Don't Call Me Late for Dinner

"I don't care what you call me, " goes an old saying, "just don't call me late for dinner."

Dinner time for Ebby takes me past our lower lane on these lovely autumn evenings.

Now that the pasture has been bush hogged, Ebby and Seb are probably enjoying the hay bale in the run-in shed, so I call out, "Ooooh, cow!  Oooooh, cow!"

Ebby appears in the distance with Seb trailing along behind.

I pour out her feed and top off the water tank, but the evening light is so beautiful, I stay to watch her amble towards me.

Ebby takes her time--she knows I wouldn't call her late for dinner--and I take my time, too.  These golden autumn moments are treasures to be enjoyed.

The Big Brush-Off

Winter is the perfect time for brush removal.  I wanted to get some of it taken care of as an encouragement to Herb so he could take it off his very long "To Do" list.  So I called on Randy, our trustworthy lawn service man.

He and his son started on a frosty morning, trimming along the road through the Middle Pasture.

It took two full days of work to get the job done.  I went down on Day 2 to check on how things were going.  You can see the clean fence line in the foreground with Randy and Travis about to tackle the next bit.

Randy knows all the local trees, and he told me this one had to go--it's a wild cherry.  I knew it was dangerous to livestock, but I had no idea what it looked like.  If the leaves fall off in the fall, the cattle can eat them with no harm done.  But if a branch should break off in a storm and the leaves wither, just a small amount will kill a full-size cow.

Randy knows from experience.  His father always told him never to feed wild cherry to the cows because it would kill them.  He didn't believe it, so he gave a branch to one of the milk cows.  "See?" he thought, "She loves it."  And then she went down.  Fortunately, young Randy had the sense to run tell his dad what he'd done, and the vet managed to save the cow.  He couldn't save Randy from getting his hide tanned, though!

Looking back along the cleared fence line and creek bed.  I wanted the cedars saved because they can serve as a secondary fence post, so the guys cleaned them off up to the top of the fence.

The thicket of wild plum was a real doozy.

The bonfire was burning all day both days, and the cattle were fascinated.  They made me laugh because it looked for all the world like they were having a weiner and marshmallow roast.

Siobhan's mouth is open here (left) because she's telling Wellie (red calf at right), "Wellie!  Don't eat that marshmallow after it fell on the ground!"

 Travis and Randy no only took down the scrub trees, but they also cleaned up the ones we were saving, like persimmons and oaks, so that we can drive under them without scraping the top of the Doodad.

 After the marshmallow roast, the cattle went over to dine on privet right off the "food cart."

Now that the creek bed was more accessible, Ebony decided to give herself a clay mask.

There's something fascinating about watching a fire burn, for both humans and bovines, it seems.

Misty inspects the nice neat fence line while the guys wait for the last of the brush to burn and the fire to die down.

Of course I had to tease Randy about giving us a big brush-off, but this was one we were glad for.

Another Eventful Week

Herb and I made a trip this week to southern Missouri to pick up stuff from my dad's house.  He passed away on D-Day.  For months now, my two aunts and uncle have been making regular trips from up near St. Louis, sorting through everything in the house, and filling a room with things for the three of us girls.  The end of last week my sister Barbara drove here with my nephew J and niece Carrie, who volunteered to feed the animals while we were gone.  We showed them what to do on Sunday evening, then hit the road.

♪ "Monday, Monday, can't trust that day!" ♫ We were treated to snow, freezing cold and icy winds.  On our way through Kentucky we passed four accidents in a short while on the slippery, snowy back roads.  Pulling a horse trailer through that made for some tense driving, but at least we were only carrying empty boxes.

By the time we got to the Ohio River, the snow had stopped and we could enjoy the view.

There's something about a river and barges that thrills me--maybe being born near the Mississippi River (pictured here) it got into my blood.

Despite a busy Monday afternoon and evening packing and a busy Tuesday morning loading the horse trailer, there was time for sharing memories, hugs and laughter with Barbara, Aunt Shirley, Aunt Dot and me.  (Uncle Rich had already gone home, and Herb was the photographer.)

All too soon we were back on the road again.  Driving conditions were a lot better.  Even the Mississippi looked a more cheerful shade of blue!  This photo was taken at the convergence with the Ohio River.

Wherever these barges had come from, they toted some snow on the Ohio.

The countryside is flatter than we're used to, the fields are bigger, and the tractors are even bigger.  Another thing that's big in Missouri is Dexters, and it was quite frustrating to be so close to so many Dexter breeders and not stop to visit a single one!

When we got home at 10 p.m. on Tuesday night, J was eager to let Herb know that he could sleep in the next morning, that he and Carrie would be glad to feed.  I enjoyed peeking out the window with my telephoto lens to watch them at work.  When they finished they shooed Sir Loin and Royal out of the garage where the hay is stored and headed back to the house.

Herb enjoyed getting to sleep in after two and a half days of driving, packing and more driving, and looking at the thermometer's 18° I was thankful to be observing from inside.  J hurried back to the house to let us know that he had finally made friends with Wellie, who stood there in bliss getting scratched behind his ears.  It was pretty cool to see J so excited and happy about doing chores in 18° weather!  You can tell we left our animals in good hands.

While we were driving home Tuesday, Barbara celebrated her ??th birthday, so Kara cooked a wonderful Moroccan meal Wednesday night, followed by Carrie's delicious homemade grape pie.

♫ Happy Birthday, sweet middle sister! ♪

Kara was too tired out from cooking to protest having her picture taken!

Finally on Thursday it was time to say goodbye.

Misty reveled in playing chase with Herb while Carrie packed the car.

She did a masterful job packing and managed to squeeze everything in . . .

. . . except her brother!  We suggested he should try out his grip before they hit the road.

We weren't quite sure of the best way for him to get home.

And then someone discovered that Carrie had left room for him after all!  J and the hat both fit!

Misty did her best to keep them from leaving . . .

. . . but despite her valiant efforts, they disappeared down the road.

In case you're wondering what I'm going to do with myself now that everyone's gone . . . here are a few of the boxes of photos and papers that I've offered to sort and archive for us girls.  I guess I'll be putting this long, cold winter to good use!

Working Smarter, Not Harder

You can lead a horse to water . . . but how do you keep the water from freezing when the temperature stays in the teens?  Even if the water isn't completely frozen, drinking icy water is not ideal for animals as it chills them and makes it harder to stay warm.

During the first polar vortex, Herb solved the problem by hand-carrying buckets of hot water all the way down the hill to the pasture tank, three times a day, sometimes three trips at a time, even in the dark when he got home late.  He did it willingly so the animals would have plenty to drink, but I hated that he had to do it.  I suggested he use the Doodad, but he pointed out that even if he drove slowly, the water would slosh out of the buckets and freeze in the bed.  Too true, but it still niggled at me every time he made that trek.

Luckily for Herb, before the second polar vortex hit I used the trailer to pick up our new bull calf--and something in the trailer tack room jumped right up at me and said, "Here am I, send me!"

It was the water tank/saddle rack we bought back in 2004 so our horses would have their usual water on the long trip from Tennessee to far West Texas.

When I saw this High Country Plastics water tank, bells went off in my brain.  I remembered an experienced farmer saying, "Work smarter, not harder."  And I thought, why not let this tank work harder instead of Herb?

Pretty much the hardest thing Herb had to do was put the tank in the back of the Doodad, and even that was pretty easy since I drove the Doodad over to the trailer and backed it right up to the door of the tack room!

The next step was to find a long, unfrozen hose.  We had previously bought an attachment for the garage sink faucet so it was a cinch to hook up the hose.

The other end of the hose went into the water tank, and Herb turned on the hot water.  The tank has a handy screw-in plug to close the top hole where the hose goes in.  It also has a handy spigot at the bottom, which is threaded in case you prefer to dispense the water with a hose.  Considering the freezing temps, we opted not to mess with dragging a hose around.

Once the tank was full, we immediately disconnected and drained the hose, then rolled it up while it was still warm and flexible from the hot water.

It was a simple matter to drive the Doodad around to every tank.  (I took my photos a bit out of order, so the tank is already half empty here after filling the Home Pasture tank.)  How did we ever function without the Doodad?!

We didn't want to mess with getting through the gate of the Home Pasture, and the tank was only a few yards away, so Herb decided to use a bucket.  (Note the water shooting out of the spigot.  Also note the black screw-in plug and right above it the open cap of the thingy--sorry, Google failed me--that opens to make the water flow smoothly.)

"This gets heavy," Herb commented idly as the bucket filled.

I know I would be too lazy to hold a series of heavy buckets, so I suggested that Herb turn on the spigot and gradually move the bucket away and down until he could set it on the ground while the stream of water shot in effortlessly.  Just call me the Queen of Working Smarter!  (I like that better than the Queen of Lazy.)

The nice thing about dumping several buckets of hot water into the tank is that the ice around the edges breaks up and melts, and any chunks too big to melt can be thrown on the ground.

Next stop, Kara's Pasture.  The tank was easy to slide onto the open tailgate (even full), thanks to a piece of old carpet underneath.  Once again, we aimed the spigot over the tank, and that was the extent of our effort.

Julie led the horses to the water, so we didn't even have to do that!

Angel has always loved playing with hoses, so she was the first to investigate.

"Come on in, the water's fine," she said.

I know perfectly well that this solution won't work for people up north or for those with lots of animals to water.  But it works just great for filling a couple of tanks if you only deal with tank-freezing cold a couple times a year.

There are larger tanks around, but this 30 gallon tank has the advantage of being easily portable and small enough to empty completely so there's no residual water to freeze in the tank.

The biggest problem with this method is that Herb now has to use the treadmill in the basement to get his exercise on freezing nights.  I honestly think this is so easy that I could do it myself when he's not around. . . . but that would be working harder, wouldn't it?  And we all know I'm too smart for that!