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Ranch/Farm safety

J

Judith

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Dec 29, 2005
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I have often wondered do your families have a "system" in place for people gettin back to the ranch? I had a knee go on me the other day and I laid out in the mud for a good hour trying to pull myself up to the house. Of course my brilliant dogs thought I was playing and proceeded to jump on my back and head for a good long time ( Figgin Lassie would have gone for help!) :) This is the second or third time this has happened over the years. I got to thinking what if one of your beloved did'nt come back in a timely fashion? Do you carry cell phones? GPS? what do you do? In my case nothing bad happened but what if you had a heart attach or something? Inquiring minds want to know
 
man I hate it when I have a heart attach out in the field ...... can't shake the dang things, pesky critters they is....
 
I did hurt my knee once real bad... Thought about it for a while as I hobbled back to the house.. Damn that hurt.. Generally if I don't show up when my wife thinks I should be she gives me a ring... 90% of the time I am just shooting the blank with a neighbor but it is good that she checks in.. The time I worry most is night calving.. I mean, if I go out at 2am chances are if nothing happens she won't hear me come back in... If something does happen she might wake up at 5 am and think I am out checking calves when I was out all night... Don't know what to do about that except carry the cell.
 
The ole boy that came up with the slogan "can you hear me now" doesn't know how close to right he is. No matter what cell phone company you use(attempt).
 
Good topic Judith,one thats always on my mind.....when I'm at work greg often is out alone with cattle and horses here at home and at our river pasture,unfortunatly both are dead areas as far as a cell phone goes.

Greg used to just load the horse and go to the river,now at least he leaves me a note,where he is and what time he left at,here at home he still doesn't do that but if hes not in the yard but his personal truck is I go looking for him.... I bought him walkie talkie for at home but he NEVER remembers to take it :?

Any more ideas anyone???
 
I know I have woken up at 5 am during calving time with no hubby in bed. I will usually wait a few minutes, and if he hasn't come back in I will go yell for him. Our calving are is just behind the house. I have gotten after him to wake me up when he comes in but for some reason he just doesn't get the message :x .

Other than calving, we usually work together. Things could happen, but we do not have cell phone coverage at all. I have often though of getting those long range walkie talkies.

I was fortunate the last time I was hurt alone. It happend about 500 feet from the house. It was a long crawl, and I goudged my bad knee into every pebble along the way, but I made it. Sprained the ankle badly enough I couldn't walk on it.
 
Cell phones won't work in certain places here in the hills & ' hollers' of GA. We use 2 way radios that have a 10 mile radius.

There is one with whomever is out and one left on the base unit in the house(s) so the folks in the house can hear what's going on also. Feel lost without it now!!
 
I always keep a cellphone, as we have good service both here and on the company farm. In the past, we had a CB radio in each landrover, a main radio in the house, during the civil war we each had a police radio as well in case of ambush, or home attack.
 
During my stint as a farm-pickup hauler of milk, I grew to sorta know the habits of folks who lived and farmed land along the roads I travelled. If I saw a tractor and baler stopped in mid-round, I'd look as best I could to see if anything looked awry. Especially if a pickup was still in the field as well. Machinery parked at the end of a field didn't raise my attention so much.
I say this because there're a few folks who come around daily, or nearly so. Mail carriers could be lookouts, so could your friendly fuel man. Maybe some could start a kind of neighborhood watch utilizing those regular travellers of rural roads. Shoot! When you're runnin' to town for parts, why don't ya watch out for stuff like I mentioned. Never know what you'll find!
Gulchy
 
WE are lucky enough to have good phone coverage now... Didn't have it when we moved here and the only thing reliable was those long range radios... until 5 years ago or so every farmer had one in his tractor, truck and a base station in the house...Problem is some farms got so stretched out that there are parts 20 or more miles apart now, cell phones are quickly replacing them, especially thsoe push to talk ones.
 
Since I am just about deaf ( can't hear the tractor run anymore) we have 10 mile range walkie talkies so I can call her if something goes wrong.
Both farms are close enough to a hyway so I can use channel 19 if I would ever need to. Just know your limitations and be careful.
 
man I hate it when I have a heart attach out in the field
Click to expand...

I hope your heart doesn't get too attached :wink: Just kidding :)

The only thing we have out here are radios, which we have and are getting back to using since there is only the 2 of us most of the time. It scares me to go out fixing fence and having to cut a tree off the fence with the chainsaw. My greatest fear is hitting some wire and having the chainsaw jump back at my face.

Cel phones don't work out here at all. I kinda like it that way :)
 
My wife yells at me about this. She worries I do tell her where i am going and when I intend to get back Had a horse (well actually a creek bank break my back when I was 27) so I try really hard to stick to this rule. Always carry matches to build a little smoky fire.
 
WE use radios. The only thing is if you are in a hurry we have a tendency to forget to take them. The biggest thing is that we are always vigilant about our activities and remember what would happen if something might happen. What would the others have to do to cope with your absence
 
Truly a concern - you don't have to go very far from the house to get in trouble.

We had a light snow storm in December. I went out and cleared the driveway with a tractor. Got done and was walking back to the house.

The next thing I knew, I was laying flat on the concrete. I
must have been out for a few minutes and I was so dizzy I couldn't even get to my knees. I laid there about 20 minutes. Called the wife, but she couldn't hear through the house.

After about 20 minutes, I managed to work my way to the side door of the house which was about 30 feet away and ring the bell.

I had hit the back of my head and it was bleeding. Got to the emergency room where they did CAT scan, X-Ray and MRI and finally said I wasn't broken.

Hospital charged $7800. Insurance company settled for $1300 and I had to pay $50.

I was not being careless which scares me. Finally got some tungsten carbide cleats for my boots.
 
If I am riding a colt, I will leave a written message at the house to tell anyone who is looking for me, where I am and what I am doing.

If I am going out in a storm, I will call a neighbor and them them if I don't call in a certain time, to come looking. The neighbors do the same.

If I worry too much about how dangerous something is, I wouldn't be doing it and I'd never get anything done.

Around here, we all watch out for the neighbors and we have enough of us close together that we all pretty much know each others routines. And I too watch when I'm driving down the road, to see if anyone is in trouble. Especially when it real cold out. Too damn many of these fools anymore leave in an outfit and don't take anything along in case they would have trouble or break down.

Once I got jerked off the front of the wagon by my team and broke a bone in my leg. I sent a kid home for a ride and found me a stick for a crutch and started hobbling along. I almost beat him home! LOL

Another time I had my dad with me on the wagon with a saddle horse tied on. I needed to catch a blind calf and haul him home when i got done feeding cows. Dad took the team to look at the cattle while I was catching the calf. The colt blew, we fell down and I broke the small bone in my leg. Dad came back while I was lying on the ground, chewing dirt and trying not to cuss too bad and asked, "What happened, he buck you off?" I got up, caugth the calf,loaded him in the wagon and tied the colt back on, got in the wagon and drove home. Dad was gettin' a little age on him, so I couldn't expect him to do any of it. Hell, he had enough trouble just gettin' on the wagon!
When we got home, I unloaded the calf from the wagon, put away the colt and the team and then my wife took me to the doc for a cast. No big deal, I was just real careful how I put any weight on the leg.

I always try and keep a good crutch or cane around all the buildings!

My wife got to where she hated when my dad would call and say, "Now don't get excited, but Robert hurt himself. Again."

I hope when it's my time to go, a good colt bucks me off in my favorite pasture and breaks my neck. :D
 
We have always let each other know where we're gonna approximatly be...or at least which pasture we'll be in. With me caking by myself..I've got a cell phone that works pretty good in most places..and since I run the same schedule everyday...everyone on the ranch and the neighbors know my runs...I do tell hubby though that he can't put cows in a pasture that I don't have cell phone service in during the winter...lol I don't mind walking in the summer...but I aint walking in the winter! Since we all call each other the kid grew up that way..and was good about calling to let us know where he was...even to this day at college, he'll let us know if he's gonna go do something fun like snowboarding! Course he don't call and tell us where the parties are...lol
 

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