Our house and barn were side by side and I think back about how wonderful as a child to be able to go there by myself or with my brothers and yet be yelling distance to the house in case of problems. I can remember many hours of being in the barn with the stabled cows, sitting on one of their backs like they were a horse and pretending we were out in the west trail riding or rounding up the cattle. It was always warm and the cows could not move two far as they were tied to posts by the neck. They seemed to accept us so wonderfully, standing and munching their hay. We had the stanchions to grab hold of, but most of the time they were helpful in getting ourselves up on to the cow. If you have never been around animals chewing hay, you have missed out on the most peaceful sound. Just image Jesus, born in the stable, coming into the world with the sound of animals munching on hay, and the peace of the night all around. All in God’s plan for us to enjoy the simple things he has given us all.
My dad converted this big old barn from its original design. Originally the stable was on the second floor. He cemented the basement and put the stable there. He made cement troughs as mangers so the water would run through in front of the cows and out the other end of the barn. He would switch a hose from one side to the other a couple of times a day to do the watering. This was easy, because the water ran continually by gravity feed from the spring. It was the best water and we never had to worry much about freeze ups because it never stopped running. How simple compared to today’s water bowls and freeze ups.
My dad used straight pipe for the stanchions and used neck chains that had a hasp for tying the cows. I can still feel the movements of putting the chains around the cow’s necks. Also I can still remember most of the cows. I had a love for animals then as now, and must have studied each cow and knew them like they were my friend.
The chains attached to the stanchion posts in the center with a big loop type fixture that held the links of each end of the chain. One end had a few round loops off the links for the hasp to go through. The end loop was hung above the cow’s head, from the beam on a nail, the part with the hasp hung down loose. You would take the loop end from the nail, and let it fall over the cows neck, while she stood and ate grain, and reached under her neck for the part with the hasp and brought it up and pushed the hasp through the loop. It was such a continuous movement to tie cow after cow, until you had one that was a grain hog and ate a little here and then just as you’d go to catch her, she’d back up and move to another spot. One could really get mad at a few of them. It was always the same cows that would leave. I think that goes to show how different personalities are in cows as in people. Cows are not know for their smarts, their brain is only the size of a small grapefruit. I always said that calves are smarter than cows. Possibly the brain is that size and as the animal grows, the size of the brain gets real small to body size. If you have a cow that is sore in the feet, the brain moves down there!
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