Things I Learned in a Barn

October 6, 2024
 
Reflections From the Heart of Allan Redenius
Things I learned around the barn:

• When you’re young, hay mows are for having fun.  When you’re old, hay mows are for storing bales of hay;
• Little kittens can hang upside down on the milking pipe about ten seconds, before they fall.  Don’t worry, they always land on their feet;
• If there is a bull in the barn and he’s in a stall made of 2x12’s, don’t be fooled, thinking you’re safe on the outside.  Them thar boards are like toothpicks to Mr. Bull when he gets riled;
• Don’t stand between two cows in the stanchion.  I saw my Dad almost get crushed by two cows as they put the squeeze on him;
• If you raise a calf, she’ll still suck your thumb when she’s six hundred pounds.  Boy was I ever dumb.  You’ve heard of people who are all thumbs?  I could have easily been one with no thumbs;
• You’ve heard of lions and tigers and bears.  It was my job to go out after dark to make certain the barn door was shut tight.  The path from the house to the barn went under a humongous cottonwood tree. Lurking in its branches was a tiger.  I never saw him, but I knew he was there.  I’ve been thinking about this for a long time!  Why did I have to do that job after dark?  Couldn’t I have checked the barn door when it was light?  Oh well, I learned how to outwit that tiger!
• In the silo, it was there I was a “Gladiator Extraordinaire.”  Every day I fended off a hundred lions or more, with my precision javelin arrows.  Well, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration.  I actually just threw my pitchfork at the mice.

 
I learned a lot of things around the barn.  Most of which are no longer useful.  But this one thing I am still very cautious about.  Walking under cottonwood trees in the dark.  You can’t see them, but the tigers are there.
 
Yes-sir-ree, there’s a LOT to learn in the barn!  Wasn’t Jesus born in a barn?
Pastor Allan
 
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