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Spring Part 2

Since the spring saw us calving out fifty or more first time heifers it 
was a lot more important to have help from a night herder.  Well I fit that bill.  Billy 
had all the daily work and to give him a nights sleep (except for emergencies) I 
became Dr. # two.  Since I wasn’t very busy, we only had four young ones,  I didn’t 
need to worry about missing any sleep, I could make it up during the daytime 
when I wasn’t busy.  Did I mention our four little ones? During these years I can 
only remember one time I had to wake him for assistance.
	The fall was less hectic because the feeding had not begun.  There 
were years Billy helped the neighbors with harvest chores and it was up to me to 
watch the springers.  I had graduated to taxi driver by then, for our school kids, so 
stepping in during times when Billy was off working for the neighbors wasn’t any 
problem.  This one year I was on duty again.  I had made the rounds about five-
thirty and was busy finishing meal preparations when Billy got home.  I asked if 
he had checked the cows.  He said he had.  I asked  if number thirty-nine had her 
calf yet. “ She’s not ready yet,” was his reply.   “Yes she is,” I insisted.  “No she 
isn’t.  What makes you think she is ready?” he asked.  “You can just tell by 
looking at her,” I came back.  “Number seventy-two is closer than thirty-nine,” he 
stated.  “I don’t know what you are seeing,” he grumbled as he drank his 
tea.  “You can tell just by the look in her eye.  She’s ready to have her calf.  It‘s 
clear to see you never had a baby.”  “Mom I thought you knew by now, you are 
looking at the wrong end,” he said as I set supper on the table and the kids came 
from all directions.  “She looked at me the same way I looked at all the nurses 
and Dr. when I was waiting for ours to be born.  Get this thing out of here!”

Copyright © Marycile Beer | Year Posted 2007

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