During the 1950's we lived on dairy farm that Dad purchased while he managed the 4K dude ranch. I guess he figured he and his family didn't have enough to do! The dairy was located about a half a mile off of the main road. Between the main road and the farm, one had to pass through a cattle pasture owned by the Orr ranch. The Orr's raised registered Black Angus cattle ~ one of the first ranches in the area to do so. Most of the cattle during this period of time were Hereford's. Now a days, Angus seem to dominate the cattle scene.
During the spring of the year the Orr's would put paired calves and cows into the pasture after they had been calved on the main ranch. "Mothering cows" can be pretty crankie as their protective instincts kick in ~ as my little sister found out. During her first year of grade school, Candy had to ride the school bus back from Absarokee to home. On the morning commute she rode with her big brothers in the family pickup to school. After school I had practices for various sports. Therefore, she usually took the 32 mile trip back home on the bus by herself. The school bus would drop her off on the main road. Then Candy would walk the remaining distance to the dairy. Our family will always remember her furious retort one night at the dinner table when she exclaimed, "I am so sick of those dang black Amos's. They chase me home every night. Some one has to start picking me up!" From that day forward we always referred to black Angus cattle as black Amos cattle.
An interesting facet to this story is that it was just assumed that at six years of age Candy would make the 32 mile bus trip and the one half mile walk home "on her own." ~ let alone that a mother cow would escort her home every evening by running her out of the pasture! I have visions to this day of this little girl running and broad jumping a cattle guard with a momma cow in hot pursuit ~ her little cowboy boots just a pumping.! :-)
Another facet to this story is that Candy was quite the talker when she was six years old. She would talk from the beginning of the ride to school in the morning until we reached school. Brad and I would often threaten to let her out along side the road and let her find her own way to school if she didn't shut up . One morning we actually stopped, let her out of the car, and drove off a hundred yards or so before letting her back in the car. She still wouldn't shut up! She wasn't frightened. She was pissed. What's amazing is that she really isn't that much of a talker now.
I have fond memories of the dairy. That dairy convinced me that I needed a college education. Gosh how I hated milking cows. Every sense of my being, from smell to touch, screamed, "you gotta get out of here?" And, I did by golly. Although, there were days while teaching young college students that the dairy started looking mighty good.
Gordon et. al.
Skipper- How about the milk cow that had a hole on the side of her Teat(tit for the less refined)
ReplyDeleteHey Mike, old buddy, I do remember that cow. I also remember when you and Roy helped me milk one night and a fight almost broke out between you and Roy because one or the other of you thought the other was squirting him with milk. I had to explain that the cow had a hole in the side of one of her teats and the milk squirted out sideways. I had to demonstrate it to you guys to avoid a fight.
ReplyDeleteI remember you guys coming up to go hunting and everything had to revolve around those damn cows, i.e. milk before we left and milk when we got back. The good old days were not always so good! But then with three of us milking it went pretty fast.
Skip
ReplyDeleteThanks for the memory.
And a good laugh to start my day.
Sis
Skip,
ReplyDeleteI hated milking cows as much as you did. There’s nothing like getting hit in the face with a shitty tail or getting knocked on my ass because a cat ran under the cow and she kicked at the cat and knocked me off the milking stool. Farming and ranching is too much work for a lazy person like me. I have some fond memories about the 4K and the laughs we had and helping your family move up to the 4K in the spring and back to Absarokee in the fall.
Ran into some slides of the duck blind you and I had on the Yellowstone River and a sky full of ducks. Some good shooting, too bad we didn’t like eating them.
I thought I was odd for liking storms and see your just as odd. I used to love to sit on the deck up at our cabin and watch storms come down Limestone canyon and the way thunder would bounce around off the mountains. Getting to be about my bed time. Stay in touch.
Elmer
Hi Uncle Skip,
ReplyDeleteThat was a really funny story about mom.I was laughing the time i was reading it.I'll have to ask her to tell me more stories.
Kyle
ps. did anyone ever pick her up?