I wasn’t raised on a farm but I do have a little experience on a farm. My wife’s mother and dad had quite a few acres out in the country and I knew absolutely nothing about anything farm related until I married her. Then I had fun. Of course, it was the time of the year when you could have fun at the farm. You could fish if you wanted to. You could ride around and play with the cows and do all sorts of fun stuff.

Then it got cold and it was a different lesson to be learned. I can remember going down there to feed the cows one day and I called my wife on the phone and told her the tank behind the house is frozen. She said, “Well, break it up” and I asked, “How do you do that”? It was one of the most miserable experiences I have ever had in my life. I was walking out as far as I could on the ice then taking a sledge hammer and breaking it. By the time I got back to where I was it was frozen again. I didn’t like frozen tanks and I still don’t like them. I’m thankful freezing weather only bring memories now.

We had some adventures, not all of them were cold weather, obviously. We had an agreement with the Coleman Sheriff’s Department to kind of keep an eye on the place. As it turned out, one of the deputies lived pretty close and he did keep an eye on it. But, we got placed on the list as number one who to call if there was a problem anywhere in the area of the farm. We had a deal where they would call if they got a report of an animal anywhere on the edge of the highway which runs right in front of the place. Sure enough, every two or three months we would get a call – always after hour calls. “Dallas you’ve got a bull out on the highway”. I think it was like five consecutive times we got that call and leave the house late at night to drive up there, only to find it wasn’t one of our cattle or there were no cattle to be found at all.

Then there was the night they called and said, “There’s a bull in the bar-ditch across from your place”. It’s after midnight and we go up there and sure enough it’s our black bull, across the highway down a ways from our place. I drove my pickup behind him and honked and everything else with no results and my wife said, “Forget it. Just go to the gate and open it”. I said, “Okay, I guess”. I took off driving. It’s hot weather and I’m scared to death of snakes and she’s out in the bar ditch. She stands there and talks to this bull for a couple of minutes. I’m down unlocking the gate and I look back up the roadway and she’s walking the bull. She walks the bull a quarter of a mile or so until she gets even with the gate on the other side of this four lane highway and I look back and she’s walking him across the road – across the road! The gate has an old cattle guard and she walks him up to the cattle guard and says to open the gate. I open the gate and she walks the bull across that cattle guard. I’m stunned! She gets over there, turns and walks back to me, and says, “Close the gate and lock it. Let’s go home.”

Until next time, so long everybody.

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‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].