I am the product of the prairie...born and raised.
I have driven tractor, rode on stone boats, cleaned barns with a pitch fork, hauled grain, slopped pigs, milked goats. I have ridden out to muskrat traps and watched as they were skinned and hides tanned. I have helped with the butchering of rabbits, sheep, goats, and steers . I have plucked and drawn chickens and turkeys and shorn sheep.
I have walked barefoot across stubble fields, dirt roads, and cow pastures stepping in spots that were even softer, warmer, and stickier in consistency than any cold rain water filled mud puddle could ever be.
I have played on 'soft' ice on the school damn and I have skated on a dugout until my frozen feet itched and burned bringing tears for hours afterward.
I have ridden horses while they were outfitted with bridles, saddles, and sometimes even harnesses; and at other times just with a rope around their neck. I have fallen off some of these same horses, once been knocked out, and rode home again because my leg was too sore to walk that far.
I have caught grasshoppers in a Cheese Whiz jar and held them captive in the hot sun in July. I have chased snakes and been chased by snakes. I have had the smell of skunk on almost every vehicle I have owned and porcupine quills on the nose of every dog befriended.
I have played 'chicken' with a badger while bareback on a horse. I have carried numerous pails of water to gopher holes after blocking the 'escape' hole with rocks; and with garden hoe in hand attempting , sometimes successfully and not without some ruthlessness, to hit the running wet rodent until it ran no more.
At the age of eleven I fed, watered, and bedded 48 cattle in March for two weeks on my own while the parents were away, in Ontario , on business.
I have shoveled grain in a bin while the grain was augured in and have also shoveled grain out of the bin while the grain was being augured out. I have cleaned bins of old moldy grain and mouse nests with shovel and brooms. I have driven half tons and grain trucks without gas pedals or brakes across fields and gravel roads. I have lifted bags of fertilizer, dragged and spread straw bales and unrolled round feed ones.
I have hauled the backseat out of my car to transport a lambing sheep to town. I have vaccinated, docked, dehorned, and circumcised all that
demanded such procedures.
But.. I must admit that without a doubt the strangest countrygal thing that I ever ever have done was to hold onto the head (as in the part with the eyes and ears and nose) of a male goat while a veterinarian collected goat semen from another part of its body.
And that is all I am going to say about that.
I have driven tractor, rode on stone boats, cleaned barns with a pitch fork, hauled grain, slopped pigs, milked goats. I have ridden out to muskrat traps and watched as they were skinned and hides tanned. I have helped with the butchering of rabbits, sheep, goats, and steers . I have plucked and drawn chickens and turkeys and shorn sheep.
I have walked barefoot across stubble fields, dirt roads, and cow pastures stepping in spots that were even softer, warmer, and stickier in consistency than any cold rain water filled mud puddle could ever be.
I have played on 'soft' ice on the school damn and I have skated on a dugout until my frozen feet itched and burned bringing tears for hours afterward.
I have ridden horses while they were outfitted with bridles, saddles, and sometimes even harnesses; and at other times just with a rope around their neck. I have fallen off some of these same horses, once been knocked out, and rode home again because my leg was too sore to walk that far.
I have caught grasshoppers in a Cheese Whiz jar and held them captive in the hot sun in July. I have chased snakes and been chased by snakes. I have had the smell of skunk on almost every vehicle I have owned and porcupine quills on the nose of every dog befriended.
I have played 'chicken' with a badger while bareback on a horse. I have carried numerous pails of water to gopher holes after blocking the 'escape' hole with rocks; and with garden hoe in hand attempting , sometimes successfully and not without some ruthlessness, to hit the running wet rodent until it ran no more.
At the age of eleven I fed, watered, and bedded 48 cattle in March for two weeks on my own while the parents were away, in Ontario , on business.
I have shoveled grain in a bin while the grain was augured in and have also shoveled grain out of the bin while the grain was being augured out. I have cleaned bins of old moldy grain and mouse nests with shovel and brooms. I have driven half tons and grain trucks without gas pedals or brakes across fields and gravel roads. I have lifted bags of fertilizer, dragged and spread straw bales and unrolled round feed ones.
I have hauled the backseat out of my car to transport a lambing sheep to town. I have vaccinated, docked, dehorned, and circumcised all that
demanded such procedures.
But.. I must admit that without a doubt the strangest countrygal thing that I ever ever have done was to hold onto the head (as in the part with the eyes and ears and nose) of a male goat while a veterinarian collected goat semen from another part of its body.
And that is all I am going to say about that.
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