It hurts..

[SMRTexas]

Morning Everyone,
I had been out on the tractor picking up a hay ring and on the way back it thought I had a piece of switchgrass in my jeans. Shook it out, sat back down and D*MN!!! Scorpion in my jeans, nailed me 5 times before I could get my jeans down and stomp it to pieces. I HATE scorpions! My other horror story involves an extension ladder. Talk about stupid!! Will save for another day.
Have a great day!

 

[TexasRancher]

@ Brute 23 I carry those geared bypass loppers and a hand weed-wacker in my truck bed too. Lightest and most required equipment. Honey Locust, mesquite, sunflowers and cedars. I'm a bit of a tough guy...i actually don't mind the longer 4 to 6" thorns going into my hand, arms, butt or foot, i work long thorn trees carefully and without gloves...but there's there shredder short thorn trees designed by the devil that are way more damaging and evil.

 

[TexasRancher]

Morning Everyone,
I had been out on the tractor picking up a hay ring and on the way back it thought I had a piece of switchgrass in my jeans. Shook it out, sat back down and D*MN!!! Scorpion in my jeans, nailed me 5 times before I could get my jeans down and stomp it to pieces. I HATE scorpions! My other horror story involves an extension ladder. Talk about stupid!! Will save for another day.
Have a great day!

Don't we all have those ladder stories...God makes me chuckle.

 

[callmefence]

My family has a fair amount of problems with mesquite thorns getting in the young children. Especially little girls. Once we get over about 8 years old the hide is generally thick enough to turn em.

 

[greybeard]

Most memorable thorn problem was falling down a hill at Davis Mtn state park and rolling over a prickly pear around 2002. The big thorns weren't a problem. The tiny ones a different story.

I've never been kicked but grandfather was by his milk cow and it broke his hip. I and 2 others did get hemmed up behind a sweep gate one time, trying to get an unhappy 4 yr old beefmaster bull pushed into the chute alley. He was a handful that morning and not much more docile when he entered the sale ring that afternoon.

 

[Nesikep]

I swear those thorns have some kind of poison in them. Wherever I've been poked swells and hurts like crazy.

No mesquite or locust here, but we have hawthorns... 1" long thorns, darned sharp,and I swear they have a poison in them as well. I've been jabbed by nails, etc and OK, it hurts, but getting poked by one of those is instant agony.. I caught one behind my knee and it just put me on the ground right there. They're good for the birds, big birds don't go in them, and they hold their berries all year so it's good winter food

 

[Nesikep]

Most memorable thorn problem was falling down a hill at Davis Mtn state park and rolling over a prickly pear around 2002. The big thorns weren't a problem. The tiny ones a different story.

I've never been kicked but grandfather was by his milk cow and it broke his hip. I and 2 others did get hemmed up behind a sweep gate one time, trying to get an unhappy 4 yr old beefmaster bull pushed into the chute alley. He was a handful that morning and not much more docile when he entered the sale ring that afternoon.

We have prickly pears here and though I've never had any major mishaps with them, they LOVE to hook onto the heel of your boot, then as you walk they hike their way up until they're behind your knee.. that'll really wake you up!
I did see a video of a mountain biker than landed in a big patch of them.. that must have hurt!

 

[greybeard]

2 words. Green brier.

 

[SBMF 2015]

How about when cows play baseball and your the ball; Wild cow at the sale barn in a big pen by her self. The 2x12"s that made the fence were nailed on the alley side of the fence. I stepped around a corner as she jumped the fence taking the 20' planks right off the post. Like Mark McGwire swinging a 20' bat she was on one end of the board and I was on the other. Hit my left hip so hard that it through me 6' into a block wall. I have never crawled so fast in my life! Lucky for me she went the other way. I limped for a month and 15 years later I still can't lay on the ground or floor on that hip.

 

[Atimm693]

@ Brute 23 I carry those geared bypass loppers and a hand weed-wacker in my truck bed too. Lightest and most required equipment. Honey Locust, mesquite, sunflowers and cedars. I'm a bit of a tough guy...i actually don't mind the longer 4 to 6" thorns going into my hand, arms, butt or foot, i work long thorn trees carefully and without gloves...but there's there shredder short thorn trees designed by the devil that are way more damaging and evil.

Multiflora rose is my least favorite. You can work around big thorns carefully and aside from the occasional poke, can get by without much trouble.

The rose bush thorns are sharp and curved like a cat's claw so they snag and dig in, there's no way to work around them.

 

[Rafter S]

I want to hear more of everyone's war stories on cattle kicks, pushes, step-on and squeezes. I've personally haven't had any really close calls....a few can be spirited-playful and testing of me. I try to stay alert and aware....and move cattle very slow and calm...when I sort and load. I would love to know your story and what you would have done different...so i can learn.

You will notice I mentioned stupidity causing pain above? About 40 years ago I followed a cow into the trailer intending to close the partition gate. For some reason, as I ran in I grabbed the bat wing gate and closed it. The cow turned around before I could close the partition gate and came after me. In those fractions of a second my only thought was "Don't try to crawl out, or I'll slip and fall, and she'll kill me."

Fortunately she didn't have horns, so I stood sideways in the corner of the trailer and let her grind her head against the side of my right leg until she got tired and quit. Then I opened the gate and walked out. That knee hasn't been right since.

 

[jschoolcraft86]

Backstory:

I carry tree loppers on every truck, buggy, etc we have. There is always a oak limb, yaupon, mesquite, limb in the way some where. I had been lopping some yaupon limps at one place by some gate. I can cut them and catch them as they fall and throw them on a pile. Works pretty good. Save time and bending over or having them at your feet.

Fast forward:

I'm lopping a couple mesquite limbs for a game camera. Made through about 3 limbs with out grabbing for them... all good. I cut the forth one and grab for it. The brain is an amazing thing because I feel like it was telling my hand... don't do that!... but my hand did it any ways.

So I catch a big mesquite thorn right in the upper palm portion of my hand. Right where the creases meet, where your thumb and pointer make an L. It goes deep and hurts like a sog.

For as much as I'm around mesquite it's been a good while since I've peen jabbed like that.

So today my pointer and thumb joints hurt, kind of feel swollen. Reminds you when you get hit by a scorpion.

In conclusion:

It's hurts being stupid.

I had a mesquite thorn hit a ligament in my finger and it was sore and swollen for two months

 

[TCRanch]

She was in your blind spot..but why did she kick-up on you...was she pushed by another cow sideways?

I think she must have seen the netting in her peripheral vision. She's not my fave cow but is normally pretty chill.

That said, a few months prior, I did end up with a mangled, broken, open big toe - the result of one cow getting pushed into me. At least my toenail grew back by the time it was flip flop season, so there's that.

 

[Nesikep]

I was trying to put some wild indian cows into a trailer, shoddy pens, they had this little herf bull (dwarf?) and a mean biatch of a black mutt cow, boy those two were mean... black cow broke out, good riddance, little bull had me backpedalling, tripped on a frozen cowpie and he took a swing at me, don't remember the details but I was sore after that, finally got him into the chute and hurried him along with a swift kick to his nards as revenge.
Later that winter the black cow "treed" the owner in the hay wagon and wouldn't let him off, called his brother and shot her right there as a warning to the rest of that foul bunch, she was coyote food

 

[Travlr]

I want to hear more of everyone's war stories on cattle kicks, pushes, step-on and squeezes. I've personally haven't had any really close calls....a few can be spirited-playful and testing of me. I try to stay alert and aware....and move cattle very slow and calm...when I sort and load. I would love to know your story and what you would have done different...so i can learn.

I was working for a vet and an 800 pound bull was refusing to unload out of the stock trailer. I figured I'd sidle along the side until he ran past...
I don't honestly know what happened next... how he hit me/tossed me... but the next thing I remember is picking myself up off the concrete and having the back of my head covered in blood. I'd hit the vet's steel door frame on his cement block building. But the bull was inside so at least that was done.
The vet offered to take a stitch but I passed on it. I had a knot for years where the skin had bunched up as it healed but eventually it smoothed out.
Yup... stupid.

 

[CowboyRam]

I had a close call with a cow, I was trying to tag her calf, and she didn't like that. She chased me away, and stopped when I placed my hand on her forehead. I guess by that time I was far enough away from the calf that I was no longer a threat. I have been kick by a cow, that bruise was not near as bad as when I had gotten kicked by a calf; I guess I got lucky on that one. Once I did get a sprained wrist when I got smashed between a gate and a couple steers when helping my uncle at his ranch when I was in my early twenties.

Now I have some good stories for some brain farts I pulled while doing construction. I once put a three inch nail all the way across the palm of my left hand; I still feel that in the winter when the weather changes. I have rode a ladder down the side of a wall. I once time was on the scaffolding and need to get just a little bit higher so I was standing a concrete block, I had to move over a bit and the board was cantilevered over, well it went down and the block slid down right along side of me. One time I got in a fight with a garage door spring and lost; it tore my wristwatch off, knocked my glasses off and bent then up, tore a small chunk out of my nose, and a few little scars on my forehead.

 

[Hogfarmer10]

I purchased a 1250 bull a couple years ago. Loading him into trailer, I stupidly followed him in so I could shut the cut gate. He flat out "donkey kicked" and caught me dead perfect between the eyes and on my nose. Didn't seem like I ever was going to get the bleeding stopped. Drove 1 1/2 hours home. Went to ER. Broken nose, severe concussion, 2 black eyes. It's a shame I'd already paid the man. Probably could've gotten a discount!

 

[Nesikep]

I broke my hand punching a cow on her eyebrow... it was intended to land on her snout but she moved and I changed my blow.. don't ask me how they can run on glare ice and not go into a gate and I'm falling on my arse at every turn.
broken hand sure reduced my strength to run the hoof nippers but managed to finish the day, then I just splinted my pinky finger straight with a pencil and tape, still have a bit of a lump there

 

[TexasRancher]

I had a close call with a cow, I was trying to tag her calf, and she didn't like that. She chased me away, and stopped when I placed my hand on her forehead. I guess by that time I was far enough away from the calf that I was no longer a threat. I have been kick by a cow, that bruise was not near as bad as when I had gotten kicked by a calf; I guess I got lucky on that one. Once I did get a sprained wrist when I got smashed between a gate and a couple steers when helping my uncle at his ranch when I was in my early twenties.

Now I have some good stories for some brain farts I pulled while doing construction. I once put a three inch nail all the way across the palm of my left hand; I still feel that in the winter when the weather changes. I have rode a ladder down the side of a wall. I once time was on the scaffolding and need to get just a little bit higher so I was standing a concrete block, I had to move over a bit and the board was cantilevered over, well it went down and the block slid down right along side of me. One time I got in a fight with a garage door spring and lost; it tore my wristwatch off, knocked my glasses off and bent then up, tore a small chunk out of my nose, and a few little scars on my forehead.

I've re-strung and counter-balanced more than two handfuls of garage door openers in my life....your story makes me cringe. I've made up two special bars i use, vise-gibes (emergency, if i get tired or out of position) and with all the equipment ready-handy to torque down those set-screws. Sorry about your nose...that sucks big time for just a 3 minute spring tensioning.
Talking about tensioning...i'm probably the only one in the world where my own personal garage door (i re-cabled and tensioned when i was 26) i put the spring on the wrong side (didn't realize there were right and left handed springs...i just put in on the same side....so I had to set-tension AND pull-out the spring a foot else the door didn't close (hold both forces and set-the-screws). The spring sets all bowed -up and down on the turn shaft....it's rather an impossibility....but what's even more amazing is that spring installed backwards and tensioning backwards has been doing it's counter-weight job for 34 years. If it fails, and the spring is still good...i will move it to the correct side and tension it correctly. I can't be doing, the impossible stuff i did at age 26.

 

[TexasRancher]

I broke my hand punching a cow on her eyebrow... it was intended to land on her snout but she moved and I changed my blow.. don't ask me how they can run on glare ice and not go into a gate and I'm falling on my arse at every turn.
broken hand sure reduced my strength to run the hoof nippers but managed to finish the day, then I just splinted my pinky finger straight with a pencil and tape, still have a bit of a lump there

Makes me wonder...when do you back-hand a cow or calf to train them not to do something you don't like? I never hit any animal other than dogs....but i will know when the times comes, when i get angry i'll close the gap and chase. I only take issue when cattle get too friendly and spirited and want to play or test me...i had one calf that's 500lbs testing me...might back-hand her if she does her goat-swinging-head thing again to me. Got to put that to bed quickly. Cattle need to fear and move around their handler....I'm not a play toy.