You can take the girl out of the country...

From Juel:

Wish I could write as Jami does, but guess you’re stuck with my style.  Right now my thoughts turn to each of those whom I have had the privilege of working with.  I truly did enjoy my time working with each of you and have many special memories that are near and dear to my heart.  There was a lot of hard manual labor done and with each of you the tasks became almost fun.

 I think we’ve all split our pants out and had to work through it.  Two I particularly remember, one was Jami, at the beginning of a hot hay hauling day and the second Crystal in the same situation.  I just remember that they both got lots of hay down their pants on those days, but neither shirked from their duties, embarrassed as they may have been.  When it had to be done they just did it.

Becky and Esther were two of the absolute best pipe movers.  They were kinda short and the barley kinda tall.  But that did not faze them one bit, even when they had to carry the pipe over their heads.  

Sara & Beth, many memories of them feeding in adverse weather; but with their great attitudes, they took a lot of crap in fun and never failed to give it right back with interest.

All of Ross's girls took their turn feeding calves, and I think they all drove truck for us at one time or another.

If any of you men or children want to know what made your wife or mother the wonderful strong devoted person they are.  The answer in large part is growing up in Juniper.  They always had it in them; they just got to exercise it.  And find out exactly what they were made of in a little patch of hallowed paradise we like to call Juniper.

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FYI, for anybody who has not had the privilege of splitting out their pants, it is not the hay going down your pants that is the problem... just sayin.  

P.S. I swear I split my pants out every day for a week that summer... good times.

The Girl Made of Steel

Hey everyone!  Thanks so much for the positive feedback.  I am really excited about this blog and can't wait to hear from you all!  

Jerica sent me this story today.  I was amazed at how tough she was that day, but reading and thinking about it now as an ER nurse gives the story a whole new angle for me.  One of the ER docs I work with talks about the "overall sign" meaning if you see a guy come in with muddy boots, dirty overalls (thus... overall sign), and calloused hands-you gotta take him seriously-this is not a guy who comes in for frivolous stuff.  Not only do you have to take him seriously, you have to dig deep, this is a guy who will down play everything!  It kills me the stuff that comes to the ER by ambulance every day, I always think "REALLY?  My parents wouldn't have even taken me to the doctors office!"  So it makes me laugh that Jerica-run over by a ginormous truck-has to wait in the pick-up for the rest of us to finish picking up the hay! Definately a positive "overall sign".  

Enjoy!

From Jerica:

During the summer of '98, we were down in the hay fields going around to pick up the last of hay bales. Joe and I were riding on the running board of the old Ford truck half full of hay with a few people on top and Catie was driving. For some reason, I thought it would be fun to keep leaning back while holding onto the door/side mirror of the truck. I had done it a few times and each time Catie had told me to quite leaning back and get in the cab with her. We were turning at the end of a field to go put the hay loader onto the side of the truck. Right when we turned I leaned back and lost my grip. I remember falling off laughing and as I was laughing I saw both sets of dually tires coming right for me. I thought I should role to my left and try to avoid it but I couldn't move so all four tires came on top of me from my right hip to my left shoulder. The truck had stopped and people were yelling trying to figure out what had happened. I looked up and saw people peering over the top of the truck. Joe had told me not to move but I just got up and started crying for my dad. Joe had said he thought I was dead and it was a traumatizing experience for him. I'm pretty sure it was that way for a lot of us that day. My dad grabbed me and brought me to the pickup where I had to stay there until they were all done. Brad and Doug were at the pickup too and started yelling at me. I was crying but no tears were coming. I couldn't believe what had just happened. 

When we got back to the dairy, my dad put me in the Suburban and went to tell my mom to take me into the hospital. I wanted Catie to come with us (of all people, the one who ran me over). When we got to the hospital, we went in for x-rays and it killed me to lay on my right side for the x-ray. Turned out, it was just a fracture on my pelvis. No other injuries. I stayed in the hospital for about a week and I was told to stay on the crutches for at least two weeks. When I got home, I lasted a few days on the crutches and decided I could walk without them. By that next Sunday I was crutch free but limping. As far as I know, today I am functioning normal :)