Thursday, November 6, 2008

NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART, "BABY" OUR COW!!

One thing I forgot to mention about the hatching of eggs. When you see that the chicken is pecking it's way out of the shell, one must never help this process along. The chick needs to build up strength by doing this for itself. If you help, you really are causing the chicken to die. I think of welfare and having the state or government step in, is somewhat like this. This kind of thinking weakens the person. One needs to help them help themselves. This promotes growth and makes the person strong. Give them a fish dinner and it helps 1 day, teach them to fish and it helps the person for a lifetime.

One day when I was in grade school I was riding my bicycle on the road by the strawstack that was very close to the road. I heard a horrible groaning and moaning going on. I investigated closer, and noticed our "Baby" (our name for a certain cow) was the one that was in so much agony. I ran to the house and told my mother and our neighbor lady (visiting that day) about it. They both came out to check this out. They both agreed that I must run out to the field (where dad was working) and have him come in immediately. I did as I was told, and I told my dad that Baby was having a calf and he MUST come in. His first reply was, "let the cow have her calf". Cows have a way of dropping their calves by themselves all the time, so he thought I was just witnessing a normal birth. "No, no" I said. "Mom and our neighbor lady said that you
you MUST come now" After hearing that, he knew that this was no normal birth. When he sized up the situation, he had our neighbor's husband to come down to help deliver this calf. The calf was so huge and already dead, and the cow was not able to deliver. They got the cow in the barn and then got the tractor and had a block and tackle to help deliver the dead calf. (Much like forceps would help in the birthing process.) Most cows will get up and walk immediately after birthing a calf and take care of themselves. This cow was so weak and was not able to stand up for a whole month. Then one day, as I was gathering eggs, Baby had managed to get up on all 4 legs and was leaning against the manger. She had come a long way baby, from such a painful experience. One thing you learn on the farm very quickly, is empathy and sympathy at an early age as you witness many things with God's creatures. This happened in the late 1930's, because dad was using tractors to farm the land.

Next time I will tell you about a new born calf being carried in from the field. It involved me and the mother cow.

Todays Wisdom--God always has a lesson for us to learn in each situation, we just have to keep our eyes open for it.

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