I may chat about my books, what I'm writing or reading, or just general thoughts. You may read posts about my cats or just my crazy life in general. Comments are welcome, if anyone wants to interact with me. Maybe we can share war stories, whether it's writing related or just about life in general.

Friday, April 18, 2014

P is for Pasture



When we were kids, pastures surrounded everything, if it wasn’t cropland.  We could walk behind the house and come face-to-face with cow or two.  We always had quite a few cows, some were for milking and others were for meat.


 The corn barn was also located in the pasture.  After harvest season, we would pull the trailer out there and shovel corn into the barn for the cows.  This structure stood up on stilts with open cutouts for windows.  The cows would always surround the place looking in at us, hoping to get anything we dropped on the ground.  The guys would usually do the shoveling and we girls would get inside to scoot the corn around so there was enough room.  It was hot and humid in there.  We always had a bead of sweat on our upper lip anyway in the summers.  By the time we came out, we were itchy from playing in the corn particles.  Usually, it seemed cooler once we stepped outside, even though it probably wasn’t – just not a confined space anymore where we struggled to stay upright on the ears as they rolled around under our feet.

We dreamed up many forms of entertainment as kids, but it wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the ball games in the pasture.  We would all get together with our cousins and play baseball using the dried cow patties as bases.  We had to watch out for the fresh ones, of course, and make sure to run around them or jump over them when running the bases.  We had a few mishaps along the way but not too many considering how many of us there were.  I’m still not sure why we didn’t pick another place for the games and use rocks or something for the bases.  I guess it was a lot more interesting this way.



Brahma bull

Occasionally a bull would get out of the pasture.  When one escaped the fence, it was exciting and all of our eyes peered from the door or window while we watched for it to come running down the road.  We knew if we valued our lives to stay indoors while the men rounded him up and mended the fence.  Only one time my sister, Scherri, and I were out in the field when the Brahma bull got out of the fence.  He was the meanest one we ever had and we were both scared of him.  But this is a story for another post.

All of us kids could take pleasure in the least little thing out of the ordinary because nothing much happened on the farm.  The thrilling moments offered a great diversion from ordinary life.

We laughed, cried, and generally made the best of all situations.

10 comments:

  1. That's a lovely description of a happy and carefree childhood. The story of the bull sounds intriguing - will you be writing about it during the A-Z? Look forward to it. :)

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    1. Ovengoodies,

      No, I don't think I'll write about the bull for the challenge. I don't have a letter coming up that would fit the story, but I may write about it in a later post after the challenge is over.

      When we were kids this bull was mean and scary to look at. He made your heart pound.

      Thanks for reading.

      Sunni

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  2. Thank you for stopping by for my fiction story for Letters N and O. I've enjoyed reading your posts on life on the farm.
    Sue at CollectInTexas Gal

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Sue. I'm glad you're enjoying the stories. I want to read more of your posts too, but that's all I had time for the other day. There are so many blogs to visit when this challenge is going on.

      Sunni

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  3. We city folks romanticize being on a farm. thanks for the informative post.

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    Replies
    1. Bethlapi,

      Isn't that always how it is? I think I romanticized about living in the city growing up. Thanks for reading my stories.

      Sunni

      Delete
  4. I think kids today don't know what it's like to truly have to entertain yourself. They're always entertained with electronic devices and TV...they never get a chance to just be creative and come up with things to do on their own.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Stephanie,

      You're definitely right about that. We had to be creative because we didn't have electronic devices back then. Looking back, I'm actually glad we had to use our minds to entertain ourselves.

      Sunni

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  5. I always love your stories because they bring back so many memories. I used to run and hike so much on the farm. Those were good times. :)

    Random Musings from the KristenHead — P is for 'Person of Interest' (and Podcasts... and 'Psych')

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    Replies
    1. Kristen

      We were always playing outside on the farm. We got tons of exercise in those days. They were good times, although we probably didn't like everything about it back then.

      Sunni

      Delete

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comment on my posts. I appreciate it.
Sunni