Calving Season

This was actually written on the 20th, but I haven't had wireless access since then:

It’s calving season in Montague County!! Not that every cow read the manual and got bred within exactly the same 42 day window or will calve in 6 weeks time, but we are definitely in full swing. And Cross Timbers Vet Hospital is smack-dab stuck in the middle of it. In the past week, I have personally pulled 4.5 calves, fixed 3 prolapses, and removed one retained placenta. I’m not sure what the other two have been doing, but I’m pretty sure I end up more bruised and smelly than they do most days. Yep, that’s my excuse for my recent blogging hiatus and I’m sticking to it!


From an economic standpoint, having a set calving season is very beneficial to a beef cattle operation for many reasons. First, you know when your calves will hit the ground so you can be ready and waiting in case a cow needs help. Second, because your calves are all about the same age, you can “work” them, wean them, market them, and sell them at the same time. You can manage your cows nutrition level and vaccination and deworming schedules depending on their stage of gestation. And you don’t have to have a bull on your property year round.

On a dairy, it’s a different story: calving season is 365 days a year. Obviously, cows need to have calves to make milk. But it’s not healthy for a cow to give milk all the time. On average, a cow is milked 305 days and then given 60 days “dry-off” during the last trimester of pregnancy. If calves weren’t continually being born, we wouldn’t have a fresh supply of milk year round. Ideally, we would have an equal number of calves being born as we were weaning. That way we could make sure we have enough calf hutches and calving pens available. That’s not exactly been the case lately. Right now, we have about 35 bottle calves that have to be fed twice a day and we have about 180 cows “in milk”. So things have been busy both at work and at home.

In other news, things at the dairy are looking up a little bit. We’ve hired a new milk hand, Mario. Following training, he’ll be doing the morning milking 6 days a week (Read: no more early mornings for Scott!!) and will probably help out with other odds and ends from time to time. Keep your fingers crossed!! More about the dairy to follow…

Running

Okay, I started running last June, stalled out several times and then got kinda serious about it last fall after my doctor's appointment and the dreaded scale that showed me to be heavier than ever before- "ENOUGH!!" I said.

Then in January, a gym opened up in town that took away all of my excuses for not running. It's not too dark, too cold, too windy, or raining in the gym. And they have treadmills that keep me on track. And I have a friend that goes and I think that I'm more worried about disappointing her (and wasting money) that I get a horrible guilty feeling if I don't show up and work out.

I figured out earlier that you have got to have a goal when you start something like this, be it time, pace, distance, weight, jeans size, whatever. So my goals were: 5K, 155-160 pounds, size 10. Right now, I'm at 6K, 1-- pounds (sorry, I'm a chicken), and still a size 1-, but my clothes all fit so much better than before. Also, my legs are much more lean and toned than they were. My other goal was to run a 5K before I turned 30. I worked that day and couldn't actually make it to a race, but I'd run 5K 4 times in the two weeks preceding the race I'd signed up for. Go me!

So let me brag on myself a little bit: my race was AWESOME. I ran the 5K at the Cowtown Marathon in downtown Fort Worth. The weather was great, the race was huge (over 5,000 in my race alone), I ran my best time to date (35:27), place 148 out of 378 in my age/gender class, ran the entire race without stopping, getting tired or winded and just felt awesome at the finish line. My friend Leigh also ran (8 weeks after having her first child!!) and she did really well also. My hips have been killing me ever since, probably because 1) I don't run on pavement, and 2) most of the race was downhill. The combo of these was rally jarring on my hips and I've been taking it easy this week and taking anti-inflammatories to get back to normal. Not a big deal compared to the pride I feel for accomplishing my goal. :)

I knew that I would get in better shape if I did this, but there were some other benefits that I was pleasantly surprised to gain as well. First, I feel pretty great- stronger and healthier. Second, I sleep so much better those nights after I run, like, fall sound asleep when my head hits the pillow and then sleep all night, sleep. I've always been a light sleeper, so this is a huge bonus. Third, I'm really digging the endorphin high I get after I run. I come home just happy and full of energy instead of dog tired and sluggish. And finally, maybe most importantly, it's been pretty great for our marriage. The 1 1/2 hours that it takes me after work to go to the gym and run and get home means 1 1/2 hours less that I'm at home alone and getting upset that Scott's not home. Those 2-3 hours after work when I'm waiting waiting waiting for him to get home have been the hardest thing on me. I start off productive: clean house, do some laundry, get dinner started. But then I get frustrated that he's not home to help me and we can't have a nice sit-down meal and maybe go for a walk or to the store together like other newly-wed couples and I get angry and jealous and start to hate the dairy for stealing my husband from me. So then by the time he gets home I'm in a mood and set to blow up at the least little thing. Also, by the time he gets home he's exhausted and the last thing he needs is his wife to blow a gasket.

So, due to the aforementioned endorphin high and less time spent by myself getting mad, when he comes home I'm much more tolerant, forgiving, loving, and still have some understanding left over. I'm sure this makes his life a little easier, seeing as how coming home is pretty much his one bright spot every day. So even thought I've reached my 5K goal, I think I'll keep running to reach my weight loss goal, but also to help my marriage limp along through the rest of this dairy mess. More on that later. :)

Sad Day

Sorry for the bummer of a post, but I can't begin to tell you the impact that this event has had in my life.

On Friday, February 25th, I lost my dear dog, Pepper.

I had Pepper for 7 years. That's a good chunk of my life and a lot has happened in those 7 years. He's been with me as a vet student, so I learned a lot with him. He was with me as a single girl out on my own and provided lots of companionship. He was with us as our "child" through our first year of marriage.

Pepper was MY dog. He loved people and other dogs and he and Scott took quite a few naps together, but he was always my baby. I didn't realize how much a part of my life he was until he was gone. I think I grew especially attached to him since being married. Scott is never home when I get there and I can't tell you how lonely it is at home now without Pepper. He was there to greet me by jumping up, wanting to be petted, jumping up in my lap and following me all over the house. I talked to him all the time and played and just relaxed with him. He was always so happy to see me, like he'd waited all day just to see me and "tell" me about his day. He needed me and no matter how bad he was (which wasn't really that bad) he made me smile and made my life better. There aren't too many people you can say that about.

The first few days after he was gone, I'd wait to hear the sound of him jumping at the door to be let in or out. I'd drop something on the floor in the kitchen and expect him to be right there to clean up after me. I'd start to say something to a dog that wasn't there. I'd start to ask Scott if he'd let Pepper in for the night. I put all of his "belongings" in a pile by the door, but just can't get up the strength to take them out to storage.

There were lots of tears, still are. I think what comforted me the most (and made me feel like less of a pathetic mess) was that Scott was really sad about it too. I went to the barn to tell him and his voice cracked and his eyes welled up with tears. He buried him under the tree with all of the other dairy dogs for me. He came home that night and cried with me and held me and said he missed him, too. This is our first real loss as a couple.

So now our house is just kind of empty and lonely. I'm a vet without a pet. I didn't realize how much he meant to me. I hope that this event helps relieve some of my "compassion fatigue" as a veterinarian and makes me a more caring individual.

Scott's Grandpa brought me some "In Sympathy" flowers, the following week- how sweet is that?