Smells like home

I’ve almost always lived around cattle. Not WITH cattle, this is the South but it’s not THAT South. Anyway, we never owned cattle but they’ve always been around in some way. When my family lived on Belt Line Rd close to the city limits of our tiny town of Purvis, the family across the street had cattle and horses at different times. The cattle were of no interest to my 5 year old self but the horses…I looked for excuses to take vegetable trimmings across the street to them. But because there were more cattle than horses, their “aroma” was the overpowering one.

Later, we built a house in the country (read sticks) and was surrounded on three sides by cattle. Lots of cattle. My Uncle Lavon’s cattle. One particular hot summer day when I was a teenager, my mom remarked how strong their … um, “leavings” were and I replied by taking a long sniff of ammonia scented air and replied, “Smells like home.” Because it did. Cattle equals home now. Odd but true.

Here’s some of Uncle Lavon’s cattle. Plus a few shots of foggy sunshine over the duck pen and the half naked Red Oak. Enjoy.