Very good story Craig!! I can relate to ALMOST every part of it at one time or another.........
Mike > On Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:50:23 -0600 Craig McCluskey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > http://okiebenz.com/pipermail/mercedes_okiebenz.com/attachments/20070711/46bf684c/attachment.jpg >> >> >> You may laugh, but I actually did transport two calves that way. A >> humorous story in its own right, if anyone wants to hear it. > > Well, I guess people do want to hear it. > > OK, then. > > When Shirley and I lived in Colorado Springs in the early '80s, I was > working for Hewlett-Packard. We lived, first, in town. For some reason, > the neighborhood we lived in was a noisy one, with people thinking that > everyone wanted to listen to the type of music they did and taking > offense > if asked to turn it down a little. > > We had enough of that and decided to move to the Black Forest area, north > of town. While there, we raised a couple of calves, borrowing a friends > horse trailer to tow behind our Willys Utility Wagon. We found, after a > couple of years, that unremitting shade from pine trees got more than a > little old and, here, too, people were inconsiderate of their neighbors, > eventhough the neighbors were farther away from each other. Since they > were "out in the country", people just turned up their radios. > > Shirley had an uncle living on a farm in Nebraska, who we had visited a > number of times. I liked the living and the environs and Shirley did, > too. > We finally found a place in spring '83, four miles south of the town of > Calhan, Colorado, which is on Highway 24 between Colorado Springs and > Limon. The place was 80 acres of unimproved land that had been planted in > winter wheat. The nearest building was a microwave tower, about 3/4 mile > away, and that was unoccupied. We could see a house to the east-southeast > a little over a mile away, and the house of people who became good > friends > to the south-east a mile-and-a-half away. The land was on the mesa south > of Calhan, several hundred feet higher than Calhan and at an elevation of > almost 7000'. (Calhan is known as the "Highest non-mountainous town in > the > US.) > > We bought and moved our "Little Mobile Home on the Praire" out onthe > land, > without well, without septic, and without power. Therein began 6 years of > interesting adventures, about which we could, and probably should, write > a > book. We did get a septic tank put in and connected and did get a well > put > in -- that was 523' deep instead of the estimated 300' and blew our > budget > for quite a while. > > I'll cut this very short and skip to the incident in question. The > situation is set up by knowing that Hewlett-Packard gave its employees > Good Friday off every year and that the Calhan Livestock Auction held > auctions on Fridays ... > > One particular Good Friday, I drove down to the Auction in our '72 220D > to > watch the proceedings. The weather was overcast, but decent. In watching > all the animals being auctioned, I decided that it was time to have > calves > again (they do better in pairs). I figured I could make a shelter for > them > with a large tarp and our tractor that would do until I could go into > Colorado Springs and get materials to make a better one. So, I bought two > calves. At the end of the auction, I went outside to move the car so they > could be loaded. I noticed that the weather had deteriorated > considerably. > Hmmm ... > > So, I backed up the car, opened the trunk, and told the fellow to load > them in. They were just a couple of months old, perhaps 80 pounds. No > problem for the W115 trunk (which, by the way, is noticably larger than > that of W123s). > > I got the calves loaded and drove up the hill to home. I parked next to > the mobile home and went inside. By this time, a real blizzard was > starting, with high winds, lots of snow, and all. I put some black > plastic down in the bathroom and told Shirley she needed to put on her > coat and help me get some calves that I had just bought out of the trunk > of the car. She put her coat on and came outside with me. Standing by the > trunk, I told her, "I'll open the trunk and grab one. You keep the other > one in the trunk." She agreed that's what she would do. > > So, I opened the trunk. She cried out in surprise, "There are calves in > there!" and just stood there. I grabbed a calf and over the wind yelled, > "What do you think I've been telling you? Now hold that one!" I got the > first calf out and we closed the trunk lid without the other calf > escaping. We dragged the calf over to the mobile home and up the stairs > and inside. We were all covered by snow and ice. I took the calf to the > bathroom, which was next to the bedroom at the far end of the mobile > home, > and shut the door. Going outside, we repeated the process, this time > without the incredulity, fortunately. I went down to the Double-Circle > Coop in Calhan and bought some supplies before the weather got too bad. > > Here we were then, in a 12x70' mobile home out in the middle of nowhere, > with two calves in the bathroom. We did have propane-fired heat from the > burners of the kitchen stove and a kerosene heater in the bedroom, as > well > as a Coleman lantern and candles for light. We had five-gallon plastic > "Jerry" cans for water we brought every week from friends' houses in > Colorado Springs. And we were in the midst of a blizzard. What more could > one want? > > Over the rest of Friday and Saturday, we found that one of the calves had > been sick and had been medicated just enough to be taken to the Auction > and sold. So, on Easter Sunday, I was driving around (we didn't have a > telephone) asking friends if they had any antibiotics and syringes I > could > buy. I was finally sent to a fellow west of Calhan who let me have what I > needed. I then came home and gave the calf a shot, starting him on the > path to mending. But then, I got sick from what the calf had had. Oh, > well. > > Have you ever been awakened at 4:00 AM by a loud, emphatic MMMOOOOOO! > from > the other side of a mobile home's paper-thin wall? Of course, mobile home > bathrooms are none too spacious, this one sharing room with a washer and > dryer as well as two calves, so it made using the facilities interesting, > to say the least. Cottonseed cakes do wonders for calves' attention and > they began to expect them constantly, further complicating the use of the > facilities. > > The calves stayed in the bathroom until the weather improved and I > could build a small shelter for them. We also found that they had been > weaned too soon and that they needed to be on milk replacer for proper > growth, eventhough they were eating the dry stuff just fine. So, calf > bottle time it was. It was a little hard getting them used to the > bottles, > but once they figured out what was going on, they were eager for their > twice-daily feedings. > > > I've attached: > > - a picture of the calves in their pen, a few weeks after the episode > described above, > > - a picture from the south looking at our Little Mobile Home on the > Praire > and garage building of later years just after another blizzard, and, > > - a picture from the east looking at the mobile home, with Pike's Peak > and > our second Willys Utility Wagon (a '62) in the background, taken at the > same time as the second picture. The black blob at the horizon between > the snow drift and the mobile home is the head of our female German > Shepherd, who was standing inside and watching me as I took the > picture. > > The pictures aren't very good quality because they started out as film > prints and were then scanned with a poor scanner. > > > > So, it was an interesting time. I ended up building a propane-fired, > Chevette engine powered generator set for electricity. We decided against > extending the power lines because, in addition to costing $16,000 and > having to pay for the electricity, having power lines along the mile > stretch from the microwave tower would encourage others to move in along > the road, something we wanted to avoid. The people who bought the land > from us did extend the power lines and people did move in just as we had > suspected would happen. > > We still have the generator set, though it hasn't been run since 1990. > With having sat in very humid environments in Colorado and Texas, I'm > guessing the cylinders and rings are rusted and that I'll have to take > some special measures to get it running again. > > I have pictures of the gen-set if anyone is interested. > > > Craig > > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: two.calhan.beefers.jpg > Type: image/jpeg > Size: 73547 bytes > Desc: not available > Url : > http://okiebenz.com/pipermail/mercedes_okiebenz.com/attachments/20070711/11026705/attachment.jpg > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: southsnowdrift.jpg > Type: image/jpeg > Size: 11875 bytes > Desc: not available > Url : > http://okiebenz.com/pipermail/mercedes_okiebenz.com/attachments/20070711/11026705/attachment-0001.jpg > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: trailer.west.jpg > Type: image/jpeg > Size: 15130 bytes > Desc: not available > Url : > http://okiebenz.com/pipermail/mercedes_okiebenz.com/attachments/20070711/11026705/attachment-0002.jpg > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ > For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
