and I called the wind neighbors

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. Genesis 8:22


I was in the office/away room sorting through piles of bills, bank statements, books and trash mail when I looked at the clock. It was four o’clock...time to feed cows and horse and barn kitties. The thermometer said it was 16 degrees outside but with the wind factored in, the actual temperature was 1 degree... and the wind was a factor. As I charged the battery for the mule, I dressed in my cheap coverall with the crotch that hangs down to my knees, put on two hats and double gloves, layered underneath for a quick run to put out food for all the creatures we support, wild ducks included, all twenty five of them. I ran through my check list as I pulled out of the garage... canned food and crunchies for the barn kitties, cracked corn for the ducks, oats for Junie B, hay and sweet feed for the cows.
The snow wind took my breath away as I drove down the hill to the barn. I should have wrapped a scarf around my neck and mouth before I left the shelter of home. I fed the barn kitties, loaded some baled hay in the back of the mule and threw some hay down in the barn manger. As I drove in the lower pasture, Junie B came to me asking for her oats. I fed her then moved to the manger where I could see one of our little bulls standing unusually still by the outdoor manger. As I got close to him, I could see a cable wrapped tightly around one of his front hooves, blood and manure mixed on his leg and hoof. When I bent down to check it out, he popped me with his still active back hoof so I got the message. I needed help quickly.
I called my neighbor and Lisa answered the phone. Gary was not yet home but she and her son Jay came quickly. Armed with bolt cutters, Jay began to work on cutting the cable. It was buried in the flesh of the leg and difficult to reach. The calf panicked and fell sideways, perhaps dislocating his shoulder. We went to the barn to get a hacksaw and I called another neighbor, Vince, to come help. Vince knows how to do most everything and Jay needed more muscle than Lisa and I could provide. The little bull was shivering and shocky so I drove to the house and ripped a blanket (white, of course) off a guest bed to lay on him to help preserve body heat. Did I mention the snow and wind were blowing really hard and light was fading?
Jeannie, our farm partner and friend, and I called every vet in the book and not one has yet called me back. There are very few vets for large animals in our county since we are no longer primarily a rural area with family farms. I called Michael but his new cell phone was not functioning. I called Gary and he came straight from work ready to help. Tim, Jeannie’s husband and our other farm partner, was on the phone talking to a friend who also has large animals, getting feedback and suggestions.
Vince and Jay had removed the cable from the hoof. Jay and I were dotted with the purple blue disinfectant poured on the calf’s hoof as he lay sprawled. The bull’s head was down, eyes unfocused, covered with my formerly white blanket. Dianne walked up in the middle of the maelstrom of ministry to the little bull and dove in, kneeling along side the rest of us in the mud and manure, massaging the little bull’s body, pushing on him, lifting his head, bringing him water and hay and feed to see if he would eat (cows keep warm with the heat produced by their digestive process), checking his shoulder to see if it was dislocated, talking to him and keeping all the other cows at bay. Cows and dogs and Junie B were all worried and pacing around in circles, watching and waiting.
Suddenly the calf stirred. He tried to stand, struggled up and stood on three legs with his injured leg and hoof dangling. Gary brought his generator and heater, hooked it up in the back of his truck and blessed heat poured out over us all. We stood, waited, watched as the little bull began to eat some hay, drink some water, test out his injured leg and hoof. After some time had passed, he placed some weight on his swollen leg and steadied himself. There he stood, not out of the woods yet, covered with my blanket, surrounded by his cow family and human friends, balancing himself carefully as he ate and drank. He began to try to walk and follow his herd as they moved towards the barn for night. It was dark now. Gary’s lights and heater lit and warmed us as we watched the first steps... awkward and painful... as the yearling began to follow his mama to the barn. Gary put a rope around his neck and walked beside him part of the way until he was steadier on his feet (hooves). He made it to the barn and settled in with his herd for the cold winter night, safe for the moment. We won’t know how he will do for awhile yet. Gary thinks he will be o.k. We wait in hope.
As I lay in bed last night waiting for sleep to come and my fanny to warm up, I was bothered by my dithering and near loss of control in this crisis. Usually I respond well to crisis and fall apart later. What was the difference this time? Flashback memory to daddy having to put a cow down with a broken leg, leftover ragged nerve endings from leaving mama alone in Georgia, New Yearitis...probably all of those and more. The only thing that matters is not my inability to handle this crisis by myself but the gathering of my chosen family who came when I called. The cold snowy wind did not keep them from coming to help me. My ox truly was in a ditch and they came. They got dirty, they stood by, they helped, and when it was over, they cracked jokes and handed out hugs and called later to see how I was.
The earth still stands and as God said in Genesis, the rhythms of life and death and seasons will not change. Neither does the gift of friendship change. It is the same now as it was in Jesus’ time. When we are unable to stand alone, friends stand with you and let you lean on them just like the little bull leaned on us in his helpless state. One of my favorite old hymns says " What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear". Last night in that cold, cold pasture, I was surrounded by the faces of Jesus, my friends, and I am grateful. Lisa says it was the laying on of hands that saved the little bull last night. I know it was their laying on of hands that saved me last night , too. Thanks be to God for Jesus who was and is still a friend to us all And thanks be to God for my friends whose faces reflect Jesus’ face, warm, welcoming, tender and kind, but most of all, present and accounted for. Peggy Hester