Stitches, Glue, and Antibiotics
ER visits, calving pics, and a sneak peek of the book I'm in!! 💜 || February 2025 newsletter
Have you ever had a week when you asked yourself, "Did all that really happen?" And you can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.
Two Saturdays ago, the kids and I started the morning at home while Rich worked in the calving barn. We went to the ranch yard mid-morning, where Allie and I helped my brother-in-law tag some calves. Nora and Rhett played at Grandma’s house, and then we ate lunch with the calving crew.
After lunch, the big kids started sledding in my in-law’s yard. I helped clean up the kitchen before heading outside with Nora. She wanted to join her siblings, so I left her with them and walked to the barn, not too far away. When I entered the barn, it looked like a cow had just calved, so I walked over to check on the calf when I noticed it still had the placenta over its face. I climbed over a panel and into an empty pen next to the cow and calf, trying to decide how to get the placenta off the face without getting into the pen with the cow. (She had just calved and didn’t strike me as a super friendly gal.) Luckily, moments later, the cow started licking the calf’s face, and the problem was solved—she did what her motherly instincts told her to do.
I climbed out of the pen and walked to the tack room, where we keep a whiteboard with the cow’s numbers and their pen numbers. I wrote down the estimated time of birth for the calf and turned around to find Allie standing behind me.
She panted, “Rhett’s bleeding.”
“How bad?” I said, putting my gloves on and following her out the door. When I opened the door, Rhett saw me and yelled, “Mom, run!”
My heart rate spiked, and I started to run (although I wasn’t breaking any records running in Carhartt coveralls and muck boots, to be sure). As soon as I got to him, I saw his leg was covered in blood. I asked him if he could walk, and he said yes, and he hobbled into my in-law’s house.
Within a few minutes of wiping away the blood, I knew he needed stitches. My father-in-law put a bandage on Rhett’s knee, and we headed home to get ready for town. I radioed Rich to let him know we were going to the ER (our local small community does not have urgent care, so the ER is the only option on the weekends). A few hours later, we were back home with seven stitches in his knee.
That evening, I recalled the afternoon’s events to Rich. I told him that in the few minutes after I left the kids sledding in the yard, Rhett attempted to sled off the roof of the root cellar (which is half buried in the ground, so the roof isn’t very high), and I assumed that he cut his leg climbing up the tin roof. I told him that when we arrived at the ER, the nurse could tell I was squeamish with the blood/wound, and she asked, “Is this your first time taking a kid for stitches?” I laughed, all the previous urgent care visits flashing through my mind. Instead of listing them off, I shook my head and said, “No, this isn’t my first time bringing a kid for stitches. But I don’t do well with blood.” She nodded and told me to sit down, and I complied. When the doctor started stitching, Rhett asked me to hold his hand, so I stood up, held his hand, and stared at the wall away from him.
“I guess we’ve had a good run. It’s been years since anyone’s needed stitches,” I told Rich. “And Nora still hasn’t had stitches.”
The joke was on me.
Three days later, Nora sat on the couch, watching a show after getting home from school. The puppy jumped up on the couch and snuggled up to her. For a second, I thought of telling Pepper to get down because I wasn’t sure that letting the dog on the couch was what we wanted long-term. But they looked cute, snuggling together, so I didn’t say anything. I sat at the kitchen table with my laptop, only a few feet away.
I heard the dog bark 15-20 minutes later, and Nora started crying. It all happened so fast, but I think that when the show ended, Nora leaned over to hug the dog (AKA squeeze her neck), but Pepper was asleep and bit Nora in the cheek—her face right next to the dog’s mouth. After seeing her bloody cheek, I ran around the couch, grabbed the dog, and carried her to her kennel. While carrying the dog, I yelled at Rich, working in his office, “Nora’s bleeding! Pepper bit her!”
Rich came running and put pressure on her cheek, and within a few minutes, we knew she needed more than a bandaid. I started to cry, worried about her face, upset about the dog, and dreading another trip to the hospital in the same week. (And I had already made the 100-mile round trip to town that morning for groceries.)
A few hours later, Nora and I returned home with medical glue on her cheek, antibiotics, and a unicorn made from a surgical glove by her doctor. (I decided to switch locations so we didn’t have to go to the same place twice in three days. This time, we headed for the city and to urgent care instead of the small town ER.) I was grateful she didn’t have to have stitches on her face. And I pray she doesn’t end up with a scar. (Hopefully, vitamin E will help!)
Now, I can somewhat laugh about it all. We’ve told Nora for months that she cannot squeeze the dog’s neck; Pepper is not a person and does not like hugs. But when you’re 4, love hugs, and often say, “But she’s so soft!” It’s hard to remember. When we got the puppy last fall, we told the kids there were two times to leave her alone: when she was sleeping and eating. Now, I’m even more vigilant about reminding them, and hopefully, this is the only lesson we have to learn the hard way. And no, the dog isn’t allowed on the couch anymore.
Rhett got his stitches out on Monday, and honestly, it looks awful; it’s going to be a gnarly scar. And the glue on Nora’s face is holding on by a thread. There are probably some metaphors there. But, hopefully, it will be many months or years (never?) before I have to take anyone to the ER again.1
Wait, did I jinx myself again?
Farm Happenings
So many cows and calves! We have hundreds of calves on the ground and are three-fourths done (yay!). We’ve been hit with brutal temps in the last few weeks, but the calves are all doing well because we are prepared to calve this time of year.2 The crew doesn’t tag their ears when temperatures drop below freezing because the calf’s ear can freeze and fall off after getting tagged in these temps. Instead, they put the ear tag on a zip tie around the calf’s leg so they know whose calf it is, and then later, go back and take the tag off the calf’s leg and tag its ear.
Allie and I were doing this before the sledding incident. She helped cut the zip tie off the calf’s leg, and my brother-in-law tagged the calf’s ear. I carried the supplies and helped catch the calves.
Once or twice a week, the manure has to be cleaned from the lots. It’s piled up and then hauled, load by load, to be piled in a field. The manure will be spread on our fields this spring.
The only white-faced “baldy” cow/calf in the herd. He is a spitting image of his mother. So cute!
Things I’m Loving . . .
I’m on day 19 of The 40-Day Social Media Fast. Since I’m still here, I’m not fasting from all social media, just Instagram. I won’t make the full 40 days because I plan to return to IG in March. But I’m enjoying the book and plan to do it again for all 40 days!
So far this month, I’ve read (and liked!) Husbands & Lovers, The House on Mango Street, and Just for the Summer (I LOVED this one; it was great on audio. I flew through it in two days. All the trips to town helped). I’m halfway through Ina Garten’s memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens. Have I watched any of her cooking shows? No. Have I used her cookbooks? No. Am I enjoying her book? Yes. I’m also slowly re-reading Dani Shapiro’s book, Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life.
My can’t stop listening to song of the month. (I’ll wait while you listen and then come back.)
I asked some friends for suggestions on cute white tennis shoes for an upcoming trip, and they came up with great suggestions. But I ended up buying these, which are not white. (They just came yesterday, and the jury’s still out on how I feel about them on my feet.)
If your family is like mine, finding a movie everyone likes can be challenging. I have two suggestions for you! Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl on Netflix and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (we rented this one on Prime). The kids loved them, and they were funny for us adults, too (and ridiculous). Last Sunday, I introduced the kids to one of my favorite movies growing up—the 1961 version of The Parent Trap (it’s on Disney+). Dog Man is now on Prime (shh… don’t tell my kids. It will be our Friday night movie this week!).
Not family-friendly, but I’ve been watching the Scamanda series (if you liked the podcast, you’ll enjoy the show) on Hulu and the OJ Simpson documentary on Netflix.
If you’re looking for a tasty snack, I cut mini cucumbers in half (lengthwise), remove the seeds, fill them with avocado, and add slices of turkey.
Speaking of food, I “grilled” steak in the oven for the first time on Valentine’s Day. While I do most of the cooking, Rich does all the grilling. I planned steaks for a family Valentine's dinner at home, but Rich went to town that day, and when I could tell he wouldn’t be home in time to grill (plus it was REALLY cold out), I decided I better find a Plan B. I was nervous about how the steaks would taste in the oven vs. the grill, but they turned out well!
The -30° temperatures have me dreaming of spring, so I ordered zinnia seeds! I ordered three new (to me) varieties, and I am excited to try them, along with the tried-and-true seed mix I’ve grown for years! (I might need to put in more raised beds this year.) 😂 The new seeds I bought are Queeny lemon peach, Forecast, and Cut & Come Again.
Here’s some happy (book) mail I’m looking forward to in the coming weeks! I met
in a writing workshop last year, and her book of essays comes out next month. I pre-ordered and can’t wait to read “Good (Enough) Mother” on March 11th! Congrats, Ashley! I’m also looking forward to ’s newest book, “The Painted Fairytale.” And ’s children’s book, “The Very Best Baseball Game: A Story about Disability and God’s Good Design for All of Us.”A few of my things to share: I posted “The Internet isn’t Real” on IG before deleting the app (I wasn’t planning to take a break, but it felt right and needed, especially after sharing that post). A couple of weeks ago, I shared an older micro-essay, “Motherhood is a Trip,” here on Substack. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve written, and I wanted to have a home here.
And last but not least, I finally got my early copies of So God Made a Grandma from the publisher! While I know this isn’t as exciting or as big of an accomplishment as a book I wrote on my own, it’s still fun to see my name printed in a book and share a small part of my grandma’s story with many people. Her View From Home published my first essay3 (in 2017!), and it feels full circle that my first work published in a book is also with Her View From Home. So thank you for indulging me with this moment. The book comes out on March 4th. 💜
This post is already too long, so I’ll wrap this up! I hope your month has been less stressful than mine! And less expensive, too. 😉
Are you dreaming of spring? Any upcoming trips? Plans for your garden?
Until next time,
Stacy
Unfortunately, this was not my first time taking a kid to urgent care twice in one week. When Rhett was 4, I took him two days IN A ROW for an injury—the first day, he got away with just glue on his chin, then, less than 24 hours later, he needed stitches on a finger. (I also passed out while he got the stitches. I came to on the floor of urgent care, Rhett and the doctor peering over me. I had to lie on the hospital bed until my blood pressure came back up. 😂 What a day.)
This question was asked for my upcoming “Ask the Farmer” post — “Why do you calve this time of year?” I will hopefully be answering that soon! Apparently, Rich has actual work to do and can’t just work on my interview questions. How rude. 😂
While that first essay in 2017 was not my greatest (far from it!), the acceptance gave me the courage to keep writing and submitting to other publications. Leslie, if you’re reading this, thank you for using your platform to publish books so writers like myself can submit our stories for a chance to be part of a book. I’m truly grateful.
Congratulations on the book piece!! That is so much fun to see your name!
Oof, sorry about such a crazy week, but I can definitely relate! Different stories maybe but 🫠 nonetheless. Congratulations on the book news! How cool!!