veterinarian – As Far As The Eye Can See

A Rich Weekend

It is 4:29am on Monday November 3^rd. I woke up from a dream about an hour ago that has not left its grip on me. It was not a bad dream just a dream that touched on a lot of pieces of my weekend. It left me thinking. I had such a meaningful weekend. I am here to attempt to capture what it was.

Last week at this time Russ was looking ahead to our big November 1^st cow chase and he was worrying that we were short handed. For a few reasons many of our regulars were unavailable and several could only say “maybe.” The herd being moved was a large one, two herds that had already come some distance this fall and had been hanging out together 18 miles from home. (For those who know our ranch lingo they are the PF herd and the Manor cows). Bringing this big herd a full days ride home is a big job and Russ could not leave our crew situation to chance so he did a bit of recruiting. That resulted in five guests arriving at our home on Friday evening. Every bedroom and our guest space that we call “Clare Hall” was occupied. Of these guests one had been many times, one was on her third visit, one was on her second and two had never been in our home before. Over time chaos of old has subsided a bit and our spaces feel better and its kind’ve an enjoyable thing to dust and straighten and put out clean sheets and towels and just enjoy my home for what it is. I had that pleasure on Friday and it was a bit new to me. Usually getting ready for guests is a race to the finish line and involves an attempt to keep the situation to as little embarrassment as possible.

As it turned out all our “maybes” ended up being able to come and several of our firm “no” friends became “yes” when rain late in the week meant they were not working. By the time all was said and done we were at a solid 22 people on the trail by Saturday morning.

Saturday morning brought a chilly but beautiful sunrise for Laurie.

I had two helpers lined up for my part of the work, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. It turned out that my morning helper got a little more than she asked for but handled it like a champ.

It was strange when my phone rang at 8:45 and it was Patrick, one of the cowboys on the trail. My heart was in my mouth as I answered and true to my worries his voice was shaky. Russ was ok but was doing all he could in the first moments of a crisis with Coffee dog, holding his hand like a cinch on Coffee’s upper leg to slow bleeding caused by a deep cut. I needed to come. I dropped everything, changed into work pants, a jacket that could easily be laundered, I grabbed my rag bin and hit the road. Russ used a scarf of Sharon’s to create a tourniquet, loaded Coffee in the truck, Sharon and Hannah left the crew and headed my way. Enroute to meet them my job was to find a vet. We are so incredibly lucky to live in an area with several vets. I can’t state enough how huge a reality this is. I was so incredibly thankful when I found that one was available. Sharon, Hannah and I met part way just as vet details were getting finalized. I told Dr. Sid I could be there in 20 minutes, thinking after that was not true, I had more than a 20 minute journey ahead of me. It turns out I made it in 18 and beat him there. I stayed with Coffee until her general anaesthetic took effect and then sat in the waiting room. A second vet had been brought in and I was not needed, I didn’t realize a second vet was near and had imagined myself helping with the procedure. I like to think that I can do what is needed when necessary but I was quite relieved to have time to sit, breathe and message. It turns out that the profuse bleeding was caused by a cut artery. Noone knows what happened to Coffee, the first sign of trouble was that she was chasing cows with blood spurting out of her leg. What makes the most sense to Russ is that she cut herself on an exposed culvert. Murtada the vet observed that Coffee is brave and Sharon later reflected, she is resilient, she needed everything she had in these moments. I would be lying if I said experiences like this don’t affect me. At face value its just darn hard, but its triggering, hurt people and animals are all too common an occurrence in my world and there is some interior management required. As I sat in the waiting room I challenged myself to be totally honest. What I was facing down in those moments is how incredibly vulnerable I/we were. Russell, Dr. Sid and Murtada saved Coffee’s life, they are all that stood between a level of emotional devastation that I do not want to think about and a day that could end up feeling almost normal. I named that to Dr. Sid as we were saying goodbye. I needed to. To meet someone in their utter vulnerability and give of yourself is very holy ground. I stood on that ground with profound gratefulness on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile back at the ranch…….Vicki was following recipes and making things happen. She made me laugh when she spoke of her texting with her husband to check in, confessing her lack of felt direction he advised, “stir the soup.” The crew was running a little bit early as it turned out so when Coffee and I returned to the ranch and I got her settled I had to switch gears, it was tough but with Vicki’s help we arrived at the lunch spot only 10 minutes late. This spot has a dugout and grass for the cows so it is a priority to meet there versus wherever the crew happens to be when lunch is finally ready. My time with Coffee meant I didn’t get fresh biscuits made to go with the soups we were offering, knowing this I stopped at the store and got Melita Bakery bread and it was just fine, some thought it homemade. Lesson learned!

Sharon and I look pretty fresh for the morning we put in.

On the trail…..A new and unexpected crew member. We got a new cow dog this year after losing Bingo and Knightwing in the spring and summer. We were not expecting to have Zip on the trail until next year but sensing her good instincts and ability to listen Russ tried her out on a shorter job earlier this week. She did wonderfully. I was so proud when I heard this I wanted to do a whole blog post just about her! A dog on the trail who is younger than most of the calves! (Zip was born May 14^th) Based on this success she was brought along on Saturday. In Coffee’s absence, and with Paisley on vet ordered retirement from chasing cows (Paisley belongs to our friend Jen), we only had Maddie and Zip on the trail. She was needed. While not perfect she did super well. She took some rest periods, but not in the truck with Sharon, she rode with Jen and with Becca in their saddles. I love thinking about the view she had, as opposed to her regular perspective where its a lot of angles of ankles.

After helping serve lunch Vicki joined the crew for the rest of the ride and shortly after I got home to the ranch my friend Erin arrived. She has helped me many times, her daughters love to chase cows, so she moved in very naturally, got dishes done, did prep work, made one of her signature casseroles and visited easily. She is fun. We had a supper ready when at 5:30 the crew was in, a little earlier than projected. These helpers who come alongside make me look good and allow me to experience the joy of hospitality when otherwise I would be swearing and sweating.

After a very long day on the trail people don’t linger long after dessert is served, two of our house guests headed home and our day ended with a cozy visit of five people with a shared footstool between us sipping on tea. At 8:33 one of the circle looked at their watch and said, “well I made it to 8:30, that was my goal, I’m going to bed!” The party broke up and we were all resting before long. Coffee slept between Russ and I, her long body and her cone making for a bit of a bed hog.

Sunday morning had us returning to the cozy circle with cups of coffee. The time in the circle included thoughtful questions asked of me. People don’t ask me about myself too much and I quite enjoyed the chance to ponder and speak. It was the weirdest experience though to be fighting waves of nausea arising from a stubborn headache and sitting there speaking deeply, wanting to carry on as if nothing was wrong. I had to give myself a talking to. As much as I was enjoying the attention and conversation I had to tell myself it was okay to state where I was at, so I did, and of course people were very understanding and enjoyed the chance to ponder that this might be “morning sickness.” That had my mind wandering! At that point we were six days into our empty nest and I was not appalled at the thought of a baby. I am not sure what that says. I am actually enjoying the quiet and order of the house a lot, with modern technology I still hear my kids’ voices and know some of their stories and while its different around here, I am doing okay, but I could handle the thought of a new baby (at least I thought I could, reality would be much much different if that were to come to pass.)

The good-byes with our guests included some feedback that really touched me. I feel like I am bragging to share it but it has such meaning for us. We were told, “this experience is so unique, there aren’t many things I’ve done that are so tiring to the body but refreshing to the soul, there are layers of rest and depth that I hit when I come here that is just…….…..” I won’t say much more about this but basically that reflects one of the primo life goals that Russ and I have. I have pondered it many times since I heard it. It was a big part of my weekend.

Not long after everyone was gone I headed out to meet with a nearby congregation wrestling with decisions about future plans. I was there as a rep from the region and my only job was to listen and support as necessary. It was such an honest meeting shaped by fragile hope, confessions of grief and deep care. I am certain that this meeting was the launchpad for the dream I had that woke me up.

Despite having several hours of discretionary time later in the day I did not put away all the clean dishes that Vicki had whipped into shape while Russ and I were making breakfast and they sit beside me even yet. This is the privilege of the stage of life I am currently in. I can do a little bit of “I don’t feel like it” time and it is not the end of the world. What I did feel like was a bit of creative work on a gift for our ranch crew, I am really happy about this.

My writing spot today, clean dishes on side.

Another special thing that happened this weekend is that at one point I had the chance to listen to someones pain, I felt very very calm within as a story was unfolding. I noticed this and have pondered since, “was I detached from the situation or actually becoming the person I want to be, able to exist in the midst of great pain and be fully present?” It felt more like the second than the first. To put this in broader context though, what I have noticed about myself is that I am absolutely terrible about being present to pain that I have no chance to impact, so I have just about stopped watching the news, it just distresses me. Perhaps finally I have come to really believe in the power of just being present to people, listening and creating space for them to be honest and I can actually hold pain when asked to.

The dream I mentioned earlier felt absolutely major when I woke up, now I am not so sure. The turning points of it seem to be two things. The first part was very specific, I was dropping off something at my friend Linda Powell’s house and decided that there was no time like the present to do some work for the church that would help us understand things better. So I knocked on the door of her neighbor (I have absolutely no idea who that is in real life) and was given the chance to introduce myself. The transitions that happened I am totally fuzzy about right now but the next point in the dream is that I was at her kitchen table. I was able to communicate that I came with no agenda except to listen. She was able to say “that’s good, cause I was kind’ve offended at the start of this.” I don’t remember any of the conversation that followed. I told her I had no agenda but I know I did. I am not sure how this was communicated in the dream but I know I knocked on the door because I am so curious about and want to respect and respond helpfully to what is really going on in people’s lives. In our churches we are reckoning with the fact that fewer people attend. People have a lot going on and are tired and torn and the world is changing and technology is multiplying peoples’ options and so on and so on. In the midst of that, what needs are left unmet? What do people need? I have always thought it isn’t right to say, “how can we get butts in these pews”, that sounds a lot like self preservation, and we can do better. In place of that I want to ponder “what does the church offer that people need?” So as I was waking from this dream I was actively processing that if I went out one evening a week and knocked on the doors of an entire block, in the course of a year I could cover seven communities. Clearly that is not accurate, but in a dream anything is possible. The feeling I had in this dream is that listening was going to be key to the strategy. I was perhaps naïve to think that trust could be built quickly and what people really need could be explored but I think not naïve to believe that it feels way different to be listened to rather than talked at and being listened to and taken seriously is a big part of what people need. We don’t do this perfectly in our United Churches but we really try to welcome people as they are and experience together the good news that God loves us, as we are, and is actively working with us for greater wholeness for ourselves and the world.

As I ponder all this the theme I see is holy ground. Maybe that is a piece of what we all need. Is it fair to say that many of us are hungry for holy ground, for ground where we can be fully ourselves, vulnerable, human, hoping, chilled and thrilled by our adventures, and there we find God waiting for us. In the terrifying space between life and death, and when skilled hands and kind eyes meet us where we need them, in the midst of caring conversation, in the saying out loud our fragile hopes, in the love poured into a warm bowl of stirred soup? I can’t speak for others but that is where I found holy ground this weekend and I am so thankful.

Thanks to Jen and Becca for most of the photos in this blog.

Wer’e Gonna Have Babies

Sunday morning we were up pretty early in order to be ready for the 9am appointment we had with our veterinarian. I hated to have a full day of work booked on a Sunday, I wanted to be at church, however we had a few details come together dictating that this was our best day to tackle the job at hand. The biggest detail was Dr. Marcel was available but also we had a great weather forecast. So there we were. It meant Russ, Morgan, Laurie and Dawson being saddled up by 7:15. They left the barn just before 7:30 after waiting for the sky to lighten enough to do their job. The job of rounding up the herd out of the pasture just north of the barn and getting them into the corral was really successful, the guys were done by shortly after 8 and able to come in and have a cup of coffee. I was working through a list I had made in order to be ready for the day. By 9:30am we were rolling, Dr. Marcel geared up in an outfit that protected his clean clothes underneath, with a set of high tech goggles over his eyes that were connected to an ultrasound wand. We were “preg checking,” thats ranch talk for having a veteranarian assess each cow to see if they are bred. Its an internal exam, aided by the ultrasound wand, the outcome of these assessments helps us to make some decisions. We had over 400 cows to check yesterday, so we knew it was going to be a long day.

If you had to guess how long this procedure would take what would you guess? It is amazing how fast it can go really. Dr. Marcel’s part can literally be done in as little as five seconds per cow, when he isn’t clear on what he is seeing an internal exam using a gloved arm is neccesary. That makes it a bit more time consuming. Still our rate yesterday was about 80 cows per hour. Thats slow by rancher standards. There are some ranches that can accomplish twice as much in an hour. That is hard to imagine. We have a pretty good system. Ron, Morgan and Laurie kept bringing cows up from the corral system and getting them into what we call “the tub”, that leads directly to the alley and that leads directly to “the chute”. Dawson and I ran the alley. Dawson keeping the animals moving up and me applying a product called “Boss”. It prevents lice. We used to apply the now famous “Ivormec” but for the last couple years have found it to be losing effectiveness. Once a cow advances out of the alley and into the chute it is secured there using hydraulic controls that Jillian runs. She is calm as a cucumber doing that job. I am not. I make mistakes and swear and its not pretty. Not Jill. Once the cow is into the chute, Marcel can do his job, meanwhile Russ administers a dose of Vitamin A&D using a needle and Jill scans the Radio Frequency ID tag it has in its ear and gets the cow’s weight registered to the computer. (There is a scale imbedded in the floor of the squeeze chute). When all that is done she tucks her scanning wand under her armpit and uses the hydraulics to let the cow out. If the cow is bred its straightforward, an open cow goes to a different pen and that takes more effort and time.

There are two moments of conversation that happened yesterday that for me illumine some of the inside drama of this day. Before we started yesterday we had a few minutes of standing about while Marcel was getting suited up. Laurie was near me and I guess there was something I just needed to get out in the open, so I started a conversation by asking him a question. “Laurie, what’s your stress level like right now?” He shared that it was very low. He was kind enough to return the question. I shared that I was pretty stressed, that I always worry about injuries and that of course I am worried about the results of this day of work. What I mean by that is, “What will Marcel find?” Its a case by case accumulation of information that tells an extremely important story. Five years ago we checked a herd of 101 heifers, female calves we had kept back for breeding stock and we expected to be bred for the first time. A few of them might have been expected to be open, but 51 were open. Something had gone wrong. The memory of that experience, of Dr. Trevor doing his exam and his voice calling out “open” over and over again has definitely imprinted on Russell and I. The stress of that time was compounded by the fact that I found my mother in law the next morning, not breathing, despite CPR she passed away. So………..”preg checking” is a loaded event at the ranch. It was clear that as I named my worry Laurie acknowledged he held that worry too, but from a much different perspective than Russell and I did. It was good to get that out in the open. Maybe I opened this conversation with Laurie instead of Russell because I could sense Russ was already carrying much stress. He later told me that his worry was at an elevated level this year. The drought conditions mean that the feed situation for the cows is different, they are eating baled crops along with their usual hay, they are not as fat as usual and Russ worried that feed changes would have an impact.

It was with a heaviness of heart that we received the results of the very first cow Marcel checked. She was open. The mind goes a bit nuts. But the second was good, I calculated to myself, “okay we have a 50% rate of conception”, the third was good, “okay Kathy, 1 in 3 this is getting better”, the fourth was good, “this is a positive trend”, and so it went. I think Marcel got to at least 20 cows before he had another open one. There was a trend to be seen, it was our older cows that were mostly coming up open, that is to be expected. It appeared that so far everything in our breeding year is normal. The level of relief this created in Russell and I, and I think everybody was palpable. Like a wave coming over us. Exuberance was able to rise up, and despite a somewhat serious feeling at the chute I really enjoyed being a goofball when the times called for it. I didn’t get to see every tag as the cows passed by my station but when I did and it was a cow I am connected to I knew to be watching for the result. So when Kathy went in, I was listening carefully for Marcel’s words. It was what we hoped for, after those five seconds he so quickly could determine she had a calf and called out “good”, I sang out “Kathy’s having a baby, Kathy’s having a baby!”, and I did that when Linda went through and Liz and Tanya and a few others that I was especially excited about. I took note of Mary, she had twins for us this year, the ones you might remember me chatting about on the blog. We named them Jesus and Bob. Bob was bottle fed for a long time and then adopted on to a cow named Freckles. Jesus stayed with Mary and did very well. Jesus has not yet been marketed so is in the corral with our other heifer calves. Russell has enjoyed telling me of the walks he has through the heifers when he sets his eyes clearly on Mary’s child, he comes back and tells me, “I saw Jesus today.” We believe that God has a sense of humor and this use of names is within the bounds of respect. Anyways, good news, Mary the cow is with calf. There are a few other cows that I was wondering more closely about, hope, mercy and love are all with child, I am especially glad about hope this year. Justice, unfortunately, is open.

The second bit of conversation I referred to at the start was once again with Laurie. At one point early on, when he had come forward to the area of my station, I had the chance to follow up our earlier conversation. I turned my back on the chute and said, “Laurie, its looks like wer’e gonna have some babies!” He didn’t hear me at first. I got to say it again. “It looks like wer’e going to have some babies!” A warm smile came over him, that smile he has that tells you he cares. It was nice to see and he said, “yep looks that way.” That seemed perfect. The chance to vent some of my stress and then check in about it again when we had a good news story to consider was helpful to me. I suspect its a matter of getting the message and living the truth that we are not alone.

So in this crazy year that is full of heart stopping developments and news that causes alarms and so much hard stuff generally, we are thankful for the things that go right. For us, this year, at this point, its our preg checking story. We are starting to feel bold, starting to hope, hope is always a good thing.

I don’t have very good pictures of this day, I took a few, Jill took a few and I have given more glimpses of the crew through a couple of Liz Griffin photographs from earlier in the year.

Marcel with his gear on. There are fancy ultra sound viewing goggles under that protective bit of plastic.

An October picture taken of Laurie and Russ. Laurie excels at teamwork.

A July picture of Dawson and Russ. The focus on Dawson’s face is typical of him. He rarely makes mistakes when working with us at the chute. I have to confess there were times this work day when we were slow to get a cow up the alley. We got visiting and got distracted.

Russ with a syringe full of Vitamin A & D. He is ready to roll.

Jill getting a selfie with the cow that is named after her.

With my “drench gun” in hand, standing at my station, ready to put a dose of “Boss” down the cow’s backs. And for the record, wearing Russell’s hoodie. Just the perfect weight for this warm winter day.

Coffee Break Time

Last Saturday I was sorting through a drawer and found prescription stuff for our dog Eowyn, who was a puppy last year at this time. I looked at the date and thought, “oh we are doing well, Coffee is exactly the same age and she has not been to the vet for anything serious.” Eowyn had been quite a mischevious dog and had two head injuries as a young pup. Hence the reminders of medicine and treatments. We lost Eowyn on the first day of school this past year, when she was stepped on by a bull. It was then a hard decision to get another pup when we had the chance. We did and Coffee has been a real light in our life. It was therefore like a bit of a wee nightmare when Russell phoned me Saturday afternoon (only hours after I had decided we were off to a great start with Coffee) and said, “Coffee got stepped on, can you come pick her up and take her to the vet?” He shared his theory that she had a broken leg, due to the sound he heard. I dropped what I was doing and got out the door. These are the phone calls I hate for obvious reasons, but they also contribute to a databank of anecdotes that all scream at me, “Life is risky! Your heart is not secure! Your life is not controllable!” Those things are all true, but they are darn hard to reckon with very much.

Russell and Gina had been out working with a small group of cows, moving them from one pasture to another, just across a road was the goal. It should have been straightforward and easy but it wasn’t. The cows in this group are ones that we are not breeding again, mostly because they are so aggressive and we don’t want them around, they will do best in the world when they become part of the food chain. There are three that are just terrible, their motherly instinct is fierce and it doesn’t subside as things get established, they have proven themselves to be dangerous pretty much year round.

This picture that Liz Griffin took this calving season is a good illustration of how much the dogs are part of the action and that it can get intense.

This is another recent Liz Griffin picture, this is one of our permanently aggressive cows. Just like in this picture, on Saturday afternoon it was coming for Russell’s horse, so the horse moved fast to get out of the way and Coffee was in the wrong spot for that motion and got underfoot. The fact that Coffee got injured seems to be further proof we need to get rid of the mean cows.

Russ figured out a way that he could end the cattle move right then, sent Gina home with the horses and came to the vet with Coffee and I. I cannot lift more than 20 pounds so this turned out to be a blessing because Coffee needed to be carried. She was also overheated, it was one of our super hot days and she was stress breathing. In this picture she has ice packs on to cool her down and is having a break during the xray process.

Bingo came with us to the vet. She insisted and it made things simpler for Gina but right before we pulled away she found cool water/mud somewhere, which in our focus on Coffee we did not realize. Bingo spent time alone in the vehicle while I grabbed some quick groceries and Russ was with Coffee at the clinic. Bingo was able to get mud all over the passenger parts of my SUV. This is where I imagine someone saying, “Kathy, why don’t you set more limits? Why do you let all this chaos into your world?” To that I answer, there is constantly a triage process happening in my brain, sorting through what is important (which is no simple question), what is urgent, what can be dealt with later. In these moments I could not get worried about my seats which will wipe clean, Bingo needed us and honestly I think I needed Bingo. I spent time with her out in the yard at the clinic while Russ did 98% of the time inside with Dr. Dawn and Coffee. I liked it that way. I am finding I don’t do well in moments like that. I had paper recycling in the back and a water bottle and with these I got the seats that Russ, Coffee and I needed cleaned off and ready for the trip home. Bingo got to keep her muddy seat. (Both Bingo and the seat were dried here and much less threatening looking than they initially were!)

Back home with sedative to sleep off Coffee was an easy patient, Jill was near and happy to comfort her. Morgan was away all weekend helping friends with their cows. We elected to not tell him about Coffee’s mishap until he got home. That was a good decision.

This picture was taken back in early January, the night we picked up Coffee from her owners. What I didn’t realize in this moment was the kind of bond that Morgan was ready to establish with this dog. He and Jill have spent so much time with her and just loved her into her best self. Therefore the news of injury was very tough. As he got used to things Morgan began doing some problem solving, what would make this heal best? He texted Dr. Dawn with the question, “should I be giving a calcium supplement to Coffee?” She answered back, “nope, just lots of cuddles and kisses.” That is an easy presciption to make work.

We took Coffee to the vet for a check-up yesterday. Russell and Megan were able to restrain Coffee for the removal of her splint and for the assessment. I was needed for a bit to restrain while getting the new splint applied. We were able to avoid sedative this way. Dawn was great. She said that everything looked very good underneath and we are good to go for another week.

Those are arms of love but for Coffee I am sure they didn’t feel like it in the moment. Coffee is very resilient, she was acting like herself within a minute of being done.

Prior to marrying Russell I had only one experience with a pet, a cat we got when I was already a high school graduate. I didn’t grow up like my kids are growing up, surrounded by 4 legged creatures, some that sleep with them. The word that comes to mind this morning is “privilege.” It is a privilege to have these lives join ours and journey together. Isn’t it funny how the same thing that I call a privilege is also the thing that causes me to say “this is chaos!” Its so true. At 2am I was awakened by Coffee barking (but teen boy Morgan wasn’t woken!), I went downstairs and let her out of Morgan’s room, I let her have a drink and tucked her back in. Before I was back in bed she was barking again. I brought her up to the dog room tucked her in there and thankfully never heard from her again. In these middle of the night moments of wakefulness I am tempted to feel hard done by. Sometimes I totally do and I get a bit stormy. Last night, perhaps mindful of how blessed I feel that Coffee is on the mend, I was at peace and went back to bed and went to sleep. There is alot of deep stuff at play here……the power of relationship between creature and human, the possibility of and evidence of healing, so much gratitude for skilled caregivers like our veterinarians and gratitude to the Creator of all who has designed a world where healing, relationship and helping are forces like gravity, always having a say in what we need and how we act, for better or worse. Coffee is a joy, both the dog and for me the beverage. Thanks for taking a break a reading about our coffee.

Swim boys swim!

You might know that I took a break from documenting ranch life to get some paper work done. In the meantime I was doing a postcard series. I am going to keep that up until I am caught up on my yard work. However today there is a chance to tell you about our day, it is an unusual but essential day. The days work began yesterday when Russell and Morgan and friends brought the bulls home from their winter pasture. I was able to document that effort only because I ran into them on my way to town.

Maybe this will never happen to you, like if you live in Toronto, but this is what it looks like when you come across a herd of bulls while heading out to do errands.

Our bull named “Friday” was hesitant to join the group. So as I got further down the road I came across David and Jim trailing this loner.

Kent was one of the cowboys on duty yesterday.

Russell took this picturesque shot of Morgan and his horse getting a drink in the creek.

Jim on the road with the bulls, photo courtesy of Russell.

Once the bulls got home they didn’t settle down too well. I am not clear what the issue was but something made them ornery and they deconstructed part of a sucker rod fence. Ron has since fixed it up just like new. I was not sure if it would be a noisy night, would the bulls bugle a bit, only feet from our bedroom window? They did settle down, Knightwing the dog settled down and we all slept well. Whew. The job for today was to get each bull into the chute, get a semen sample and test it for its quality. I have stretched my skill set alot since becoming a rancher’s wife, but thankfully this is not something I have been invited to learn to do. The vets were on duty!

A delay at the start meant there was time for a break for most of the crew before things began. If you have been to our ranch in the last year you might recognize this couch. It sat on our lawn for the winter, and we loved it there, absolutely confirming, beyond a doubt, that we are hillbillies. We just moved it into the poleshed. Breaktime just got comfier.

Our man Ron, his job today was to keep the bulls moving forward toward the chute.

Here is our vet tech Megan hard at work.

This gives a good glimpse of the overall set-up. A bull caught in the chute with Jill running the hydraulics. Megan has just delivered a sample into the inside of the mobile vet unit, where Marcel does on the spot analysis and assigns a score.

Russ gave the bulls their vitamins and after confirming that they passed their tests with Marcel they also got two vaccines. If they had not passed their test they would soon be on their way to the Auction Mart and be heading into the food chain. If an animal has been given these vaccines they may not enter the food chain for a prescribed number of days.

Marcel in position in his vet unit where his microscope allows him to look at several factors such as movement, vitality and shape of the sperm. He also assesses the diameter of the bull’s scrotum and all these factors together lead to a score for each bull. We tested 30 bulls, as a result two will not be used in this coming breeding year, the rest are pretty high scores. The two faulty ones are named “Love” and “Forever”. Seems a bad set of names to take out of the herd! Forever is Russell’s 2nd favourite bull of all time, so he is sad. The best score this year went to our bull named “Family Jewels”. We just bought him. We now try and name our bulls with a connection to the breeder. The head woman at L7 ranch is Crystal. That is like a jewel, hence the name “Family Jewels.”

Marcel invited me to take a picture of the slide in his microscope. This sample was good. I am not sure exactly what I am seeing but its cool and the truth is, this is an essential part of the circle of life and the food chain getting started!

A glitch in the day……..the hydraulic chute busted a bit. Marcel is a jack of all trades, he had a darn good look at the problem, I think he really wanted to fix it, but we needed a welder. Luckily one of our neighbours is a great welder and was not far away. Thanks Connor!

After many days of working at the corral without Jill due to quarantine, it was great to have her back! She totally took the slack off me, I really didn’t need to be there. Jill is standing with our bull named “Cheeseball”. Could be the daddy of those cute red calves jumping around our pastures!

I felt that Maddie and Cheeseball were having a bit of a face-off in this picture!

It was a funny day. Delays were not ideal but everyone seemed to flex and the job got done safely and that is the biggest thing. We had lunch while the welding fix was cooling down. I had been able to prep a meal of ham and scalloped potatoes, luckily the potatoes were cooked even though we ate early. Jill made a dessert for Marcel, one of his faves according to Russ, so we ate well today and it was kind’ve fun to have a “Sunday dinner” in the middle of a ranchy raunchy day!

If you got this far you will have figured out why I titled this post “Swim Boys Swim!”…….we are looking for strong little swimmers in those samples, prepping for 2022.