Cowgirl Sass and Savvy

The henhousified drinker

Julie Carter

Saving everything is a guaranteed trait among rural folk. Cowboys have to and farmers, because that's what they do.

If you are married, related or a neighbor to one, you have frequently heard them say, "Well, I have to be a saver, we grew up poor. We had clean clothes, even if they were patched, and enough to eat, even though it was mostly beans." Add the "walk five miles to school every day, uphill both ways" and you have it all.

Get the violin.

Not long ago, a cowboy and his wife set out to add a drinker (water tank) for the roping cattle.

The very fact he was going to do this for his wife was a mark of love. She had been putting out the cattle every day, sometimes twice a day, and bringing them in, sometimes twice a day, through four sets of gates that had to be set coming and going.

This feeding rotation was an effort to save that high priced hay and let them pick their own groceries to stay strong enough to be roped. They also had to come in at night. There was no drinker in that trap either.

The head cowboy actually bought a new drinking tub. In preparation for installation, the couple went through the supply of short pieces of water hose, float housings, floats, valve connections, all things saved from the past decades of repairing countless drinkers. The supply was somewhat depleted, but saved just the same.

There was good supply of hose assemblies for replacements because of the frozen winters, where it was easier to change out a frozen hose than try to thaw it. The cowboy would bring the frozen hoses in and put them in the bathtub to thaw overnight to keep the rotation supply steady.

That didn't always make the frozen wife happy since the only thing that would thaw her out after a long, cold day was a hot bath.

Gathering up an armload of the hoses in lengths of one to 10 feet long, they headed out to get the new drinker connected to water.

First job was to make up a float from several old ones. And, it seems all the hoses had one end or the other that was nonfunctional and needed new connections. This required hose clamps which he cannibalized off various other components.

He finally got the valve replaced, built a hose, built a float, got a housing that almost fit over the float and soon there was water in the drinker.

This major project took the better part of the afternoon. The wife was there mostly in an advisory capacity, but did manage to hand him the pipe wrench that takes two hands to pick up, the vise grip pliers, the pipe dope and, of course, generally contribute to the fellowship.

They had been married more than 30 years, worked together daily for most of that time, and as a rule, she did not keep secrets from him.

However, she distinctly remembered being in Walmart and seeing a brand new 50-foot hose for $5.39 and new float that would add about $2 to the bill.

She thought about telling him that, but after serious consideration, decided that all afternoon for two cowboys for a $7.39 savings, was about the usual rate of pay.

Henhouse ways have saved fortunes for the cowboy world. That's why there are so many rich cowboys and why baling wire, twine and tape (electrical and duct) are such commodities.

Julie can be reached for comment at www.julie-carter.com.