On Saturday Amy got up, fed dogs and cats and let the chickens out. Then she gathered the cows, sorted off the ones we want to keep at the house and helped me weigh them (OK, I helped her), and returned the others to the big pasture. Then we got the chainsaw out and I taught her to use it, and she cut us several days' supply of firewood and stacked it on the back porch in preparation for the night's forecast cold front. Later we fed cubes in the pasture to make sure the herd had gotten home safely and we picked up some old stumps and crooks from the brush piles there, which she stacked on the firewood rack when we got home. Having a little daylight left, she went out and gave Cowtown some attention and training.
As we discussed her accomplishments I discovered that, "Yep, all in a day's work" weren't the words of affirmation and appreciation she was seeking, and had to grovel a little to get back on her good side. That, and buying her lunch at El Jardin after church on Sunday, did the trick and she was willing to drive the tractor to take hay to the bulls at the Gamblin place and the cows in the pasture before settling in front of a warm fire to watch football the rest of the day. I really am in pretty good hands.
