A Day Of Lessons

Today has been a day of lessons.  The first is it is painful to type with crushed fingers.  I will get to that in a moment.

I learned that Bethany pays too close attention sometimes.  This is not a new lesson, but a relearned lesson.  She asked when she can have her first debit card.  At least she said debit and not credit.

I learned that Hannah tries to out-stubborn those around her.  Again, not a new lesson, but one that she seemed intent on teaching today.

I learned that Charlie tries to keep himself occupied when he is worried.

I learned that donkeys are stubborn.  Again, not a new lesson, but today it was a painful lesson.

We were loading the animals to bring them home and Davarge was the first to be loaded.  He is stubborn and does not like to be loaded.  You can tug, jerk, pull, push, poke, bribe, cajole, coax, and try to outlast him and he will not load unless he is good and ready.  This can take hours at a time and during that time, it can be dangerous hours.  He is finally loaded and no one is hurt and he is tied off.  We load Casey and she loads no problem.  I am tying off her lead rope and that's when it happens.

Davarge leans his entire weight into Casey and where am I but between Casey and the wall and my fingers in the rope.  Casey, to prevent from being squished, backs up.  My fingers are wrapped in the half tied rope and it is pulled tight by an 1100 pound animal.

It took all three other adults to get the animals moved as quickly as possible to get my fingers out.  I went to the house and ran them under cold water.  R got a bowl and filled it with ice, poured water in it, and had me stick my fingers in it.  That was fine until I felt myself start to go into shock.  I was fluctuating between passing out and feeling like I was going to vomit.  I sat before either could happen.  Husband and R's husband loaded the goat and came to get me.  I thought three of my fingers were broken.  All five were caught in the rope but three were also wedged in the metal ring that the rope gets tied to.

Husband gets me to the truck and I mumbled "Clinic."  I hate hospitals and doctors for myself so when I said "Clinic" he said nothing and went.

We get there (with a horse trailer filled with a total of seven animals) and I walk in holding my hand up.  "I had a minor farming accident."  The nurse and I worked (painfully) at getting my wedding ring set off so it wouldn't have to get cut off and I go for x-rays.  NOTHING BROKE!  I was pleased and stunned.

I was then inundated with horror stories about how lucky I am because they have seen many people who found themselves in similar situations whose fingers were amputated.  Scare me why don't you?  Then I was told "This is why you should wear thick leather gloves."

Lessons learned the hard way.

Oh, I also learned that when sending a text to more than one person to double check who you check off to send to.