Monday was another workday that began at 5 a.m. I was scheduled to take samples at an out-of-town dairy at 7 a.m. Now, dairies do smell horrible. The manure & urine from the penned areas flow into large ponds.
In order to take samples, we walk around the pond & dip samples from various locations. It was cold & damp with dew collected on the tall grass around the pond’s perimeter. The legs of my jeans were soaked. After the lagoon was sampled, then a sample of manure was taken (fortunately, I didn’t escort for this one).
Afterward, I’m driving down the highway wondering, “How am I going to get this smell out of my nose?” I felt like it lingered on me. I checked my boots again. “No visible signs of manure here.” I went to the state agency in Stephenville for some documentation & visited with the staff some. As I got in my car, I noticed the smell again. “Is it me?” I checked my boots again. “No cow manure.” This was beginning to frustrate me.
At 11 a.m., I couldn’t hold off on eating lunch. When your day starts so early, you become famished earlier. After I ordered my meal & began chomping on some chips & salsa, again I wondered, “why do I still smell manure?” I went outside to check my boots again & find a boot scraper. (They can be found at the doorstep of many fine establishments in rural Texas.)
As I stood in the sun, checking my boots once again, my answer was revealed as a yellow water ring around the calves of my pant legs. Apparently, the hem of my jeans was wet not just from the dew around the waste lagoon….
