL FOR TWO DAY SNOWFALL
TOTALS.

Not what we need. The damned thing is there is not much I can do for the cattle to help with this storm, I can't provide them with shelter or much help at all. They will manage on their own but I do worry and I will have some losses. I have been feeding close to some brush and draws that provide some shelter from such a storm but I can't force the cattle to use it. A cow that is wanting to calve usually leaves the herd to calve by herself. In this situation that means moving to a less protected area to have her calf and risk losing it in an area that doesn't have as much protection. If she stays in the good protection where the cows are at she risk having the calf stomped to death by the other cows that are milling around the area. It makes for a tough situation. If I go out to help, the cow will continue to move before calving and try to find a place where I can't find her. This leads to having it out in the open by accident and losing it for sure. This all sure leaves me in a real bind.

Then consider the calves that are all ready born. The cold, wet snow lasting for two days stresses them which lowers their resistance to disease and sets off an outbreak of scours, guaranteed. With the extended forecast I will be battling this problem for quite a while. If I am lucky I will have no death loss due to scours but it can happen.

This is not the kind of moisture we need. A slow, warm rain of about an inch might be useful but 2 feet or better of heavy wet snow is a disaster waiting to happen for me. It's Montana though, you take what you can get.

If you think about disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience. Swami Vivekananda

Spring has officially Sprung for me and a new year has begun. The first calf on the cows was spotted yesterday. The cows don't get the attention the first calf heifers do. I knew the cows could be starting any time now so it was not a surprise, nice to see but not a surprise.

The tractor tire is still giving me problems. We can get enough air in it to feed every day for now. New tire and tube looks like the answer. Damn the bad luck.

Spring beckons! All things to the call respond; the trees are leaving and cashiers abscond. Ambrose Bierce

It's official. I'm worrying to much. I went out to check heifers about an hour ago and one was calving. I looked at her and thought to myself, "this is going to be trouble, I know it." I did decide to give her a half an hour to see if she would have it but I was sure that she wasn't.

I went out a half an hour later and she had made some really good progress, usually it would be enough to give her more time, but this time I looked at her and thought, "those feet are awful big, I can see the tongue but not the muzzle, I just know this cow is trouble so I had better pull it." Normally I would give one like this more time but not this time. I went and gathered up the hand to help me and got a stall strawed down and the barn ready and by then the hand showed up and we were ready to get her in.

We walked up to get her and guess what? There she was, standing there, licking off her new born calf. I'm officially worrying to much. It's that simple.

{to myself}Quit worrying so much. Let things take their course. It will be all right. Cattle most of the time have calves by themselves. Quit jumping the gun.{/to myself}

Damn, I feel like an amateur at calving after this stunt. I can't believe I did such a bone headed thing.

Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere. Glenn Turner

This heifer was so excited to have a calf she didn't know what to do with it. She kept throwing it around with her head and knocking it down she was so excited. I had to get in the stall with her and keep her occupied so the calf, who was really a go getter, could get up to her and nurse. The cow wasn't real happy with the situation but I managed it and the calf got a belly full of milk. Taken 3/01/2007.

The heifers finally started picking up on their calving this last week. They were definitely not cycling when the bulls were turned out last spring. Nothing I can do about that, it's just the breaks. We have been busy though keeping up on things. It has really been tiring.

The weather has been nice for calving but as with everything involving the weather, it could be better. It gets just warm enough every day to create a lot of mud then it freezes at night and sets the mud up. The ground never dries up so the heifers have very little good ground to calve on. What a pain.

Did have the first casualties this last week. Two calves lost on one cow. I don't know what it is, but if I have a cow with twins in her she is more likely to give me trouble than any other one around for some reason. This particular case was a little weird. The heifer never seemed to have any contractions. I noticed her acting a little odd in the evening, not real calvy, but like she was going to calve within the next 12 hours or so. By the morning she still hadn't started to calve but you could tell by looking at the discharge from her that something was going on so I decided to investigate. When I reached in to figure out what was going on I knew there was trouble. She was fully dilated, but I could barely reach the calf, meaning that she wasn't having contractions to push the calf up in the womb. I reached in as deep as I could go and finally snagged a front foot of the calf and started pulling it up. I could tell by the way the way it felt the calf was dead, I hate pulling dead calves, it makes me feel bad. I worked for the longest time but I never could get another leg or the head or anything, all I had was one front leg. I finally decided the only way I could save the heifers life was to take it in and have a vet get it out, another thing I hate to do with a dead calf but what option did I have?

The Vet tried to get the calf out just like I did and was having the same problem. He had a pharmaceutical solution though, Pitocin (SP?), causes the critter to have contractions. She started having enough contractions to push the calf up and get a hold of the one leg and the head finally. He pulled the calf out this way. He them reached in and found another calf in there. It was so far down in the womb he couldn't get a hold of it so it was time for more Pitt and the contractions finally pushed it up enough to get a hold of. He then pulled it out. He said by looking at the condition of the bodies the calves were more than likely dead for a couple of days. Why she never had any contractions was beyond him. I guess the hormone that starts such things was missing.

When you have as many cows as I do around here you can expect this kind of thing to happen once in a while. I don't have to like it, but you have to accept it. Otherwise you will go nuts.

The cows should start calving here before to much longer. Spring work will really start taking off then. Things to do and cows to calve. If I just had help that was worth a damn around here I would really be looking forward to it. The way it is, I will just struggle through.

The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. Albert Camus

Every year seems to be a little different and bring something new. This year I might not have many calves yet, three, but the cattle are reacting different.

I always like to leave the heifer in the pen she has been in while she is calving. She is comfortable there and more willing to work at calving. Try to move them and they tend to clench up and quit trying to calve and give a person problem. Normally the other heifers don't bother the new mother and baby so it works out great. You do have to watch for another one calving trying to claim the calf all ready on the ground but I usually don't have too much trouble.

The last two calves though didn't work that way. They both had the calves on thir own but the other heifers didn't leave them alone. Almost every heifer in the pen had to come check out what that new, wet, wiggly mass was and get in the way of new mommy and baby getting to know each other. Last night the heifer was trying to take care of her calf while trying to fight the other heifers off so they didn't bother her calf.

I really hate to have to move them when they are still getting to know each other but what choice did I have. With the weather forecast the way it was, snow, I decided to stall them for the night and call it good. I try not to stall the heifers unless I have to but I did for safety on this one.

It's always different around here and different things happen. You never know it all or see it all in this business. Your always learning something new or seeing something new. I guess that keeps us all young, at least that's waht I say to make myself feel better..

On last thing talking about the snow, the National Weather Service forecast had these exact words in it last night. They don't keep it so I can't link it, but I swear I read this.

There will be 3 inches of snow tonight and an additional 3 inches of snow on Monday for a storm total of 7 inches.

Last time I checked 3+3=6, not 7. I guess this new math is what a college education teaches these meteorologists.

I took a different path, one you might not expect. But along the path, I learned a lot about my life - about life. Jennifer Capriati

The first calf of the season. I really don't expect them to really start popping for a few more days but it is nice to see the first one. The heifer had it on her own and is doing a good job of taking care of it. Here it is about 6 hours old. Taken 2/5/2006

I decided last night it was time to start doing night checks on the heifers. They were getting heavy enough that one was going to pop anytime now. I just got in from my 3 am check and guess what?

We had our first calf. Heifer number 118 was standing over her calf taking care of it when I got out there. Good mama she was she had it on her own and everything.

What an auspicious beginning.

Start every day off with a smile and get it over with. W. C. Fields

Walking the two-year old heifers home to calve them. They should be starting by the 10th of February but there is always a few early ones so I brought them home now. It also lets them get used to the conditions around the houses, a lot more civilization than they are used to, before they start calving. Taken 1/29/2007.

Time has this really funny habit. It keeps ticking on no matter what. You go on with your daily life and routines and all of a sudden you look up and notice that the month is about over, time has marched on and you almost didn't notice.

Marching forward on,
Slick ice cleaned by winter winds
Grab that whipping end.

This happened to me this month. With the daily feeding of the cows and the routine of therapy appointments, doctor's appointments and other routines it almost slipped away. Its time to bring the heifers home to calve and it almost got past me. I realizes the end of the month was coming about Wednesday and I have been getting the few things done here to bring them home.

I was considering bringing them home Monday but I am not sure that is going to happen now, I might have to wait until Wednesday to do it. Today while feeding I broke both front springs out from under one of the pickups. Yes, I said both front springs, one on each side. How I managed that is beyond me, but it happened. I am probably going to have to spend Monday trying to get the parts to fix the problem.

It will be good to bring the heifers home. I am not looking forward to night calving and the lack of sleep that entails but to see some calves running around will be fun. Time almost got away from me though. I wouldn't have forgotten about bringing the heifers home but that dastardly beast, time sure slipped up quick on me. It tried but failed as it always will.

Being and time determine each other reciprocally, but in such a manner that neither can the former - Being - be addressed as something temporal nor can the latter - time - be addressed as a being. Martin Heidegger

Yesterday morning when we got out to feed the cows I noticed one cow wandering around the feed ground, tail in the air, smelling all the calves laying around and bawling like mad. Quite the unusual behavior for a cow so i went over to check her out and saw that she was trying to calve. An older cow does not act like this if she is trying to calve, she usually just lays down and gets the job done, not wander all over the place so I figured she was in trouble. We finished feeding as fast as we could and kept an eye on her. She was definitely having trouble, she could get the feet out but I saw no hint of the head so I figured the head was back and we were in definite trouble.

We ran home and got the saddles and equipment to pull a calf out, went back and got the horses in and took off to get her in. We found her sure enough, standing over a brand new baby calf. Sher wasn't in trouble at all, just took a long time to calve. All the time we were out getting stuff and getting her in sure shot my plans for the day but better to make sure their is not a problem than lose a cow. She sure fooled me.

Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. Charles Richards

I see by the paper that Billings had a nice little snow storm. I had been watching the weather and knew the storm was coming and was hopeful and dreading it both at the same time. A nasty storm while calving is always difficult but the moisture sure would have been nice. As it turns out there was no worries. We only got a light skiff of snow here. I haven't managed any pictures of it but here is an older one that gives the idea of how much snow we had, just a skiff.



More moisture out of the storm would have been nice but that's not the way it worked out. Well, there is a lot of spring left and more moisture will come to help us out. I have to believe that or I will go nuts worrying about it. Billings and west of there appears to have gotten a nice shot of moisture. I am glad since they were drier than I am here they needed it. Enjoy.

Who can control his fate? William Shakespeare

Like I said I was going to do I got the twin calf pulled off the heifer and have the two different bum twin calves shown in the picture to feed. The one that has been on the heifer I expected to give me trouble learning to go on the bottle since she had been on a mom so long. No problems though, took a bottle right down two hours after she nursed momma. That just shows momma was really not producing enough milk for them and I needed to do this. I hauled the heifer twin cow home yesterday and turned her loose and what did I find over in the cows? A cow that lost a calf.

It looks like it came back feet first which usually causes the calf to drown in the amniotic fluids before it is completely born so this cow makes an excellent candidate to graft one of the bums on. We brought her home and are now working on getting one of the calves grafted on her. She is not real keen on the idea yet but she appears to be gentle enough that I can make it work with enough patience and time. I will put that in because a cow will do a lot better job raising the calf than I will. Bums never do real well in the long run.

Now I only have one bum to deal with, and the weather. Winter storm watch is out, talking 3 to 8 inches of snow with possible strong winds to last from this afternoon to Monday morning. Damn, how miserable that is while calving. The moisture won't hurt but it's tough while calving. As always, have to take the good with the bad and make things work out. Lot's of fun.

Love and work are viewed and experienced as totally separate activities motivated by separate needs. Yet, when we think about it, our common sense tells us that our most inspired, creative acts are deeply tied to our need to love and that, when we lack love, we find it difficult to work creatively; that work without love is dead, mechanical, sheer competence without vitality, that love without work grows boring, monotonous, lacks depth and passion. Marta Zahaykevich