Two days ago a hired hand for one of my neighbors caught up with me while I was checking out one of my cattle herds plus six of his purebred Hereford steers that have been in my pasture for a couple of months. We discussed the best way to get them out as he needed to match them up with about 30 others in the adjoining pasture and move them all to a feedlot in western Kansas to be finished out. One option was him simply driving in with his feed truck and putting some feed in the troughs already inside my corral there. My cows probably would shy away from his truck but his steers would recognize the "roach coach" and bust a gut trying to get to it. When I put feed in there my cows crowd in quickly plus no more than one or two of his steers at a time, so that probably won't get the job done.
Yesterday morning I called the house to check for messages on the answering machine and got a true treat. What had happened apparently was that the caller realized it was an answering machine so intended to hang up.............but didn't. I had the pleasure of listening to three to five minutes of cattle bellering and shouts between cattle handlers about which old red bi#ch to send this way or that way or which slimy-@$$ed baldy to send some other direction while sorting them for loading into the cattle trailer. it was colorful as it always is when I'm involved with a similar goal.
This morning I received a phone call from the neighbor who owns a pasture adjoining this same pasture but on a different side. He has been hosting a fine black heifer of mine for about three months. His first words were: "I tried to call you yesterday while we were loading up my cattle but got your answering machine. I sure hope I did the right thing by putting your heifer back where she came from."
Oh, my, how I laughed. I had to share with him what had been recorded on the answering machine, without being too graphic. He immediately said, "Uh oh, I bet you heard some interesting terminology." I simply said, "Oh, a little. Nothing different than what I would be using."
My "city slicker" version of that happened in about 1999. One of my first crews ever equipped with a cell phone butt-dialed me while returning to the office in a company truck. I got to listen to them smoke weed and talk about what an S.O.B. I was.
While flattered by their descriptive adjectives I had to let both of them go. 😉
