Well, you could call me a rough tough cowboy--I drink my milk black.
Skim milk with Rich Chocolate Ovaltine is hard to beat. Enough of this stuff has changed me from an oval teen to an oval-shaped old man, but my bones have lots of calcium in them. For a little caffeine kick now and then, a can of Mountain Dew works wonders.
Through the years, my half Swede and half Norwegian mom drank enough coffee for our whole family. Dad has always drank a little coffee, but none of my three sisters or I have ever found it to be very tasty or drinkable.
Calving is in full swing on the Soapweed Outfit. Saddletramp and I put the heavies in right at sundown, and as the temperature was supposed to get pretty nippy, we started putting cows in the barn. We don't put them in until they are noticeably calving, and then they go directly into individual box stalls. We put in seven that were calving before we unsaddled and turned things over to the night man (he is a luxury that we've just had the past two calving seasons). Sixteen calves have been born since sundown, and six more are in stalls calving.
Saddletramp saved the day yesterday. He had gone to town after 30 sacks of Darling mineral and 30 sacks of salt. When he got home, he started making the rounds and distributing it in the salt bunks. We have been sorting heavies from the bunches about once a week, but inevitably there are a couple or three calves born out in each bunch that the sorter (me) misses. Saddletramp just happened to be going through a gate when he glanced over and thought, "that cow is not laying right." He drove over, and the cow was upside down in a little swale and had just had a calf. The sack was over the nose of the calf, and he was able to pull it off and get the little bugger breathing. Then he devoted his attention to the cow and got her turned over. Had he been a few minutes later, the calf would have died, and the cow would have prolapsed and died being upside down. The good Lord arranged perfect timing.
