Viewpoint: Cold, Wet, Dirty and Happy
?I learned how to use a nail gun on Saturday.?You know the thing I mean??This one held up to 30 nails at a time.?It’s pretty heavy and is attached to an air compressor.?It drives the nail into whatever you have the gun against when you pull the trigger.
?I have to admit it was a little ominous.?My mind went back to movies where an air gun became a lethal weapon and the nail ended up in a good guy or bad guys forehead, depending on who got his hands on the gun.
?My next two oldest brothers and I met at the family farm to try to repair major damages to the barn.?A barn that has been there at least as long as I’ve been alive.?The wind had damaged it a great deal.
?That barn has a lot of memories in it.?The one and only cow I ever milked in my life spent time with me in that barn.?I was five or six and dad milked about half a dozen cows by hand every morning and evening, and he showed me how to milk the cow that was the easiest to milk.?
?Saturday, the temperature never got above 30 degrees in Trego County Kansas and the work was on the north side of the barn.?There were several inches of snow on the ground that didn’t do any melting that day.
?The barn is mostly used for storage now.?When it was a vibrant part of the cattle/farming operation it was also an Adventureland for four young boys.?On one occasion, Steve (second oldest) and I were playing a game in which Brian (third youngest) was our prisoner.?His jail was a pile of straw bales and we had also, somehow, tied him up.?We observed he was getting out of his ropes and charged him to prevent his escape.?In his hurry to avoid u, and still partially bound, he fell off the bales.
?Here the stories vary.?I’m pretty sure he would tell you the bales were stacked twenty high, while his older, wiser siblings would tell you it was about three bales high.?He will tell you that he was pushed, if not violently at least with a great deal of rigor, while we will affirm that he fell trying to avoid us.?For some reason that is a story that only the barn could sort out.
?I knew it would be cold.?I dressed for it.?Steve brought some disposable plastic gloves which we wore under our work gloves.?When we took a lunch break, we threw our gloves into the dryer.
?The barn and the attached corral were used to sort cattle, doctor cattle, break a Shetland pony, store hay, and a tractor.?It was used to milk cows, deliver calves when cattle were having trouble, and part of it was where dad kept his tools.?My dad kept everything neat and clean and orderly over the years.?Everything had its place.
???My brothers and I talked little except during lunch and after we were done for the day.?We are close but don’t see each other all that often.?Before I headed west, during our meal together, we talked of our love and sometimes concern for our children.?We talked about the past.?We talked about the craziness of COVID, and the sanity and sanctity of God’s sovereignty.?And the joys of our families.
?I felt old and achy, my feet and hands were frozen, and I was covered with dirt.?It was a wonderful day.