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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Reflecting on the month of March.

At last March is here! This winter has really dragged by for me for some reason.

I just remembered that Brad and I were married 25 years ago today. One us always forgets our wedding anniversary and it looks like this year it's his turn. Every year it's a bit of a game for us to see who forgets it.

My pet cow, DandyLyons, turned 18 yesterday. She's a real nice cow. One of the nicest pets I've ever had. She's very fat, breaths heavy and loud. I tell her it's because of too much cholesterol and beef, then I jiggle her brisket to prove my point.

The cows will start calving any day so I have to be on my toes for any cows off on their own acting suspicious. The older ones normally have no problems but we have 3 or 4 heifers out there. We'll run the heifers in this weekend so I can see them from the house. I'm almost useless if the cows get into birthing trouble. I can get them in if they can still walk but then I have to call Brad if the calf needs pulling. I do help by holding the rope around the cows neck and shouting out encouragement to her.

It was a year ago this month I had my ankle replaced. I felt really helpless because I couldn't walk around the pasture and check the cows. One day I saw a cow down alone in the corner and I couldn't get over there to check on her. The binoculars didn't help much because when she was down she was hidden by the sagebrush and I had no idea what was going on. Then I saw her stand up quickly and look intently down at something on the ground and knowing what that meant, I cheered.

Ankle replacement is not as easy as a knee or hip replacement. It is a lot more complicated and I was non weight bearing for 3 months after my TAR (Total Ankle Replacement). The day after I got home from the hospital there was a cow out and William, who was here for Spring break, was trying to get her in. I was watching from the window and saw her trotting towards the road. I managed to use my knee scooter to get out to my jeep and head her off. That felt good to be useful! Then shortly after William went back to Uni, a heifer had to be pulled and Brad needed my help. He helped me hop through the corrals and helped me attach myself to the fence so I could hold the end of the rope (it was wrapped around a fence post) while he used the calf puller to crank the calf out. I was really proud of myself because many people are still bed bound with ankle elevated and maybe even using a bed pans a week after a TAR. Country people have to be tough.

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HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN
I so happy with President Obama and I think he is doing a wonderful job. He is protecting the endangered species again and our mustangs will be safer under his care. The Interior Department (they oversee the BLM) Secretary, Ken Salazar is just a darling man and is looking after the best interests of America's beautiful wild places and it's wild horses.

It also looks like American's are finally on the path to getting affordable health care. I really think we're going to get out of the awful mess that Bush got us into.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Arl -

Just wanted to drop by and say howdy. As always, your blog is a great read, thanks. Your boys are looking great!

Cheryl Ann said...

I'm hopeful too! Interesting to read about your ankle replacement.