BLACK FRIDAY

Published in Intermountain Farm & Ranch, November 25, 2011

I don’t know why the day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday. Well, actually I do know. The retail stores hope to make enough money on that day to pull them out of the “red” and have them in the “black” for the year.

But black, to me, is a negative color. Don’t we wear black at funerals? Witches are dressed in black whether on Halloween or anytime they are portrayed. Aren’t the bad guys in Western movies always wearing black hats? When somebody is feeling down, don’t they say their “mood is black?” And now on TV I saw where eating too much black licorice is being blamed for some heart problems, including high blood pressure.

Of course, my idea of starting shopping at 4 a.m. with a crowd of people is enough reason to put me in a “black” mood. I remember the first time I was in a “mob” at a sale. Boyd and I were at Utah State in Logan and there was a sale at the local Penney’s store. Can’t even remember what was on sale, but it was something I wanted and the price was one a college student could afford. AND it wasn’t at 4 a.m.. Penney’s was within walking distance of our apartment, so I walked down there and was surprised. When I arrived I must have been late, because the table where this sale item was placed was surrounded by women, two and three deep. They were shoving and grabbing and  shouting. I just stood back, watched and was appalled at what I saw. It was not a good experience, and I didn’t purchase anything. However,  I did get an eyeful and an earful of inappropriate actions and language.

I did participate in one “Black Friday” sale about 10 years ago. Again, I came home with nothing. It isn’t in me to push and shove. I just don’t need anything that bad. Maybe I’m a coward. I’d like to think that I am above that type of behavior, but I don’t really think that’s it. I don’t think I’ve ever needed or wanted anything bad enough to fight over it.

I do watch the sales in the Sunday paper and the groceries specials that come out in the Wednesday paper. I made a list just a week ago and went to a store to pick up the things I wanted to purchase. Got there too late, they were sold out of those items. Was I upset? No, I just decided to watch the sales again and try to get to the store in a more timely manner. And I didn’t have to fight traffic and other buyers at 4 a.m.

I usually shop groceries between 5 and 7 a.m. but that is totally different. I go at that time because I don’t want to fight the crowds. Most of the time the employees of the store I go to are stocking shelves, but I can work around them.  And I have met some really fun and delightful people who also love to shop at that time of the morning. Usually we take time to say “hello” and comment of mundane things. It’s almost relaxing.

So I will stay in bed this “Black Friday” and not worry about missing the wonderful sales.

FALL WEANING OF THE CALVES

                                          Fall round-up to separate cows and calves.

           It’s time to wean the calves. Some of the older calves will probably already be weaned by their moms, and that’s

            I wear more than one hat at this time of the year. First I’m the cook. I have to decide what I’m going to feed the multitude that shows up to help round up the cows and calves. I usually have two menus in mind, one for a cold stormy day, and another for a warmer day. That way I can usually decide the day before the grand event which menu will work best. I get the beans cooked for chili, and the hamburger browned for sloppy joes. Those are in the freezer about two weeks before, and the rest of the ingredients for either are on hand.

            This year we moved our camp trailer over to the corral at Hell Creek, so that was much easier on me – I didn’t have to transport the food. We fed 11 the first day, 13 the second day and lost count the third day as we had quite a few come to help that we hadn’t planned on. But everyone got something to eat! I had a commitment on the third day so just made sure that food was at the ranch for the guys and they served themselves.

            We had a big crew helping with our three day round-up. Because summer pasture covers quite a large area, the men divided it up into three areas and worked one area a day for the three days. It worked out really well. 

            The other hat I sometimes wear is the “helper” hat. I might be needed to drive a pickup or the gater and be right out with the men rounding up the animals. I no longer ride a horse, didn’t do much of it before, but at this age the saddle and I don’t always feel good together, besides the problem of getting my leg up and over the saddle. Gravity has a greater pull on my body now than it used to.

            We always hope for some rain or even snow a few days before we start the round up, so we can possibly get by without having to doctor for dust pneumonia. That can kill a calf pretty fast, so we don’t want those calves running through any more dust than necessary.

            As the cows and calves are separated, the noise is almost deafening; the calves bawling in one pen, cows answering from another. We truck the calves to the valley to put in corrals behind our house, right close to our bedroom window. The calves bawl for about three days and nights – 24 hours straight – or at least it seems like it. And it keeps us awake. Have you ever been around a group of babies, say about a year old or a little younger when one of them starts to cry? It isn’t long before all of them are crying.  Well, calves are the same way. Wean one calf and the time is much shorter for the bawling period than when a herd of calves are weaned.

            The cows will be trailed down in about a month, and when they get down they nor the calves seem to recognize each other. The time of dependence is gone.

           

SLOWING DOWN

I'm trying to slow down. It hasn't been easy. And I find myself regressing quite often. Take last Tuesday, for instance. Getting morning rituals (like breakfast, making bed, doing dishes) over with, I kept plowing on.
After water aerobics, I decided to go to the local outdoor market and pick up some corn to freeze. While there the apples caught my eye and I thought, why not make apple pie filling today too.  BAM! There went slowing down for the rest of that day. AND while I was making the apple pie filling, the idea of making an apple pie came to me. Why not?  Of course, after doing this sticky kind of canning and freezing, the kitchen floor had to be mopped.  But the house smelled good with the apple pie baking. By the time Boyd and Jon got down from the ranch, I was exhausted and fixing supper was not something I could face. So we went out for a hamburger. Not a good day as an example of slowing down!

But the days I have periods of slowing down have been worth the effort. The interesting thing about this is I have to be fully aware of my effort to slow down in order to make it work!

Yesterday, Saturday, I did a pretty good job of it. I got a few things done without rushing through them. Then Boyd asked if I wanted to ride to the ranch with him to check the cattle. I didn't hesitate. When we got to the house we transferred from the pickup to the John Deere Gater. What a wonderful afternoon: hair blowing in the breeze created by the Gator; dust flying around us; hot sun shining on us. 

We rode around one of the old homesteads, walked around the foundation of the home on that piece of land, and some some of the old rusted tools and equipment left behind. Then we drove around some of the springs in the area - most of them drying up if not dried up because of the lack of rain this past month. 

The fall leaves on the trees were beautiful.  We did see one pine hen, but that was the only wild animal we encountered, but it was the middle of the afternoon when we were riding around. If it had been later in the day we would probably have seen deer and moose.

No, I didn't get everything done I had planned on, but those things can be done another day or just eliminated competely from by my "to do" list.  What I did accomplish was a pleasant afternoon with my husband, spent in an area I love.

Last night I was reading and came upon a sentence that summed up my day: "I'd forgotten that quiet pleasures can be good for the soul."  Yes, yesterday my soul was replenished, my physical being was replenished! I must do this more often!

WHAT IS VETERAN'S DAY

Published in the Intermountain Farm & Ranch on November 11, 2011

            On the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month of 1918 an armistice between Germany and the Allied nations came into effect. On November 11^th, 1919 Armistice Day was commemorated for the first time. This day was originally intended to honor veterans of World War I. However, World War II required the largest mobilization of service men in the history of the United States. American forces also fought in Korea. So in 1954 the veteran’s service organizations urged Congress to change the word “Armistice” to ‘Veterans”. Congress approved this on June 1, 1954, and November 11^th became a day to honor all American veterans, where ever and whenever they had served.

Lloyd Crystal, my uncle, was born in 1896, and as a child, moved to Idaho with his family. He was raised on a farm in the Garfield area, where his father farmed with horses. From his father, David, and two older brothers, Ray and Vern, Lloyd learned how to take care of the horses and loved working them.

War was going on in Europe in 1917 and on Tuesday, April 3, 1917, Lloyd volunteered to enlist in Company M. Second Idaho Infantry National Guard. He was one of the first from Jefferson County to volunteer his services as a soldier. On April 6, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson declared war. August 17, 1917, this entire Idaho Regiment was given a National Guard honorable discharge and the Company transferred into the federal service.

            At Christmas time, 1917, while stationed in Camp Merritt near Tenafly, New Jersey, he wrote the following to his sister: “Dear sister: Old Santa Claus was a pretty good sport to some of us fellows for he came while we were asleep and hung our socks on the foot of our beds with a piece of wire. They were filled with any old thing that came in handy. I found two bottles of ink belonging to the office, a hob-nailed shoe, two hammers, and the stove crank.”

            On the Night of January 9, 1918, Lloyd’s Company received orders to prepare to leave early in the morning. They traveled to the White Star Line Docks and boarded the British ship Olympic. They sailed to Liverpool, England, then on to France where the battalion was split up at Sells-sur-Cher and were sent as replacements to the front. Lloyd with some others was sent to Headquarters Company of the 120^th Machine Gun Battalion, 32d division.

            His letters home were few and far between and the return address read “somewhere in France.” In July, 1917 his folks received a letter in which he had attached a postscript: “I will write again in a few days, Mother, as it is nearly another birthday.” That birthday, his twenty-second one, was the last day he lived. The next day he was sent to fill the company’s water cart. He managed his horses in the way he was taught – with love and kindness, working and talking with them like old chums. On that day, June 27, 1918, with the shells bursting, the deafening roar in the distance and the air filled with flying shrapnel, he walked along beside his horses to his death.

            Lloyd Crystal was the first World War I fatality from Jefferson County and was buried in the Arlington Cemetery in Virginia. 

HALLOWEEN JACK O'LATERNS

Published in the Intermountain  Farm & Ranch, October 28, 2011

Halloween is upon us. I can remember the fun time of going trick-or-treating around our country community. We didn’t have costumes purchased at the local stores, but resorted to what we could find in our closets, or sometimes Mom would make us something, using crepe paper and her imagination.  Some examples of our costumes: ghosts, using sheets for our costume; farmers, using Dad’s overhauls; a ballerina, with a crepe paper tutu; a pirate with a patch over an eye; a “bum” with a bandanna tied onto a stick carried over a shoulder. There would always be a large assortment of masks of Disney characters and of course the scary ones that we could buy.

Kids then and now make Jack O’Lantern's, carving them at home, in school, at cub scouts and girl scouts. Every October, these carved pumpkins, with a lighted candle in them, sit on porches, doorsteps and windows of homes in the United States and other countries.

            This practice originated from an Irish myth about a man who was nicknamed “Stingy Jack.” Stingy Jack apparently invited the Devil to have a drink with him. Being true to his nickname, Stingy Jack was hesitant to pay for his own drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks with. Once the Devil did so Jack decided to keep the coin and put it in his pock. He had a silver cross in the same pocket, and with the coin next to the cross it prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack finally freed the Devil with the condition that he would not bother Jack for one full year and if Jack happened to die within the year the Devil would not claim his soul.

            The next year Jack again tricked the Devil by getting him to climb a tree to pick some fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree’s bark so that the Devil couldn’t come down. This time Jack had the Devil promise not to bother him for ten years.

            Jack died soon after this. The story goes that God would not allow such a deceitful person into heaven. The Devil, upset by the tricks Jack had played on him, kept his word not to claim his soul, thus no allowing Jack into hell. The Devil sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with this turnip since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as “Jack of the Lantern,” now simplified to “Jack O’Lantern.”

            In Ireland and Scotland, people began making their own versions of Jack’s lanterns by carving scary faces on hollowed out turnips, and potatoes then placing them in window sills or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets were used. As people from these countries immigrated they carried with them the Jack O’Lantern tradition. Coming to the United States they discovered that pumpkins, a native of America, made perfect Jack O’Lantern's.

            Kind of fun to learn some of the history of our traditions, isn’t it? Have a fun and safe Halloween, and watch out for "Stingy Jack."