February 3rd……“WHAT WERE SOME OF THE WAYS YOUR FAMILY CLEANED YOUR BARN ON YOUR CHILDHOOD FARM NEAR KIESTER, MINNESOTA?”
POEM – “To Scoop Dah Poop!” by N. Elliott Noorlun
Time to spin, Another yarn,
Of daily life, Down in our barn.
Barn-swallows in, The rafters flew,
But down below, Were gutters of goo.
Our bovine beauties, Were a busy crew,
When it came to droppin’, Lots of doo,
That perfume rose, Up to our nose,
To rid that stuff, Did a challenge pose.
A stiff push broom, We’d give it a shove,
As them “cow-cakes”, Fell from above,
Onto the walkway, Behind each “girl”,
Who was too powerful, As she’d “unfurl”.
With walkways clear, By broom once again,
Twas now the time, For us farmer men,
To grab pitch fork, For Dad and boy,
And roll on in, Our “fertilizer toy”.
We’d start with scraper, At one end,
Of gutter as, We’d push n bend,
And push those “giblets”, Far as we could go,
Till “brown stuff” got heavy, And said, “NO!”
We’d grab the “bucket”, On track above,
And along the ceiling, We’d give it a shove,
To the point in the barn, With gutter “pile” big,
And lowered the “bucket”, It was time to dig,
Scoop after scoop, Of manure with a fork,
By golly t’was just, Such sweaty work.
But then one day, As Elliott worked,
A step in safety, He did shirk.
That “bucket” of poo, Spun upside down,
And flung that load, Of “goo” to the ground.
Colorful words, Flew from this lad,
Cause now double work, Was his to be had.
With “bucket” swung round, To be right side up,
It was time to repeat, The work of this pup.
With the goo in the loo, We rolled it outside,
Where manure spreader waited, For loads from inside.
A pull from a rope, “Bucket” dumped its load,
And eventually then, Tractor’d head for the road,
To fertilize fields, Making them grow green,
And blessing us with , A barn now clean!! 😉
Norwegian Farmer's Son 