As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
It is no secret that I hate my old man. It has been years that bastard has been dead and he still finds a way to polish that hatred in memories I have of him every so often. He is jailed in hell as it should be with all self righteous sinners and as I have prayed others out of hell, that is one cookie I am not going to pray out, even if I was tempted a time or two over the years as, here am I, a good soul by God.
I was telling TL about the old man the other day as our project out of necessity due to some other assholes not keeping their word was forcing us to recondition the old man's horse trailer. I will get to that in a bit.
I was telling TL about our bulls. We had one called Tony. That Goddamn bull was a killer. Threw wild as hell spindly legged calves. Almost killed me when we got it as it chased me up a fence, and it blew through like straw a huge sheet of thick plywood the person he bought this damned bull from had to keep him in.
I would have hauled that 600 dollar calf right to the sale barn, but not the old man.
So Tony was a terror in you had to dodge him in the pasture and feedlot and chasing cattle. One time we were moving cattle and that son of a bitch got out in front of the cows and made this low bellar. That entire herd just stopped and would not move.
The old man though had allot of spunk and he tore home on a terror, and was back as I sat there with the mother with the cattle in the run just waiting as Tony was master of the herd. So up pulls the old man, I see he has a shotgun and BOOM. He shoots that fucking bull at about 50 yards right in the as with bird shot. That Goddamn got his attention and there was no more bellaring in holding things up. I think the old man plastered his ass again.
I would have been afraid of killing the son of a bitch. Hell I would have figured that Goddamn bull would have took off and we never would have seen him again. I never figured he would kill me on the horse, as that was probably the scenario I should have figured on, but that probably was due to the fact I was getting my ass chewed as the old man was screaming, "Goddamn kids shooting all the shotgun shells up!"
No I did not, but who did was my brother and he had lit out long before that for a better life in leaving me with his shit life.
Tony, also was dehorned in a shitty job, so his one horn came back. It curled so it grew back into his head. We didn't have anything that would hold that son of a bitch (thankfully as you know who would have been on the ass end getting him into the chute and getting killed when he changed his mind.) so the old man took him to town. For some reason I always got told to come along for shit like that. Never any fun shit, just some rodeo circus which might get someone killed.
So we unloaded that bull, and the vet had tough equipment. Got Tony in the chute and I stayed back by the vet as I was not wanting to get killed. The vet used a wire horns saw and took the horn off. The old man told me later, "I could see that bull had murder in his eyes, so I poked him, and I could really see he wanted to get me after that".
That was my old man in a nutshell. He just could not keep his hands off stuff and would do something like that just to see what would happen and antagonize that damn bull some more.
Oh I don't think that bird shot even penetrated that bull's hide. Sure didn't kill him from lead poisoning. Thank God he never got infected as you damn well I would have got ordered to get on the tail end again and Lord God imagine a lunatic bull with a bird shot infected ass and fever in not being in a good mood.
So that is my old man. He always was looking for a buy, and usually got someone elses junk in the buy. That is what I thought of his horse trailer when he proudly brought it home. The one above is the closest I could find of a Hale trailer with a canvas top. This one though is way newer than the old mans. The old man's was wood sides and as I was looking at it today it has square nuts on it. That is like older than hell stuff. Probably right after the war or before, who the hell knows.
There is no information on Hale trailers really. Think they were made in Tulsa OK, and the company went tits up. The selling point for the old man was it had a canvas top on it, so you could take it off, rope a bull and pull it into a trailer. We never did shit like that, but the old man had his dreams and delusions and now that I think about it, it is like, "What the fuck JW, that top was heavier than hell, it was tied down by rope as you could see. It would take hours to get that fucking thing off and who the hell wants to waste that kind of time."
The only bull we ever loaded in a pasture was a nice Hereford that got out to fight with the neighbor's bull. Was a hell of a thing. The old man drove into the pasture, we got out, opened the gate and shooed the bull to the trailer and he walked in like he was trained.
Hell of a sight different than a bull we had named Rex. That fucking thing would not load, or there were four men and me on a rope that dragged his ass into a trailer one day and by God after that in being choked off and his ass beat, he would load. He as snorty too though in liked pawing and acting like he would kill you.
Most people would have junked the old man's trailer. I was disgusted with the thin in having that odd canvas stop and being old as the hills when he brought home his pride and joy. God knows that I got the mother to get rid of allot of his junk as I did not want to fix that shit or have it around reminding me of him. The trailer though I parked and there it sat as the wind ripped off the canvas top.
I got to looking at it years ago and said when I got money I was going to fix that thing, as I kind of liked it better without the old man around. They say Hales are built like tanks. No they are not, Livestock trailers, all stock trailers are light and will collapse about on their own. This one though was so beat to hell from the old man and had fixes on it, that it really kind of got the limitations on it dealt with.
I welded enough on the rods to keep the floor down and the sides as they cracked as the old man would load that trailer to the max. He put in two chains to hold the sides in as that is the kind of loads he ran. Hell one time he showed up in he had been hauling the neighbor's Holsteins, trailer full, and he broke the tongue off the trailer. He was like a little kid in not knowing what to do. I was pissed and disgusted as I thought I had got shed of that prick for the afternoon, and here he comes ordering me I had to go along and help.
I surveyed the situation as a teenager and told him, "Go get your brother's trailer and haul the cattle in that as we will load onto it."
That was a kosher idea for him, so away we went. Uncle was not around, so we took the trailer and away we went. I would have hauled the cattle all at once, but not the old man. Only half a load and I got the real thrill in being ordered that I had to go along too. He was such a fucking puss when he fucked up and could not bully his way through.
So 50 miles I ride with him, meaning 100 miles front and back. I get there and now he tells me, I am no longer needed, and I can go drag the trailer home, and off he goes.
So the tongue is busted off and the trailer is facing the wrong way from home. Right now I do not know how I got turned around, but it must have been an abandoned place I dragged it into a quarter mile up. Anyway I have my fuck up moments as a kid, and half way home the trailer goes clunk and it is riding the jack wheel. I stop, do not know what to do, so just keep pulling it.
The old man looked at it and said later,"Why didn't you jack the thing up an shorten the chain".
I never thought of that. It was my first broken tongue trailer adventure and being abandoned again to figure shit out the old man fucked up with did have it's limitations.
So that is the old man's trailer. I miss him some in writing this as he was such a dumb ass. I called him that once and he was going to pop me, but I was too spry and jumped out of the way. I would enjoy him more now as I would just tell him to fuck off in being a flunked out tard in 8th grade (He was a genius but was head up his ass too.) and make him cry now, but he is dead so no sport in that.
Instead I had TL along with starting to put the JYG floor in the trailer. See with non donors I can't afford trailer flooring. Hell it was 600 bucks years ago when I had considered it. Is allot more now, so it was JYG where I found some Redwood, 6 inch tongue and groove plank. I about shit when he started talking half price, but thankfully his price was 1 dollar a board foot, so ended up with 60 bucks for the shit plank he had.
So we trimmed some, I fucked up on a few boards in the half circle and decided to redo as it is kind of important to not have cattle fall through the floor like the old man had the Russian's bull punch a leg through the floor. Yeah this 4 inch plank floor is probably 70 plus years old and was dead years ago. The old man though fixed it with plywood sheets on the floor which was no fix.
So we pulled the old plank off, and that is easy as it was rotten and these floors are all friction held, meaning tongue and groove and only two carriage bolts in the back end hold it all together as rods all along the top hold the boards down and into place.
There was some iron that rusted out that we hammered off on the frame. I don't know what that shit was and no one is around to ask as the people who built it are all dead. I cut some of the bad rod out, welded down some loose stuff, and welded more of the cracked frame and we are good to go in the final assembly of the floor.
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JYG tells me he has some metal panels for the sides, which means getting those rusted froze in bolts off the sides to get these metal bands on. Then I have to rebuild the back door panel that rotted out and the emergency side door that rotted out and the main trailer should be good.
Yes I have to rewire the lights and I think I may try some latex paint shit on the vinyl tarp to reuse that, even if I would love to have a metal roof, but I have no time to build a roof for this beat to hell trailer now, as money costs.
So the old man tested this trailer out pretty good. He got it tuned up in where it broke and I can still hear that distinct sound this trailer makes in rattling and squeaking as it shakes along in pastures, getting pulled over rocks and bouncing around in shit. He took this trailer places no one would take a trailer today.
As I said, most people would have junked this trailer. As I can not find pictures of one, most of them are gone. I know the neighbor had one before he sold out when I was a kid, a that was the only other Hale I ever saw like this one. His though was in much better shape. I would the old man's trailer was in great shape like the one above.
If the floor turns out though, it is going to be more pleasant. Get the metal bands in it and the doors closed up, it will look more reassuring. Get a top put on it and I probably will figure we need to paint it and then it will be too nice.
I just hate begging for donations and begging neighbors to haul things for me as that is not who I am. I want my own stuff and the freedom with it. I won't license this thing as it is just going to Grandpa's and back and I probably will drag it into Old Steve's pasture to load wood into.
It is though no longer the old man's trailer and is now our trailer. I can see benefits in it, especially since we put in a floor, instead of the shit that was in it. I think this trailer still has a few of the 12 ply original trailer tires on it, that were made in America. Yeah back when tires lasted 75 years because Americans made things. Hell the neighbor was telling me he blows those Goddman Chinamen tires which are 12 ply out regular. I intend to nurse those old tires along as they do not make tires or trailers like this piece of shit anymore. I guarantee this trailer is going to be around long after all that shit made in the 1970's is rusted and rotted out and all this aluminum shit is bent sideways.
I'm glad I got the trailer and the old man is long gone.
Nuff Said
agtG
