Feed the cake; eat it, too

There’s this week between Christmas and New Year’s that just seems to be the strangest sort of time. No matter the work you have to do or the places you have to be, it still seems like time and the world is just a little bit off from the speed that it normally runs.

Out on the farm and over at the ranch, work doesn’t stop because it’s the season for celebrating, but it still seems to soak up the festive spirit.

The family manages to show up at Grandma’s for Christmas dinner and most found the time to cook enough food that you can call it a feast. For a few hours on that holy afternoon, the work isn’t on top of everyone’s mind and there’s nothing but good times and family.

Then, it’s time for dessert.

By the time the first round of stuffing wears off, the real world begins to come back too. Kids have calves that need to be checked for sickness and to make sure they didn’t step out of the fence onto the road again. Parents have cattle in the pens that need fed and cows in the pasture that need their water checked too.

Someone’s got a pickup that needs a little fixing, and what better time to poll the sandhill mechanics society than when we’re all together and have had at least one cup of coffee? That’s right. There’s not much of a better time or a better mood.

The wheels start turning again before the day gets dark. A few problems are solved by the joining of experience and bright upstarts alike. The closest things are checked before everyone goes home to bed down. Morning will bring the long runs to the further places and back again.

A holiday isn’t much of a break from the daily doings that agriculture requires. But it does bring a rare pause and time for family and good times. There’s more time for the next few days, even as the work doesn’t stop, because there are enough leftovers, that the evenings can be spent around the fireplace, instead of fixing food for some or all of us.

For those few days, while the dessert lasts, you might have some cake for yourself while you cake the cows at the ranch.

Audra Brown hasn’t had to cook yet. Contact her at: [email protected]