Have you ever…

Heard the expression, “Slower than an old cow having a calf”?

Never made much sense to me because when an older cow gets ready to calve, she don’t mess around.. if you see one with a water bag and she hasn’t calved in a hour, you better catch her and run your hand in there and see what’s going on.. so… Cindy and I got a message that one of our cows had calved, not far from the road and an observant neighbor lady went by and saw that the calf was under the fence on the wrong said of the cow.. so we drove down the road, found the cow and calf, but they were not next to the road, but farther into the pasture, next to a fence where we join with neighbor…so we hurried back around and into the pasture, cuz’ things didn’t look right.. when we got there, sure enough, the calf was on the wrong said of the fence and dead.. evidently she didn’t get the sack off his head fast enough and he smothered…. it  happens sometimes… dang….. while we were out there we decided to go ahead and check on the rest, maybe tag some new ones.. did that and even kicked 4 pair out that wanted to go.. wasn’t much of a problem, got them headed right, got around them and opened the gate and came back behind them and they did the rest.. shut the gate and went on our way… seen a cow off a ways and thru’ the binoculars could see she had a water bag, so went and piddled around, check some other stuff, tagged a couple calves, gave her plenty of time and came back and ….. nuthin’… as we sat a ways away and watched her for signs of calving,  I called Tate and told him he had a couple to tag and might want to get them while they were new as they looked pretty lively and the cows looked like REAL good mothers! He met us in the pasture, got the tags and we went and watched and ran a little interference for him while he tagged them, went back and checked the cow and … nuthin’…. drove close enough to check and could see a toe and it was the correct position, so knew she wasn’t having a backwards calf.. we came home, ate some supper, and went back out.. by now, more than an hour had passed… usually, on these older cows, I don’t worry, but after losing one today, it made me a little head shy, so when we got there and no calf, I hurried home, caught and saddled a horse, got all my gates to the corral set and loped out to get her in.. and….. she had a calf…. so yes, sometime they are slower than an old cow having a calf.. I bet if we’d have never gotten close when we first found her and left her alone she’d have had him in 15 minute.. just goes to show, them cows know more about having calves than I do!

I finished up some leather repairs this morning and finished up my new corral addition this afternoon.. got a branding tomorrow at a neighbors…