The Chattel Farmer

Ch 17 Pregnancy Care pt 2

Now all the heifers with obvious rounded bellies are in the indoor pasture, and moving into the grooming room a few at a time. First stop is the shower stalls just like the earlier group. Once the heifer is strapped into the exam stall, a wide stretch belt with imbedded sensors is wrapped around her belly as close to her hips as possible. While the sensors take readings the basic grooming happens. Seems like more of this group needs their hair trimmed. They all get their lower lips trimmed too. I also have to rub a special cream on their breasts to protect the skin as the size changes so quickly. It’s amazing to me how much larger the breasts have grown from the earlier group just from a few weeks of pregnancy. The cream goes on the belly, hips and butt. After the sensors have finished getting a reading, then I quickly put the cream on their bellies where the belt was. All the heifers seem to really enjoy having lotion rubbed into their skin. I like doing work that makes the chattel feel good. Of course my d**k is getting a kick out of rubbing cream all over these better than porn star bodies with more curves than a roller coaster.

I caught onto this really simple job so quickly that Mr. Farber decided to let me finish the job by myself while he did other things. Brunette Molly’s belly was very large, it was just about down to the ground. I could see that her light skin had some pink damage from stretching so much. She is a double crème cross, so I wasn’t too surprised that her breasts had grown to almost the ground, they did seem closer to the swollen full feeling of the milking chattel than the other pregnant chattel I had already lathered up with lotion. After scanning her tag, I saw that she was due with twins any time over the next 3 weeks! I got the sensor strapped on low, and the data port suggested that I use a second sensor belt across the middle of her belly. I finished the basic grooming and was spending extra time rubbing lotion into her damaged skin, when the sensors finished their readings. It looked different than the other readings and it was flagged urgent so I messaged Mr. Farber.

“Aaron, look over here at the results from the sensors. See this? It means that Molly is having contractions. Which could mean that the birth process has started or that her muscles are just practicing for the big day. To get a better idea, she needs to wear the sensor belt for a few hours. The belt only transmits data inside the barn so she can’t go back out into the pasture. We will also add the bracelet to monitor her vitals closely. Molly is our lucky girl who is expecting twin girl calves, so I’ll notify the chattel vet so they’ll have somebody on standby in case we need help. Normally, Mary or I help with the births.” That last sentence blew my mind. Somehow I was under the impression that Mary had nothing to do with the chattel. “I didn’t know that Mary works in the barn.”

“Mary’s big project for Ag Club involved chattel birth. It’s really the only part she enjoys but she is also pretty good at setting up the Auto Feeder to run. Let’s get Molly over to a birthing stall – they’re close to the feed room - and get the rest of these heifers back to the pasture.” I focused on getting my work done so I’d have time to catch a shower before having dinner at the farm house. I couldn’t wait to taste what Mary had cooked tonight. I’d asked her what was for dinner and she kept sending me pictures that were supposed to be clues but they were not clues to my city eyes. Well, I knew what the strawberries were! I checked my phone and saw another picture. Again, I had no idea what I was looking at so I just fired out a random guess to make her laugh. I wanted to share something with her so I told her about Molly maybe having calves tonight. She sent back lots of excited and heart filled messages.

All of Aaron’s guesses on my picture clues made me laugh. Our lives have been so different which worries me but so far he seems to love learning about the things I love and I like hearing about his life but I still don’t want live in a big city. This is the last “family” dinner I’ll have with Aaron unless he decides to stay for the summer. Daddy says he’s been happy with Aaron’s work and that he has a good attitude. High praise from the best man in the whole world. I’d thought about this meal a long time and I decided to keep it simple and very “farm life” because I never see this meal on shows. I won’t pretend to be someone else so that Aaron like me. Beans and cornbread is a delicious meal but it doesn’t look pretty at all. The dessert is another one of my favorites – Strawberry shortcake with chattel whipped cream of course. I used my great-grandmother’s cast iron pot for the beans. The iron will keep them warm as they sit on the table. The cornbread is cut into squares, layered in a basket and covered with a towel to keep warm. Fresh butter in the crock, local honey, sliced green onions, and canned jalapenos from last year’s garden finishes the table. Iced tea with dinner and I have a sweet white wine chilling to drink with dessert after the evening milking. I’ve set the table with my mother’s wedding stoneware dishes. Everything looks perfect.

I finished my work a little bit earlier than usual like I planned. I hustled up the stairs to my little apartment, stripped down and hurried into the shower. Most of the time, you don’t really get dirty in the barn but it is on the warm side so I got a little sweaty lifting feed bags and loading the Feeder. While my hands automatically took care of washing, I thought about the conversation I had with my mom last night. It was the first long conversation I’d had with her since arriving at the farm. I shared with her my feelings about this job and in general about chattel. I didn’t tell her that I’d f****d one of the chattel but I did mention supervising breeding and feeling conflicted about human type creatures used as farm animals. She’s a great listener. After I finished sharing, she asked if I wanted her thoughts. I did, so she reminded me that the medicine that saved her life a few years ago was possible because of chattel. She asked me to think about how excited I sounded when I was talking about the work that I had been doing this week and that I had not complained even one time about waking up so early. And finally, to remember that this week I was only agreeing to work this summer to finish the internship, so don’t put pressure on myself about deciding on a whole different career this week. I might only have one parent but I know that I’m lucky my mom is amazing. I put on a nicer blue shirt that my mom always tells me looks great with my work pants knowing that I still have the evening milking ahead.