{"id":323,"date":"2014-11-23T23:05:21","date_gmt":"2014-11-23T23:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/franchlife.com\/?p=323"},"modified":"2014-11-24T00:01:00","modified_gmt":"2014-11-24T00:01:00","slug":"cow-in-labor-grab-a-pitchfork-dont-ask-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/?p=323","title":{"rendered":"Cow in Labor – Grab a Pitchfork, Don’t Ask Why"},"content":{"rendered":"

The wait was finally over. \u00a0Our cow was in labor. \u00a0My husband was quite tense as it was the first calf to be born on our franch. \u00a0And, it was early in the evening, so the children were going to witness their first birth. \u00a0It had to go well. \u00a0We were hurrying about the barn trying to follow the orders of my husband as we gathered all the birthing supplies. \u00a0\u201cAnd get the pitchfork, son!\u201d my husband orders, and then abruptly turns and starts to head out to the back pasture. \u00a0\u201cA\u00a0pitchfork<\/em>?\u201d queries my son. \u00a0\u201cWhy a pitchfork<\/em>?\u201d I yell after my husband. \u00a0I mean, thinking back, I don\u2019t remember seeing one on the labor and delivery floor when I gave birth. \u00a0He gives both of us a sharp look. \u00a0Trained to run codes in the emergency department, he strictly instructs,\u00a0“We may need to help our cow give birth. \u00a0You need to just listen for my voice, and do what I say, and do it right away.” \u00a0My son quietly mumbles, \u201cI have no idea what is going to happen, but I have a feeling there is going to be a lot of yelling.\u201d \u00a0I laugh heartily and then so does my husband. \u00a0It lightens the mood. \u00a0All of us lose our tempers on the franch from time to time. \u00a0On our land, there are a lot of opportunities for repentance and forgiveness. \u00a0Anyway, after the laughter subsides, my husband still doesn’t\u00a0offer an explanation for the request. \u00a0So, the pitchfork is carried along with the rest as I shrug my shoulders. \u00a0I guess it just seems like a farmer thing to have. \u00a0I think of the famous painting by Grant Wood, The American Gothic. \u00a0<\/em>It is one of the most parodied images ever. \u00a0If it was re-painted to tell the story on our franch that day, it\u2019d be of my son holding a pitchfork looking quizzically at me, and me at him, with a laboring cow in the background. \u00a0Come to find out, veterinary guides indeed mention how a pitchfork can be used as a lever, along with rope, if you need to pull a calf that isn\u2019t coming on its own. \u00a0My husband knew that. \u00a0But, you learned it here. \u00a0So next time you see a cow in labor, you’ll know to grab\u00a0the nearest\u00a0pitchfork and you won’t\u00a0get yelled at for asking why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The wait was finally over. \u00a0Our cow was in labor. \u00a0My husband was quite tense as it was the first calf to be born on our franch. \u00a0And, it was early in the evening, so the children were going to witness their first birth. \u00a0It had to go well. \u00a0We were hurrying about the barn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions\/329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}