The Bull

 
High of 59F, low of 36F. Cloudy most of the day with a few spots of sun.


I drove in today-- borrowed my pop's car (for the last time). Nothing to do but sit down on a cinder-block: had my coffee and cigarettes. I watched the hawks until I heard some moaning down in the barn.

Down around the corner I found the young bull penned in by the horse paddocks. He was grunting and yelling his heart out. I later found out that the boss's brother has more calves than he knows what to do with. Three more have been born this month (all females). Over the weekend the old man had a sit down with his brother and decided that the bull was a bit over-zealous. The moment a cow could conceive, the bull saw that they did. 9 months from now is January, mid-winter, and winter babies are a hassle. So the bull is sequestered off at the barn for the next few months. He was stressed, when I checked him over, but in time he'll grow accustomed to the new order of things. I felt for him, poor fella.

The boss rolled in a bit early-- we opened up the greenhouse, pulled off the frost guards and watered the seedlings. The trays have exploded, everything is moving so fast. The swiss chard, collards, sprouts, some of the broccoli and cauliflower have burst through the soil and tossed out their juvenile leaves. The boss and I chatted around for a while-- the next two weeks will be wild. If all goes according to schedule, we'll have the peas seeded (in the field) by the end of this week and will have some of the irrigation flowing by next week. The boss gave me the afternoon off today so I could jockey around the county and get a loan/buy/insure/register a car.

Newport arrived and we bolted together a few loose hinges on the greenhouse. Then we headed out, shears in hand, to polish off the final raspberry field. We chugged along, cleared the field and had enough time to adjust the trellis lines. Newport did me a great kindness, listening and straightening out the flights of my head.


It was noon, so I tore out. Hit the bank, home (and filing cabinet), the bank, used-dealership, insurance office, registry of motor-vehicles and again the dealership. As of now, the bank and I are the proud owners of a heavily used blue 2001 Dodge Dakota pick-up truck. It suits me fine. Took my mother out for a ride tonight, and we laughed our heads off.

No more rides for me.

And, just because I can: