July has been a rough month. In fact, it’s been a rough year, but I hope to catch everyone up on the events at the DB Longhorns. It is already August and I am just making my New Year’s resolutions!

Calving season is officially over and we ended up with six pretty calves, evenly divided with three heifers and three bull calves. Of course, one little bull calf was born on a little drop off and rolled under the fence. When we found him, he was too weak to stand, so off to the veterinarian he goes. Following two trips and recuperation, his dam dried up, so I am left with a bottle calf.

Since I had a bottle calf once before, I decided last week to wean him off the bottle and take him a bucket. He is over two hundred pounds and strong. He did not understand why I didn’t have the bottle, kept knocking over the bucket and reaching up to suck on my ear instead. I was grabbing his ears, sticking my fingers in the bucket, etc, just trying to teach this little “Doodlebug” that the milk was in the bucket! Somewhere during this teaching session, he stepped on my foot and I distinctly remember thinking this is going to hurt!

The milk was finally drank and spilled, so I hobbled into house. The pain was so intense; I fainted three times, but finally made it to the couch and watched as my foot swelled. I decided that maybe it should be x-rayed, so I called Jean at the city hall, she agreed with the decision, and then I called 911 to request an ambulance ride. You know you live in a small town when the dispatcher asks you where your husband is by name. I told Julie that Jerry was at work and since I had gone down already, thought it best that I get a ride.

The same doctor was there that treated me last month when I was gored in the gut, and no, I was not at the “Running of the Bulls”. Three x-rays later with one positive and two negative, Jerry took me home to keep my right foot elevated above the heart.

The third day, Jerry repaired a corner of the corncrib, while I ran little errands and painted some old windowpanes. I ended up with more paint on my hands than the panes, but they just might work as decorations. I spent way too much time on the foot, so the following day was again laid up with leg cramps and a headache. I thought it was a bad headache, but nothing compared to what was to come.

Jerry arrived home around 8:00pm as usual and came in to inform me of the status of the farm. I had spent the day in bed and was unaware that the bull had decided to move. We attempt to acquire a different bull each year for new blood, color and horn. I was elated to finally get a chance for Marshall Law from Ann and Jon who live a couple hours north of us and we traded bulls for the summer. Since Jerry had put up a hot wire to stop his jumping, Law found another way out. This one-ton bull jumped the feed bunk, took out two cattle panels and supporting fence posts. He proceeded to tear up our lovely blue spruce trees, and then decided to visit the steers. Avoiding barbwire and possibly more hot wires, he went THROUGH a cattle panel. Fortunately, the panel popped back and I did not end up with six loose bulls and steers touring the countryside.

Forget the headache and forget the foot, that BULL, Marshall Law was going home. He was in the process of tearing down a calf shed. I don’t know why he started “bulling” around, but it’s not easy stopping a mad two thousand pound animal! Jon thought he was homesick, while Ann and I are thinking about a ten-gauge shotgun and the locker. While setting up the final gate before his capture, I turned around to see him snorting and pawing the ground at me. Of course, my natural instinct was to just give him a swift, hard kick in the nose. That stopped him. I asked Jerry if he was ready to halter him and his very reasonable answer was no way. So I got the halter, put it on him in the dark and we led him on the trailer to take him to Jon and Ann. We swapped our bulls back, got home after midnight and I looked at that toe that kicked the bull.

The good news is, it’s the same foot that was crushed just four days ago and I can now move the toes. The bad news is, the toe is red, crooked and swollen and the nail is blue.

And that is NO BULL!

DB Longhorns Farm and Ranch
Deborah Acuff