Grand Slam in the Face

Glen is sporting a Class "A" shiner this week - and don't believe a word of what he says, I had nothing to do with it. It was a female that did the damage, though. When people ask him what the other guy looks like his answer is "Like a cow."

In building this herd, Glen has gone to special lengths to get the cattle used to his presence in amongst them. He talks to them, scratches them, slaps them on their backs, pushes them sideways. They know his touch and his voice and don't spook easily, that way, if and when the need arises for him to have to treat them, or when he has to ear tag their claves, they're much easier to handle. This close contact also gives him time to study each cow's disposition giving him insight to who might give him trouble in different circumstances.

The cow that did this damage hadn't been around long enough to show her true colours before she had her baby. Glen and Jesse had bought nine new animals at the last auction they had gone to. He had been so proud of the big Charlais cows he's brought home - seven of them and two from another herd dispersal. He's paid big money for the first batch and picked up the others just to fill the trailer for the ride home- they hadn't cost much at all.

Right away you could see a difference in their temperment. The seven were skittish and kept to themselves, the other two were fine to settle in - as long as they were fed they were happy. They were barely here a week and the Charlais started calving. We were gone for two days up to the Brier in Regina and came home to find one mom and baby doing fine, but the other calf had got pretty cold and was not very perky. That's when the farmer steps in and gives the calf a drink of powdered formula. This required the half ton truck for protection as the mama went berzerk with humans touching her baby.

She didn't get any better either, as time went on. The next day Glen slammed her into the head gate so the the calf could suck on her own (baby still wasn't very strong and needed to be held up). The next day Glen tried the operation again (alone for the first time) and before he got the gate fastened this time she swung her head and slammed the gate into his face. He thought she'd broke his cheekbone to begin with, but the swelling has gone down and he can see out of the eye again. He sure does look pretty. But then, so does the cow - the calf is finally strong enough to follow mommy on her own so Glen let her back out ino the herd today, but before he did he took a marker and decorated her up good. She's not going to be able to sneak up on him - I guess you could say she's a painted lady. I sure hope the rest of the ones he bought from that herd aren't the same - they were a lot of money and they won't be staying if they're like that- Glen won't have a dangerous animal on the place.

There has been a terrible cold/flu circulating the community for the past month and it finally caught up with me this week. I haven't had a doosy like this in ages and have been sleeping probably 18 hours out of 24. I sure hope I feel better tomorrow - it's inventory time at work and I want to go in and do a count. I tried on Friday but my head was so stuffed up I couldn't do anything. It's only 8:00 and I'm going to go find a decongestant and my pillow. I only got up at 10:30 but it's been a long hard day.