A day on the Farm!

No paintin' for this old farm gal today! I had to put on my "other" hat today and herd cows. LOL!!! Well, we had 22 calves penned up in the yard...last years calves. We had an appt. with the vet to get them vaccinated and the bull calves turned into steers. (OUCH) These calves are NOT the cute little wet nosed, big brown eyed cows that you are thinking of. They are over a year old, and needing to be sold soon. We have to have the vet work on them first.

So the day started out pretty good....I was trying not to get stressed about it, but I always do. I mean, I was raised in the city and the biggest critter we had was a dog. So I get stressed out everytime we have to do this. But, I built up my courage, and helped out as much as I can. Hubby keeps me out of the pen with the cows while we are sorting and loading them for safety. We have two horse trailers that we load them into...two pickups that we haul them with. I get to drive one..the smaller one. Well, anyway, these calves are about 700 lbs each!!!! Hubby gets them into the upper pen where we load from...and the stupid dog decided she wanted to be protective and gets all the cows worked up and crazy, of course. So we have some of them in a small pen that narrows down into an alley and they are suppose to calmly walk down this alley and into the trailer. NOT!!!! Some of them get to the end and decide to turn around and come back out....all the while the others are going the other direction....and get all stuck and get more crazy. After about 30 minutes of this, we get one trailer loaded.....move it and back the other trailer up to load the rest of the calves. Well, the same thing happens again....the dog, cows going every which way......but finally do get them loaded up.

Now, when we are doing all of this...the cows get kind of stressed and they SHIT all over the place!!!! (excuse french, but it is the only way to describe it) Now it is kind of hard not to get it on you no matter how hard you try....YUCK!!!
We drive over to the vets place and all of that goes smoothly...we load the two trailers up with the darling little calves again and head for home. I am starting to feel relieved as we head for home....Almost done now!!! Whew...
..
Hubby is in the pickup ahead of me....everything is going okay...I haven't had a coronary yet.......then all of the sudden....BANG!!!!!!!!! What the heck was that???? I stopped in the closest place to sort of pull over....get out and look. I have blown a tire!
Now here I sit....out in the middle of nowhere, with 9 lard butt cows on the trailer, and a flat tire!!!! There are two tires on each side....but do I continue on???? Wait for hubby to notice I'm not there anymore???? I decide to wait for him to come back and get instructions as to what to do.
All the iced tea I've been drinking all day starts to build up in my bladder and I am getting very uncomfortable. I think about just peeing there...but there is a farmer on either side of the road working and it wouldn't have been very private. So I decide to just hold it!!!
All this, and I haven't shed a tear yet........

Hubby comes back FINALLY, and says......just drive it on home....doesn't care about the tire...lets just go home. So I head out and travel about 8 miles to home. My bladder is about to rupture, I'm about to cry, and the damned cows decide to play musical chairs in the trailer while we are going down the road.
About 30 minutes later, we finally get home.....oh thank you Lord!!!!! I get out and make a run for the potty......just in time and sat there forever!!! Oh relief!!!!! Not just for my bladder but for being home.....
I walk out and look at the trailer and check out the tire......well, where the tire used to be...LOL!!! Nothing but the rim left now!!!! Thank God the other tire didn't blow!!!
Hubby starts to move the trailer and I notice something under it.....I tell him to stop and we look and the whole tail pipe assembly is laying down on the ground!!! JEEZ!!
Anyway, we get all of the cows unloaded....and are done!!! Thank GOD we only have to do this once a year or I'd probably check myself into the "HOME".....I sure don't remember anything in our wedding vows stating that I would have to become a cowgirl.....we should have had a prenup done I guess......
Anyway....how was your day????? LOL!!! Sorry for the rant, but had to get it off my chest!!! I'm taking a shower.....And NO, we aren't having BEEF for dinner tonight!!!!!

My latest lesson! I have always been rose challenged. I have books, videos...etc.etc. on painting roses. I could NOT for the life of me, paint a rose. These roses aren't the best, but I am so proud of them! I practiced and practiced until I felt confident to add them to this picture. With our Traditions lessons, our teacher sends videos of herself painting the actual painting. We can watch them as many times as we need to before attempting the lesson. We also get a long written copy of the lesson, with some art history thrown in as well. It is a wonderful program. If you find that you might be interested in taking these lessons, email me and I'll send you info. about them.

I have two more lessons in Module C to paint. I am working on Lesson 9 right now. Once I am through with Mod. C, I plan to go on to Mod D when it is available. This should be in the fall.

Meanwhile, I plan to paint some of the other works that I've been planning on for a long time. So watch for more posts in the near future!!!