Life Thru a Lady's Purse......

FYI...…contents of this blog may not be of interest to my male blog followers.  But by all means, totally feel free to read!  (Yes, I am smiling...)

Have you ever thought about the life of a ladies purse?  Or what a purse says about that Lady?  Ya, me neither..........until the other day.  I was helping my mom switch to a new purse and it got me thinking about all the different purses she has had in her life time and how the contents change through the years.  So this is how I picture her purses through out her 85 years.

Her first purse when she was a little girl, was probably just for church or perhaps Easter.  It was small and in it I'm thinking was a tissue and if she was lucky a penny or two. 
Her next purse was maybe when she was a teenager. It would have been a little bigger but yet still small. The contents were probably tissue, money, comb, and "female item".   
As a young adult, the contents grew, to include tissue, money, brush,"female item", gum, makeup, a wallet, and pictures.
Then as a mother, the size more then doubled to hold tissue, money, hair brush, "female item", cheerios, snacks, credit cards, toys, and wet wipes. 
As a grandmother, the contents included tissue, money, wallet, credit cards, lipstick, gum, candy, lots of pictures, an address book and pen/paper.....and maybe some snacks. 
Now to the preset purse.  I'm not sure what we would call these years, the elder years?  Whatever they are, what's in her purse now is a wallet, credit cards, pictures, tissue, a pad for "leakage", and an extra change of underwear.  (and DO NOT tell her I said this!)
So if you want to know what stage of life a lady is in, just check her purse.  And a little advice......make sure your purse in your "elder"
stage of life is a stylish one cuz the contents are not that flattering. 

Baby it's cold outside......but the shipping must go on.....

I sure did want to call in sick today.  6 degrees out side and I did not want to go out in the freezing elements and work.  But couldn't do that......no one to call when you are your own boss and/or are living with the boss.  Today was shipping day for the yearlings and of course I am my Farmers number one helper (ya right, like he says, I have to be there to make sure he does it right) so I had to be there.
Fortunately, I got a new pair of Carhartt overalls for Christmas, to keep me warm and looking good.  My old pair were mens and were really big and baggy on me.  These are still big, but they are womens and they are purple. (and yes I am smiling)  I still look like a blimp with them on, but I'm a stylin' blimp. 
Loading the yearlings (calves that are about a year old) can be interesting, but my Farmer has developed a pretty good system.  He sorts off about 3 at a time and runs them up into the trailer.  My job is to stand inside the trailer and keep the loaded ones from coming back off and then getting out of the way when more come on.  Oh ya, plus to count them, which seems to be hard for me.  You'd think loading three at a time it'd be easy to keep count, but it's not, for me anyways.  I forget easily.  As far as standing in the trailer as the critters load, I try to be brave as I do this......but really I am not.  This morning I told myself, be brave they are just yearlings and they are not gonna hurt you.  Then I over hear my Farmer telling a new helper that if the animal comes toward you to turn your body so your back is toward it so if and when it kicks, your knees will bend in the right direction.  WHAT!! Have I been told this before?  I know it's very good advice, but now I am spooked.  However I am totally stylin' in my new overalls, so why would one try and kick at me.  Right?  And I was right.  Not one tried to get me....I mean kick me.  Everything went smoothly,  and now they are off  to market which means pay day for us.  Yeappy! 

As I said it was 6 degrees when we left the house, but by the time we were done, the sun was shining, it had warmed up to about 12 degrees and it was a beautiful morning......still cold, but beautiful.   Turns out I am glad I couldn't call in sick.   I really did enjoy the morning.....but DO NOT tell my Farmer.  I can't let him know I enjoyed getting up early with him.....it would totally ruin my image. 

  

helpful hints from my Farmer

I had a harrowing experience the other day, (well, I thought it was at the moment) and it made me recall a few important lessons my Farmer has taught me over the years.  I thought maybe i would share them.  These are lessons I learned when driving our farm equipment, but have used them many times out side of the farm life.

Do not panic.  Panicking only causes more problems. This is hard for me, I am a really good panickier (person the panics).  Especially when i am going up a hill, try to stop, the brakes don't work, and i start rolling backwards down the hill.  Or my tractor jumps out of gear as I am going down a hill.  I just have to remember our hills are little and I will stop at the bottom....so my Farmer says.

Don't push in the clutch when driving down a steep hill.  If you do, you can get in a lot of trouble real fast.   Your tractor starts going faster in a hurry, and when you let the clutch out......well let's just say that it is not good, especially if there is snow on the ground.  My Farmer taught me this on bare ground, but I learned from experience on snowing ground.......not good......totally causes a panic moment.

Do not hold onto the steering wheel when you look behind you.  It seems that when you turn your head to look behind, you also turn the steering wheel, which in turn makes a crooked row.  So I learned to loosen my grip on the wheel, when I look behind.  I do not let go completely, just in case I might need to grab it quick. (Could be my controlled issue kicking in too)

Use your mirrors when backing up.  This lesson is one of the best he has taught me and has came in handy many times. When backing up, use both side mirrors and the rearview mirror (if they are not broken off).  This way you can still keep an eye on the front end of the vehicle.  I had to learn this when I started driving the field trucks and the Semi Truck, as you can not look out the back window (mostly because there isn't one).  This did take a lot of practice, but I can do it, very well in my opinion, even with a trailer......most of the time. (there is a small dent in my pickup caused by me backing up while hook to a trailer, but we wont discuss that).

So those are my important lessons learned from my Farmer that I am passing on to you.  I'm sure I will learn more to share someday, cuz I am always learning while I am Livin' life, the farm life that is.