The Rocking R Ranch by Tim Washburn

Author:Tim Washburn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2020-05-05T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 37

Seth saw his mother and his aunt jawing as they walked through the yard and he hurried around the house to the back porch, where he waited to hear the front door closing before picking up the milk bucket and heading toward the barn. There was no doubt his mother had heard the shooting and he wasn’t up for answering any questions at the moment. In fact, he didn’t want to see or talk to anyone at all.

When he reached the barn, he slid open the large rolling door and slipped inside. Every morning one of the ranch hands drove the milk cows into the barn for milking and Seth walked down the row of stalls and spotted one of his favorite cows, Molly, and stopped. Leaning down to see if she had already been milked, Seth was glad to see her swollen udder. He opened the gate and stepped inside. He liked Molly because, unlike some other ornery cows, she rarely kicked, and her milk flowed easily. And that was exactly what he was looking for this morning. His right arm felt like lead and his hand ached almost as bad as his blistered butt. To add to his misery, the repeated hammer cocking had ripped his thumb wide open.

He talked softly to Molly, a red shorthorn with white spots, as he worked around the stall. Longhorn cows didn’t produce enough milk to fill the belly of a newborn kitten, so his grandpa had brought in twenty or thirty shorthorn cows years ago to fulfill the ranch’s milk needs. Seth knew there was a breeding method that led to continued milk production, but he hadn’t spent that much time studying it. And he wasn’t spending any time thinking on it today—he was more focused on his shooting mechanics and how to correct his mistakes. He was pretty quick at getting the gun out, but his aim was always off. And if he concentrated on aiming, then the gun was slow to come up. He needed to learn to shoot like Percy, who made drawing and shooting look effortless.

Forgoing the stool since he wouldn’t be able to sit on it, Seth nudged some cow dung out of the way with the toe of his boot and knelt down, placing the bucket under Molly’s udder. Working with only his left hand, he grabbed one of her teats up high and squeezed as he gently pulled his hand down, shooting a stream of milk into the bucket. Using both hands, Seth could have milked the cow in about five minutes but operating one-handed was another matter entirely. He couldn’t get into a rhythm and he didn’t have the strength in his left hand that he had in his right. After twenty minutes he had less than a half a bucket of milk and called it quits. His ma would be angry with him, but Seth decided if she wanted more milk, she could send Jacob, or she could do the milking herself.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.