He'll be as useless as tits on a bull.
I can’t really remember what exactly was the issue here,
you’ll have to ask the Boss.
But, I do remember
that there was a female involved.
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Oct 21 2011
Calving Part III: Anomalies in Agriculture at the XIT Ranch.
by admin
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8F5veIKnnI[/youtube]
My last and perhaps best Paul Anka selection. Distracting and counter-intuitive to my motives, but makes the post, hang in there until 1:05 at least. But then, you won’t want to leave. And what mutual conclusion did John and Paula have about Anita, Paul Anka’s singing partner in Europe, after viewing her forearms…? So I think we were right on with Paul being big with the drag queens.
Tonight’s essay is about anomalies. The boss (only works part-time on Sundays) threw me a bone. He helped me with organization of my thoughts and photos. So, you can thank him for connecting the dots that were related in my brain to identify my point before I had one. Yes, it very often works this way with the Adams…
Sink and mini hot water heater station in calving zone of barn.
John pointed out the hot water heater Friday night.
Paula: “That’s so nice of you, I bet they like the warm water.” But I hadn’t ever noticed any post-labor rinse-off for the girls before…?
John: “That’s for me.”
I was sympathetic after other night in the pens when it was below freezing. There is only a small space heater in the barn, and this was only added in about 1996 when we moved to the west ranch.
I guess cold water is a real shocker after all that hot pV$….well, I don’t say these words, my father might be reading, let’s just say steaminess. See Part I.
So, hot water heater in the barn is anomaly one. Like a rancher with a cadillac, this is pretty high status for the XIT.
Mother and baby twins, born Jan. 22, 2011.
Anomaly Two: Baby twins were born Saturday night.
This is always fun. But, the mother cannot nurse two children, so John’s brother-partner brought over a cow from the e. ranch who had lost her baby. This is so the extra calf can “mother up” to the mother who no longer has her calf.
Anomaly Three: That girl is a freak.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3CtadNZdSY[/youtube]John is speaking about a cow that never had any contractions. Being on the same team (females) as the cow and two weeks overdue with my own children, I have other theories for this. For example, she is such a good mother the children don’t want to leave, the calf might actually need more time in the womb, or she’s tired of men pushing her to fit their schedules and going to be difficult.
The point is, for rancher this is a pain:
Inconvenience: he has to stay up in the middle of the night either way. He can
- haul the girl himself to Ashland (72 miles one-way), wait for the c-section, then drive her home the other 72. This is probably a good 4-6 hr time commitment in the middle of the night.
- Or bother the people you value the most, his great vets in Ashland, to do a housecall at the ranch.
The vet is expensive (to John the money guy). And a word about vets…The Ashland Veterinary has the best large animal and K-state grads in the region, and also great for cats and dogs. And cheapest, maybe $175 for labor, $75 for mileage and time. It would be twice as much from Liberal.
- One of a Cowboy’s many fine motor skills at the XIT is that he can stitch. They can handle a prolapse. This is when everything in the region from where the calf resides falls out. It gets shoved back in, she is stitched up and her life goes on. If life at stake, the vet called regardless, even if she’s going to town to the auction block the next year or the next day.
And if there is any perceived harshness about mothering tendencies in the video, it’s not perceived; if you’re barren, you’re out after the first year.
Last, I just couldn’t figure out the hanging stirrup from the ceiling conundrum from Part I. If you’ll remember the visual stirrup of a horse and word connection reminded me of the OB/GYN so I was really trying to figure out how she got her legs way up there by the ceiling…Finally, as I did with so many engineering confusions I had in classes at KU, I had to ask.
John illustrates the function of the stirrup in the last frame.
Anyway, anomalies are good. I wouldn’t want life any other way.
Sep 24 2011
Calving Part I. Babies is comin’: 4 the girls & men that did it to them
by admin
She's not very happy and he not too with her.
First, a little music for you to read by. I was a childbride, but childless & footloose for five years. A favorite courting technique, John would break into song complete with face and head gestures to serenade, emphasis on the “baay’ beh”. Even not funnier at 8 months. After a four versions on utube, I’m just starting to appreciate it all. Your selection for tonight: Classic Paul in Patchwork and Bowler.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bwW07sCwoY[/youtube]It’s the first week of calving season, John’s week on call as baby dr., so I tagged to barn at 10:30. Heifers are teen (I hope not really) cows having first calves who sometimes need a little help. They are brought in from the pastures to hang out together in the pens.
Second, the excuses. It’s dark, pics in pens limited, only lights on a pole. With camera broken, I’m filming a blackberry video (I keep forgetting I can’t turn the camera sideways since u can’t rotate videos, I’m sure Steve Spielberg had to learn this too). New skills are all I can do to get unedited to utube, but this is a point in history.
Re-location from pens to delivery room: the calving barn.
I really apologize mama. My style: no cameras and leave me alone when in pain; John seized the opportunity for his usual efficiences to wash the car, pick up groceries, stop by the vet when I thought he was outside having a smoke. But, he was there at Lace’s debut at my head of the table.
Pass a new baby en route to barn. Mother licking to clean and I scare but she'll be back.
This is more talking about childbirth than I could ever tolerate from about 28 on. All it takes is one long-winded, detailed story relayed by some duo couple in a social situation to be enough for life.
Calving chute, looks medieval I know.
Construction by D. (Dave Holden) and M. (Mike Simmons), circa 1982.
A stirrup, right girls? Hmmm....way up there? Think, think, Paula, before you ask engineering question. I know I can figure out the mechanics.
Pretty much everything designed, mostly homemade and welded right here when it comes to stuff like this.
Pretty busy, so I keep quiet and don’t ask questions. Here are more pictures…
She's not very happy and he not too with her.
Got her in a headlock.
Dennis Knudsen, former army dr., obgyn extraordinare and Renaissance man I think would secretly love one of these for a few of his clients. A relative on John’s side out here told me (in 80s we took these funny lamaze classes pre-Lacy at local community college) he said , “ooh…kay, that’s enough of that” when she commenced with some loud hee-haws as he arrived for the delivery.
Chapter Two tomorrow. The birth and some videos, more Paul. I’m sure he quit singing a while ago.
Music commentary: John’s time is limited on computer, but he heard Paul singing and had to come in.
Paula: “that woman’s voice sounds strange…crazed…techno”
John: “she’s just happy. see? she’s agreeing with him.”
Thanks, Paul for opener that kind of steals my show, but if someone made it this far…
Jan 19 2011
Boys will be boys, men and their toys: the Komat’su Transformer.
by admin
Mine's bigger.
Men and their toys. Have videos but later. Decided will just get a post in each day of exciting things in my life, not all has to be a footnoted thesis.
This was a demonstration of a piece of equipment that will clear Russian Olives from the riverbed. They come from upstream, introduced at one time by farmers as windbreaks, and multiply rapidly. Very few when we moved to sw Kansas and have multiplied 30 fold so it’s something to pay attention to. Tamaracs are good, native and serve a purpose but not so with Russian olives; hard to ride through, choke out grass, very rough, cattle can’t get through to river.
People always trying out things down here to see if they work. I remembered a particular kind of moth introduced to take care of salt cedars during my tenure, but no one seemed to claim it today when I spoke with soil conservationist Tom Flowers, so don’t quote me. We’re just the place to try it out, not the instigators but support others efforts. If proven and affordable technology, we’ll partake.
Imagine really big tweezers
Get the scale? That’s Larry Sorters, cowboy and preacher who worked with various Adams off and on much of his adult life, starting with $350 a week living in a one-room bunkhouse by my garage long before I was here. Look for great video later that I took today of Larry telling about this as well as his grandfather driving mail by stagecoach from Beaver to Meade, about 36 miles. The banks would throw in the money bags to go along (Larry’s very trustworthy stock) and a few passengers as extra clients. Now I get why they were robbed in the movies, though I only remember one western growing up. It was “How the West was Won” at a drive-in and I don’t think my father ever got away with it again. He was self-employed, not like a postal worker. That’s another day. (see Larry Sorter)
So back to how it works. It tweezes tree out by root, chops it up and jettisons out left side. Dangerous, like when a piece of wood escapes the bandsaw in architecture school. The woodshop turned out to be a liability and I think it’s different now, but tho frightening, it was a great learning experience for me professionally, the girl who dreamed of one day having an easybake oven. Thanks to Dan Rockhill, School of Architecture at KU.
Roots can’t be completely pulled out without breaking and any root sprouts, so this technology proposes a minimal amt. of chemical (I know, always sounds bad) to root. It’s like having a lawn (buffalo grass) but having it overtaken with really big trees and root systems. Soil conservationist, Tom Flowers said that efforts to just pull out had been ineffective and costly; Russian olives returned rapidly.
This is Roland Spencer’s toy www.ranchlanddevelopment.com. In a bit of down time when John was diverted, I was able to introduce myself to Roland and ask a few questions. Within two minutes, we spoke the same language for he was a contractor with loving hands for a historic stone building that is now a bed and breakfast in north central Kansas, I’ll get more information on that. He is a man of many talents for his company specializes in Ranch Restoration, Real Estate, and Rangeland Management, but I think this coalition was a labor of love as most preservation projects are. That was it, got the “cut” sign from John, but he is pleasant and I do still want to hear more about how the Japanese happened to corner the market on these unless of course it’s a marketing ploy of John Deere. Maybe he’ll post…
We had neighbors on each side come, but it’s only relevent along river and there just aren’t many of us. Would have to be several people that went together to make it profitable for him to come out, we’ll see. I’m pretty much overwhelmed with enormity of task with most things like this on the ranch, but you’ve got to stay on it and accept that nothing stays the same.
Anyway, a day in the life.
Update, Kirk Worthington saw this post and had to show off Kevin’s toy, but now I cannot find the picture, so Kirk re-send please. We want details, too.