Veterinary Clinic
Dr. Otto
Large and small animal care
1247 Lane 14, Worland Wyoming
OPEN:
Monday - Friday 8:00 - 5:00
Saturday - 8:00 - 12:00, (no appointments
Veterinary on call for emergencies only)
Closed Sunday
Monday - Friday 8:00 - 5:00
Saturday - 8:00 - 12:00, (no appointments
Veterinary on call for emergencies only)
Closed Sunday
Tharp
AGRARIAN INGENUITY
During the second world war the military was more than happy to draft conscripts from the country side. They knew these guys possessed "agrarian ingenuity". They could repair, on the fly, almost any rolling piece of war arsenal. These soldiers, having lived an austere rural life, knew that if it moved and it shouldn't there was duct tape and if it didn't move and it should there was wd-40 and further more adversity was the mother of spontaneous creativity.
It is comforting to know that out there in the hinterland the same mindset still exists among the agrarian population toiling in the soil and pasturelands. I know this because in my career I have witnessed this phenomenon multiple times.
The Wilcox family were ranch hands on a big spread at the foot of the Bighorns. Alice called and said they had an obstreperous yearling stud colt in "a bad way" and needed attention but her husband had their pickup on the mountain fixing fence but she would think of some novel way of transporting the stud colt named Widow Maker to the clinic. My wait was worth the reward as I stood gobsmacked when she rolled into the yard with the yearling studs head pressed out the window in the back seat of their four door Chevrolet impala! She said her and the four kids had to think of some way to haul him and the first thing one of the kids thought of was the back seat of the family chariot, so all four huffed and puffed, pushed, squeezed and prodded till the last tail hair was crammed in the back seat and only needing to roll the window down to make a total fit! The colt exited the car like a projectile as if a cork was shot out of a bottle!
Milo and Hank went elk hunting every year on the Bighorns. Milo had an old 47 Willys jeep and was an extreme risk taker. Evidently, that year, he had pushed his luck a little far as they had rolled the jeep while traversing a steep, precipitous mountain side. I met them limping down the mountain with their severely mangled jeep. The wind shield was smashed, the sides caved in and the hood open and twisted. Being undaunted by the mishap Hank sat on the front fender as Milo leaned out the drivers side to see the twisting mountain road as it unwound before them. The jeep had suffered a ruptured fuel line so it was Hanks task to sit on the fender well with a coffee can full of gas to feed the carburetor as they descended the steep terrain! I guess they made it home uneventfully as I never did hear any explosions!
Gilbert ran a small cattle operation on the family homestead of four generations at the foot of the Bighorns. Gilbert may have been one of the most ingenious masters of creativity I had ever met. His ability to think on his feet was profound. He was nimble witted and quick to create a Rube Goldberg solution to almost any problem. We had just ran the last cow through the chute when he remembered he had left one old horned Hereford cow in the sort pen. She had a badly swollen left front foot, probably foul foot, but he had forgotten his medicine bag and I had not brought my mobile vet box. What to do to assuage and relieve this old cow's distress? He had not pulled his trailer up the mountain, so we had no way to load her to take her to town. Gilbert, being of quick wit. Knew I had to put the wheels on my portable squeeze chute for the trip back to town. It was obvious to Gilbert that the cow should be loaded into the squeeze chute, her head in the catch and and the tail gate of the chute closed for a safe, fun ride to the vet shop. There I was passing down main street of Worland with my squeeze chute entow with a horned Hereford passenger safely confined in the squeeze chute behind, an odd site to be sure but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do to see the job done and the problem solved!
In the greater scheme of things it may not seem to be much, yet it is comforting for me to know that in our daily toil there exists in our midst those rare, talented individuals who faced with a seemingly unsurmountable problem can in a flash create solutions that otherwise would leave the most of us paralyzed and frozen. The most of these rare individuals still toil the soil and pastures. My advice to you dear readers, is when you find yourself tied in knots, at the end of your wits with a seemingly unsolvable problem, don't google it, simply take a ride into the countryside and find a farmer or rancher!
During the second world war the military was more than happy to draft conscripts from the country side. They knew these guys possessed "agrarian ingenuity". They could repair, on the fly, almost any rolling piece of war arsenal. These soldiers, having lived an austere rural life, knew that if it moved and it shouldn't there was duct tape and if it didn't move and it should there was wd-40 and further more adversity was the mother of spontaneous creativity.
It is comforting to know that out there in the hinterland the same mindset still exists among the agrarian population toiling in the soil and pasturelands. I know this because in my career I have witnessed this phenomenon multiple times.
The Wilcox family were ranch hands on a big spread at the foot of the Bighorns. Alice called and said they had an obstreperous yearling stud colt in "a bad way" and needed attention but her husband had their pickup on the mountain fixing fence but she would think of some novel way of transporting the stud colt named Widow Maker to the clinic. My wait was worth the reward as I stood gobsmacked when she rolled into the yard with the yearling studs head pressed out the window in the back seat of their four door Chevrolet impala! She said her and the four kids had to think of some way to haul him and the first thing one of the kids thought of was the back seat of the family chariot, so all four huffed and puffed, pushed, squeezed and prodded till the last tail hair was crammed in the back seat and only needing to roll the window down to make a total fit! The colt exited the car like a projectile as if a cork was shot out of a bottle!
Milo and Hank went elk hunting every year on the Bighorns. Milo had an old 47 Willys jeep and was an extreme risk taker. Evidently, that year, he had pushed his luck a little far as they had rolled the jeep while traversing a steep, precipitous mountain side. I met them limping down the mountain with their severely mangled jeep. The wind shield was smashed, the sides caved in and the hood open and twisted. Being undaunted by the mishap Hank sat on the front fender as Milo leaned out the drivers side to see the twisting mountain road as it unwound before them. The jeep had suffered a ruptured fuel line so it was Hanks task to sit on the fender well with a coffee can full of gas to feed the carburetor as they descended the steep terrain! I guess they made it home uneventfully as I never did hear any explosions!
Gilbert ran a small cattle operation on the family homestead of four generations at the foot of the Bighorns. Gilbert may have been one of the most ingenious masters of creativity I had ever met. His ability to think on his feet was profound. He was nimble witted and quick to create a Rube Goldberg solution to almost any problem. We had just ran the last cow through the chute when he remembered he had left one old horned Hereford cow in the sort pen. She had a badly swollen left front foot, probably foul foot, but he had forgotten his medicine bag and I had not brought my mobile vet box. What to do to assuage and relieve this old cow's distress? He had not pulled his trailer up the mountain, so we had no way to load her to take her to town. Gilbert, being of quick wit. Knew I had to put the wheels on my portable squeeze chute for the trip back to town. It was obvious to Gilbert that the cow should be loaded into the squeeze chute, her head in the catch and and the tail gate of the chute closed for a safe, fun ride to the vet shop. There I was passing down main street of Worland with my squeeze chute entow with a horned Hereford passenger safely confined in the squeeze chute behind, an odd site to be sure but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do to see the job done and the problem solved!
In the greater scheme of things it may not seem to be much, yet it is comforting for me to know that in our daily toil there exists in our midst those rare, talented individuals who faced with a seemingly unsurmountable problem can in a flash create solutions that otherwise would leave the most of us paralyzed and frozen. The most of these rare individuals still toil the soil and pastures. My advice to you dear readers, is when you find yourself tied in knots, at the end of your wits with a seemingly unsolvable problem, don't google it, simply take a ride into the countryside and find a farmer or rancher!
More of Dr. Steve's Pondering & Poetry
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