Strange Weather, Broken Collarbone
In this business, there’s nothing like an injury, and potential tragedy, to make one consider quietly retiring from this lifestyle in one piece. Unlike so many other professions where the workplace is predictably safe, there’s always that wild card when handling livestock.
Loading cows in less than ideal facilities, Robbin got crushed against the gooseneck and run over by a cow that had become suddenly snuffy. Ten times Robbin’s weight and on the move, we feel fortunate that the cow only broke her collarbone.
After two weeks of unseasonably warm weather followed by high winds, temperatures dropped into the low 70s last Thursday, but there was an electrical freshness in the air Friday morning as we gathered the cows to be hauled. Sorted afoot in the corrals, none of the cows had shown themselves as being the least bit agitated, but one of them jumped out of the gooseneck to the end of the short lane and back again to put two of us on the rickety fence. It all happened in a second or two. At the door of the gooseneck, Robbin couldn’t get away. Just to get to the asphalt on the way to the hospital, as in most rural parts of the West, can take a long time over rough dirt roads.
Midday today, it’s 57 degrees. It has been raining since four this morning, accumulating about .25” – our first rain since March 30th. If the rain continues tomorrow as forecast or evolves into afternoon thundershowers, it would do the dry feed we’ve saved more harm than good.
Comments
I hope Robbin is okay now.
I hear that once that collarbone has been broke it can continue to happen more often. It is definitely one of our weak points.
Take care,
Matthew
Posted by: Matthew Rangel | June 8, 2008 12:07 PM
Thanks Matt. It's been a tough couple of weeks for her, and me of course, because I don't fold clothes the way she likes. Between the dust, pollen and incessant wind, not to mention the unneccesary rain on the dry feed, I've been down with pneumonia as well. We've been a helpless pair to draw to lately. Adding to our list of freak accidents, Clarence Holdbrooks, who helps us regularly at 70, rolled his pickup and a gooseneck load of cows and calves last Wednesday. He and the cattle are OK, but the pickup is totaled - his first car wreck ever. One downhill trailer tire broke its bead on one of our 4-wheel drive switchbacks and the gooseneck shoved the pickup over. Fortunately the gooseneck hung on a rock, and though broken free from the pickup, it kept the truck from rolling over (several more times) down the hill. We all look at each other and say, "How lucky! It all could have been much, much worse."
Posted by: John Dofflemyer | June 8, 2008 1:46 PM