Rework, herding issues

When Mama and I were looking at the floor late Thursday evening I noticed something wrong. I could scuff the floor and it would take some of the reddish coloring off of the surface. That was not a happy revelation but it was one that had to be corrected before I could move ahead with the other parts of completing the inside of the apartment. So I got the first thing I could find – a fuzzy paint roller brush – and began to rub the floor. I was amazed at how much dust came off. I knew then that the entire floor would have to be “scrubbed” to remove the excess.


I did take last Friday off but I did not manage to get much done. The wind was a steady twenty miles per hour with gusts at over thirty; too much for getting the sheet metal on the front so I moved inside. I worked on the floor trying to get it ready for the final sealing. Mama had decided to go with a wet look sealant since the other looked too dull to her. It was only a little more work for me since it all had to be redone anyway. By Friday afternoon I got out my little sander to use instead of doing it all manually. It was a little faster and a lot less wear on my shoulders but the amount of dust it put in the air was significantly greater. I worked on that little redo project until late Friday evening; at which time I took Mama to Sam’s in Wichita Falls.

Saturday Mama and I spent the entire morning running errands for feed, milk replacer and lumber. At the feed store in Bowie we bought some baby chicks which meant I had to take time to get a place ready for them before I could go to work on the apartment. I was in no hurry since the winds were still in excess of twenty miles per hour, but I was even less anxious to get back on my hands and knees to finish prepping the floor.

Mama and I were talking about those very things as we rounded the corner to our roadway and found two of the neighbors cows out on the roadway. As I slowly drove toward the house, the cows moved up the road in front of us meandering past the mobile home as I turned into the drive. I was getting ready to go back out to get to work when Mama yelled that the cows were eating the grapevines in the yard. She rushed out the back door of the mobile home and scared one of the cows so badly that it jumped the fence into the garden.

I got in the garden and tried to herd it out but it was still stunned from the hide-raising fright Mama had given it and would not go through the gates I had opened. Finally, in frustration I rushed towards it and it jumped the fence on the other side of the garden into the horse pasture. It managed to trample the garden pretty badly but it could not do any real harm in the pasture. The other cow, meanwhile, was still out on the roadway so when the trash truck came to empty the dumpster I was ready and did not let that cow into the yard.

About an hour later I opened the gate to the pasture and the gate to the calf lot to let the cow out if it could find its way through those gates - without letting the horse out. I prayed the God would direct that cow the way He had directed the cows hooked up to the cart that took the Ark of the Covenant back to Israel. Less than ten minutes later the cow walked through both gates into the drive. I still had to run it out of the upper meadow, but it took off down the roadway after that. That pretty well settled in my mind that sheep would be better for me and Mama to raise.

After I repaired the garden and tilled up some new area for Mama to put out her tomato plants, I went ahead and finished the sheet metal on the front of the apartment – wind and all. I finished sanding and cleaning the floor and I finished the first coat of sealant on the floor. I even had time to put up some OSB over the opening for the garage door. I was working with a pretty big piece of OSB while high up on the ladder, in the blowing wind. Mama was not happy with me, but once that was safely done, I was done.

It was a long day.