Monday, April 2, 2012

The Jerseys

We have calves, two of 'em.  They are Jersey steers, and they are A-DOR-A-BLE.  They have great big eyes and cute little faces and I always wonder how an animal can be so cute.

Today, we mucked out their stall.

Elena, the beef rancher of the family, was not feeling well, so she stayed indoors and worked on her Jeremiah 17 project.

Tiana cleaned the (VERY messy) kitchen.

Christopher, Quinlan, Nathan and Jared were my (not so) willing helpers.  Elena moved the calves out to a pen, and the boys mucked out the stall.  It was hard work, because for some reason unbeknownst to me, we could not find a pitchfork.  Moving straw laden with manure is hard at any time, but it is WORSE without a pitchfork.   We used rakes and a hoe to separate chunks from the main pile, and Jared, MUSCLE MAN that he is, lifted great big shovels full of manure onto the bucket of the tractor.

We got it done.  There were plenty of comments and much teasing about wimps and wooses and whether or not the boys were working hard.

But the point is, they stuck to it, and they got it done.

I am thankful for strong young men with willing hearts and a good work ethic.

Our calves now have a clean pen.  And I have a thankful heart.

2 comments:

  1. Yes yes. Quite quite. I remember those days, none too fondly because at any moment a spider or bee could land on me so that made the work a bit more stressful. Muscle memory isn't a myth though....shoveling poop gives biceps the best form, and it doesn't take long for arms to remember the work out!

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