The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
You hear public service announcements on the radio and tv during the summer driving months about distracted driving. With the increase in traffic on the roads, it is imperative to pay attention to what is going on in your lane of traffic and nearby lanes as well. The road outside the barn door is a short cut for many northbound vacationers. I watch RV’s, trucks and boats flying past our farm wondering what their weekend plans are. Then SMACK! I catch the edge of the feed cart on the wall because I didn’t cut back quick enough. Forget about distracted driving in the cities. I have it in the barn!
I can’t even begin to count how many miles I’ve put on the feed cart driving up and down the feed mangers. The guys use to do all the feeding because I don’t think they even thought a girl could do it. It was their job and there weren’t any other girls around. Well, I can drive just about anything. I was licensed up to grain trucks and just below semi-tractor trucks when I lived in Illinois. How hard could it be to drive a hydrostatic feed cart around the barn? It wasn’t and I’ve been able to feed cows ever since.
When Austin went off to kindergarten to join his older brothers and sister at school, I was able to help with more of the morning chores. That is when I started driving the feed cart around barn. He turned 20 last week, so I’ve put on quite a few miles. I think I’ve probably driven to California at 3 mph over the years and yet, I’m still in Minnesota! I’ve done this daily journey through the barn for so long that the trip is almost done by muscle memory. Instinctively I duck before I nail the back of my head on the feed chute as I come in for another load of feed. The slight shoulder dip with the rocking of the cart across the gutter grates to keep my balance. The number of hard cranks on the steering wheel to the right to make the tight turn around the water line to head down the other side of the barn.
Just when I think I can do this job in my sleep, I’m jolted back to reality. As I watch the summer travelers heading north outside our barn door, I forget to swing the cart out to make a wide turn to hit the cross walk just right. BANG! I catch the side of the cart on the stall divider and scrape through the opening. Yes, I can do the job by routine, but I still need to keep focused and pay attention to the little details surrounding me on my journey around the barn.
One of the major reasons to stay alert when I’m driving through the barn is due to the unexpected obstacle course. There could be gallon teat dip jugs left in the cross walk after a refill on the teat dip cups. A half empty bag of lime also sits in the cross walk as a dry place “out of the way” before we use it up or put it away in the feed room. (which is only six more steps than where the bag was left) Then there are the left over slabs of balage leaning against the side walls. These are the trickiest of all obstacles because there is barely any extra room between the wall and the feed pile in front of the cows. It is like driving through a work construction zone in the cities and the traffic is diverted to a modified shoulder as a traffic lane. Very tight!
Despite all of the diversions, I have a pretty safe “driving record” with the feed cart, until this past week. I did something I didn’t think was even possible. Now, I’ve put the cart at a precarious angle but was able to jump off and correct it before I thought it would tip over. After awhile, I just began to think the feed cart was like a weeble…”weebles wobble but they don’t fall down”. As I backed up to feed to cows behind me, I missed spotting the extra balage leaning against the wall underneath the fan. Suddenly the feed cart began to list to the right. I jumped off to stop the cart, but the angle was too much to push back. Mark crawled over the water line and helped me right the feed cart. Whew! That was close.
I continued to feed cows, weaving my way through the feed mangers. Every once in a while I would have to push a balage slab back up against the wall but I was getting the job done. I was starting to feel comfortable, confident and too cocky. That is when it happened. I never thought it could happen but it did. As I was swinging wide to the left to make the right turn through the cross walk to start feeding on the other side, I noticed the gallon jug of teat dip someone had placed back in the other cross walk on the opposite side. As I kept my eye on that obstacle, I missed the one which would be my demise. Just as I started to dip my shoulder to go with the rocking of the feed cart as it came down on the gutter grate, the right back wheel caught a half empty back of lime and the cart started to tip to the left. Well, the cart is not a true weeble. It wobbled and it fell over in the alley way! Feed tumbled out of the cart, I jumped out of the way and the cart landed with a BANG on its side.
What do you do? Well, you stand there is amazement and bewilderment. Look at Mark and shrug your shoulders and head off to the feed room to grab a couple of push carts and silage forks to start cleaning up the mess. With Austin’s help we were able to empty the feed cart and lift it back into a working position. Nothing broke. No repair bill. No one hurt. It was ok.
My “accident” has had be thinking about distractions and obstacles. Not just in the feed alley or on the road but life in general. Sometimes we get so distracted by “obstacles” out ahead of us that we miss the ones just under our feet. If we’re lucky, they’ll just tip us off our course and we’ll be able to make a quick correction. If they knock us over, we’ll just shrug our shoulders and start to clean up the mess and keep moving on.
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As their four children pursue dairy careers off the family farm, Natalie and Mark are starting a new adventure of milking registered Holsteins just because they like good cows on their farm north of Rice, Minnesota.
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