Carnal Connection Pt. 02

After jumping down from the top of the corral Jilli drove the calf to the length of its tether and attempted to hip push it against the rails but the little bitch kicked her quite hard. Jilli countered by laying a noose in the dust – she drove the skitterish calf over it three times but each time when she jerked the noose she found she'd captured nothing but a puff of dust.

Dust now covered Jilli's jeans and she was sweating and mad. She made a big noose and dropped it over the calf as she turned at rope's end to move away from her again. Jilli pulled the rope and found she had a calf and the neck rope in a noose pulled tightly around the calf's lower legs. Now what. The critter stood bawling. Now really fired up Jilli attempted to push the captured calf over to the railing but it simply fell over and lay still. At that point dusty and wet Miss Cowgirl realized she'd unconventionally roped her first steer – well, small calf. She giggled, feeling all but helpless and then recovered and went to work.

This calf was lame on the left front. Jilli found a swelling under the middle of the hoof, touched it with the knife and pus rushed out and poking with the knife tip some flesh came away so she cut around the area until all the rotted skin and flesh was gone. She tipped some disinfectant to soak the area and clearing away her utensils freed the calf which walked away without any sign of gratitude.

She approached the bull calf which stood defiantly while its two heifer companions backed away. A typical male, Jilli scoffed and threw the rope at it and the noose managed to survive the tossing of the head before Jilli realized it was not going to take ten attempts before success; she pulled the rope tight and ran and put the rope over a rail before running back; her momentum pulled the startled animal around and with a light thud it smacked into the rail. Cowgirl Jilli ran the rope through a post down low and took it back past the bull calf and tied it low around the next post and bingo, it stood ready and waiting. She inexpertly but probably correctly diagnosed the problem as a severe stone bruise as she found nothing to have invaded the foot which she then stuck in a bath of disinfectant for a moment, struggling for dominance, before freeing the ungrateful animal. She noted its ear-tag number – no cattle on Narrow J (the shape of the ranch) were branded but the horses were ear tattooed.

Clearing away the medical gear, Jilli approached the third calf, biggest of the three, with trepidation. This would be the one that would break her arm or dislocate her shoulder to once again expose her as a greenhorn, the little bitch. Jilli twirled the rope as she'd seen cowboys do in western films and apparently mesmerized the calf because it stopped backing away, allowing Jilli to get close and the nose dropped over it completely. She jerked the rope up as she pulled it tight and the calf bawled as it dropped to the ground probably in fright. Jilli darted forward to put a hitch against the noose as she was without those tying thingies.

Damn – the sore front leg of this one was in the dust. Two of the tractors had hoist things on them but she had no idea how to use them – the hydraulic thingies she meant. Jilli grabbed the four hitched legs of the calf and lifted until the animal was on its backbone and pushed; the calf went over but its neck was in a crazy position and it was bawling. Jilli darted forward and screwed the head gently so that it and the neck looked to be in normal condition and the bawling stopped – either it was dead or a little happier. Its tongue emerged to lick over its dusty nose and that sign of life allowed Jilli to breath again.

There was a long infected lateral cut down the outer side of the leg probably caused by a broken tree limb or barbwire. She cut open two pockets of pus and disinfected the entire wound and went to the barn where she found a container labeled 'ointment' but with no identifying information. She couldn't find a bandage so assumed one doesn't bandage the legs of animals although she could remember seeing the legs of horses in plaster on TV. A cotton bandage would gradually rot on a calf out grazing so she took one from the human's medical cabinet.

Fifteen minutes Jilli drank her coffee and then a little painfully – but feeling she'd exercised away some of her stiffness but corral work had not eased her sore ass – she lay in a warm bath and slept for an hour.

A wrangler called Ivan Majors introduced himself just after 4:00 saying he'd ridden back early to attend to the calves but noted on the blackboard they had been doctored.

"How come?" asked the grizzly-faced guy in his fifties. "The boss described you as a city babe who'd been to college and ran a hotel?"

"It's called initiative, Ivan. Some call it brains. I don't know if I've done well."

"You've done good Miss but the guys will laugh at the bandaging. When we get out there they'll give you some crap – joking of course because the boss packs a good punch."

"Joe hits you?"

Ivan pushed back his Stetson. "That sort of stuff you must ask the boss."

Jilli grinned so Ivan grinned and said, "Come on Miss. We'll trailer them out now rather in the morning. You've saved us time. The boss will be proud of you being a city girl and doing this."

"No Ivan – don't tell him. I'm in the shit now for coming home last night almost with my lights out after riding all day. I failed the test."

"What test? The boss thought he'd be riding back here within three or four hours but instead you lasted all day apart from a midday rest and turped him up on the best apple pie he's ever tasted, apart from last night when he had a better one with apricots added but didn't much go on the prunes."

"He said that – he talks about me?"

"Occasionally – mostly about your little bits that impress him. We'd like to hear what happens about when the bedroom door shuts but he never does."

"Thank you Ivan, most informative."

Jilli drove because Ivan said he was virtually useless behind the wheel – he rode horses. She'd ever driven a trailer before but years ago had remembered watching a training film about backing a trailer and remembered the two keys were turning the steering wheel the opposite way to what one might think and to watch the very rear of the trailer to adjust directional steering. While Ivan was hustling the three calves into the loading chute she practiced backing and gained a bit of an idea. It took only four attempt for her to align the sliding gate in the piping in the rear of the four-wheel trailer with the chute gate – she'd expected it would take at least ten attempts and driving to where the men were working was a breeze. They were almost finished inoculating and drenching the calves running with some cows – apparently only one-fifth of the herd. To Jilli, she thought the entire herd was spread about before her. Five cattle dogs ran to greet them.

"How come you're back today Ivan?" Joe asked coolly after waving at Jilli.

"They'd been doctored Joe."

"Who by?"

Ivan looked up at the sky as if the answer lay up there.

"Good God," Joe said, staring at Jilli.

"Hi Boss," she greeted. "How do we get them back to their mothers."

"We," Joe emphasized, grinning, "inoculate and drench them first. Back in against the chute – we'll be patient."

The five ranch hands leaned against the railings to watch Joe's city girl perform.

Jilli gritted her teeth and she made a right-angle turn before backing and performed a pretty good job, endearing herself when almost against the chute she leaned out the window and shouted, "Can someone tell me how fucking much more I have to go?"

A teenager jumped out and signaled two-feet with his hands and she stopped within an inch of the heavily constructed chute. As she jumped out she received an ovation and grinning gave the guys the fingers.

"Miss Jess would never do that," Ivan said, grinning in approval.

Joe demonstrated on one calf and Jilli inoculated and drenched the other two. When they were in the pen on the side of the corral ready for release everyone looked at the bandage in silence. That silence indicated to Jilli that she'd won enough respect not to be jeered at. That pleased her.

"How will the mothers find these babies?" she asked.

Joe said just watch, and opened a side gate that let the three calves straight out on to the pasture. They emerged around the end of the corral bawling and two cows came out of the herd immediately while another began trotting up from the far fence line and two other cows with calves joined the closing-in bunch.

"Those two with calves are attempting to kidnap my three calves."

"Your calves?" Joe grinned.

"A figure of speech – that's all. I'm off out there to sort this out."

"Go on foot and you'll be knocked down and trampled," Joe said. "Cattle are not dumb and are territorial about their young 'uns."

Within minutes the cows had it all sorted and the three calves were suckling their own mothers.

"Okay you lazy fuckers – the show's over, back to work," Joe commanded in a deep voice that Jilli had not heard before. So this was The Boss. She had the faint thought, quickly discarded, of taking him aside and rewarding him.

There were saddled quarter horses to spare for Ivan to grab a mount so Jilli drove back home to prepare herself for dinner. She'd had a potentially more bruising day but by using a bit of brain power and intuition she'd come through it well and in good spirits boosted about what Ivan had said about Joe being surprised she'd lasted through the previous day. Hey – where was the no-good hooker from the city?

A woman in a cheap dress was sitting on the porch deck leaning against the wall and stood up as Jilli approached.

"Good afternoon ma'am. I'm waiting for Miss Jess."

"Miss Jess is staying in Belle for a few days. I'm Miss Jilli – how may I help?"

"We're almost out of sugar and salt at the bunkhouse – we are provided all found."

"All found?"

"You know – beef, bacon, eggs, bread, milk, salt, sugar, coffee and the like. Our supplies are due this Saturday but we are almost out of salt and sugar."

"I see – my impression was only five men live in the bunkhouse."

"Yes and the ramrod lives a mile over in his house with his family."

"And you?"

"The boys pay Lizzie and me – I'm Di-di - to cook and care for them; you know what men require."

"I see," Jilli thought, having a good idea what that meant. "Come in and I'll get you what you want."

"Can't Miss, it's forbidden."

"Who told you that?"

"Nash the ramrod but all he was doing was teaching us the unwritten law. Just one scoop of salt into a plastic shopping bag and three scoops of sugar into another bag will be fine Miss Jilli."

The door was open but the woman had not gone in and helped herself to supplies worth less than a dollar; how long she'd been waiting was anyone's guess. Jilli had learned something about common ranch law whether or not pertaining just to this ranch. She rather liked the idea of Di-di abiding by the code despite being a waif.

"Here you are Di-di. You and Lizzie come to me with any problems when Miss Jess is not here."

"Yes Miss, thank you Miss."

"Here – jump into the pickup and I'll take you to the bunkhouse – it's a mile away according to what I've been told."

"I don't think I should Miss."

"Stand on the running board then – I wanted to learn exactly where the bunkhouse was anyway."

"Right Miss."

Jilli drove fairly slowly and took the right-hand fork off the gravel road and on to a dusty track. As they breasted a hill Di-Di jumped off saying, "Goodbye Miss."

Jilli took a quick look at the bunkhouse which appeared to be a long building with a pitched room with twelve small rooms in a line with a big high vaulted section in the middle that presumably was the common room with the kitchen and service rooms tacked on at the back. There was quite a large corral at the back and water tanks but there were no gardens, no shrubs or lawns and not a tree in sight – very bleak looking but might look picturesque in the snow with the lights on and smoke billowing from the huge chimney. God, how DVD players must have changed the lives of those existing in such basic living conditions, she thought, turning off the narrow track to head back to the barns and to figure out how to unhitch the trailer before The Boss arrived home for his beer in the bath before dinner.

In the bath, Jilli knew why her shoulders ached. She was 120lbs and those calves she'd been wrestling with earlier would weigh something like 290lbs to perhaps 350 lbs. Abe had told her they were around 75lbs when born and stacked on in good years around 1.7 lbs a day until weaned at eight months. Refreshed from the bath she poured herself a wine and sliced the beef chunks thawed from the freezer ready to make a Thai dish Nua Tod Kartiam (stirred fried beef in black pepper and garlic) served with white rice and chose a quick dessert to make. She then settled on to the couch and called Grierson.

To Be Continued