S T O R I E S

By Julie Carter - Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Saving things is an expected trait among rural folk. Sometimes it is a “must” but most often it simply because they want to. It’s “how they were raised.”

If you are married, related or a neighbor to one, you undoubtedly have 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 that to the "I walked five miles to school every day, uphill both ways" and you have the full story.
Some bit of time ago, a cowboy and his wife set out to put in a new drinking tub for a little dab of cattle they kept close to the house.

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, utilizing what little grass there was. They also had to come in at night. There was no drinker in that trap either.

Much to her surprise, her cowboy actually bought a new drinking tub. In preparation for installation, the couple went through their “saved” supply of short pieces of water hose, float housings, floats and valve connections. This collection came from past decades of repairing countless drinkers. The supply was somewhat depleted, but available just the same.

There were plenty of the hose assemblies for replacements because of past frozen winters, where it had been easier to change out a frozen hose than try to thaw it. The cowboy would bring the ice-solid hoses in and put them in the bathtub for thawing overnight in order to keep the rotation supply available.

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. It was a period in their marriage where her comfort was not his primary concern. That period has lasted 35 years.
Gathering up an armload of the various lengths of hoses, they headed out to get the new drinker connected to water.
First up was to make a float from several old ones. And, it seemed 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 (or standby beverage fetcher). However, she 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.

In all their years of working daily, it was her rule to not keep secrets from him.

However, she distinctly remembered being in the mercantile 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 valued commodities.