This is how cattle yards should look! Standing quietly in the evening light, the only noise being a chain banging gently on the rails or a bird, who has perched himself on the loading ramp, singing.
This is not how it was, today!
Chaos I think would be a good word to describe it – but organized chaos! Heifers in one pen, steers in the next. Stock agent at the front, me on the side, boss at the back.
Thirsty five degree day! Five hours straight, in the yards. My legs covered in poo (the cows, not mine – I’m not that scared of them!) and the sticky, annoying little bush flies were having a lovely time landing on the poo and nibbling at it. Then there was sun burn.
Up until then, I was coping well. This is what we do and sometimes conditions aren’t always comfortable – you live with it! But when a heifer decided to crush my hand against the rail, leaving unable to shift her or get my hand free,I left her in no doubt, what I thought about her behavior! I was exceptionally appreciative, when my tirade made her move and released my hand… Only to show an apple size bruise was starting over my knuckles. (This is after having my legs taken out from underneath me, in the sheep yards, the day before, giving me a bruise larger than a dinner plate, on my thigh.)
This is the side of farming that isn’t romantic, even if the view is, at the end of the day! Maybe that’s the reason we keep doing what, we do!
All this is while we have to wait to read Purple Road, it will make us appreciate your book all the more. Best Wishes Pauline