Thread: When men were men

Docking, drafting, lambing beats, crutching, milking etc - all the farmboy jobs.

Old man was a dab hand at docking. Dock anything that moved. We had a farm tomcat that was getting a bit stroppy, so old man says 'come and help'. He managed to push Tom (very original name) head first into a gumboot. Back legs in too so only his tail and his nuts sticking out. He says 'hold that gumboot closed boy'. Whip, whip with his pocket knife and cat lets out a hell of a screech, legs in overdrive as he scrambles backwards, I drop the boot, and he clears the back fence at about 100 miles per hour. Never saw a cat move so fast. 2-3 days later he came back.. he was quieter after that. Not surprised really....

A last farm tale.... always makes me chuckle. We had an Auckland city boy Peter come to stay on the farm for a week. Had never been out of the city. Old man's doing some drafting in the yards, finishes, and me and 3-4 other local farmboys now sitting on the yard fence. Old man goes into one of the pens, leaning down checking the ewes.

Peter: "What are you doing Mr Anderson?"
Dad: "I'm checking the ewes for lumps in the udder"
Peter: " Can I help?"
Dad: "Yep - you go and check them in that pen"
Peter - keen as mustard, leaps off the fence into other pen. Grabs a big sheep and grapples its back end... "Mr Anderson ..Mr Anderson..this one's got great big lumps in the udder"..

Great hilarity ensues .. old man grinning, and 4 farmboys falling off the fence with laughter. The pen's full of rams..

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