The Story of the Cow in the Bog

The Story of the Cow in the Bog

          My wife, Jewell, loves to tell this story of her and her brother Nelan helping their dad get a cow out of a mud hole.  In those days, and especially with her dad, you did everything you could to save an animal.  This was not just for humane reasons but also because animals were your livelihood out on a farm in the early 1940’s.

          There was a creek that ran down one side of the Bahlman farm called Oak Creek.  In those days the creek was pretty active in that it had water in it most of the time.  This was before all the farm stock ponds were built out in west Texas and before some of the lakes were built across the creek to provide water for the towns upstream.  Also on this farm there was what the Bahlmans called the “Slough.” 

          The Slough was more or less a dry bed creek that ran across their pasture and emptied into Oak Creek.  Sometimes, if there was a rain, this Slough would run full and at the junction where the Slough and Oak Creek converged there would be a muddy backwater in the inlet that had a lot of quicky-mud or sandy-silt maybe two or three feet deep that collected.  This is where the cows came to drink before they headed home to the cow lot.  When this one cow tried to get a drink she inadvertently wandered into the quicky-mud backwater, became mired in the mud and couldn’t get out.  So she just lay down to await the inevitable.  Mud is so much fun!

          When I was just a kid down at our farm at Selden, Texas I loved to play in mud like this.  I would just tromp up and down on the moist sand and begin to sink.  Sometimes the mud would be so deep that I would sink all the way up to my thighs.  Jewell said she never got more than ankle deep in the mud.  She and her brothers would also tromp up and down in the mud.  They called it “making butter.”  It was in this kind of mud hole where the old cow got stuck in the bog.  Mud is not fun to a cow.  Cows do what cows do.

          In the evening when it was time to feed and milk the cows and the cows could suckle their calves they would wander up the well beaten trail in single file to the cow lot that was near the barn.  You see, the Bahlman calves were not turned out with the cows but were kept and fed in the cow lot or in a separate pen.  If they were turned out they would suck their mothers all day and the cows would not have any milk that evening.  So, at milking time, they would only let a calf suck its mother for a few minutes until the momma cow “gave down” her milk.  Then, using a “calf-rope,” they would “tie the calf off” making a loop around the calf’s neck and a half-hitch around its nose like a halter, tie it to a fence post and then they would milk the cow into a milking pail.  When they finished milking the cow they would turn the calf loose and let it finish sucking its dinner.  Sometimes they would let the calf suck again for just a few minutes, tie it off again and “strip” the cow’s teats to get the last bit of milk and cream from her.  This was the richest part of the milk.  When the pail was full they would take it to the house where Mrs. Bahlman would pour the milk into their cream separator and separate the milk from the cream.
         

          A cream separator was a device that used centrifugal force to separate the heaver cream from the skim milk.  The skim milk was used for drinking and making cottage cheese and whatever was left was fed to the family hogs, chickens and geese.  Mr. Bahlman would even “bottle” any orphan sheep that came along.  The cream was poured into a cream can, taken to town and sold to the creamery to make butter.  Nothing was lost.  But let’s get back to the cow that was stuck in the mud.

          If all the cows did not come up when it was time to milk Mr. Bahlman would send Jewell and Nelan down into the pasture to find the wayward cow.  They would wander through the pasture calling the cow.  This is how they would call, “Soook, soook, soook.”  If that didn’t work they would try again, “Soook, Jersey, soook Bossy, soook Whitey.”  All the Bahlman animals had names.  Even some of Mr. Bahlman’s sheep had names.  It reminds me of Jesus calling his sheep by name.  This particular evening one of the cows was missing. 

          Jewell and Nelan went looking for the missing cow and calling “Soook, soook.”  They didn’t find her in the pasture anywhere but, sure enough, there she was mired up to her belly in mud where the Slough and Oak Creek came together.  She couldn’t get out.  As soon as they saw her they ran back to the house as fast as they could to tell their dad.  He immediately knew what to do.  He instructed Jewell and Nelan to get some rope while he got the wire-stretchers from the harness shed.  Wire-stretchers were used to build fence.  They consisted of two sets of pulleys arranged with a rope in a “come-along” fashion like a “block and tackle.”  Down to the slough they went to rescue that old cow.

Mr. Bahlman attached one end of the fence-stretchers to a tree high up on the creek bank and the other to the ropes that he was somehow able to get around the cow’s body.  While Mr. Bahlman was in the mud with the cow, his job was to hold the cow’s head up so her neck would not break while Jewell and Nelan pulled on the rope of the come-along to pull her out of the mud.  By this time night was coming on and it was getting dark. 

          Mrs. Bahlman, realizing how long they had been gone, almost three hours, and that it was getting dark, decided she needed to help.  She took the old coal-oil lantern down from the top of the pie safe where Mr. Bahlman kept it stored, lit it and headed down to the creek to help.

          As she held the lantern, here were these two kids, pulling and tugging and pulling and tugging on that rope until they were exhausted.  Mr. Bahlman was down in the mud with the cow pushing and holding the cow’s head.  And, somehow, they were able to pull that old cow out of the mud and up the embankment to level ground.  So there she was just laying on the ground.  What now?  Again, Mr. Bahlman had an idea. 

          Somehow Mr. Bahlman got the ropes around the cow, put the wire-stretcher up in the tree and with all their strength he and those two kids lifted that old cow up on her feet.  She stood there for a minute or two, hardly believing she was alive, upright and on solid ground.  Then, she began to walk.  And lo and behold, she was able to walk back to the cow lot and seemed to suffer no ill effects from the ordeal.  Jewell, Nelan and Mr. Bahlman were not as fortunate.

          Jewell said that their hands were so blistered and sore from pulling on that rope that it took days for them to heal.  Now, I do not know if cows can have any sense of appreciation or not, but I am sure if they do, that old cow was truly grateful for her rescue and that today she is happily grazing somewhere in the big cow pasture in the sky.  I know Jewell is eternally grateful for a wonderful lesson about working together for the family and that this is a fond memory that she will never forget.  So, what does this story tell you and me?

          There is someone you know who is stuck in a bog and can’t get out.  You and I cannot rescue every soul – that is God’s job.  But we can help the one if we work together.  Scripture and experience tell us that a family, community or church builds itself up in love as each person does his or her job.  So, be encouraged, do your job with grace.  In rescuing others you save yourself.