An Early Morning Shower

On most mornings the alarm goes off a little past 5 am and Tricia and I make use of the ‘snooze’ feature on the alarm clocks.  In the past we used electric-powered alarm clocks, but in our rural area, the electricity goes on and off quite often and we discovered that it is best to use the old battery operated clocks that we each keep on the nightstand by the bed.

Now that we’re milking only two cows instead of three, we were able to set the alarm to give us an additional 15 minutes of sleep.  We have things timed perfectly where we know how long it will take us to get everything done in time to get me out of the door to work by 6:30 am.  That includes mixing up feed for cows, goats, and chickens, feeding the chickens, watering all the animals, calling in the cows, washing their udders, applying Vaseline, feeding and milking the cows and goat, switching the cows to a fresh paddock all in time to get me in to shower and dress and off to work.

Our regimen normally works to perfection, much like a well-oiled machine or a finely crafted Swiss watch.  And then things happen like this morning that throw a monkey wrench into the cogs of the intricate machine.  After the 15 inch deluge we posted about yesterday, overnight we received an additional half inch of the wet stuff as if we didn’t have enough mud already. 

Normally when we turn the lights on in the barn at 5:35, Daisy, ‘the matriarch of the herd,’ will arrive at the barn door first as she’s quite gluttonous and enjoys her breakfast immensely.  We opened the door and brought her in to her milking stall.  Rosie followed shortly thereafter.  All we could say was, “Oh, Rosie!”  While Daisy was as clean and shiny as a copper penny, Rosie had proceeded to lay down in a mud hole overnight and was muddier than a pig. 

When you are at the livestock arena, preparing for a livestock show, there are nice concrete-lined wash stalls to get your animal cleaned up and ready for the show.

The wash racks at the Jeff Davis Parish Livestock Arena - Much nicer than the one we have at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm!

We don’t have such nice facilities at our barn.  We do, however, have a water hose, so Tricia led Muddy Rosie out of the barn against her will as she was ready for breakfast.  I had to get behind her and push her big muddy, rear end out of the barn.  I fumbled for the spigot in the dark and we washed her up as quickly as we could.  Tick tock, tick tock.  Tricia had to turn her so that I could spray her down on both sides, underneath and behind.  We got her back inside, dried her off and got everything done.

Now we could keep the cows inside the barn on rainy nights, but experience has taught us that cows are horrible housekeepers.  It is not a pretty sight coming into a small barn inhabited overnight by cows.  They knock things over and pee and poop all over the place and then lay in it.  We learned early on that cows need to be outside.

I completed the rest of the morning chores and got inside and took my early morning shower and got out the door a little later than usual – maybe 10-12 minutes later than normal.  In hindsight, its mornings like these when I realize that I shouldn’t have hit the snooze button.  Then again, Rosie would certainly help things out by learning to keep herself clean like Daisy.  

Going Back in Time

When I was a young boy I can remember going over to my Grandma & Grandpa's house to visit.  We would spend the night there, and I'd go back into my Dad's old room in the back of the house to play. My Grandma had not changed the room too much since Dad moved out.  Some of his old toys were there and his old football cleats and clothes were in the closet.  I would try the cleats on each time I went to see if I was growing.  They swallowed me up and looked like clown shoes on me!

One of the things I always remember being of particular interest to me was my Dad's alarm clock. Growing up I had regular alarm clocks that just told the time - boring, normal clocks with red-LED numbers on them or a standard alarm clock with the hour and minute hands on it.  Not my Dad.  He had perhaps the coolest clock that had ever been invented - A Roy Rogers Trigger Alarm Clock! Wow.

Happy Trails to You!

This vintage clock had an old western prairie and mountain range with mesas, cactus, and the hours were marked by coiled ropes in the shape of the numbers. But, are you ready for this?  Roy Rogers sits on Trigger's back and as the seconds tick tock, Trigger and Roy rock from side to side like they are galloping across the western frontier!

On the back of the clock are some big keys that you wind up.  The clock was made in the 1950's by E. Ingraham Clock Company of Bristol, Connecticut.  I found identical clocks like this on eBay in working condition that were selling for $95 - $150.  My Dad's old alarm clock shows some wear like you might expect, but it is still really neat.

Big wind up keys on the back

The only bad thing about it is that the clock doesn't work anymore.  Ol' Trigger was put out to pasture and instead of waking me up in the morning Roy and Trigger sit on the bookshelf in my office just looking pretty.  I'd like to find a clock shop that could repair them and return them back to their former glory.

Until such time I'll continue to be awakened by my boring alarm clock each morning.

Maybe if Roy and Trigger were galloping across a western scene I wouldn't hit snooze!  Happy Trails to you, until we meet again.