I oughter be pumpkin and apple pickin’ but then if an oughter had a tail like a beaver he’d be a beaver, wouldn’t he?!
This is the best kind of weather I could ask for except, and there always seems to be an except in the mix, I know the ponds are dry or next to it; and, dadgum it, we need some good hard rain to fill them up! The bright side is that we have at least had some rain!
My calf crop is doing good. We have babies all over the place and this is the year for bull calves. My old hides must have gotten together and decided we needed to make a paymentso they would produce the kind we could sell instead of keepers. For that I am grateful. I like the fall calving and it has been really wonderful this year since we have grass and then more grass.
Some of the fescue died out in several of our pastures but the tiny little showers did hold most of our grass. I am sure I need to seed clover and more wheat but have you priced seed lately? Makes me go pale and my stomach churns when I see that large sticker price. Gonna make a good many fellers sick, especially the ones that are barely hanging on by the skin of their teeth.
Have one old hide, belongs to the oldest Grand, that wants to get in the feed every day. She hangs out at the water trough just waiting for me to drive in and then she attacks the truck. She is sure there is gonna be a sack of cubes in the back and she is gonna eat them all! I would sell that old hateful thing if she was mine but I can’t do that just yet. That Grand was here last weekend looking at the calf and trying to count the money he could put in the bank when he sells the calf.
I tried to explain, and I was nice, that the cow costs me lots of money every year. I mentioned the feed, grass, taxes on the land, electricity to pump water, tires on the truck, gasoline, wear and tear on the truck and that kid just grinned. He said he sure was proud that I would help him out and someday he would be rich and powerful!
I began to question him (he is all of 11 now) about his choices in life. He squirmed around in the seat to get real comfortable and thought for a minute, finger on his chin, and cleared his throat.
“I figure I need to stay around here, follow you and learn about the cattlebusiness. I want to have all that money in the bank like you do!”
I just nodded and drove on!
It is my opinion, and everyone has one, it is not proper or nice to ride in and bust up a pretty dream. I am not gonna tell any Grand of mine that there ain’t a big wad never has been and never will be, in the bank. I want them all to learn about the things that are so important that the lack of a wad won’t matter very much. Sunrises and sunsets, mockingbirds, black calves, green grass and a multitude of other special things that are worth the effort and make the days of misery worth living That is what I want for them.
Hang in, it will rain.
Bill is a pen name used by the Gravette author of this weekly column.
Opinion, Pages 6 on 10/12/2011