Gotta Love Those Farmboys

This weekend I was invited to the barn. Lovey and his brother were moving the head gate from some other barn to ours so that they could worm the cows in our field. First, I must show you our sad, sad barn. It is 40 or so years old, built from old chicken house materials. And on its last leg.

For the last several years, every time a little wind blew through, we could hear some loose tin flapping and banging on the roof of the barn. Well, the week before spring break, one more little wind blew through, and it got a bit of the barn roof. Opposite the rolled tin a big piece of the roof, (tin, rafters, and all) is missing.

But the cows need to be wormed, and this is where it's gotta happen. So a head gate must be moved from the trailer, set in place, and pinned to the chute coming out of the barn.

Yep, that looks really safe!

"Come on, come on. I'll tell you when!" Reminds me of another brother incident involving a boat, an open motor, a cup of gasoline, and a ended with Lovey coming in the house to tell Liz and I that Joey and the boat had temporarily been on fire but were both currently extinguished. But that's another story for another time.

Once it's off the trailer, Lovey justs raises that hay fork and moves it to the barn. Farm boys just couldn't make it without a front end loader on the tractor. After twenty years, I've even caught myself saying, "Couldn't we just get the tractor and the front end loader..."

The headgate must be set in just the right spot so that it can be connected to the chute. Cows will be run into the far side of the barn, separated into small groups, worked to the back of this side of the barn and then run throught the chute and into the head gate. So it must be pinned in place.

This would be an easy job if only they had a shovel. Wait, there's a shovel in the back of Lovey's truck. Or there was until yesterday when we went fishing and the little boy was digging worms. I think the shovel is still at the pond. Oops!

It's almost there. But there's always a discussion about how to do things in just the right way.

Oh! So close! Gotta move some more dirt.

When you're in a pinch, a hammer can be used to move some dirt. Who knew?

And when it gets this close, just hammer it! Gotta love that farmboy ingenuity.

Bring on those cows!