Working Ranch Blog

Mountain Tops and Valleys by Brett Haas
Feb. 21 2010, 9:46 PM

Calving out heifers has to be one of the hardest jobs in the world. (Mike Rowe, come on down anytime.) I'm not just talking about the physical aspect of it, but also the mental, and let's not forget spiritual. The hardest part for me is the spiritual and mental. One day you'll lose one and you'll be down. The next day you'll stay up all night and save one. You'd think you'd have won the lottery, until that is momma lays on him or leads him into the creek. I stayed up all night last week helping out little #50, only to go over this evening and find him gone. I brought home #60 the other day. Mom just wasn't licking like she should and he about froze. I brought him home much to the delight of my kids and one of my oldest daughter's friends. I let them take turns feeding him. They got quite the kick out of that. They got an even bigger kick when I showed them how to test the calf's suck reflex. They took turns giggling as #60 turned their fingers red. I took him back out after the girls said he was ready for momma. Mom was glad to have him back and I thought he was o.k. I saw him this morning, but was unable to locate him tonight. All I found was his worried momma. I looked for 2 1/2 hours until dark but no luck. My heart can only take so much. I've worried before though only to have them show up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the morning. So I guess I'll just have to ask God for extra help on that one.

Yes, there is never such a time under heaven that God has granted to mankind that is filled with mountain tops and valleys such as calving time. You think you're missing a calf and your heart hits the floor, only to find him later and be shining and high like the sun on a warm Spring day (Ah, Spring, I can feel it now). I guess there are a lot of life's lessons to be learned and dealt with as this time hands them to you on either a silver or clay platter. They don't always taste good, but you know in the end you'll be a better person. Why, just tonight, my oldest overheard me talking to mom about the calf that died. She asked me about it and there was a part of me that wanted to chew it up for her a bit as to make it easier for her eight year old heart to swallow. However, I just told her like it was. The heart is a muscle and needs to be exercised just like any other. And I suppose, even though we may never understand it, that the good Lord intended some of those exercises to hurt and some to feel good. Either way your heart gets stronger. You just gotta accept sometimes that life doesn't work out the way you'd like. Maybe, though, in the end we'll understand. Until then, I guess that's what faith is for. Proverbs 16:25 says, "There is a way that seems right unto man, but the end thereof is death." I suppose the opposite of that is true as well. There is a way that seems wrong unto man, but the end thereof is life. I guess sometimes you just gotta believe even if you don't understand.

Send me more of your calving stories at thekansascowboy36@gmail.com, or look me up on Facebook or Twitter.