Rawhide!

We lived on my parent's farm back when we were a young married couple. Jason was going to college in the next biggest town that was about a 45 min. drive. The farm had been in my family for generations, it was truly the most haunted place I had ever lived, but I am saving those stories for October. Our town Waterford, was on the edge of Appalachia, were people were truly poor. Jobs were really hard to come by, so Jason became one of 3 hired hands my dad paid to work on the farm. I of course, had worked for free. When my dad took over after my grandpa had died, the farm had over 300 acres of land, and the main crop was hay. He had pure bred, mean, Percheron horses, and a large head of pure breed Charlas, they are huge white cows. My grandparent's didn't use them much for anything, but breeding and for show. The bull they had for that year was Norm. He was a huge white bull that loved to charge you, if you acted frightened. He had a big golden ring in his nose, that would add to his handsome looks, along with his curly white head. My dad liked him, but he sold him along with the rest of the heard after he decided get a new heard of a different kind.

My dad wanted to make some money, but it had been a while since he had taken care of anything at this scale. He went and foolishly bought a couple hundred of young steers before winter, in which a quarter of them didn't survive. When one was discovered of having Phenomena, they almost all got it. My job was mainly on lost cow finding, but ended up more like dead cow finding... On the property there was two different streams, ponds, woods, and long fields. I loved going out for long walks, but I was a tad bit nervous around cattle, so I would take a cattle prong with me. I would get on the four wheeler sometimes and travel to every corner of the fields looking for cattle that wouldn't come up to feed. I would find them dead in the creek, dead in a ditch, dead in the woods, and half dead, which I hated because that meant it would be dead by a gun. I didn't end their misery, I would go find Jason and my dad, they would decide whether or not a vet could save them. It was nasty work, especially when they were bloated, but usually I would find them by then.

In the spring, I would never forget the time that I had discovered that there was a dead steer in the big pond, which was used to fish in, swim in, and for the farm's drinking water that was used for the animals. It was a cloudy day, in which the pond sat down at the bottom of two hills, and because the horses were using it at that time, it was really muddy by the water. Jason told me to come help and we would get the rope, and he would try to pull it out. But it didn't work, it was down , deep in the water, I could only see the shape of it's head under water, it must had been there all winter long and we didn't even notice. So, he got a idea, how about towing it out with the four wheeler? I got my brother Danny to come help out. I tricked him, I didn't tell him why he was needed, or else he would have hidden. He was easily grossed out like I was, when it came to real gore. And yes, this was really gory! Because what happens next, is so disgusting, I can't believe Jason would handle this! Really he did, because when he tried wrapping the lasso around the head, he had to try to lift it so he could, and the skin rubbed off in his hands! He also mentioned at that time the fish must had been nibbling on it, including it's eyes! I stood, up on the hill, afraid that Jason would fling some of it at me for just for kicks! Danny, was on the verge of gagging, but he stood away from the water too. Then they hooked it up to the four wheeler and tried to pull it out, but it wasn't strong enough to get it out all the way and up the hill. I couldn't help but stare at the carcase sticking out of the water.

Next, Jason went and got the tractor, this would surely do the trick. Jason used the rope to pull it out and it was Danny's job to tell him whether or not it was working. And it was, unfortunately, disgustingly so! As he pulled it out, I looked away, holding my mouth, trying not to barf. Because, as he was dragging it, so went it's hide with it! As Jason was driving up the hill, I looked at my brother who was down closer to it, spitting on the ground, which, I wasn't sure if he did lose it or not. Jason laughed, as he looked back for a moment and proceeded to the dead cow pit, that wasn't far from our trailer, but far from the pond. I ran into the farm house and told my mom all about it, while they were handling the rest. After seeing this , I could ever look at my mom's country fried steak again, the same way! And so this is to be continued...