"Special" Days don't matter when you're a Farmer!

[slideshow]January 2nd is my husbands birthday, or Today! However, my husband is a farmer. He still has to do chores, cows get milked. Cows, pigs and calves all have to be fed. Today we went up to the other farm to feed the young stock, and this is what we found. A down heifer, she is hard to see in the picture because she was covered in manure and snow. This is how we cared for our down animal. First thing my husband did was check for injury and see if she could stand on her own. She was not injured but was not able to get up on her own. She was wet and shivering, the on set of hypothermia. Our job was to get her inside the barn, dry and warm her. We don't drag animals. We carry animals. We put the bucket on the tractor and worked on safely getting her into the bucket. This was a dirty challenge, we had to put a halter rope on her head and tie her head to her back leg. This sounds painful I know but its so that she can't hurt her self when she's being moved. We then scooped her up into the bucket. The second picture is of her tied and being moved to the barn. This went very well. She was untied by me and gently set down in a pen in the barn. The third picture is of her moving around getting comfy. I was waiting for my husband to carrying in a big bale of straw. I dried her off the best I could, that was a stinky job. We then buried her in straw. Straw is one of the best insulators you can find on the farm. The forth picture is of her buried in straw with water and food in front of her. She is now warm, dry and safe in the barn recovering from her ordeal. Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband farmer. It's his special day, but it doesn't matter what the day is when it comes to the farm. He's a farmer, his farm and animals come first. This applies to all holidays and special days, no matter what!