The whole trouble started when Rob came in the house and kindly asked me if I would help him. A cow had a calf up on the butte, in the middle of the sage brush. We are talking snow! Deep snow!! and thick sage. Why does he even ask? He already knows this isn't going to end well!!
He said he needed me to go along in case he had to carry the calf very far through the deep snow and if the cow got raunchy.....I was supposed to start screaming to distract her. I asked him how he knows I can scream...he said he hears me everytime I think the tractor is going to roll, when we are feeding hay! Great! And I thought that thing was soundproof!
We head out across the feed lot, up and down hills, through mud and snow. As we drive down the last hill and head out across the valley, the snow gets deeper. The tractor starts complaining. I can see the cow, he's right, she is up on the butte. He tries to take the tractor straight up the hill but the snow is possibly 2 or more feet deep. The tractor gets stuck part way up, after backing down and starting up again, as only a man knows how to do, we finally make it to the top.
He drove right up to the calf. The calf was laying right in the middle of a sagebush. The cow was standing there prancing around, and I was ready to go into action! Rob put the calf on the bucket. The cow watching very warily. Rob quickly jumped in the tractor and started backing slowly down the butte. The calf tried to stand up and promptly fell out of the bucket. Stopping the tractor, Rob jumped out and put the calf back in. The calf was not cooperating at all so Rob came back to the tractor and said, "I'm going to sit in the bucket with the calf, you back the tractor down the hill!"
"Awww noo, Awww noo, you aren't doing this to me again." He wasn't even listening, he was already in the bucket with the calf.
I put the tractor in reverse, and slowly started backing down the hill. I felt like I was skiing backwards and my ski instructor was...in a bucket!! I started talking to the Lord, "I can't do this, you are on your own now. If you want me to live through this, you are going to have to take the wheel."
I tried to follow the tracks that Rob had made earlier but I never backed a tractor down a hill before so I was weaving back and forth. I was starting to make myself seasick. I would look out the front window for affirmation, and quickly turn to look out the back window to make sure I was following the tracks. I had to lower and raise the bucket periodically so the cow could see the calf or that I didn't lose the occupants in the bucket. Slipping and sliding, the Lord got us safely to the bottom of the hill and that was when I realized Rob intended for me to back the tractor the whole way to the corral. I was going to cross the feedlot!
I backed out of the snow onto the area we feed the cows everyday and sunk right there. I tried going forward and backward but I was tight. Rob got the calf out of the bucket and tried his hand at moving the tractor. It was not going anywhere!!
When I stepped out, the bottom step was level with the ground, the hitch was at ground level too. I had the bucket too close to the ground when I was driving down the last slope so I was dragging mud, which didn't help the situation at all. That's when I also noticed I never took the emergency brake off when I got in the drivers seat. The tears started flowing, he was never going to ask me for help again!!
Rob called the neighbor, Jimmy. Till Jimmy got here, Rob carried the calf back to the corral, thankfully the mother didnt give us any trouble and followed him.
Jimmy came while we were still working with the calf so we got the ATV and Jimmy followed us back out to the tractor. He had his Kubota, but he couldn't budge the tractor. He called another neighbor, Travis, to bring his tractor. While they waited for Travis, they got fence posts and wiggled them under the front tractor tires. They used the bucket to lift the front end, which was also a challenge, the bucket kept sinking in the mud too!!
Travis arrived with his McCormick, he hooked up to Jimmy and they pulled the tractor out of the mire. Travis was real encouraging, he said, "This is only the first time, this happens at least three times every spring."
Well we broke a record...Travis has had to come pull us out at least five or six times.
Now I know there are worse things than driving in the snow!!!
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