DH was walking out the door to go and feed this morning, looked at me and said,"why don't you go with me this morning?" I thought about it,asked him if I did was he going to school young son after dinner? He said he would. I told him he was a bad influence on me. Then I hurried around getting dressed, and off we went.
It was a very nice morning. I think sometimes you need to get out of your box. Plus I have been to cooped up in this house, due to an ear infection, and it has been driving me crazy. So it was nice to get out and about. I enjoy feeding. DH gets very very bored. And I could see that doing it day in and day out would get old. But I have the option of going when I want...so I chose to enjoy it. I mean you don't have to think a lot. Just drive to the feed ground, call alittle and soon here the gals come over the hill.
Funny story....DH has been wanting a siren for some time. I have to explain to yall that don't know about feeding, it is a scientific process. You drive into the pasture. You start honking your horn. Soon the cattle hear it and that is their sign to come running.....grub is on. Well horns are not meant to be used like that. I mean your average horn isn't honked for hours everyday....well maybe if you live in New York...I would imagine that they do a lot of honking. Back to story at hand. I don't know how many horns DH burns up in a feeding season. But several, and they are expensive, about 30 bucks a pop.
For the last several years he has wanted to get a siren. Yes that is what I said,and yes you can get them, and yes they sell them at our local farm and ranch store. He finally talked himself into getting it. They are expensive as well, about 75 bucks, but they last longer then your average honking horn. So off we went. He bought his siren, and proudly brought it home. He spent all the next morning mounting it on his pickup. He was so excited, a new toy. After testing the ear splitting thing thing....numerous times, and scaring the saddle horses half to death, putting the dogs into nervous breakdown mode, he was ready to go.
Off he went into the sun, dust raging around his tires. Hand on the switch of his new siren. He was a man on a mission. A man dedicated to the feeding of his bovine herd. A man with a siren.
After a few hours he came back. He walked in the door, his eyes sad, shoulders slummed over, feet dragging. OK maybe that is a little overkill. But he was sad. I asked him what was wrong. Did something awful happen? Was he OK? He just looked at me, and then he said, " the cows are afraid of the siren. I cranked it up, and they all just ran the other way." Poor fella. Such a let down after hours of hard work. I fixed him a cup of coffee. I assured him that when they got hungry they would have a change of heart, and that it would all be OK. Just give them time.
I guess my words of wisdom were true, cause I sure didn't see any cows running the other way this morning. They seemed pretty happy to hear the siren.
Anyway that is the end of my siren story. It took all morning to feed, due to the fact that he also had to go around turning off windmills. It is supposed get really cold, and if you leave the mills on, and it freezes hard and the wind blows, they will turn and break the sucker rods. So we did that as well.
It takes a bit to get around. DH's camp is 100 sections big. There are a lot of roads and a lot of country to cover. Makes you glad for pickups. Sure would hate to have to cover all of it horseback.
We finally got around, and came home. DD had a wonderful dinner prepared. Beef steak stew, and cornbread. We are calling this a home ec. day.
Now Dh is sitting at the kitchen table helping the young'n to get his school work done. :) :) I asked him if it was worth it ( asking me to go and feed, and exchanging duties) he said he would let me know when they got done. :) I think I may know the answer...he may decide that feeding alone isn't all that lonely after all.
God Bless and Happy trails
Ranch Wife
Cow Cafe
7 comments:
Do you mean to say that teaching the youngest isn't the highlight of your day? I should tell him that. He will be so hurt. Glad you enjoyed the morning. It was a good morning to be outside.
Sounds like fun.....
Sadly....no. I thought that Taylor was difficult. But at least he would get it done. Nathan on the other hand, well there are just not words. I don't think you would hurt his feelings at all, as a matter of fact I think he takes pride in driving me to the loony bin.
Jen, yes it was fun, don't pout.
M
Tell Mr. Siren that we're sure glad the bovines figured out the dinner bell! Ha! I would have loved to see his face when the cows took off for parts unknown! Ya'll stay warm.
Oh golly, that was funny. Almost as good as your beef story, but I still have the mental image of a toothless man gumming a chewy steak stuck in my head.
:)
These are wonderful stories to share around the supper table!
I love feeding with DH although I think I'll wait until it warms up a bit!
B gets brownie points for taking on the schooling! It's good for him ~ helps him understand why our hair has those lovely grey highlights.
My tummy hurts. I tell ya what, I've gotten to laugh more this evening from blog bouncing than I have in my whole month of January. This was a perfect top off...today was a bit melancholy. :-)
I think I'm gonna ask Jen for your e-mail address, I need ta ask you something. :-) Haha, hope that didn't scare you.
Thanks for that, I surely needed that laugh.
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