Spring Calves & Judy Arrives!

Feeding stock in the winter was not always a fun exercise but the animals needed care and I provided it as best I could. When the creek that supplied water froze up it was necessary to go up and chop out the troughs that it flowed through. The creek source was a long ways up a hill and in winter clothes it did not take long to be sweating profusely. Then too a hole needed to be chopped in the water near the highway. Cows would not eat snow like horses. Every day I would load a small waggon made from a car chassis I believe, with bales and take it out to the field to spread hay for the cows. The tractor usually complied and started but some mornings it was just too cold. Then I would have to go to the house and tell Fred I “needed a jump”. This usually worked but sometimes it was necessary to spray ether on it- I forget where now. All quite a learning experience. I didn't go to town much as did not like driving the icy roads but I could always go in with Irma when she went to town for groceries. As always, winter finally ended and the calving began and I was back to the bovine husbandry of my job and doing belly buttons.

We had one huge Charolais cow that calved and she was not agreeable to  my doing anything with her calf. Fred asked me one night if I had done the  calf and I said if he would stand by and guard me with a shovel maybe I could get it done. Well he never did and the calf simply did not get its belly button swabbed with iodine and it lived anyway. Spring was always an interesting time and there was a lot of work to be done with the cattle. One day I went out to feed and check the cattle and found a cow with what seemed to be her insides outside! I was in total shock and wasted no time in getting back to the farm to tell Fred. I couldn't believe stuff like this could happen! Fred was very calm about it and said he would have to phone the vet in Nelson. I thought it was all too gross for words. However the vet did arrive and stripped down

 However the vet did arrive and stripped down and washed his arms up and proceeded to put all those insides back in the cow! For a few weeks she had to stand in a stanchion like thing that tilted her forward so she would not do that again and in the fall we shipped her so we would not have to deal with that again.

I got myself in trouble the day they built the stanchion as it was a Saturday and I had left to go riding with Ed Davidson. His wife had left him in Feb. And he and I had more or less hit it off at a dance up the lake. I played hooky all day and when I got home that night Fred came to talk to me. He told me he was glad to see Ed and I together and wished us well but hoped I would not neglect my job again to go with him. Before that I had been going out with Fred’s brother Eddie but there had been no commitment of any kind.

The best thing that happened that spring was my good friend Judy was coming to see me! I had received a post card saying she was going back to England for a visit and after that she would come and see me for a time. She was very vague on the exact date and was hitchhiking so I only had and approximate time of her arrival.

 It turned out the night she phoned we were all drinking in Balfour at the Dolly Varden. Judy was in New Denver and I had no idea if there was a hotel there or what. The next morning I asked if I could have the morning off to go and get her. Fred refused! I couldn't believe it but thereafter had no choice but to hope she could make her way to Kaslo somehow. All day long I thought of Judy and worried about her. Finally when work was done she phoned and said she had hitch-hiked in and was on front street in Kaslo. I immediately went in to pick her up.

Judy and I had met in 1971 in Calgary when she was living there with her boyfriend Ray. I was going with a fellow named Johnny and the two men knew each other and had met up at a rodeo , Judy and I hit it off right away and had a lot in common. Many of her dreams were similar to mine and we talked non-stop for the entire visit. When I left I knew we were friends for life and so it has been. Jude and Ray would come out to Twin Bridges and help at times. Mary would provide meals for all and they slept in their car-a Rambler that the seats went back in. The two of us kept in touch after I left Twin Bridges and this was the first time we had seen each other in over a year!  

I went to town to pick up Jude in Kaslo and found her on front street walking along without a care in the world.
 She was eating an ice-cream cone and when she confessed she only had $15.00 to her name I thought the ice-cream was an extravagance she could ill afford. She had a back pack with all her worldly possessions in it and her boots with worn out soles were swinging off the pack.