When I was in high school I got the idea to save my money and buy a female bloodhound and breed her for extra money. I had no idea the $500 I spent on a little red blob in Chattanooga would be the best thing I ever bought in my life. I've always loved animals especially dogs and I figured this would be easy, not only did it turn into good money but I fell in love with the breed and found out that each dog has his own personality.
To give you a little background information, my first was Pookie. She lived for twelve years and there were very few days when she wasn't with me, especially after I got out of college. She went to work with us everyday, her favorite thing was riding in the truck. This past August she died from cancer, thankfully she didn't suffer long. We found out she had a large tumor in her stomach and within a week she died. I bred her for many years to our male, Hambone, they were inseparable and he went to work with us everyday just like she did. He was without a doubt mama and daddy's dog, he loved us all, but if it came down to going with me or daddy during the day almost every time it was daddy. He was older than her and died a few years before she did with cancer.
Then we have baby Hambone, the star of this story, I sold him to a family that lived in a subdivision in Bell Buckle. They had him for probably a year or little longer and he barked so much that their neighbors had to go on sleep medication, to put it lightly he terrorized the neighborhood by being a 130 lbs of playful puppy. It was just after his daddy had died from cancer and Pookie was very depressed, she mourned just like a person would. He had been her mate for many years and been the only dog I ever bred her to, they were together every day and night and had never been separated until his death. It had come to the point where baby Hambone's family had to give him up, he had to much energy and not enough room to run around in, so they offered him back to us. I thought it would be good for Pookie to have another dog around, especially one so playful to get her back to normal, and believe me it did.
There are so many stories I could tell about baby Hambone but this is probably the best, the dog loved kittens more than anything in the world. He would pick them up in his mouth and put them all in a pile, so he could bark at them. He rarely ever hurt one, and if he did he definitely didn't mean to. He was very careful and slow at first but, after a few times he had a system figured out where he could act quickly. We really had to get on to him about moving them around, because sometimes you'd come home and they'd be scattered out around the yard. I watched him one day pick one up, lay it down then lay down in front of it and just bark. I didn't like getting on to him to hard about it, because he truly loved them and anyone could tell. But can you imagine being a 2 lb kitten and having a 130 lb dog laying in front of you barking? As long as I live I will never forget the day I looked out the back door and Hambone had his back to me. I said, "Hambone", and he wouldn't look around which was really odd for him, so again I said, "Hambone". Very slowly he rolled his head around to look at me and all I could see was a little tail hanging out of his mouth. I said, "Hambone drop the kitten", this was fairly routine at this point so he knew what to do but just stood there. I came out the door and I said, "drop the kitten now Hambone!" He eased down on the ground and laid the kitten in between his big feet, and just dropped his head. Of course I felt bad so I petted him to let him know that he wasn't in trouble, he snatched the kitten back up and took off across the yard. This was a never ending battle till they were grown, but he had a much harder time picking up a grown cat that had a choice to whether he wanted to be carried around, so he was forced to wait till the new litter arrived.
I can pretty well fall in love with any animal in seconds. My soft heart has made me the proud owner of several pet lambs, goats, cats, dogs, an orphaned burro that we raised on the bottle, fish, cows, and a deer. But there is no doubt that our hound dogs, especially the bloodhounds, have had bigger than life personality's. People always ask what was your favorite pet, but I can't give an answer because each one has been different and I've loved them all in different ways. If I can help it I plan on never going a day through life without having a bloodhound by my side.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
You can call me the negotiator.
A lot of people don't realize those loveable, floppy eared donkeys are fun to look at but useless to have. They actually roam wild in the west and they have special sales where you can buy mustangs and donkeys, in case you're wondering I've had both. I'm not sure how we wound up with the mustang but he was the fattest horse I've ever seen, most of his life he had to get by on a whole lot less to eat than he got here. So needless to say when he made it to Tennessee you couldn't rip him away from that sweet grass. But he was a wonderful horse and after he had stayed with us a while and got older he foundered so we sent him to the Boy Scouts Club where they could ride him in the summer, he had a very good retirement to say the least.
The donkey's have to be one of the most adorable things I've ever seen and the most useless. My grandaddy adopted a few from out west and they stayed on his farm until he died and left them to me. I was thrilled, I loved going to see them and feed them when I was little. Several of them had tattoos they get on the neck to identify them when they're caught. We started raising sheep soon after I got them home and everyone tells you they hate dogs, so we figured they would help keep stray dogs and coyotes away from the sheep but they didn't. The only thing they pay attention to is a feed bucket, when we go to feed the sheep you can't move for them and the sheep can't eat because they don't want to share. We had bought a jack, or a male, to breed our females because at that time we didn't have that many, but after so long you have to trade them out or they will interbreed and he wasn't getting along to well with one of the baby jacks we had. If you sale a horse or donkey you have to have Coggins papers on them to show that they don't have the Coggins disease, but these papers are only good for a year. It cost $25 to get the test done and a jack will only bring $20, not a good thing. Our papers had run out about a week or two before, but we figured since it was so close they might take him anyway. We get to the sale barn and I told the guy what was going on and he said it doesn't matter just leave him. Let me tell you we have never left a place that quick in our life. Later on that day the owner of the sale barn called and said, "we need you to come get your jack, his papers aren't good." I said, "I know but your employee said it was ok since they were so close." He said, "well he was wrong and I'll deal with that later, but you need to come get him today." I said, "no". He said, "excuse me? I can't keep him here." I said, "sorry he's yours now. I don't want him and I'm definitely not coming back to get him." He was not a very happy person but he hung up and I went on about my business. Later on he calls back and says,"ok I'll bring him halfway if you'll meet me." I said, "no it's ok I'll let you keep him." At this point he was yelling but I didn't care it was pretty funny from my perspective. He said,"damn it I'll bring him all the way to you because I don't want him!" I said, "well you have to find me". He had my address but it seemed like the appropriate response at the time. He hung up again and in about an hour he calls for the third time and says, "just forget it I'll keep him but I have to pay you for him, I can't believe I got conned into this." I said, "I'll take $25 for him, you can mail me the check." He said, "you do realize these things aren't worth more than $20?" My reply was simply, "I sure do." The next day or two we got the check in the mail even though I wasn't expecting it and wouldn't have been mad if I hadn't got it.
A while went by and we happened to talk to the man again and he said he had given the donkey to his granddaughter who had fell in love with him when she saw him. So it worked out well for everyone I guess, he became grandpa of the year, the donkey got a good home, and we got paid for him. So next time your trying to work out a problem don't waste time getting mad, use your head and be one step ahead of the other person. Most deals are won while someone is losing their temper, just like this one.
*. Today we have thirteen donkeys and as much as I want to kill them sometimes I do love them dearly. Now they won't stay only with the sheep, they split up their days between the cows and sheep, so they've become more diversified as a group you could say. But you can bet no matter what part of the farm they're on when we go to feed they find us, sometimes before the sheep do. I swear I think they can hear a feed bucket rattle a mile away.*
The donkey's have to be one of the most adorable things I've ever seen and the most useless. My grandaddy adopted a few from out west and they stayed on his farm until he died and left them to me. I was thrilled, I loved going to see them and feed them when I was little. Several of them had tattoos they get on the neck to identify them when they're caught. We started raising sheep soon after I got them home and everyone tells you they hate dogs, so we figured they would help keep stray dogs and coyotes away from the sheep but they didn't. The only thing they pay attention to is a feed bucket, when we go to feed the sheep you can't move for them and the sheep can't eat because they don't want to share. We had bought a jack, or a male, to breed our females because at that time we didn't have that many, but after so long you have to trade them out or they will interbreed and he wasn't getting along to well with one of the baby jacks we had. If you sale a horse or donkey you have to have Coggins papers on them to show that they don't have the Coggins disease, but these papers are only good for a year. It cost $25 to get the test done and a jack will only bring $20, not a good thing. Our papers had run out about a week or two before, but we figured since it was so close they might take him anyway. We get to the sale barn and I told the guy what was going on and he said it doesn't matter just leave him. Let me tell you we have never left a place that quick in our life. Later on that day the owner of the sale barn called and said, "we need you to come get your jack, his papers aren't good." I said, "I know but your employee said it was ok since they were so close." He said, "well he was wrong and I'll deal with that later, but you need to come get him today." I said, "no". He said, "excuse me? I can't keep him here." I said, "sorry he's yours now. I don't want him and I'm definitely not coming back to get him." He was not a very happy person but he hung up and I went on about my business. Later on he calls back and says,"ok I'll bring him halfway if you'll meet me." I said, "no it's ok I'll let you keep him." At this point he was yelling but I didn't care it was pretty funny from my perspective. He said,"damn it I'll bring him all the way to you because I don't want him!" I said, "well you have to find me". He had my address but it seemed like the appropriate response at the time. He hung up again and in about an hour he calls for the third time and says, "just forget it I'll keep him but I have to pay you for him, I can't believe I got conned into this." I said, "I'll take $25 for him, you can mail me the check." He said, "you do realize these things aren't worth more than $20?" My reply was simply, "I sure do." The next day or two we got the check in the mail even though I wasn't expecting it and wouldn't have been mad if I hadn't got it.
A while went by and we happened to talk to the man again and he said he had given the donkey to his granddaughter who had fell in love with him when she saw him. So it worked out well for everyone I guess, he became grandpa of the year, the donkey got a good home, and we got paid for him. So next time your trying to work out a problem don't waste time getting mad, use your head and be one step ahead of the other person. Most deals are won while someone is losing their temper, just like this one.
*. Today we have thirteen donkeys and as much as I want to kill them sometimes I do love them dearly. Now they won't stay only with the sheep, they split up their days between the cows and sheep, so they've become more diversified as a group you could say. But you can bet no matter what part of the farm they're on when we go to feed they find us, sometimes before the sheep do. I swear I think they can hear a feed bucket rattle a mile away.*
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
The sheep dogs came out the winner today.
Before we started raising sheep I couldn't imagine someone using roadkill for anything, no matter how fresh it is. But when you have to feed seven big Pyrenees sheep dogs everyday you do what you have to do. They eat about 200 lbs a week so that gets expensive, but without them we couldn't raise the sheep. They're like security guards, they stay with the sheep at all time and keep predators like coyotes away Like any dog they want a little meat in their diet no matter how good the dog food is that you feed them. Every morning my daddy goes to the store in Bell Buckle to sit with the other farmers and solve the world's problems, he leaves there comes to my gate to check on things, then we meet up and go to work. This morning while I'm getting ready he calls me, "what are you doing ?" I said,"I'm about to leave why?" He said,"I hit a deer", obviously my first response was "are you ok?" He said, "well yeah but come help me". So my husband and I get in the other truck and go down there expecting the truck to be wrecked or him hurt, was that the case? Of course not, he wanted help getting it in the truck to take to the sheep dogs. I said, "did it die or did you have to shoot him?'' He said, "naw I had to shoot him, but for the record he hit me. I didn't hit him." Amazingly there was hardly any damage to the truck, the deer took most of the impact I guess.
Now to the second part of the story..it's deer season here and we like to hunt. Even before we killed deer for the sheep dogs we went hunting. I've always been a daddy's girl but it's in overdrive during deer season. Before I was big enough to shoot a gun he would hold it for me and let me pull the trigger and I loved it. No matter how big the deer was he always made me feel like I killed it, even though he did all the work. Since I've got older we go to separate places so we cover more ground and have a little competition to. If I'm not able to hunt one day he will go watch my spot but refuses to shoot anything. This drives me crazy if your going to be there be prepared, as he use to say. There are only two people in this world that could shoot a deer I've been watching and wouldn't care if they did, and that's daddy and my husband. Of course I think daddy would feel to guilty if he had to tell me he killed a deer where I hunt at, but he has no problem telling me that I should have had my butt over there watching for deer instead of doing whatever else I was doing if he sees something. And I'll throw this little side note in for future reference, some days I can hit a mouse in high grass at 300 yards and then there's the days I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn at 5 yards. For today I had a good spot picked out and I knew all I had to do was sit there and wait. I waited and the deer I had been waiting on came, I shot and I missed. He jogs over to the side of the fence looks back at me and is gone. The phone call I had to make to tell daddy that I missed a monster was not one I was looking forward to. The first thing he said when he answered was,"did you kill him?" I said "nope I missed". He said, "well how far away were you?" After a minute of silence I said, "I could have thrown a rock at him." His reply was, "what the hell's wrong with you? You couldn't kill one with a gun and I killed one with a truck..we've been in to big of a hurry today."
So the moral of this story is sometimes you just have those days but you can always make the best of it like we did, the dogs got what they've been wanting and we saved a little money. As for my big miss of the year, there's always another deer, another spot, and another day. You just have to ask yourself, will I remember this 100 years from now? Probably not unless daddy is still rubbing it in, but I'm sure he'll have plenty of other things by then to talk about it.
Now to the second part of the story..it's deer season here and we like to hunt. Even before we killed deer for the sheep dogs we went hunting. I've always been a daddy's girl but it's in overdrive during deer season. Before I was big enough to shoot a gun he would hold it for me and let me pull the trigger and I loved it. No matter how big the deer was he always made me feel like I killed it, even though he did all the work. Since I've got older we go to separate places so we cover more ground and have a little competition to. If I'm not able to hunt one day he will go watch my spot but refuses to shoot anything. This drives me crazy if your going to be there be prepared, as he use to say. There are only two people in this world that could shoot a deer I've been watching and wouldn't care if they did, and that's daddy and my husband. Of course I think daddy would feel to guilty if he had to tell me he killed a deer where I hunt at, but he has no problem telling me that I should have had my butt over there watching for deer instead of doing whatever else I was doing if he sees something. And I'll throw this little side note in for future reference, some days I can hit a mouse in high grass at 300 yards and then there's the days I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn at 5 yards. For today I had a good spot picked out and I knew all I had to do was sit there and wait. I waited and the deer I had been waiting on came, I shot and I missed. He jogs over to the side of the fence looks back at me and is gone. The phone call I had to make to tell daddy that I missed a monster was not one I was looking forward to. The first thing he said when he answered was,"did you kill him?" I said "nope I missed". He said, "well how far away were you?" After a minute of silence I said, "I could have thrown a rock at him." His reply was, "what the hell's wrong with you? You couldn't kill one with a gun and I killed one with a truck..we've been in to big of a hurry today."
So the moral of this story is sometimes you just have those days but you can always make the best of it like we did, the dogs got what they've been wanting and we saved a little money. As for my big miss of the year, there's always another deer, another spot, and another day. You just have to ask yourself, will I remember this 100 years from now? Probably not unless daddy is still rubbing it in, but I'm sure he'll have plenty of other things by then to talk about it.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever does” Margaret Mead
Some of you that live in the middle Tennessee area or know me personally are aware of our water problems in Bell Buckle, for those of you that don't I will enlighten you.
First off I am not on Bell Buckle water, even though we live over the hill from my parents we are on Bedford Utilities, but my parents are. As their only child I feel like it's my job and joy to take care of them, even though they don't need it, so if I feel like someone is mistreating them or doing them wrong you bet your sweet ass I'm on it. Their problem, along with many other people in our town, started a while back when their water became so dirty they couldn't use it for anything. It was muddy and had a bad smell. You couldn't drink it, cook with it, or wash your clothes in it. We weren't sure how many other people were having these problems but we knew that the other ten families that lived on their road had the same problems. I wrote up a petition and got everyone to sign it, and we took it to the next town meeting. All it said was that their water had been unusable for about twenty five days out of the month, and we asked for the town to waive that one water bill. The town makes it a policy to waive one bill per customer per year for a problem that is out of their control, for example a leak. The town refused to waive the bill, but they did say they would ask MTAS, the municipal advisory board at the University of Tennessee, if it was permissible for them to do that.
At the next month's meeting they gave us a three page letter giving explanations of why they could not legally waive our bill even though the water was unusable and unsanitary. When we left that meeting I have no problem telling you that we were all very upset. We decided to start a petition for everyone that had a problem with their water. In just a matter of days we had over two hundred names of people that had the same issues. As this got bigger and bigger I started researching all their "reasons" and I got on the MTAS website to see what I could find. I had no idea that what ever you needed to know about a town was on their website, they did write them and ask their opinion on how it should be handled. MTAS also keep a copy of all the responses they send out, and the letter that was sent to the board and mayor had no similarities. MTAS simply said that it was up to the town how they wanted to handle it, it was not three pages just one and there were no references to court trials saying it was illegal to waive a bill. The court trials that were actually referenced in Bell Buckle's letter didn't even pertain to our issue, I guess whoever wrote it didn't figure we would fact check them.
We had a few other complaints that had been let go, but since they treated us with zero respect we brought them up. Bell Buckle is a very small town, there are about two hundred water and sewer customers on the inside of the city limits and five hundred on the outside. Mama and daddy live on the outside, the outside people are not on sewer they have septic systems. The customers on the outside pay double what the people on the inside pay for water. Basically the inside gets water and sewer for the price of an outside persons water bill. The town says they combine sewer and water funds, and they have been showing a loss. They decided to come in and raise the outside customers bill 27% because they were losing money and because it costs more to get the water to us than to the inside customers. And let me just add this, the people on the outside can not run or vote for a town office, and these are the people that decide the water rates and all the restrictions that are imposed on the people outside of town. Now almost every water line that services the five hundred customers was put in by the customers and then donated to the town, so they had NO cost in the water line. We are paying more than double the inside and we had to pay for the construction of the line, my parents are responsible for two pretty considerable long water lines to. So not only were we lied to by the people that set the regulations and rates, but they also refused to help us in our time of need. The water costs about $3.00 per thousand for the town to buy, and they are selling it at a minimum of $37 to the outside customers, most bills average around $50 to $60. The water system is in need of updates, but at the rates that are being paid they should be able to keep up with at least some of them. It's no secret that hundreds of thousands of our water money is spent on the sewer plant, most of that is our money and we receive no benefit from it. Since most of the customers aren't on sewer you would think they would have the money separate, but if they did that they couldn't show a loss on the water and raise our bill and the water money couldn't be spent on the sewer plant. The funny thing is I found the town's audit online, because it's public record of course, and it showed the water and sewer separated. The water actually made $60,000 last year and the sewer lost $100,000, the figures were not the same in the break down of water and sewer but when I brought this up they said it was simply a typo by the auditor of the Tennessee comptrollers audit office. Pretty sure he wouldn't appreciate that, but then I found where the town had asked if it was ok to spend the town's funds on adding a septic system or rehabilitating the sewer system to a very prominent private school in town. MTAS said that it was illegal to do this but the y proceeded on with the job anyway. They couldn't waive one bill for us when the water was unusable but they could spend OUR money on a job for a private school when they are very able to pay for it their self.
The third problem with our water is the pressure. The state of Tennessee has a legal set limit on water pressure and it's 21 lbs. My parents have lived in the same house for 48 years and they have never had good pressure, but as you've picked up on you can't get much help in this town. During all this the town water superintendent got a water pressure gauge that kept up with the pressure 24 hours a day for up to five days. In those five days there were only a handful of times when the pressure got above 30 lbs, but there were several times when the pressure dropped below 0. The state not only says that the pressure has to be at 21 lbs but it has to maintain that pressure and not fluctuate, which it does. 90% of the time the water wasn't above or even equal to 21lbs, it's been months and this problem still goes on.
So as of now we have a class action lawsuit against the town of Bell Buckle for lack of pressure, being over charged for our water, and the low quality of water being sold to the customers. It has taken a lot of long hours, hard work, and major frustration to get to the point where we could file a lawsuit but we made it. If it wasn't for the great people on the oustide making donations and showing support we would have never made it. We still have the expense of the lawsuit and donations are hard to find, but there always seems to be a person making one when you need it the most. Two sayings are the first to come to mind every time I think about this first "bitches get stuff done" and second "it's not the size of the dog in the fight it's the size of the fight in the dog". We have one hell of a fight in us to...
Friday, November 9, 2012
Just because you saw it doesn't mean you saw it right.
In this family everyone likes to work in the yard, but I'm the one that cuts mama and daddy's yard, but every now and then she gets the time to cut it. I'm very particular about the way a yard should be cut, but I'm a nice daughter and let her do it when she wants, even though she cuts it wrong. We have an electric fence around their house that keeps the horses out of the yard, most of the time, and instead of getting off the mower and opening the gate she lifts the fence up and goes under it (yes it's unplugged). When she does this it usually pulls it out and it falls down. Daddy got tired of having to fix the fence every time this happened, so it left the fence down and turned the horses out with the cows. She of course didn't like this, and neither did I, because you had to get off the mower and move the wire where you could cut underneath it. Finally this fall he gave in and fixed the fence, it just so happened that she decided to cut the yard that day.
We were working at the shop and I noticed that she had stopped cutting the yard and had got off the mower in about the same spot that she always knocks the fence down. Daddy noticed it the same time I did and said. "go see if she's knocked the fence down." I started walking down there and asked her if she'd knock it down, of course she started laughing hysterically and said, "no go away, go back to work". Well that pretty well told the story for her, daddy hears her laughing and gets on the tractor, with the hay mower hooked to it, and is driving down there to chew her out about it. While she is yelling at him to get out of the yard because he's making tracks in it, he runs under the phone line and power line and hangs them both. He's mad at her because she's mad at him and she's mad at him because the yard is messed up and I'm just trying to get him to stop before he jerks the wires off the house. He stops but when he goes to lower the mower it jerks the wires down, but miraculously they're still attached to the house. Later on that night they figure out the phone isn't working, and of course we all think it's because daddy hung the wires today, he of course didn't think he messed anything up. The next day she called AT&T and told them that someone had went through the yard and hung the phone line with "a piece of equipment". For some reason daddy didn't see the humor in that like we did, but they came out and tried to fix it. The phone started working while the service man was there but he never could find the problem. This went on for a couple of weeks, it would work and then quit, but they never could find the problem. So today when they came out mama and I were starting to doubt that he had caused the problem and he was convinced that he had created the problem. The poor guy worked for half a day checking everything and come to find out a mouse had made a nest in their box about a mile down the road and was chewing the wires in two. Daddy is still gloating about how he told her he had done nothing to the phone line but she had torn up the fence for the 5th time this year. He of course will go fix the fence again and her privileges of cutting the yard have been "cut off".
So even when you see something happen, and you know for a fact that's how it is you could be wrong. In one accident there can be a thousand point of views and not one of them be right. So take the time to keep your mouth shut instead of pointing fingers, it could come back to bite you. And never doubt your daddy because daddy's are never wrong :).
We were working at the shop and I noticed that she had stopped cutting the yard and had got off the mower in about the same spot that she always knocks the fence down. Daddy noticed it the same time I did and said. "go see if she's knocked the fence down." I started walking down there and asked her if she'd knock it down, of course she started laughing hysterically and said, "no go away, go back to work". Well that pretty well told the story for her, daddy hears her laughing and gets on the tractor, with the hay mower hooked to it, and is driving down there to chew her out about it. While she is yelling at him to get out of the yard because he's making tracks in it, he runs under the phone line and power line and hangs them both. He's mad at her because she's mad at him and she's mad at him because the yard is messed up and I'm just trying to get him to stop before he jerks the wires off the house. He stops but when he goes to lower the mower it jerks the wires down, but miraculously they're still attached to the house. Later on that night they figure out the phone isn't working, and of course we all think it's because daddy hung the wires today, he of course didn't think he messed anything up. The next day she called AT&T and told them that someone had went through the yard and hung the phone line with "a piece of equipment". For some reason daddy didn't see the humor in that like we did, but they came out and tried to fix it. The phone started working while the service man was there but he never could find the problem. This went on for a couple of weeks, it would work and then quit, but they never could find the problem. So today when they came out mama and I were starting to doubt that he had caused the problem and he was convinced that he had created the problem. The poor guy worked for half a day checking everything and come to find out a mouse had made a nest in their box about a mile down the road and was chewing the wires in two. Daddy is still gloating about how he told her he had done nothing to the phone line but she had torn up the fence for the 5th time this year. He of course will go fix the fence again and her privileges of cutting the yard have been "cut off".
So even when you see something happen, and you know for a fact that's how it is you could be wrong. In one accident there can be a thousand point of views and not one of them be right. So take the time to keep your mouth shut instead of pointing fingers, it could come back to bite you. And never doubt your daddy because daddy's are never wrong :).
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Sometimes the screw up speaks for itself..
Yes I named my blog The Farmer's Princess. I have a few reasons why the main two reasons are: number one my daddy's a farmer, number two he treated me like a princess my whole life, so does my mama and my husband. It was more like a princess that had to work hard to get what she wanted, but I never had a problem with that because I thought that was how it was supposed to be. If you wanted something you worked for it, if you got in trouble it was taken away from you..plain and simple. My daddy is a man a few words, he fits the saying "walk quietly and carry a big stick''. My mama not so much, she makes up for all the talking he doesn't do and she does not farm. Every now and then she will help us work cattle and sheep but, it's an absolute necessity and she only opens the gate and keeps count. My mama does not cuss at all and would forgive the devil if he smiled when he asked for forgiveness. I'm definitely 95% Smith and mama will waste no time telling you, I'm my daddy's clone. I walk, talk, drive, and cuss just like him, but we do spend more time with each other than with anyone else so that could be the reason. On here I'll get to tell a few of our stories and what all we've got into.
I put up a facebook status the other day about how hard we are on equipment, really it was more about how hard daddy is on a equipment. We have two trucks the newer red dodge that is what we use for everything but feeding and running around in the farm on. Then we have the white dodge which we feed out of and run around on the farm in. The white truck was totaled a few years ago, by daddy, I'll put some pictures up at some point because it is quite the sight. We were sowing seeds the other day, a little late in the year I know, and I was cutipacking while he went to the house for more seeds. Daddy does not drive much, he says it's because he's getting older and can't hear or see, but we all know he just doesn't pay attention to what he's doing. He was gone maybe a total of ten minutes and came back with the tailgate barely hanging on. He puts it in reverse and slams into a tree, never stops to look how much damage is done and comes back to the field and goes to work. So now we have no tailgate..
Since I'm telling stories on him I guess I better tell one on myself. When I tear something up, the smaller it is the more I get chewed out over it. I left the key on in a tractor and ran the battery down one day, all we had to do was jump it off, but it was the worst thing I could have done. One of my most expensive "break downs" was when we came in from the hay field one day. It was hot and we were going to stop for just a minute to get a drink then go back to work. I pulled into the shop, put on the hand break. When we came out of the house the tractor and hay roller were at the bottom of the hill. In a few minutes I managed to almost total a hay roller, and it was a miracle the tractor was ok. Daddy never said a word though, he just started taking parts off to see what could be fixed and what couldn't. We ran that hay roller for a long time, when he finally bought a new one it took two years to get use to using a monitor instead of turning around and actually watching the hay bale. The lesson I learned that day was there's a time to tell someone when they're wrong and then there are times when the screw up speaks for itself.
*On a side note a cultipack is a piece of equipment that levels and smooths out the ground before you sow the seeds and it covers them after they've been sowed.
I put up a facebook status the other day about how hard we are on equipment, really it was more about how hard daddy is on a equipment. We have two trucks the newer red dodge that is what we use for everything but feeding and running around in the farm on. Then we have the white dodge which we feed out of and run around on the farm in. The white truck was totaled a few years ago, by daddy, I'll put some pictures up at some point because it is quite the sight. We were sowing seeds the other day, a little late in the year I know, and I was cutipacking while he went to the house for more seeds. Daddy does not drive much, he says it's because he's getting older and can't hear or see, but we all know he just doesn't pay attention to what he's doing. He was gone maybe a total of ten minutes and came back with the tailgate barely hanging on. He puts it in reverse and slams into a tree, never stops to look how much damage is done and comes back to the field and goes to work. So now we have no tailgate..
Since I'm telling stories on him I guess I better tell one on myself. When I tear something up, the smaller it is the more I get chewed out over it. I left the key on in a tractor and ran the battery down one day, all we had to do was jump it off, but it was the worst thing I could have done. One of my most expensive "break downs" was when we came in from the hay field one day. It was hot and we were going to stop for just a minute to get a drink then go back to work. I pulled into the shop, put on the hand break. When we came out of the house the tractor and hay roller were at the bottom of the hill. In a few minutes I managed to almost total a hay roller, and it was a miracle the tractor was ok. Daddy never said a word though, he just started taking parts off to see what could be fixed and what couldn't. We ran that hay roller for a long time, when he finally bought a new one it took two years to get use to using a monitor instead of turning around and actually watching the hay bale. The lesson I learned that day was there's a time to tell someone when they're wrong and then there are times when the screw up speaks for itself.
*On a side note a cultipack is a piece of equipment that levels and smooths out the ground before you sow the seeds and it covers them after they've been sowed.
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