Back on the hill

When I was a kid, my cousins and I loved going back on the hill to check the cows with my granddaddy. As a little girl, I sat on the seat next to him in the front of the truck, bumping my head as the truck bounced over those rocky paths. Years later, I started sitting on an old tire in the bed of the truck or standing up, holding on to the inside of the open back window, and watching over the top of the truck as we rode through the fields. I'd usually be watching for the black and white border collie that ran in front of the truck, and was always afraid he was going to get himself run over - until eventually he did and lost a leg. Sometimes we'd go down to the river to fill up a big old milk can and some buckets with water for the cows. I'd jump in for a little while to cool off despite my grandmother's fear that I'd drown. Other times, I'd love jumping off the back of the truck to open the gates and close them again to help granddaddy as we went from one field to another. I also remember the feeling I got every time his old blue pick-up would climb this one really steep hill; I was sure we'd tip right over every time. Oh, how I can't wait for Caleb to have those same experiences!

As I mentioned in the ducks and geese post, Caleb loves animals. Yet, aside from one day when we went back on the farm to take some family pictures, he'd never been back on the hill to see the cows. Every time I planned to go, something always seemed to cancel our plans. The Friday after our duck pond excursion, however, Caleb finally got to make his first trip to look at Peppaw's cows.

That old blue pick-up is parked and rusting in a field now unfortunately and my uncle had borrowed granddaddy's other truck for the day, so we bounced around the fields in my Honda Pilot instead. This time I was in the driver's seat. Caleb tried to sit on my lap and help me steer for the first few minutes, but then he crawled over to Granddaddy Eddie's lap so he could get a better look as we approached the cattle.

As soon as we started, we found two calves.

Then, we found the rest.

Of course, Caleb was as alert as ever!

He loved having the window down and didn't
seem to mind all the gnats swarming about everywhere.

He kept reaching for them, hoping he could get a closer.

"Look, Peppaw!"

After all that fun, the four of us took a little time to enjoy the early June weather and take in the mountains. To me there just isn't any better place....