Soapweed
Well-known member
My journal entry for Saturday, January 6, 1968
What a day! To start off with, when I woke up at 5:00, it was about 12 degrees below zero. It got colder later, and the day's high was 5 below.
After chores and breakfast, Lloyd and I started feeding while dad grained the calves. We fed what hay was on the sled around the place, and then Lloyd took the tractor and haysled up north. I filled the pickup with gas and then Dad and I took off also, after we had loaded on some salt.
The tractor lacks the right brake and as the snow is about a foot deep on the level, it's hard to get along without it. Also the throttle still has the nasty habit of sticking wide open. Between the weather and "little things" like this, it doesn't take much to get a guy pretty puked off and almost fuming.
Loading the hay didn't go very smooth, and it seemed to take forever to unload it. Lloyd and I did this while Dad called the cows over to the North Meadow from the West Meadow. We had to load the stack on in three different chunks and do a lot of pitching to boot. This job was wound up at about 11:30. Dad took the pickup home, and I drove the tractor home with Lloyd riding on the haysled. We went south over the hills to get home. The tractor was just spinning up the second hill and as the brake didn't work, I headed down a little valley. This way would be more round about, but I thought it would be smoother.
I angled around, dodging blowouts and going down some pretty steep little drop-offs. Finally a gate into the Home Meadow was reached, and the rest of the way was comparatively easy. I mentioned our trip home to Dad. He kind of turned pale and proceeded to tell me that he had tipped a tractor over in the very same "valley."
When I got home, I was so cold I could hardly move. My feet were completely numb and my face was 90 percent solid ice. My hands were relatively warm as I had on chopper mittens with two liners in them.
During the noon hour, I warmed up considerably and when we went out, I was almost up to my normal temperature again. Lloyd and I got a half stack on and did some more feeding. Dad had to go to town and see a guy about trading off the pickup that I slaughtered a few days ago. Leaving Lloyd to finish feeding, I saddled my horse to get in a heavy heifer. The bulls had gotten a gate down, and eleven of them were in with the heifers. About six heifers were in with the remaining bulls so I had quite a little extra work to do. This didn't help my morale any, but soon Sassy and I were jogging along out in the meadow, rounding up the missing bulls. The weather didn't agree with Sassy either, and she was acting like a crazy lunatic. With her coltish actions and me being froze up, the job took much longer than it would have under ordinary conditions.
I went in and warmed up and then helped Dad rig up a lid for the caker. After Lloyd finished putting on the brake for the tractor, Dad gave him the rest of the day off. Due to the fact that he had only smooth tires on his car, I was to follow him to the oil in the four-wheeler. He got stuck on the other side of the first auto gate, so I pulled him out. He remarked that he had left his billfold in the bunkhouse, so we came back in the pickup to get it. Just before the bridge, Lloyd got stuck again, so I hooked on and pulled him clear to the oil strip.
We big our adieus and started on our separate ways. In turning around, I blundered off into a blowout that I didn't know existed. Lloyd stopped and after an hour or so of hard digging, with a little mild grumbling on both sides, the pickup was unstuck again. This time it was my turn to thank him. I once again started home, and on the other side of the bridge, the pickup slid into some deep snow. After five minutes of digging, I was for the third time homeward bound. Dad had begun to wonder why I didn't show up, so he met me. After my troubles were told, we went home, ate supper, and watched the tail end of the Lawrence Welk show on TV.
I forgot to mention that today was Saturday, which accounts for the "holiday atmosphere" that accompanies "no-school days."
What a day! To start off with, when I woke up at 5:00, it was about 12 degrees below zero. It got colder later, and the day's high was 5 below.
After chores and breakfast, Lloyd and I started feeding while dad grained the calves. We fed what hay was on the sled around the place, and then Lloyd took the tractor and haysled up north. I filled the pickup with gas and then Dad and I took off also, after we had loaded on some salt.
The tractor lacks the right brake and as the snow is about a foot deep on the level, it's hard to get along without it. Also the throttle still has the nasty habit of sticking wide open. Between the weather and "little things" like this, it doesn't take much to get a guy pretty puked off and almost fuming.
Loading the hay didn't go very smooth, and it seemed to take forever to unload it. Lloyd and I did this while Dad called the cows over to the North Meadow from the West Meadow. We had to load the stack on in three different chunks and do a lot of pitching to boot. This job was wound up at about 11:30. Dad took the pickup home, and I drove the tractor home with Lloyd riding on the haysled. We went south over the hills to get home. The tractor was just spinning up the second hill and as the brake didn't work, I headed down a little valley. This way would be more round about, but I thought it would be smoother.
I angled around, dodging blowouts and going down some pretty steep little drop-offs. Finally a gate into the Home Meadow was reached, and the rest of the way was comparatively easy. I mentioned our trip home to Dad. He kind of turned pale and proceeded to tell me that he had tipped a tractor over in the very same "valley."
When I got home, I was so cold I could hardly move. My feet were completely numb and my face was 90 percent solid ice. My hands were relatively warm as I had on chopper mittens with two liners in them.
During the noon hour, I warmed up considerably and when we went out, I was almost up to my normal temperature again. Lloyd and I got a half stack on and did some more feeding. Dad had to go to town and see a guy about trading off the pickup that I slaughtered a few days ago. Leaving Lloyd to finish feeding, I saddled my horse to get in a heavy heifer. The bulls had gotten a gate down, and eleven of them were in with the heifers. About six heifers were in with the remaining bulls so I had quite a little extra work to do. This didn't help my morale any, but soon Sassy and I were jogging along out in the meadow, rounding up the missing bulls. The weather didn't agree with Sassy either, and she was acting like a crazy lunatic. With her coltish actions and me being froze up, the job took much longer than it would have under ordinary conditions.
I went in and warmed up and then helped Dad rig up a lid for the caker. After Lloyd finished putting on the brake for the tractor, Dad gave him the rest of the day off. Due to the fact that he had only smooth tires on his car, I was to follow him to the oil in the four-wheeler. He got stuck on the other side of the first auto gate, so I pulled him out. He remarked that he had left his billfold in the bunkhouse, so we came back in the pickup to get it. Just before the bridge, Lloyd got stuck again, so I hooked on and pulled him clear to the oil strip.
We big our adieus and started on our separate ways. In turning around, I blundered off into a blowout that I didn't know existed. Lloyd stopped and after an hour or so of hard digging, with a little mild grumbling on both sides, the pickup was unstuck again. This time it was my turn to thank him. I once again started home, and on the other side of the bridge, the pickup slid into some deep snow. After five minutes of digging, I was for the third time homeward bound. Dad had begun to wonder why I didn't show up, so he met me. After my troubles were told, we went home, ate supper, and watched the tail end of the Lawrence Welk show on TV.
I forgot to mention that today was Saturday, which accounts for the "holiday atmosphere" that accompanies "no-school days."