We finished branding and ultrasounding our fall-born heifers Thursday. Here I am taking an ultrasound image of this heifer’s ribeye.
Have you ever eaten a nice, juicy ribeye steak? I’d sure hope so! Well, that’s what I’m taking a picture of. Can you see it in the image on the computer screen? No?! Well, don’t worry. It takes quite some time to be able to read the image. Kind of like when you’re at the doctor’s office and he’s ultrasounding your baby and you’re having a hard time deciding if you’re looking at an arm or the umbilical cord and then he’s happily sitting there taking measurements of what you’ve decided must be your baby’s head and he says, “Your baby’s chest is 13 centimeters,” and you realize you really have no idea what you’re looking at. It’s like that. But believe me, there is a nice, juicy steak image sitting on my computer screen!
By the way, did you know that Beck ultrasounded me when I was pregnant? It’s true. And here’s the story of why.
I wasn’t very far along with my first baby when I went out to pick up a load of round bales from the hay field. Now to get to the hayfield, I had to drive the tractor across a pasture which happened to have electric fence around it. And did I mention that sometimes the boys put up electric fence without any handles? It’s true.
So, I came to the electric fence and I decided I would just pop the wire out of the insulator and drive over the downed wire. Now, did you know that our electric fences aren’t always turned on? It’s true. If we don’t have cows in the pasture, we turn the fencer off. And there were no cows in this pasture, so the fencer was off.
I pulled up to the fence and hopped out to lower the fence. I grabbed hold of the steel post and pushed the wire out of the insulator. ZZZIIITTT!! BAM! CRACK! SLAM! That fence shocked the tar out of me! I mean, it knocked me to my knees!
Did you know that sometimes we leave the fencer on even if there aren’t any cows in the pasture? It’s true. Who knew?!
Well, I had just gotten the shock of my life, and there I was, a new mother-to-be and I am afraid I had just hurt my baby. Did you know that I am very emotional? It’s true. So I cried the whole time I was picking up that stupid load of hay from that stupid hayfield that had a stupid electric fence around it. And when I got back to the house I told Beck what had happened and would she please, please, please ultrasound me and make sure I hadn’t just harmed my baby?
Did you know my sister is a saint? It’s true. She laid me down on the floor, rubbed oil on my belly and found my baby. He was moving! I hadn’t harmed him after all! Hallelujah!
And that’s how my oldest child got the nickname Sparky. It’s true.