‘Never-Ending Work’ by Shane Brown

A tractor is stuck, but the work doesn’t stop.

Billy Ray was trying to grade down to firmer ground to move some mud and muck from his feeding pen containing his and Paula’s dairy cows. He wanted to build a couple of paths for the cows to walk on so they wouldn’t have to drag their udders into a thick brown clod that has to be washed before it’s milking time. The cows’ udders cannot be so muddy because such a mess can cause a bacteria buildup to spread through the bloodstream, causing illness and possibly death.

There is never nothing happening on their farm. The farm is something continuous. It doesn’t matter that the tractor is stuck. The farm workers move on and go back whenever it’s dry enough for their tractors to be pulled out. They still have other work to do. If it’s not work, then there are visitors over to witness country life, friends stopping by to say hey, children playing, family helping a hand, or just dogs chasing cats or a pig that’s broken out of its confinement.

And if none of that is going on, then his house is dark and quiet. It’s after ten o’clock at night and their children are sleeping. Billy Ray and Paula are possibly sleeping too. But the cows are feeding and hogs are rutting, a pasture sight. Something is always going on at their farm.

I envy the drive and work force that Billy Ray and Paula have. They have a love for the work they do. A passion and a must.

I’ve seen them hug each other and cry when a dairy cow was down from being sick, knowing it wasn’t getting up again – that she was down on the ground for good. I didn’t stay around to watch his face when he had to put it to sleep with his Winchester that our father gave him. That cow put food on his plate for him and his family. She gave his customers enjoyment in a glass of fresh milk on Sunday morning before church. It put clothes on the back of my nieces and nephew. It wasn’t an easy thing to do. Neither is the work they do.

I’ve gotta milk for them tonight, Friday night and then again Saturday morning. I know it’s gonna be cold and wet. I don’t like the cold, but I do the work. Somebody has to be there twice a day, every day to milk the cows. The work doesn’t end if it’s raining, snowing or even if a thunderstorm is brewing over the hill the dairy farm sits on. I’ve had to wait on tornadoes to pass north of us before I could get started one night. That night, Billy Ray, Paula, and I stood by our trucks in the dark as we watched flashes of lightning popping from different sides of Lafayette county. But we were safe, only cautious and waiting for the bad weather to blow over. We don’t need to be in the middle of the milking process when electricity goes out. We could lose a lot of milk that way. My time and work started late that night, but it got completed.

Spring will be here soon, and things will get a little bit easier each day. They won’t have to change as many pair of socks and pants from the rain or wipe off as much mud from the udders. They won’t have to bundle up pairs of clothes at six in the morning to feed and milk cows before sending their kids off to school. The sun will rise a little earlier and set down a little bit later for them. But that just means more daylight. It means more vision for an eye to see a hand working for what they have created.

All this goes on at their farm. A farm where tractors either sit or work. They need tractors, but when they are stuck, their work goes on…

Shane Brown is a HottyToddy.com contributor and the son of noted author Larry Brown. Shane is an Oxford native with Yocona and Tula roots. Shane is a graduate of Mississippi State University. He has two children — Maddux, age 9, and Rilee, age 7 — and makes his home at “A Place Called Tula.” He can be reached at msushanebrown@yahoo.com.

Copyright Shane Brown, 2015.

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