Page 6 of Herds and Hooves

We’d stopped for lunch earlier, but one sandwich and some chips didn’t stick with me very long. “Do you usually cook?” I asked and took a bite. “This is great.”

“It’s okay,” He said. “But as I said, after a hard day at work everything tastes good.”

“You could be right.”

Asa wiped his mouth with a paper towel before steepling his fingers and looking out into the distance. “I’m sorry I wasn’t completely honest with you about coming here. I know you expected to stay the weekend. But I’d really like you to stay the week. This place is special and I want you to have time to see that.”

I chose my words carefully. Even though I didn’t know my uncle that well I did know he was a good man and deserved my respect and patience. “I won’t say it doesn’t matter because it does. I need you to be honest with me and know it’s not that I don’t want to help, it’s just that I have no clue what I’m doing, and this is nothing I would have ever considered.”

“You’re so much like your dad. He’s one of the most honest men I’ve ever known, and around here that’s saying something.” He took another bite and didn’t look up from his plate. “It’s not how much you know, it’s how much you’re willing to learn. You’re curious and you’re willing to try. Sometimes that counts more than all the education you could get.”

“I’ll call and make sure they really are able to cover me for the week. I might need to take a trip back to get more clothes though,” I said. It was a couple of hours away, not nearly as far as I originally thought, and I could either go early in the morning or later in the day.

“I appreciate that. It means a lot to me to be able to keep the herd together. The girls have been good to me, and I want to make sure they’re taken care of and not sold off.”

“Is that what you’d have to do?”

“Yes. Once a dairy closes they sell all the stock. Some are sold to other dairies, but a lot go to slaughter and I can’t do that.”

And there was the answer I’d been looking for. He was worried about his cows. The cows that had been the sole purpose of his business that he obviously was attached to. “I don’t want that to happen either. We’ll figure it out. I promise.” I wasn’t sure where those words came from. But after only one day I felt them in my bones. He cared about more than the land his farm was built on, he cared about everything here, and I wanted to help.

“This is one of those times I wish I’d had kids,” he said without an ounce of sadness or regret.

“Did you want them?”

“No, that was never on my list of things to do. I loved it when your dad and his siblings would visit, but a visit is one thing. Every day is a whole other thing. My herd is my family, and I need to protect them.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out.” I hoped I didn’t let him down. The concern on his face every time he mentioned the cows or his herd was obvious, and I wasn’t going to be a part of destroying a life he loved.

Six

Keith

The next day was my day off, so I puttered around my house and tried to force myself to relax. Something that had never been easy for me. I lived in a small house on the outer edge of Foggy Basin where I had more privacy than being on one of the main streets of the small town, but I still had neighbors and some of them apparently needed me as their entertainment.

I looked through my living room window as my neighbor Hank Royer made his way across the street to my door. “Hey, Keith, what’s on the agenda for today,” he said through the screen door while I made a mental note to change that screen door to a steel security door. Not that it would keep him out but at least he’d have a harder time with it. Hank was older than me but younger than Asa. He was a good guy and I didn’t mind—much.

“Hey, Hank, just kicking back trying to relax,” I said and made no move to get out of the recliner I was forcing myself to sit in. Relaxing was hard work when you weren’t used to sitting still.

“You gonna be doing any metal work today?” Hank squinted his eyes and shielded them from the late afternoon sun before moving closer to the screen door. He’d worked hard his whole life as a truck driver and was now officially retired. But he was much like me in the way that he didn’t take to sitting around doing nothing.

I folded my arms and crossed my legs and finally looked at him there with his hands framing his face that was smashed as close to the screen as he could get it. “I might be persuaded.”

I was mostly a hoof trimmer, but I was also a farrier and made shoes for many horses, and through the years I started to enjoy pounding hot metal into a shape. Now I made lots of things that some said were art, while others thought were just cool to look at. I didn’t care either way as long as I got to keep making random things and made enough money to make more. I gave up with a huff and pushed the footrest down on the chair. “Well, come on in. I’m gonna have another cup of coffee first. I have some new designs I want to try.”

“More art?” he asked. I knew it wasn’t his thing he loved to watch me work.

“I saw some meat forks that were made with a curl of metal at the tip and used an antler for a handle.”

His eyes lit up in excitement. Two things Hank loved were watching me work with metal and barbecue. “Is that why you brought those old antlers home? I was wondering about that,” he said.

“I think I’ll try making utensils, it might be fun for a change.”

“What’s that now?” he asked.

“I’m going to try a few new things. I’ve been watching videos of knife makers, so I might give that a go,” I explained and after pouring another cup of coffee, I led him out to the small shed that held everything I needed to work the scrap metal I collected as I found it. Most of the farms I serviced had their share they were happy to get rid of.

“Well, that sounds exciting, so what will you try first?” he asked as I fired up my forge and chose a few pieces of metal.