A moment of levity

[Sue R]

So Ed and I are out doing the cow chores on Tuesday. Nasty ground conditions, hard snow, 1/2" of ice, light snow on top so you couldn't see what was underneath, etc. It's very tiring and stressful, plus I'd hauled the 50# of soybean oil meal on the sled all the back there cause Ed's back was bothering him. We haven't been letting the dogs do hardly any work lately because the surface is so tricky and it would be dangerous for them to interact with the cows. They enjoy the walk out and playing with each other in the snow, but have to down and wait while we work, and not mess with the cows who are up finishing their soy and waiting for the main course to be served.

 

Anyway, Ed cuts the caps off the big round bales and gets them ready (this is a no-tractor-in-the-cold-weather-when-it-wouldn't-start-anyway system that provides him, and me, with some healthy exercise). Then he pounds in the next set of fence posts and he's ready for my help in holding the polytape taut while he removes it from each fence post in the "old" line and then I hook it to each fence post in the "new" line.

 

He didn't like how I was holding the polytape - not taut enough for him. So he hollars over, "Take up the slack, move away". Well, I wasn't moving far enough to tighten it up to his liking so he repeated, "Away, away, away". We both looked to see all three dogs flying off on a counterclockwise outrun. We stopped them, called them back, and Ed was heard to say, "At least SOMEONE was listening to me"!

[Eileen Stein]

Sue, that's hilarious!

 

A friend of my husband's once brought his kids to see the baby lambs, and to watch the dogs work. We talked for a little while in the field afterwards, with the dogs just lying around, and then he and his kids started up the hill to leave. They called out "Thank you, that was great!" as they walked up the hill, and I called back,"Good to see you, come by anytime!" Needless to say . . .