When Is It Too Cold To Work?

    When is it too cold to work outside? Maybe 30 degrees Fahrenheit? It was 30 today and it felt warm! I really don't like cold weather, I would much rather deal with the heat than see how many foot and hand warmers I can stuff in my shoes and gloves.
    We got back from the Missouri Cattlemen's Association Convention on Saturday the 4th, the next day we sorted our steers and heifers. That Sunday the high was 15 degrees and that didn't even take into account the wind chill. Trust me, the wind was very very cold! My dad was really generous that day; he had let us kids wait in the house till he needed us to help sort. We pulled on any layer of clothing we could find and headed out to the barn. 

Check list: Two stocking caps? Check. Two pairs of gloves? Check. Toe and Hand Warmers? Double check!

    Sorting cows is probably one of the easiest jobs on the farm. My dad will push the cattle through to the chute. There my sister Kylee and brother Jake will make sure the cows continue down the chute and not turn around and head back the other way. That happens more than you would think. Once the cow is at the end of the chute, depending on if we are selling or keeping the animal, either my brother Kurt or I will open a gate to release the cow into a pen. Kurt had the pen containing the cattle we were planning on selling while I was in the pen that held the heifers we were planning to hold back for our herd. We were planning on selling all of the older calves except for 30 heifers.
    After we finished sorting the cattle my dad had let us go back inside. We didn't even give him a second to change his mind, we were running back to the house. After we stripped off all of the excess layers we focused on getting feeling back in our feet and hands. Kylee and I ended up soaking our feet in scolding hot water. Of course Grandma made us hot chocolate. :)

The best way to end a day, drinking hot chocolate out of a John Wayne mug.

    While we were inside employees from the sale barn came with three trucks and trailers to take the calves away. We were all relieved to see those vehicles drive away, there was always a chance that the steers and heifers would tear down a fence and join the herd again. If that would have happened we would have had to start all over, as in bring every cow, calf, and bull in and sort through them one by one. Then sort through the calves again! It is too cold to do it all over!

Bye bye bovine! 

    The cattle was transported to Kingsville Sale Barn, were they sold in the beef auction on Tuesday the 6th. My grandparents went and watched, I had to go back to school. I would have much preferred trying to listen to an auctioneer sell off our bovine than learn about spanish verbs.