Saturday, June 4, 2011

More Farm Stories - And One-Up-Manship!


You can almost hear Richard Holstad now - "Stan, if you think YOU had it bad . . ." No doubt Richard has a good retort and here it is, edited in part:

I have a story somewhat similar to Stan, about helping Dr Forland vaccinate baby pigs -- pigs by the 100's hour after hour..... oh where oh where do all those pigs come from?

Steve Forland and I would chase and catch each baby pig then hold it up by the two back legs kind of spread eagle; Dr Forland would inject each pig inside the groin area several times with various meds. I think Doc had the kind of syringes that had hoses connected so he could keep on shooting without re-loading.

Of course, all of the pigs had "wallered" in the pig shit that covered the hog-house floor - that is what pigs do do, y'know - they love to "waller".

I do not believe that one can wash off the smell of pig shit. I swear to goodness it is not just "on" you, it is "in" you and becomes part of you. It must impregnate hair, skin, and worst of all "nostrils" for at least a week.

Stan, here is the "kicker"..... Steve and I did that for FREE to help out his Dad.

Telling this story almost makes me blush .... we never even thought of asking for money....

There are things in life that transcend "money" .... a good honest 90-degree days work sweating in the hog house .... makes one want to get a good education ASAP.

Just because some of us lived in town doesn't mean we didn't get to bale hay, shell corn, feed the cattle, drive the manure spreader .... there is another lovely job. Manure spreader driver = a character builder!

I love bringing back these memories again ..... no matter how I make it sound, these memories are irreplaceable and precious.

Richard Holstad
Farm Hand

On the day he sent this story, Richard also sent an mp3 recording of himself musing as he was drinking his morning coffee, telling us he was sitting there thinking about "absolutely nothing." Probably clearing his head of the odors of his childhood.

1 comment:

  1. I had my share of helping with pig chores also. You never forget that smell!!

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