Sowing Seed and Watching Texas Turn Blue

by admin | November 5, 2026 5:32 pm

Finally, some rain.

I began feeding hay to our pair of longhorn steers, Waylon and Willie, and to Pancho, our aged donkey, in early October, long before I had to do so last year. I buy square bales because I don’t have a practical way to haul round bales. Besides, round bales create a lot of waste. So I make many trips to Horaney’s, my feed store of choice, because it is locally owned. I enjoy visiting with Ms. Betty, the matriarch of the store, who is nearly always there, though she is well into her 80s.[1]

All three of the boys come running to the loafing shed when they hear me on the tractor, bringing them another bale. The grass on the two pastures where they graze is getting mighty thin. I’m grateful I am not an actual farmer, trying to make a living at this.

Once we finally got decent rainfall, I got busy. It was time to plant ryegrass in hopes of getting the boys some forage during the winter. That meant unhooking the bushhog and hooking up the seeder. I had to hook the seeder’s main shaft to the PTO, which rotates and sends the seed flying.

I realize that I complain about hooking an implement to the PTO pretty much every time I have to do it. Fortunately, that is only a few times a year. Most of the time I just leave the bushhog attached, but there is no grass to mow until spring. I will plant the ryegrass, plus some sacks of carpetgrass on a piece of the farm that was mulched last spring. I bought the carpetgrass seed in July and have been waiting for rain since.

The challenge with the PTO is that my arms are too short. I have to squeeze into the three-point hitch and try to get the shaft onto the tractor. This always involves cursing and gnashing my teeth. I was nearly to the point of texting a fellow hobby farmer to see if her much taller husband might be coming to town and could stop by to help. I’m sure he would have been happy to do so, but I finally got it onto the shaft. I hefted a 50-pound sack of ryegrass into the seeder’s conical bin and went to sowing.

I immediately had three interested four-legged followers. The boys stayed out of the tractor’s path but did their best to eat the ryegrass seed. Since each seed is smaller than a grain of rice, they couldn’t make even a modest dent in what I was spreading.

It felt great to be on the tractor again — and not be sweating profusely.

My cares truly melt away, or at least they recede into the background, when I am on the tractor, whether bushhogging or spreading seed, driving around picking up fallen tree limbs, or hauling a load of gravel up to the backyard to fill holes that Daisy, our rescue Great Pyrenees, has dug. That big puppy loves to dig holes, a habit I hope she outgrows.

I wear noise-canceling earbuds while on the tractor and listen to podcasts, usually from the good folks at Crooked Media, which produces “Pod Save America” and a slate of other quality political shows. I was listening Wednesday morning after the election, reveling in the news that Texas at long last has turned blue. Democrats took every statewide seat up for election. I have waited more than half my life for this to happen.

Driving my tractor, dumping hay for the boys, more range cubes and sweet feed, cleaning the chicken coop — all the hobby farming chores — just felt a bit more enjoyable that morning, under a clear blue Texas sky.

At last, we live in a blue state. You might not agree, but at least grant that it is well past time to try something different. God bless Texas voters!

Source URL: https://garyborders.com/sowing-seed-and-watching-texas-turn-blue/

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