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Day Writing by Heather Hamilton-Maude: The Funny Stuff

A while back, we dubbed 2020 the year of twice the effort for half the return. Like so many others, we really won’t miss the vast majority of trials and challenges that persistently riddled the last several months.

But, as we round out this unique year, I want to recap a couple favorite stories that have brought us laughter in the midst of challenging times.

There was the day spent working my in-laws’ cattle, and pulling porcupine quills out of several cows. Lots of porcupine quills. On the way home what did we see waddling along near the road but a porcupine. My husband’s humor toward the species was rather low at that moment, so he stopped, grabbed a tire iron, and saw the little fellow on to the promised land.



As he walked back to the pickup, our daughter confidently and loudly exclaimed, “Dad whacked him in the guts. He’ll be dead all day.”

Both kids still ask to stop and check on the dead porcupine’s guts every time we drive by the location of his demise.



Our son, who is five, took to driving the side-by-side this fall. With all the fun of driving something with an engine came the responsibility of gathering heifer calves and trailing them in to feed. Each morning he would gather his crew prior to heading out: two cats, one dog, and his sister. A lot of license-holding adults nearly wrecked in our yard when they saw a little boy cruise by with a large, yellow tomcat casually looking out the passenger window and an 80-pound English Shepherd with a little girl on her back and a calico kitten peaking around one side in the middle of the seat.

My dad went along one day, and upon emerging alive on the other side, exclaimed he had never experienced anything quite like it. A couple weeks later Dad was back, and I saw him open the side-by-side’s passenger door to let the yellow tomcat in.

The hose that supplied water to our irrigation gun split last summer. My husband swore when that happened, we would seriously consider upgrading to a pivot. So, we had a pivot guy out to see the location and provide a quote. As he left, he swung by the old gun to check it out. As we all converged on the last gate, my husband walked up to tell him good bye, and the man said that was the biggest irrigation gun he had ever seen. My husband never missed a beat, just asked if he was interested in taking it on trade for a new pivot.

He chuckled, and replied that he was not.

As we head into a new year, I don’t think any are naïve enough to believe all the struggles and frustrations of 2020 will magically melt away. However, even when they are harder to see, there is still a great deal of good, and opportunities to tickle your funny bone, tucked into the even the most challenging of times.

Happy New Year!

 


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