| Dear Readers:
Susan kept after me about changing my
hair cut, something that hasn’t happened since the Yankee army
released me in 1972. I was told it would make me look like Sean
Connery.
Nobody said anything about Wallace
Beery.
NOT AGAIN
I believe I am sentimentally unfit for
raising animals. It’s not that I mind taking care of them – feeding,
watering, doctoring – or that I mind terminating those raised for
the table. It’s the in-between casualties that lay me low.
A few days ago Zach & I were
feeding the animals. I had pulled the pick up into the barn, fed the
horses, fed the cows, fed the chickens & ducks, and was pulling
out to go feed the cows across the road. Three of Cleo’s ten-week
old Great Pyrenees pups remain with us. They hang around vehicles
like ticks around a blood bank. One was over at the barn, so I
carefully checked where he was before I backed out. There he was, a
couple of points off my bow and fully 12 feet in front of me. I
started backing and about the time I began to turn, I heard that
awful yelp!
Zach ran around to the driver’s side
wheel and there was the pup. I had to back off of him. Zach & I
rushed him to the vet’s. I writhed as I drove, inwardly tormented by
the accident but sure I had taken all possible precautions.
The vet kept him overnight, and this
time I was delighted to hear that he was all right, except for the
fractured pubis of his pelvis.
I have now switched from feeding
animals in a pickup truck to a four-wheeler and trailer.
WINTER WEATHER
In the article about communities this
month I used a concept from a friend of mine, that the soil is a
discipline on your soul. Well, living next to the soil disciplined
us last month. In fact, it like to froze us to death, and it sure
showed up every detail we had neglected.
Like insulating the well house at
Justin’s. And the water pipes under The Ponderosa, Liberty’s
trailer.
Everything froze up, and neither of
them had water. For reasons that will probably never become clear to
me, Susan loves plumbing. Well, she got her bate of it at
Christmastime.
Oh, yes, and at our house we found
that the plumber had unaccountably run the upstairs cold water pipe
outside the house for about ten inches – easily enough to freeze the
line solid in 10 degree weather. (Funny how bad work always makes
itself known.) So we had burst pipes at the Shoe, too. They burst
right after Ellen had soaped herself up in the shower. But they
didn’t stay burst for long. Plumber Susan came to our rescue.
Pigs, by the way, do not like cold
weather. It turns them pink. We had an old dog pen in the pasture,
and Susan sided it up with some old tin to make a piggarium. On the
outside she actually painted, "Heavenly Ham Hotel." in big bold,
white letters that you could see from the road. Plainly
THE HOLIDAYS
We were late getting a Christmas tree
up, and when we did it fell over twice, taking a multitude of
ornaments to their graves. Susan didn’t get up her porch lights
until Christmas Day at dusk. Now she has decided she likes them so
much, she’s going to leave them permanently. That same night
twenty-three people slept at our house. I made sure I got a bed,
even though it wasn’t my own.
That was when it started snowing.
Usually it doesn’t snow much here, but it kept on and kept on.
Everything was great until the thaw. In a thaw, gravel roads are
almost as much fun as hot melted rubber, and not nearly as neat. One
result was that the pigs have churned, pugged, and stewed the
pasture into a mud pit. Thanks. Doesn’t matter, I got an oilskin
slicker for Christmas, one long enough to keep the mud off my
jeans.
Never mind all the bother – we had
wonderful rounds of guests over Christmas, and even with all the
work it was one of the best I can remember. Now I can begin buying
gifts for next year.
NEW FILLIES
He went back and forth a long time in
the decision, but Justin recently acquired two registered Percheron
fillies about seven months old. That’s them in the picture. They
arrived today, just as we were finishing this Moneychanger.
Do not let the glowing eye of the
front horse confuse you – she is not the Horse From Hell, but
actually "gentle as a dog," as the man who sold them to us says. The
other one, now, comes close to HFH rank. She’s wild as a March hare
in bankruptcy. We’ll keep them penned up about two weeks, talking to
them as we feed and handle them. That should help. Until they
arrived I hadn’t realize how huge our Percheron geldings, Jachin and
Boaz, really were – and they haven’t finished growing yet.
BRAGGING
Last fall my son Justin started back
to college to finish his degree. He pulled a four point! And Wright,
who attends Mississippi State, made an A in Milton. Any veteran of
Milton will testify that it is an exceptional occurrence just to
stay awake in Milton class. I couldn’t.
SPRINGS IN THE AIR - NOT
Even though the weather has been
severe and seems like it will never change, spring eventually will
come. Liberty and Susan remarked that since we’ve already had such a
bad cold spell, they are fully ready for spring. Just this past week
we had 40 degree weather and they were looking for the tree buds .
They better not hold their breath, I heard another cold, hard freeze
is on the way. With ice and snow outside, what better time to start
planning now for your spring garden.
Hope y’all are all warm and well, Best
wishes,
- Franklin
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