Across The Range

Graham had us all down for a BBQ at his place. He was planning to have it last week for Canada Day but the weather didn't cooperate.


After sitting in its case for over two years, we pulled the volleyball net out and started to assemble the pieces.


We had a supportive audience. LOL!


It went downhill from here. :P LOL! The wind really came up, the stakes broke when we hammered them in (our volleyball kit was a made in China special), and the poles were not stable. So, we rolled up the net and went in to the house and had ice cream and coffee.

The past couple weeks been quite eventful here.

Dad sold his 900 LB steers and Graham sold one pen of his heifers the next day. Dad has been having cattle arrive since then as his buyer finds cattle at sales. Having the load out area at Graham's accessible to cattle liners saves a lot of work and time now! We used to have to trailer them down to his place from ours.

Our cousin and his family visited one evening. It was nice to see them again.

We ran out of water. :P Erin and I put the tank on the truck and then Erin looked at the clock to see what time it was. She remarked," 11:00 PM I should have known!" We've hauled water at that time more than once. Then we ran out of water again about a week later. :P In the evening but I think we finished hauling by 11:00 PM. :P

Spent time getting ready for our friends' visit-cooking, sewing, cake decorating, etc.

Saturday Dad, Graham, and Erin went to the gun show in town. I was madly running around catching up on a bit of everything here. The H. family arrived around 6 PM and it was so good to see them all again. Everyone was here so we had 23 people at our place which is a lot considering there is usually just four or five of us or 11 at the most when my brother and his family come. It was fun though since we don't have company very often. We had turkey dinner(Mom cooked a 37 LB turkey!) with all the trimmings so were surrounded with lots of good food and fellowship. :) Naomi and Ellie stayed in my room and we talked until 2 AM. I hadn't seen them in over two years so that was a good enough exuse to stay up late. 5:30 AM came too early though. LOL! They left around 7 because they had a long drive ahead of them.

Graham's small pen of heifers knocked down a few wind boards going into the alley, walked through the opening down to the end, opened the gate and mixed in with the pen of his other heifers. Can your calves do that?? Haha! :P There were about 300 but we only got around to separating about half of them before it was too dark. We finished separating the rest a couple days later.

Ah, life is never dull!

T oday started off early at 5 as Graham needed Erin and I to come help weigh calves and do a sort from two pens. It has been so hot (today was 35 C/95 F) at 10:30! We were just about finished the first pen when I was closing the gate to keep the group in the small area and up to the chute. Something I’ve done about a million times with no problem. One calf backed out of the alley leading up to the chute (Graham was trying to put the bar in to keep the calf in the alleyway), turned around and, I guess kind of went a bit crazy. He ran(in a short space) through a couple calves right into the gate I was in the process of closing. The gate slammed into my hand and face and sent me against the bigger alley into the boards hitting my head and shoulder. Ouch! Instantly I felt down by my right jaw swell up. It was the oddest feeling. Kind of reminded like those sponge things years again that you stuck in water and then they would inflate quick. LOL! Graham took my job and I thought I felt good enough to take weights and numbers but after about two I was feeling a little light headed and starting to feel worse. So, I went into the house to lay down while Graham and Erin finished weighing and sorting. Dad came with some gravel and he thought it would be a good idea to go to ER and get checked out, especially for my hand. I’m not usually one to run for medical care but I didn’t know how bad I had hurt my hand and jaw. I hate to leave an injury and make the problem worse.

So, I came home and Mom had heard the news already. She took it better than I thought but was still ready to kill that calf. LOL! Mom took me to ER and there was a sign showing a 2 -3 hour wait. Apparently, it had been a zoo there all morning with 7 ambulances arriving plus all the walk ins. Everyone was just talking how crazy it was and continued to be. I signed in and Mom stayed for a few minutes and then went and did some shopping. I’ll have to say one thing, everyone should go to ER (hopefully not as a patient!) once to see how blessed they are with their health. Seeing everyone else’s serious problems made me look like I was at the wrong place. The kid (probably 15?) in front of me had a potato gun fire on him (he ended up having 1st and 2nd degree burns). That brought back memories of our potato gun which I’ll have to post about sometime. Another guy (I’m guessing 18 or 20) was sitting there with a blanket wrapped around him. His parents and he had been sitting there for a couple hours already I was told and had just started shaking. His father went to talk to the nurse/receptionist and she took his temperature. As she just started to walk away, he fainted and someone else caught him. They got a stretcher and were putting him in the hall but still didn’t sound like he got in right away. It is terrible the wait times people have when they are seriously sick. Canada’s public health care is not by any terms a successful health system but I won’t start on that now. There were several others serious ailments but my hand keeps hitting too many keys right now...LOL!

My name was called after waiting about an hour or so and I was taken back to another room with about 6 or 7 people. Waited there for a while and then a doctor came and looked at my hand and jaw and decided to get a couple x-rays taken. She was nice…actually everyone was for being swamped with work and patients. There were no broken bones but the doctor thought I might have partially torn a ligament between my thumb and index finger. She called it gamekeeper’s hand or skier’s hand. Though it could be just very tender from the jarring movement of the gate. She wanted to play it safe so put a splint on my thumb and half way up my arm. In this type of situation she said it is better to play it conservatively rather than assuming it will heal alright. I ended up being in ER for 3 hours, most of which was waiting, which I didn’t think was too bad. I though it might be quite a bit longer seeing how hectic it was.

Mom said I should have told the doctor that is a was a cow or bigger calf. We are used to calling our animals feeder calves. He was about 800 LB. Oh well, I'm sure she figured that a 200 LB calf couldn't do that. LOL!

On Monday I am supposed to call a plastic surgeon. I know that sounds crazy and I didn’t think to ask why but that is who I am supposed to see. All my papers are sent over there so they’ll know who I am. From there the surgeon will take a look at it and see if I need a hand splint or not.

So, I am trying to take it easy. I’m still pretty sore and achy. My right shoulder is red and scraped up causing the most pain right now when I move (sometimes affecting my neck too) Just above my knee I have a big bruise/bump and my jaw is a bit sore. This evening I’ve had a bit of headache, not bad just kind of annoying. I haven’t taken any medicine yet but I might try some advil if I can’t get comfortable enough to sleep. I slept for a while this evening so I’m not really tired right now.

Prayers would be appreciated that I’d be feeling better soon. There is so much to do with the cattle (I’ve been doing the cell grazing everyday), canning (beans are ready now), etc. I hate feeling useless. :P Good thing you don’t have to read this as slow as I’ve been typing. LOL! Anyways, I’ll quit whining here. : )