Where's The Twine When You Need It?

Here comes the story of necessary item number four, the baler twine.

Like I've said in previous stories, my dad loved bowling. He never missed a bowling night come hell or high water. He would be too sick to do much else, but always made it to bowling. I never knew what time he would get home, but it was late. Late being anything after eight at night. That was bed time on the farm. It was dark by then and Bonanza was over. We never missed an episode of that show. We'd gather around the TV before the show would start and bet on which one of the Cartwrights would be the first to be shown riding up through the burning map of the Ponderosa. Thats how you knew who the show was going to be about. You never saw Hop Sing come up, even though some shows were about their Chinese cook. The boy that would save him from what ever dastardly deed would be the one shown. My favorite was Little Joe, even though he got the crap beat out of him every show until Hoss would happen along and whup three other cow pokes. Sometime through the seasons, Adam went away and was replaced with a hired hand named Candy. This name just wouldn't work now days. Not after the whole Brokeback Mountain thing. But come to think of it, none of the boys ever got married. Except Little Joe who later lived in a little house on the prairie. I've got a whole different view of Bonanza now.
This particular bowling night, we had a horse up near the barn that was about to have a foal. Funny thing with horses, if they are going to have problems giving birth, or they think something may go wrong, they'll come up close to the house for help rather than having the colt out in the pasture. You can tell when they are within a few days of the happy event when their teats get a waxy coating on them,, don't know why, but they do. This mare had the signs of being close and the possibility of problems, but its bowling night. So the horse will just need to wait until he gets home.
Like I said, we never knew what time dad would get home, but i think this time he said it was around ten.
Worrying about the horse, instead of coming in the house and changing clothes, he went straight out to check on the horse. Apparently at bowling, you only need item number two, the pocket knife. Guess it really didn't make sense to have pliers, a rope and twine while bowling. But the pocket knife can always be used, peeling an apple, cutting steak, or giving yourself a country manicure.
The horse had given birth, mother and baby were both fine. Colts will start walking within minutes of birth. As soon as they are up on their feet, the mare will clean them and get them to start nursing. Like a human baby, a colt has an umbilical cord. Out in the pasture, after a few days this will dry up and fall off, but there is always the risk that it can get knocked off and the colt bleed to death.
The normal procedure when the birth happens near the house is to tie baler twine up near its belly and cut the cord off. Well dad didn't have item number four with him but did have the pocket knife. He cut the cord and it started bleeding. Best case, you tie a knot in the cord to stop it. Not this time, he cut it too short. The only choice now is to hold the cord until it stops bleeding.
This shows how gentle our horses were. Dad sat on the ground by the colt for over an hour, holding the cord while the mare watched, until the colt was out of danger. (He said two hours, but I'm sure it only seemed that long). After this episode, you would see twine tied every few feet on the fences around the barn, looked like hell, but item number four was always handy.