Tonight's Adventure (and other things)

Today started out normal enough--not until around 6:30 this evening did it really get exciting! Let me explain...

The mob of cows we have here has had some problems lately. Several calves have been born lately, I think in total there have been five. One cow died while she was calving. One cow (who is at the moment heading downhill fast) has had quite a few problems (the vet is suspecting internal bleeding) lately. Poor thing! When the vet came this morning, she wasn't doing very well at all. From what I have gathered, I'm pretty sure part of her problem was that her calf was in a very twisted up position. Our landlord is expecting her to be dead by morning. She's not doing well at all. Can't even stand up by herself.

Anyway, on to today! Our landlord has been here several times today, checking up on the downed cow that I described above. This evening, on his check-up (around 6-6:30 p.m.), he noticed a cow that was in the process of calving--the front feet and about half-way up it's nose was showing. He told the boys about it when he came back, so we knew about it.

I'm not totally sure of the details, but somehow it ended up that Mum was sending Seth and Simon out to check on her. I decided I wanted to go along (after all, I'd never seen a calf born--only goat kids!), so we soon set out (at 7:00 p.m.) with my headlamp (apparently, I'm the only person at the moment that has a headlamp; all the other boys' batteries need to be charged!). We walked past almost (at least, it seemed!) all the cows in the mob before we stumbled upon her. Hardly any change. Okay... We went back and reported, and Mum wanted us to go back out after tea, "Just to check and see that she's okay."

After tea, we set out. By that time, it was around 8:00. Me and Simon slugged back through the mud, and finally found her, sitting next to the fence. Hardly any change. BUT, you could now see it's eyes!--barely. Simon stayed with the cow (to keep track of her), and I came back to the house (remember, it's about a 1/4 km out to where the cows are, through mud!) to report. "Doesn't sound good." was the verdict, so Mum called our landlord. I headed back out to be with Simon, taking some string with me in case we had to pull the calf.

Just before I had left to go to the house, she managed to make it onto her feet. Simon followed her along the fence line, staying well behind her, but making sure she was kept in sight between all the cows. When I came back, she was still on her feet, slowly walking northward along the fence. With her walking, we really didn't want to get the string attached to the calf's foot, and then have her walk off on us! So we waited. Either for her to sit down, or our landlord to come. It seemed like ages.

She finally sat laid down on her side, and we got close enough so we could tie the string onto the calf's foot and pull it. We soon realized we wouldn't have too. Once she was able to get the calf's head out, it was coming--FAST! Within one or two minutes, it was totally out. We then saw the lights coming down the road. Simon looked at me, I looked at him and we both grinned. "Too late!"

They hurried out to where we were, but by that time the calf was about two minutes old, and trying to stand up. Oh, well (for them)! At least we saw it! :D We got a lift back home, and on the way met Mum coming out to see if we were all okay. Yes, we were! And the cow was okay. Our landlord called out the window, "Well, if we wouldn't have come, she probably would have died." Mum agreed.

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So yes, that was our evening. Exciting, huh? :D I enjoyed it.

Now, on to other things...GIFTS.
GIFTS FOR TODAY: MIRACLES.

1. The gift of life. That little calf is a miracle! It could have died, but it lived. A miracle.
2. Sunshine. We had it again today! What a wonderful miracle!
3. Plenty of milk and cream. God gave us a cow.

Also, a note on my story about the girl in Israel:

I probably won't be posting any more parts of the story until it's totally done. I have a feeling I'll be switching things around quite a bit as I write! We'll see. I've got 1 1/2 pages done so far.