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| Blair in winter. Just add mouse... |
Guest post by Little Brother, Blair.
We had little
fury critters that were common around the ranch.
They seemed to
be everywhere.
When a grain
bin door was opened they scampered away to safety. When we pulled bales from
hay stacks, ditto.
A little
background . . .
Every summer I
had the pleasure of baling and stacking hay.
Every late fall
and winter I had the pleasure of feeding hay.
Most of the
time we baled an alfalfa grass mix but on some occasions we baled green-feed (an
oat crop that is cut when green and just headed out.) Creative name, eh?
Cows
really like green-feed and so do little furry critters. Consequently, you see lots of them when you
feed green-feed bales.
On with my
story . . .
One day in the
middle of winter, dad and I were loading green-feed bales.
The snow had
just fallen and we had a lovely white blanket everywhere.
I was pulling bales
from the stack and throwing them into the back of the truck where dad was stacking
them for the trip to the field. When each bale lifted, critters would skitter
to the safety of another bale.
Suddenly, I got
a funny feeling.
A little warm furry
critter had somehow found his way up my pant leg.
Umm . . .
yikes.
As the critter
was slowly making his way up, I managed to grab him.
Now I had a
predicament.
It was inside
my pants leg. Which were inside my coveralls.
I could only
stop the critter by grabbing it from the outside of said pants and coveralls.
I didn’t want it
to bite me so I grabbed and squeezed.
Then I tried to
shake it down my pant leg.
It wouldn’t
shake.
I turned to
Dad. He of the years of experience and endless knowledge.
Surely he had
some wise method to take care of this very unwanted predicament.
His advice? “I
guess you’ll have to take off your pants.”
I had only this
to say:
Stack yard!
In the winter!
In the snow!
In my
underwear!
Yeah. Dad had a
good laugh.
I would laugh except I am sympathizing too much! My father worked in a hen house and with the grain around you can imagine how many mice (and bigger rodents) they had to deal with. One day a rat ran up one of his pant legs and before he could even decide what to do it ran down the other one. (And out of delicacy I will not tell you what happened to the rat then ...) Decades later, the thought still sent a shiver down his back, although by then he could also laugh about it!
ReplyDeleteYikes! So many things are funny . . . years later! :)
DeleteNo pictures from me Missy! Too funny. :)
ReplyDeleteThe thought of it gives me the cold grues. Funny if it happens to someone else but...
ReplyDeleteSo true! I can laugh at someone else . . . :)
DeleteI'm laughing along with your dad, while remembering "knacky-twine" a strong string used to tie around the ankles of pants to stop ferrets from getting up your pants and biting your..err, knackers.
ReplyDeleteKnacky-twine! Oh, I'll have to use that . . .
Deletethis reminds me of why I'm not a farm girl :)
ReplyDeleteAnd why, at times, I wish I wasn't . . .
DeleteI had the same thing happen to me one time and I even wrote about it. Of course, I couldn't take my pants off, but it scared me so bad I pee'd all in them!
ReplyDelete