Country Gal by Vanita Blundell July 8, 2008

We are almost half way through July and I still do not have the work done that I wanted to accomplish. I am amazed how long it takes me to do things. Jim and I worked about 50 head of calves the other day and I cannot believe that it took the whole day. I know that when Dad was in his late seventies and early eighties he worked faster than we did. Of course, the weather was not exactly the best- but Dad worked in the heat and he never complained as much as I did. Maybe no one complains as much as I do. I know that we could work and pair up 50 head in a day, easy, with daylight left over- the other thing is that I have lost all of my strength, not that there was ever that much there to begin with but there was more than there is now. I think that it must be Jeff’s fault. When he was at home he was my muscle. He pulled and tugged and moved whatever I wanted moved and I was the overseer. Now that he is no longer at home I have to do those things he was doing. He sure did make it look easy. Jim can only do so much and probably if the truth was known most men would send me to the house and find some good help. But he puts up with me and my moaning and groaning. I thought that I was ready to get these calves worked, but there are things you forget about; such as getting rid of the wasp nests on the chute. We were doing fairly well and minding our own business when a wasp flew by me a stung me right above my elbow. He really shot the jazz to me. I think that you could call it a ‘fly by’. Wasp stings have never bothered me but this one swelled up and was uncomfortable for a few days. We fixed him, I had the burner from the branding irons and we burnt his happy little home. There were a couple other nests that got our attention, as well.
When I was a little girl the Cary place seemed to have more wasps, bees and grasshoppers than we did down home. Grandma had a dinner bell and I liked to ring it for Granddad to come in from his rock house. I soon learned to check inside the bell first. If you did not the wasps did not like for you to ring the bell at all. They would come barreling out of the bell and they meant business. I can remember running away from those winged bombers and screaming like the little girl that I was.
Wasp can make their homes almost any place. I thought that they had to build on something solid. That is not the case or, at least, not at our current house. We have wasp that make their nests in the trees. Boy, that really is a shock when you walk under a tree limb and look up and there is a wasp nest the size of a pie pan. It is a good idea to just walk away. Dad, on the other hand, declared war on them. He would get a newspaper and roll it up and make a torch out of it and set it on fire and burn them out- he would do the same for bumble bees- I do not ever remember him ever getting stung. If he did he never would have admitted it. It is a wonder that he did not catch the building on fire in his attempt to get rid of the stinging bugs. Maybe that is why we did not have the flying stingers at my childhood home.