The Bovine Bugle

Helping Dad on an afternoon-off from school

Noah slides a bag of sawdust off the truck and to his dad.

The weather forecast was calling for more freezing rain today as the boys boarded the bus for school. We were a little nervous about them going, but none of the other schools in the area had cancelled classes to avoid trouble getting the kids home in the afternoon. We finished morning chores, and not long after we had gotten into the house the elementary school called to say that the kids were being sent home at lunchtime. No afternoon kindergarten for Noah, and Justin and Ben would be home soon. What would the boys do all afternoon?

I had the perfect job for them; bedding the freestalls. We were still unable to get a dump truck load of sawdust, so I had picked up a pickup truck load of bagged sawdust at McCuin's. It's more expensive than bulk sawdust but right now we don't have a choice. Each bag of sawdust holds 2.8 cubic feet. I backed the truck into the end of the barn, and then we went to work. Noah and Justin handed and slid the bags of sawdust to me at the tailgate. I loaded 6 bags at a time into the wheelbarrow, pushed the wheelbarrow along the back of the freestalls, and tossed one bag of sawdust into each stall. Ben went along with his knife opening the bags and dumping the contents into the front of the stall. From start to finish it took us about an hour to do the 40 stalls.

Ben gets the job of spreading new sawdust in the freestalls.

The freezing rain was starting to accumulate as we headed back up to the house for a break before afternoon milking. The boys had made the job of bedding the stalls a lot easier for me. An afternoon or day off from school doesn't mean sitting in front of the TV watching a movie or playing video games the whole time. Just like when I was growing up, time off from school meant some extra time to help my parents with some chore on the farm. But, just as my parents did, we always find time to do some fun stuff, too.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Posted by Blogger Chris at January 17, 2005 07:50 PM