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The healing power of waterEditor's note: Kelli Loos, Trent's wife, writes this week's Loos Tales column. As agriculturalists and food producers, particularly those who have suffered through some of the driest years on record, we are all very much aware of the healing powers of water. A good rain can put water in a small stock pond and bring hints of green to a sun-parched hillside. But what about the healing powers of the water that flows from the head of our shower? The shower, for me, is my personal sanctuary. For all those moms with young kids, you know how awesome it is to get to enjoy a long, relaxing shower without someone banging on the door or yanking open the shower curtain. I know there are many of you that prefer a lingering soak in a bathtub but to me the shower symbolizes washing it all away. Down the drain go not only the remnants of whatever you were working with that day but most of your troubles as well. Today was a particularly good day for that. As those of you who may have the privilege of working side by side with a spouse can attest to, even though you're married to someone, you certainly don't always agree on how to best take care of the job at hand. Such was the case with our little fence-building endeavor today. I probably don't have to mention that since my husband travels quite a bit, I handle the day-to-day operations of our outfit. I do have a pretty good system that seems to go straight out the window when he shows up. We usually spend the time that he is home doing two-person projects on the ranch. Today, after we re-weaned the fall calves (if that term doesn't already signal a problem, you might miss the point of this!!) we got started fixing the fences they managed to destroy in an attempt to free not only themselves but darn near everything else on the place. After burying one pickup in the mud, running out of staples, putting the hammer down in a convenient place where "we" could no longer locate it and the near barbed-wire decapitation of one member of the team, this seemingly simple task had turned ugly and gone on way too long. If you ever have the opportunity to hear Cowboy Poet Yvonne Hollenbeck of South Dakota, I urge you to do so. She eloquently and poetically takes up the subject of ranching with your spouse and does so in a manner that will have you laughing until you fall out of your chair. She knows! She has been there and done that. It is actually hard to decide if you are laughing at Yvonne's version of the story or the filmstrip that is playing in your memory bank of the last time you experienced a good spousal sorting-stick duel. Or maybe it was when one of you stomped off leaving the other to finish the job alone. Yeah! You laugh but you know it happens, don't you? And why is it that we can even have such a war of words with the person that we will eventually crawl into bed with at the end of the day? So I thank the good Lord for showers--be they the April variety that brings May flowers or the kind that flows hot and steamy in my bathroom after a "day on the ranch" like today. In my personal sanctuary I was able to watch my frustrations with my dear hubby, our helpless truck, the fence-clearing calves and a four-year-old who has learned to write her name in the least appropriate places, swirl down the drain on a pile of sweet-smelling bubbles. Ah, the amazing, healing powers of water! Editor's note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.FacesOfAg.com, or e-mail Trent at trent@loostales.com. B 9 3/19/07 1 Star WK Date: 3/15/07
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