Bovine Revenge

Most farmers are the salt of the earth kind of people. They don’t count hours, just work until the job is done. Farmer are always amongst the first to help someone in need. They can be a bit gruff and rough around the edges but wrap it all up with a solid sense of justice and humor in even measures. I grew up on a farm and chose to spend my professional career working with farmers. I’ve always appreciated that they are an independent lot and it’ best to not get on their bad side.

I was recently chatting with a gentleman, who had just finished a phone call with his father. He was still chuckling as he told me that his father, who farms in our area, was in the house on this third cup of tea while watching a lineman from the electric company who had finished his work but was sitting on top of a ladder staring down at the cows that had surrounded him. The lineman had completed the repairs and had been sitting up there for over half an hour, apparently afraid of descending into a herd of cattle.

The following day, I encountered the same man and asked about his dad and the lineman. He proudly reported that since the electric company had been such buggers last year when they needed a power pole moved on the farm, his dad decided to not rescue the man and it took over two hours for the cows to move on and the lineman to get down and go to his truck.

Revenge? Karma? I don’t know what to call it, but it’s best to not mess with farmers.