A d(l)ovely kind of day

So it is early Thursday morning September 2, 2010. I just posted yesterday’s blog post a little over 2 hours ago. I tried to go to bed but I think I accidently double dosed myself this afternoon while on a boring phone call and now probably will be sprinting around the internet for a few hours. Rather than go to a liberal political chat room and point out that Bush and the GOP gained seats in his first midterm (2002) and if Obama and the Democrats are so great they should at least be able to hold seats in 2010, *snicker*, I decided that I would write another blog post. Besides, some envirowhacko with an abnormally large head left the earth yesterday in Maryland so I will give the people I normally anger a chance to mourn. All I know is some police sniper thought he hit the jackpot when he got that massive melon sighted in his scope today.

Easy now politicos, I will tell you about my day as a real lover of nature. I have mentioned that in the days before the fair it seemed my days were great but my evenings were horrid. Today was just the opposite, the day was an exercise in total futility but the evening was spectacular. I tagged 3 new fall calves this morning then began to look for one calf that was born yesterday that I had not tagged. The momma cow was a bit “bagged up” and after 3 hours of looking I decided to take a break and do something fun. I moved 2 hand lines by myself (I hate that Dakota is in school already) and then changed a tire on the atv so I could resume my search. I spent another hour looking to no avail. “F*C% me M00retta” I said as I spit the last two grains of Copenhagen from my mouth.

I then went home for a quick lunch (a pound of fried hamburger with ketchup and a Vlasic pickle) then went to start water for the corn circle. I also worked on some fence that needed mending just for gits and shiggles. I then decided I should do a walking search of the north fence line to see if the missing calf was hiding in the weeds there. I finally found the calf late in the afternoon which improved my mood immensely. I tagged the calf then decided I should do a thorough check of the spring calving cows.

There is one spring yearling heifer that has looked like she was coming quickly with calf last week. In fact, Dakota was worried she would calve while we were at the fair but I felt she was just showing a bit early and may calve in November but certainly not as an 18 month old and surely not while we were away. As I checked the spring calver’s I came across 9178W with a nice calf by her side. I need to learn to trust Dakotas’s instincts a bit more. The live healthy calf really made my day and made me laugh that my spring heifers have started calving before my fall calver’s are done calving.

Then I ran into some dove hunters that were hunting on the season opener. They had some cold beer in a cooler and although I seldom drink beer I wanted to be polite so I accepted one from them. I then went home and was concerned because I had no beer of my own in the refrigerator. Chris and Dakota got home and just as I was sending Chris back to town I realized we had a whole cooler full of beer left from the fair that just needed some ice. We had a nice family evening working with the show steers as the beer cooled. Back to the fair week I suppose I should explain about Debby my (fair wife).

Debby and I are co beef superintendents at the fair and for a week each August seem to spend more time doing work for the kids than spending time with our own spouses. I think we compliment each other well. Debby does the bulk of the paper work and the logistics. I flirt with the exhibitor moms and run the squeeze chute at the scales. I also collect all the compliments and pass the complaints on to Debby. It works out pretty well. I am going to tell one of two stories about my fair wife and last week in today’s post.

I know you blog readers may be surprised but Debby is more responsible than I am. On Tuesday night after arriving back on the fairgrounds from going home to check things I realized that we had not drawn the fitting and showing classes for Wednesday. I tried to call Debby to no avail, so I called our secretary Erica to see if she had heard from Debby. She had not so I decided to track Debby down. I seemed to be one step behind her as the VIP tent participants said she had just recently been there. I was calling her cell phone and leaving a message pertaining to her shirking of duties and that our secretary was going to quit on us. I had just finished leaving my message when a door to a port o let swung open and my fair wife emerged shaking her head. LOL, she had been inside trying to finish while listening to my loud mouth leaving her a message. Fitting and showing classes were posted a bit late but thanks to Erica’s professionalism nobody seemed to notice. Thank you to both these great gals for putting up with me last week.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is common mallow aka Malva neglecta.

Today’s pictures are last week’s cervical prolapse in a before and after format and my stunning suture job to solve the problem. I tried a new method and I am feeling pretty satisfied with the results. No wonder I can balance two wives and a secretary!