Water Problems, Beef Inventory, The Gathering of Old Men

Cows drink lots of water. Monday evening our biggest cattle herd didn’t have any. With a long list of things that had to be done this week, getting water to the cows made its way to the top of that long list. Fixing the water problem turned into fixing a series of water problems. Fix one, find another. Ronnie and Brandon to the rescue again. Good people. Can’t beat Circle B Fencing when it comes to fencing and water systems. 

The water wasn’t the only thing needing fixing around here this week. The jeep and suburban both made trips to the shop. The heat and air unit on one of the cabins went out. Needs to be replaced.

A more positive problem we ran into this week was running out of inventory. Ground beef is something we always have an abundance of. Usually we have over 1000 pounds of ground beef available for sale in the freezer. This week after the farmer’s market, we were down to less than 10 pounds of ground beef total. (Except for patties, we still have plenty of those.) Fortunately, we got meat back from the processor on Wednesday. But it didn’t last long. 

Wednesday was a long day. First chores. Then after getting meat delivered and putting over 5000 pounds of beef and pork in the freezers, I was back to running around trying to diagnose the water issue and figure out what to do about the cows. Then back to the freezers. We had not filled the December monthly Herd Shares yet. With Amy’s quarterly delivery to NC the next day, herd shares had to be filled on Wednesday. 

After filling December beef shares, Christmas bundles, and pre-orders, we were back down to having less than 10 pounds of ground beef left in our inventory. A good problem to have, but a problem none the less. Looks like our family will be cutting back on ground beef consumption over the next few weeks. Good thing we have plenty of pork. Ha. Usually when inventory gets low we tell people to join the herd. As of Wednesday, all beef herd share spots are filled. We still have pork shares available. Hopefully we will have a couple more beef shares available in January or February. 

It was going on 9:30 when we finished filling beef shares and pre-orders. The kids were tired, freezing, and hungry. The worn out satisfaction that finally came from getting everything done was negated by cold, worn out, tearful faces of the kids. We felt like failures as parents. That morning Hallie was playing hair salon with the younger three. Even Hasten let her fix his hair. When Hallie asked Amy if she wanted to play salon, Amy said, “Maybe this evening after we’re done.” It was after 10:30 by the time everyone was showered and fed. Hallie asked, “Mom, can you still play salon with me?” At 11:00 Amy was letting Hallie fix her hair. She’s a good mom. With a pretty hairdo. 

This week I listened to “The Gathering of Old Men” by Sally Darling and Ernest J. Gaines. This one was talked about in the last Wendell Berry book that I listened to. If you like listening to books, I thought this one was narrated really well. The story pulled me right into it. Without getting too much into the plot, here’s a couple quotes:

“I stood there a moment. I could feel my heart pounding, pounding. No, not only could I feel it pounding, I could hear it trying to jump out of my chest… But I had only gone to the front of her car when I suddenly stopped again, like I had run into a brick wall. It was a wall alright, but a wall 20 to 30 feet away from me, not a wall of brick, stone, or wood but a wall of old black men with shotguns. I don’t know how many there were, 15 to 18 of ‘em standing, squatting, sitting, scattered all over the place. And waiting, waiting. But not for me, that was obvious.”

“Thirty, forty of us going out in the field with cane knives, hoes, plows, name it, sun up to sun down. Hard miserable work, but we managed to get it done. We stuck together, shared what little we had, and loved and respected each other. Just look at things today. Where’re the people? Where’re the roses?… Where’re the people used to sing and pray in the church? I’ll tell you, under them trees back there, that’s where. And where they used to stay, the weeds got it now, just waiting for the tractor to come plow it up… That’s something you can’t see sheriff, cause you never could see it… You can’t see the church with the people, and you can’t hear the singing and the praying. You had to be here then to be able to don’t see it and don’t hear it now. But I was here then, and I don’t see it now. And that’s why I did it. I did it for them back there under them trees. I did it cause that tractor is getting closer and closer to that graveyard, and I was scared if I didn’t do it, one day that tractor was going to come in there and plow up them graves, getting rid of all proof that we ever was. Like now, they trying to get rid of all proof that black people ever farmed this land with plows and mules, like if they had nothing from the start but motor machines. Sure, one day they will get rid of the proof that we ever was, but they ain’t going to do it while I’m still here.”

“I’m stating facts… Facts. Cause this is the day of reckoning, and I will speak the truth without fear if it mean I have to spend the rest of my life in jail.”

“Sometimes you got to hurt something to help something. Sometimes you have to plow under one thing in order for something else to grow.” 

Have a good week.

Will