Pumpkins are everywhere a feller looks around headquarters. I suppose the old superstitions about the evil day of Oct. 31 are long gone.
Now days, all the little ghosts have smiley faces and the pirates are much smaller and already growing mustaches! I gave out a ton of chocolate candy and we only had three unrelatedgoblins come to our house. But I enjoy each one of them as does my close relative. We have a washtub of popcorn balls left over, and I sneak one out every time I leave the kitchen!
I am in awe of the cattle prices. I spent some time at the sale barn this week and saw some animals bring more than a smallfarm would have cost in my youth. How to make a living on trading cattle is a puzzle that I have no desire to attempt. I see some of the fellers I know picking up feeders, and I am pretty sure they are using banker’s money. How that works is beyond my pea brain for figuring out. I guess the low interest is a factor, but I know from experience that some calves will turn up their belly and die.
Bravery comes in all kinds of ways. I have a distinct dislike of heights and I saw a man hanging up by a little rope cutting tree limbs the other day.He was brave, according to me. And I know some fellers like to ride bulls, some like to ride crazy horses and some marry mean women; but I just do not possess the need to prove myself. I figure the fellers who are buying cattle on credit are sorta like some of the folks who do that surfing stuff in shark-infested waters. Why they do it is not for me to know!
My cattle woes are small at this time. The offspring found a dead calf, about a 250 pound one, and doctored several others for pneumonia this last week. I am not one to vaccinatefor scours or pneumonia, and I may end up paying the price several times over what the vaccine would have cost. Too late to worry about that now.
I am pretty sure something or someone wound up the year clock too tight, as the year has just fl own by for me. I am always ready to eat turkey and pumpkin pie, but it is hard for me to realize that it is now November. It is daylight when we get up and dark when I am still doing barn chores. I must say I don’t like the short days of winter, and the days will be shorter until down in December whenit turns around. I am always thankful for the equinox.
It is my opinion, and everybody has one, I fi gure on a wet and cold winter, so I am stocking up on feed and mineral for the cattle. I have serviced the tractor I feed with and have the hay forks attached. Now I am foraging for me! I have a list that has peanuts, orange slices and hard candy so I can stock the truck, just in case I get snowbound and need nourishment. I need to be prepared!
Bill is a pen name used by the Gravette author of this weekly column.
Opinion, Pages 4 on 11/06/2013