I can't believe how healthy I used to be. When I raised vegetables to sell, I was healthy. My back got very sore from all the bending and heavy lifting, but overall I was very healthy. We moved to Missouri and raised hogs and beef cattle. Still for the most part I was healthy. I got a lot of injuries, like when my husband insisted we could rope the steers to vaccinate them, on foot and if the entire family (us and two little boys) pulled together we could get them tied to a tree. I got dragged more than once because I was the anchor while he gave shots (since I got Ivomek injected more than once!) and the big critter decided that was not going to work for him. There is something to be said for proper handling facilities.
There was also a few times when the hogs got me. We were trying to load a herd of hogs for market and he told me to just put my feet in the hog panel he had up against a tree on one end and the fence on the other and they would stop rather than rum me over. You know what? They didn't run over me, they lowered their heads and collectively lifted the panel with me on it and sent me into a tree - really hard. I was covered in scrapes and bruises and the chiropractor got paid a lot to fix my back. Then another time we were loading a borer (very big male breeding hog) to sell and the trailer got backed up in the wrong position (which didn't happen often) where the trailer door would be held in place by a large tree. The door ended up on the wrong side of the tree. Rather than move it and park all over again, being in a hurry he told me to just put my index finger through the latch hole and hold it up against the tree. I argued that the hog would just push it or try to go under. "No, he won't," I got told. "He'll stop when he sees the door and go into the trailer." No, actually he didn't. I got a dislocated finger and hit in the head with the steel door, and that hog got loose. I still had to help get him back in the pen and then (after re-placing the trailer) help load the hog.
I got the tractor stuck in the snow once when the dairy cows got out of the fence as I was trying to take them hay to entice them back into the fence. I was alone so it was hard to get them back by myself. I slipped and fell getting down to close the gate back behind them. I bruised my knee so bad it was difficult to walk for weeks. Of course I also tore a rotator cuff trying to deliver a large calf one day when I was the only one home. It took months to figure out what happened and I had lost use of my hand from the swelling. Thank goodness after surgery and physical therapy I got full use of it again, although now I have arthritis in my shoulder.
My husband and youngest son were throwing hay down from the hay mow one day and I thought they were done and was moving the bales out of the way. He threw down one last bale and it landed squarely on my head. It knocked me out cold. The chiropractor tried for weeks to straighten out the damage to my neck and back, but I have been plagued with issues ever since. I also lost a lot of height as it compacted my vertebrae and she couldn't get them separated again, at least not as much as it needed to be.
Last year I got attacked by a very big holstien bull. He was around 2400 pounds! It felt like getting hit by a truck. He nearly killed me and to this day I have no idea how I had the wherewithal or the strength to crawl out of that field as he backed up for another go at me. The injuries were substantial, including another torn rotator cuff, and I am still feeling the effects of the injuries, not to mention PTSD every time we move cows and one comes at me determined not to go where I want it to. I move, which is a no-no. I can't help if I see that stupid bull coming at me even when it's just a heifer. I say 'just a heifer' but truly they do weigh in excess of 500 pounds. That is not small! The smaller ones I handle okay.
These injuries don't even count the damage done to my lungs from dusty bedding and hay and fertilizer dust at planting season, milkhouse chemicals floating in the air on the steam, skin exposure to chemicals and to medications and animal insecticides, and getting occasionally stuck with a needle that isn't always before use.
I was at the chiropractor again yesterday with more issues relating to just working in the barn. She told me I am not too old to farm, I'm just too beat up to farm anymore. Truer words were never spoken!
Reason #1000 why the farm is for sale.
