Part of Life on a Farm

**WARNING: The end of this post may not be

for those with a weak stomach.**

Yesterday I came home only to find everyone gone. Thinking that maybe they were still over in one of the hayfields picking up some of the remaining bales, I drove over there only to find no one. Curious where everybody was, I called hubs only to have him say, "I'm at so-and-so's, I gotta go, bye." Click.

Trying not to get upset at him, wondering why he's there when he told me he'd be home for dinner, and wanting to know what time I really should have dinner ready, I tried to call him back only to have it ring three times and get sent to voicemail. Now I'm really starting to get frustrated, but more curious.

So, back to the house I go.

When I walk in the front door, I realize my FIL (father-in-law) was waking up from a nap on the couch (I had missed him the first time I stopped home) and asked him why hubby was at so-and-so's.

That's when I got the sad news.

One of our two remaining momma cows had gone in to labor (her first one ever) and the calf must have been too big because around 4pm EST hubby found it (the calf...we don't know the sex yet) dead near the water trough and the momma had a prolapsed uterus and other things hanging out. The heat yesterday was unbelievably intense, so there was no doubt that part of the flesh would have already started to decay, and thus, reinserting the uterus after cleaning it off was not an option. A talk with the vet confirmed this.

Thus, the reason why hubby was at our friend so-and-so's is because he runs a, for lack of a better word, slaughter house and the most humane thing at the time was to put the momma down. Hubby was crushed by this because he loves his cows, and this one in particular was a real sweetheart.

So, instead of a new life yesterday, we got two deaths. Life on the farm. I guess you take the good with the bad.