by Jan Fielden
The rain we had the past week was another record setter for the Red Oak Ranch if no one else. The Colonel and I worked for three days cleaning out a water gap send water from the North East Pasture, goes under the Sweet Gum Road through a culvert, and then on to the lake. It isn’t like the other gaps but it gets clogged more often mainly, I think, because of the tree leaves in the Sweet Gum Grove. After falling to the ground, they run up against the gap and block it along with sticks, logs, trees, etc. It is a low place to begin with and so when the water backs up, it sits in that area and you can’t get in with a truck, tractor, or your feet!
So when the rains came we knew our work would be for naught. But as usual we are stoic about it and know we will clean it out again. When we went down that evening about dusk, we were going to check on it and also the road where it is collapsing. Driving through the Grove, we spotted a cow that had been down there earlier. Of all the places to have a calf, she had chosen there! She and the baby were over by the fence line to the Hay Meadow. They were standing on the only higher ground available, it looked like an island. They were marooned. And, then the rains started up again and we just knew the calf would get washed away. So, we did what we always do, prayed.
The next morning I drove down to the Grove and they were gone. Now we needed to know if the Momma took the baby with her, if the baby drowned, or just what was going on. Good News!! Prayers answered as the Momma and the calf came walking up to the Middle Pasture to join up with the Red Oak Ranch Middle Herd!!!
