stuff that makes you shake your head...

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Had someone drive into our place today, they were concerned that there were two dead cows on the road (we live off a state highway, two lanes and people drive pretty fast). He wondered if they were ours... so I hopped in the truck to check things out (pretty sure they were not ours, we have good fences and gates).
Driving south, I see the first cow on the east side of the road about 1/8 of a mile from our place. Her head is towards the fence and her butt is out toward the road. There was anal tissue protruding out, like she had either been dead awhile or the impact cause her anus to prolapse. I kept driving,and another 150 feet down the road a cow was lying on the west side of the road, in the ditch, with her legs underneath her and her eyes open. I did not want to stop on a highway, but I slowed down to make sure she was dead... she was. She looked like she landed in the ditch and someone shot her.
So I pulled west on the next road, and pulled up the neighbors place. I have never met these neighbors in person, but have seen the cattle from the road. Often see severe cases of pink eye (like, the eye is popping out of the head type of severe cases), and their place was hit by a tornado in 2001 with no repairs ever done to the structures. Anyway, I pull up... and worry about the safety of my life in my truck with all the metal junk and poor roads (and wonder how people live like this). I pull up and park, not sure which structure is the house, but guess at the least run down one and knock on the door (not even sure if it is the right door!). A man yells from behind the door that he is not interested. I tell him I am his neighbor and there are dead cows on the road that I think are his. He does not answer, so I decide to leave. When I get back to my truck, he opens the door and hollers at me. After introductions and he finds out I am his "neighbor", he and his mother come out. So here is the short of it:
They knew about the dead cows. They knew they were theirs. They were waiting to hear from the sheriff. Seems the cows were hit at DIFFERENT times! One around 3 am, and the other about daylight. They moved the cows from the property across the two lane highway, and a few calves would not come. So what did they do??? They left them! The cows tried to get back to their calves during the night.... is that NOT CRAZY???? And the brother called to say the cow with her rump to the road had a calf foot sticking out of her... so she might have been calving. I can assure you, it was NOT A CALF LEG.... IT WAS ANAL TISSUE, like a prolapse. How could he not tell the difference???
I will say that they seemed to have a very low IQ, like 5th grade mentality. The son, in his late 40's, runs the farm alone since his 80 year old father had a heat stroke over the summer, but never went to the doctor for it!
They go on to tell me their place was quarantined over the summer because they had a disease pop up after they cleaned out the pond, and they could not sell any cattle. I asked them what disease it was, they said blackleg! They did not vaccinate for it...
I guess my point is... I did not realize people like this existed in the world. Simple. Living in such poor conditions. Sadly, before I left, he was crying asking if we would pray for them. They did not have insurance that he knew of. He was afraid someone was hurt. And getting sued.
They finally moved the cattle off the highway after 3PM. These girls were killed before dark in the morning.... how long does it take to remove a dead animal? I would have those things off the road before daylight hit!
I did hear a funny.... most people remove the tag from an animal before anyone sees it once it has been hit.That way, they can not prove who owns it and not have to pay for damages nor dispose of it. We have no dead animal disposal out here... not a good thing!

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

:shock:
Wow!

 

[Margonme]

You have lived a sheltered life. I have seen worse.

Early in my career, I was sent to a home in eastern Kentucky. Knocked on the door. When the door was opened and I could see inside, the floor was dirt. The entire floor had rotted and fallen through. To top that, hogs were living in the house with them.

These are not the standard way of living, these are extremes. Nevertheless, people can descend to standards of living that are appalling.

 

[Cross-7]

I was raised in west Texas and the panhandle for most of my life.

I spent some time in NE OK, SW MO.
It was a culture shock for sure.
I figured they must be inbred, I couldn't make sense if it.
The living conditions and lack of ambition blew my mind.
Mexican farm hands lived better than them.
No job or visible means of support
I couldn't grasp it.

I can relate to your experience.

 

[Craig Miller]

I once worked for a rent to own furniture store where I delivered and repoed furniture and I have seen a good bit I think. I have seen people living with chickens in the house. The worst though is when you get out of your truck and this smell hits you in the front yard. You know what the smell is because youve smelled it before many time. You immediatly dread going into this house. Roaches. Bet you didnt know that if there's enough of them in your house you can smell them outside.

Cross, I always figured for the most part people just do the best they can. Most of the time it's not that they don't want something better. They cant do no better.

 

[Kingfisher]

Don't bother your self too much with other folks animals. They don't belong to you.

 

[farmerjan]

The taking the tag out of the ear so that they can't be identified and then the owner of the cattle isn't responsible for damage is all too true around here....have heard of it being done more than once.
The other is just sad....maybe there is nothing you can do, maybe as a neighbor, offer to help them the next time they need to move the cattle ???? Or see if the county can help them in some manner??? Those are the kind of people who really need our help instead of the ones who sit back and play the system and think they are entitled....

 

[Cross-7]

I once worked for a rent to own furniture store where I delivered and repoed furniture and I have seen a good bit I think. I have seen people living with chickens in the house. The worst though is when you get out of your truck and this smell hits you in the front yard. You know what the smell is because youve smelled it before many time. You immediatly dread going into this house. Roaches. Bet you didnt know that if there's enough of them in your house you can smell them outside.

Cross, I always figured for the most part people just do the best they can. Most of the time it's not that they don't want something better. They cant do no better.

Nothing wrong with being poor but doesn't mean you have to be lazy and live in filth.
It doesn't take a real smart person to clean things up.

 

[Son of Butch]

Could of been worse... at least it was a story about the neighbors and not the wife's family.

 

[hurleyjd]

Could of been worse... at least it was a story about the neighbors and not the wife's family.

OUCH!!!!

 

[Craig Miller]

Could of been worse... at least it was a story about the neighbors and not the wife's family.

That's a whole other story.

 

[danl]

Several years ago one our appliance techs(Bob) told me he had just been on a service call. He had went to the house the prior week and there was a dead mouse in front of the range. He had to order a part, and went back a week later to put it on the range and the mouse was still laying there, only flattened out from being walked on.. :shock:


I told my wife and daughter and they were flabbergasted. Both are scared to death of mice.. a few months later our range went out and my daughter drew and colored a mouse on a piece of paper, cut it out and left it in front of the oven for Bob to see. He really got a kick out of it.

 

[boondocks]

My experience is that when you find people living in utter squalor, there is just about always a mental health issue and/or barely functional IQ level. There are a goodly number of people in our area who function just above what is considered "retarded" (or whatever the current term is; I don't mean this in a pejorative way). It continues down through each generation. There are often speech deficits in these families as well. I consider these poor folks to be a different matter than those are just shiftless.
We have a "compound" down the road that I can't figure out which category they fall into. But it's like a third world country...

 

[Margonme]

My experience is that when you find people living in utter squalor, there is just about always a mental health issue and/or barely functional IQ level. There are a goodly number of people in our area who function just above what is considered "retarded" (or whatever the current term is; I don't mean this in a pejorative way). It continues down through each generation. There are often speech deficits in these families as well. I consider these poor folks to be a different matter than those are just shiftless.
We have a "compound" down the road that I can't figure out which category they fall into. But it's like a third world country...

You captured it for the most part but as in your "compound" that you have not figured out, some fall in a category of their own. The woman who lived with pigs and no floor that I mentioned above, was not retarded. We carried on a very normal conversation. Her son had a job with a surface coal mining company.

 

[boondocks]

My experience is that when you find people living in utter squalor, there is just about always a mental health issue and/or barely functional IQ level. There are a goodly number of people in our area who function just above what is considered "retarded" (or whatever the current term is; I don't mean this in a pejorative way). It continues down through each generation. There are often speech deficits in these families as well. I consider these poor folks to be a different matter than those are just shiftless.
We have a "compound" down the road that I can't figure out which category they fall into. But it's like a third world country...

You captured it for the most part but as in your "compound" that you have not figured out, some fall in a category of their own. The woman who lived with pigs and no floor that I mentioned above, was not retarded. We carried on a very normal conversation. Her son had a job with a surface coal mining company.

Sounds like a practical woman. Easier for the pigs to wallow if the dirt is the floor.