Leslie and his dad decided we were going to BBQ a goat. So they go get one.
Leslie pulls out into the lot beside the house and lets it out. Anyone with
cows knows that you don't let an animal out until it can get used to it's
surroundings or if other animals are there, let them have a chance to get
used to it. Otherwise, you have total chaos on your hands.
It happens that at that time we had a brown jersey cow and calf, a holstein
cow and calf and a gurnsey cow and calf in the lot. You know , they aren't
the fastest moving cows around. But Leslie lets that goat out and he
immediately spies those cows and takes off towards them. In all fairness I
figure he was just curious and wanted to be friends but these cows had never seen a goat before. They take off running...not to the back of the place but forward. Forward is a fence. That didn't deter them one whit. Over the fence they went all the while those little legs pumping faster than I thought they could go. The movement reminded me of the Keystone Cops. The fence is down and the cows are out and there goes the goat--right behind them.
Leslie gets on the four wheeler and Toby and I get on the three-wheeler and we take off across the road to try and bring them all back. To get into that pasture you have to go down the little dirt road we call Lover's Lane for a bit and turn in at a gap. This gap is high-tech--consists of a post and
barbed wire with a loop at both ends of the wooden post to tie it to another
post. Leslie lets it down and takes off after the goat. Toby and I head in
the opposite direction looking for the cows and calves. In the meantime,
it's getting dark. Our three-wheeler has no lights. Leslie gets the goat,
puts a rope on him and leads him back home. Thinking we have returned to the house, he closes the gap. Because of the different pastures and groups of trees he can't tell that we are still in there searching for the cows.
Toby and I decide that since the cows are inside a fence in the pasture that
they'll be okay until tomorrow. We head back towards the house. It's already gotten dark and we can barely see. We go blaring down the path towards the gap and proceed--or try to proceed-through. The force of the three-wheeler on that barbed wire causes the post to pop up from its mooring and the post itself pops me on the arm. The wire literally wraps itself around the front of the three-wheeler. Miraculously, Toby hasn't a scratch on him. I-however-have barbed wire catching the sundress I'm wearing and binding me to the material of the seat. The spot on my arm that the post hit is swelling up ..it actually looks to me like a bone is trying to come through.
I tell Toby to go tell Daddy that I might have a broken arm and can't get
off the three-wheeler because the barbed wire has me caught. Toby gets off and runs to the house. I sit there and wait...and wait...and wait. Finally,
I decide I'd better find a way off the thing. I gingerly pick the material
of my dress from the wire and manage to free myself. I walk to the house.
Leslie is in the bathroom washing his hands. He says he was just about to
leave to come get me....MEN!
Leslie takes me to the hospital and they x-ray my arm. I cannot move it as
they sit me beside the machine and have me lift the arm with the other and
place it for x-raying. Takes them a bit, all the while I can't move my arm.
When they get the film developed they come back in there and tell me that
it's not a break. Miraculously, I am then able to move the arm!
there's a lot to be said for the power of suggestion...
That goat had been on the place all of 15 minutes and caused me to have a
wreck and have to go to the hospital with a possible broken arm...we named him Weedeater but he wasn't around long enough to earn that name or to get used to being called that...
There hasn't been a goat on the place since.
