Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Videos

I watched the video that I posted last week about the parallel parking debate. Thank you to all who voted in my favor. Really was there any doubt. I guess they don’t teach you how to count in Law School. Three things came to mind as I watched it.
#1. I need to lose some weight. I look pretty fat. Maybe it was the lighting in the basement. But I doubt it.
#2. I pause way too often by saying Aaaaaaaaaaaa. And while I am at it, are there any other critiques that you have? Moving my hands too much?
#3. Maybe I need to do a weekly video segment, if for no other reason than to work on my public speaking. I used to be much better at it, back when I was in college and gave campus tours. That was some easy money.
What do you think? Would you like to see more video of me talking about blog worthy issues? Maybe I could even do remotes.

Friday, November 12, 2010

A New Show to Watch

I have been tuning into a show called “The League” on FX. It is in it’s second season. The main premise of the show is about a group of guys in a fantasy football league. I know, no one likes to hear about other people’s fantasy football teams. But this show is more about the stupid bets, trophies and stunts played over the course of a season. I can sort of relate to the show to me and my friends. In fact there is one character on the show, Ruxin, who is exactly like The General, especially in the way he runs. And because it is on late at night, they allow swearing. Of course I can’t stay up late enough to watch it so I have to record it. I think it is even on demand. I suggest giving it a couple episodes and see if it grows on you.

Another show that I have been tuning in for is “The Event” on NBC. It is about some Extra-Terrestrials that save the President from being assassinated. And it is also about a girl who gets kidnapped. They have yet to tie the two stories together. I am intrigued by the show, but I am guessing in the end I am going to be disappointed with how it all comes together.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Winter is in the Air

Continuing with the contest theme, here is another one for you. When will we have the first measureable snowfall in the Milwaukee area? By measureable snowfall, I mean that the ground turns white and only I will be the judge. Leave a comment with your date, the person who is closest to the actual date will receive an Oakland Gyro, extra pita and large rootbeer.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Jack James Sherman

I was checking out facebook this evening, and I noticed that Katie had pictures of their new son up there. And since half of my readers are my family, and I don't know if they have seen pictures of Jack. I thought I would steal one and post it here. I am sure Katie and Justin won't mind. But I am sure you can tell by the picture, he is definitely a Sherman.

Costume Contest

Here are your entries to the Halloween costume contest. As I recall Borky won last year because he bought a bowling shirt and dyed his hair. Let’s see how he does this year. I am not including myself in the contest because I wore the same costume as last year. And if it didn’t win last year, it won’t win this year.
1st MKA as an Oompa Loompa.2nd Young as Super Mario.
3rd Trooper as a “One Night Stand”.
4th Eric as a coach. I love those shorts. I need to get a pair of those. Straight out of “Dazed and Confused”. 5th Borky as Alan from “The Hangover”.Please vote on who you think had the best costume. As always, the winner will receive an Oakland Gyro, extra pita and large rootbeer.
Who has the best costume
MKA, Oompa Loompa
Young, Super Mario
Trooper, One Night Stand
Eric, Coach
Borky, Alan
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Weekend Recap

Friday Night I joined a number of people in celebrating the union of Preston and Jessica in holy matrimony. Congratulations! I mentioned that evening that if the murder in my house had never happened, then I would have never bought the house, and most likely these two love birds would have never met. Think about that. The butterfly effect.

Saturday I spent 3 hours raking leaves in my yard. I still need half of the leaves on my maple tree in the backyard to drop. So I am unfortunately not done with the leaves. After yard work, I was couch bound to watch Bucky prevail in victory which vaulted them in the 7th place in the BCS Standings. If Bucky can manage to win out over, Indiana, Michigan and Northwestern, they are headed for a BCS Bowl Game. But as is everyone else, I am worried about that Michigan game. I am predicting that Wisconsin will meet Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. Saturday evening I subbed for my brother in law on his bowling team. I bowled a 107, 80 and 110. I really stink at bowling. Although I did pick up the 10 pin for a spare left handed.

Sunday I took everyone’s money playing sheepshead while watching football. I also sent a number of texts tormenting Borky about their savior, Brett Favre. It is so great to watch the Vikings self destruct. As I look forward toward the rest of this season and into next, I see the Packers’ main competition will come from, if you can believe it, Detroit.

Seriously look at the Vikings. They are a ship lost a sea with a coach and quarterback fighting over who gets to steer. It appears that Jared Allen has tied up his last calf, because he flat out stinks. If they didn’t have Peterson, I could easily see this team without a win this season. Wait check that, they still would have beat the Cowboys. It looks inevitable, but I wish the Vikings wouldn’t fire Childress. I would love to see how bad it would get next year with Tavaris Jackson under center and Chili still dawning the headset. Dear Vikings, Can you please hire Wade Phillips to replace Childress?

The Bears, they are so bad that we don’t even consider them our biggest rival any more. Jay Cutler is over rated. I don’t know who is going to throw more interceptions, him or Favre. I don’t see the Bears doing much of anything with Lovie Smith and Cutler leading the team.

As for the Packer game Sunday night, not much can be said other than total domination. I think that was the performance everyone has been waiting to see out of the Packers. Then again, was it that Packers played that well, or that the Cowboys played that poorly?

Monday, November 08, 2010

Poll

Please watch the video. I think it explains things clearly enough and vote on the poll.

How many moves?
1
2
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Friday, November 05, 2010

Happy Birthday Lindsey

Happy Birthday to my niece, Lindsey, or Boomer as she is also known as. According to my records, she is turning 12 years old today.I can recall for the first three or four years of Boomer's life, whenever I would stop by she would start crying. And she wouldn't stop until I left. Good thing she got past that phase.Lindsey currently holds the title of arm wrestling champion of all my nieces and nephews. I think it is time for the boys to start pumping out some push ups to gain the title. And in all of the wrestling matches that I saw, Boomer didn't just barely win. It was a slam dunk, it was over before you could even blink. Happy Birthday Boomer.

Halloween

This past weekend I was up in Minnesota. I stayed with the Borkys one night, Doug and Liquid another night, and K.O. & Trooper the last night. I got into town Friday and Borky and I went to a party that one of his wiffleball buddies was hosting. Borky and I had talked about doing a combination costume. But we didn't have any real great ideas. I also enlisted the help of my readers, but you weren't any help either. I decided to go with my clown costume from last year. But I didn't know what Borky was going to be until I got up there. Turns out he decided to go as Alan from the movie "The Hangover". It took Borky about 5 minutes to get his costume together. As I was putting on my makeup I was so mad, because Borky easily had the best costume. I even said to Borky, "I don't even want to go to the party any more. We are going to walk into the party and everyone is going to say 'Borky sweet costume. Oh and you brought a stupid clown with you. That is real original. Come on Borky, let's do a shot. Hey clown, the beer is in the back. Try not to touch anything."
Here is Liz, getting Alan ready for his big night.I think Borky had the best costume that I saw all weekend. I will be having a costume contest. Winner gets an Oakland Gyro, extra pita, and a large rootbeer. Send your pictures to my email address: mitch_kumstean@yahoo.com You have one week to get your entries in.Here I am at the party Friday night with Borky and K-Mart. Saturday night, Doug and Liquid had a party. We took a cab there and I was riding shotgun. On the ride I told the cab drive that if he got the cab going 100 mph I would through an extra $20 on to the tip. He didn't go for it. But one of these days, I will run across a cab driver who will accept my offer. Here I am with Marty. I haven't seen Marty in a while, I was pretty happy to see him.Here I am with Flo.All of the girls at the party Saturday night.Sunday I stayed with K.O. and Trooper. This is their house all decorated for the holiday. Krum also stopped by. I logged 10 hours on their couch watching football with them.Monday was Andrea's funeral. It was a pretty tough day. Josh and Amy along with 3 of their 6 kids were there. It was good to see them. After the service I was in bathroom and both Josh and Nate followed behind. As I was using the urinal, Josh and his son, Osbourne, were in the stall and I heard, "Oh no, buddy." Then a splash. Osbourne had dropped a matchbox car into the toilet. Josh opened the door, rolled up his sleeve and then said, "I am going in." Of course I had to grab a shot of it.It was a good weekend, but still somber with Andrea's passing. I wanted to thank a number of people. The Borkys, Doug, Liquid, K.O. and Trooper for letting me crash at their houses. Also thanks to Nate and Michel for giving me a ride home on Monday.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Andrea

Just last week, my friend, Andrea, passed away. A little over a year ago, she learned that she had cancer. Since that time, she endured a number of surgeries, as well as two rounds of chemotherapy. But she finally lost her battle with the disease last Thursday at the age of 38.
I met Andrea though Borky and that had to be at least 8 or 9 years ago. I think my strongest emotion upon hearing of Andrea's passing is anger. Life is not fair, and losing Andrea is a prime example. People throw around the term of someone being a "good person". But Andrea truly was a good person. She was caring considerate, responsible and always positive. I don't think I have even heard her swear.
I think one of my favorite stories about Andrea happened at Alpine Valley during a Jimmy Buffet concert. We had grass seats, but as I always do, I would be sneaking into the reserve seats section. Lynn and Andrea came with me. I was pretty shocked that Andrea would even attempt doing such a thing. But she did. She even said to me "Wow, it is way more fun than sitting in the grass seats."
I was at the funeral on Monday and the hardest part of the service was listening to an open letter written by Andrea's father. My deep sympathy goes out to her family and friends as they deal with the unfair and devastating lost of such a wonderful person.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Shake Weight

I was at my brother, Dan's, house the other day. As I was leaving I noticed the "shake weight" on the countertop. "What is this?" I said. "That is Jody's." He replied. I just started laughing, not because she has it, but because of the SNL commercial. I tried to explain it to my brother, but didn't do it justice. So here it is so you know what I am talking about.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Mr. Kaker Comes to Town

Saturday night I got a chance to meet up with Kaker. It is rare that he is in town, but we made it a point of Matt, Justus and I getting together at least for a couple drinks. So here we are down at the Delafield Water Street Brewery. This is Justus, Mandy, Mandy's friend (Here name, you know I don't really recall. Starts with an "S". Swim, Swami, Slippy, Slappy, Simmon, Salmon, Simmon, Swanson, Swenson, Swanson...maybe it is on the briefcase. Oh yeah, it's right here. Sampsonite. I was way off. I knew is started with an "S" though.") myself, Caroline, and Matt. It was probably a little too much of talking about old times for the girls liking, but it was still fun. I think there was a story or two that were blog worthy, but I can't remember them. If you look closely you can see a $20 on the table. I offered it to Sampsonite if she would get up on the table and dance. She wanted $100. My plan was to continue feeding her shots until her price came down to $20, but she left before I could put my plan fully into action.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Ethan's Game

Saturday I went to Ethan's soccer game in the rain. Here are some pictures.This is my favorite picture of them all. Ethan was close enough to yell at so I yelled to him, "Keep your head in the game!!!" So this is Ethan trying not to smile.

Monday, October 25, 2010

The Led Zeppellin Experience

Wednesday night I headed down to The Riverside Theater to see The Led Zeppelin Experience, here is my review. Jason Bonham, son of legendary Led Zeppelin Drummer, Jon Bonahm, has put together a Led Zeppelin tribute band. Next to The Beatles, I think that Led Zeppelin is the greatest and more influential band in the modern era of music. Would you like to debate that? Bring it on. Seriously, just put in the Zeppelin Box set, 4 discs, and not one bad song. However, I highly recommend listening to it with head phones on to get the full effect. But back to the show, the band was as good as can be expected. No one will ever compare to the original band. Jason would grab the microphone about every 3 or 4 songs to talk about his father and the original band. But I thought Jason was very humble. He even said, “We are just a group of guys who really love Led Zeppelin music, but it just so happens that my dad was in the band. And because he was, I can put on a show like this.”





Bonham's band included singer James Dylan, guitarist Tony Catania, bassist Michael Devin and keyboardist Stephen LeBlanc.
I can’t recall the entire setlist, but here is what I do remember:
Your Time is Gonna Come (Jason Bonham told the story of how one day at a very young age he heard this church organ music in the house as the band was working on this song. He said it was one of his first memories of the band. “Lying, cheating, hurtin’, that all you seem to do.”)





Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You
Dazed and Confused
(Tony Catania comes out with a violin bow to play the guitar. The first time Jimmy Page came out with the violin bow, that had to be just surreal.) (And the bass at the beginning of this song just sets the tone for the entire song.)
The Lemon Song (I have always loved this song, I can remember listening to it in my parent’s basement on my brother’s stereo.)
What Is and What Should Never Be (My only complaint here is that they didn’t switch the guitar sound back and forth between the left and right speaker like in the studio version.) Like I said before, this is a song to listen to with headphones.
Thank You
Moby Dick
(with an incredible drum solo) They had video and audio from an old Zeppelin show from the 70’s where Jon Bonham was performing his drum solo, and then Jason joined in live on stage. I guess technically that would make it an incredible drum duet. I would say easily the highlight of the entire show. To quote Slater from Dazed and Confused: “I’m not believing that about Bonham’s 3 hour drum solo. You couldn’t handle that on acid.” Here it is in almost its entirety.





The Ocean
Black Dog
(I love this song, actually the whole Led Zeppelin Four Album is great. As Demone says in Fast Times at Ridgemont High “And if you really want to score with the ladies make sure you put in side 2 of Led Zeppelin Four.” Even though in the movie when Rat picks up Stacey, the song is Kashmir which wasn’t on Zeppelin Four)
When the Levee Breaks (I never thought this was their best song. However, after seeing it live, it has moved up the charts for me. I think this was my favorite song of the night)
Over the Hills and Far Away (This was a bit of a crowd sing-a-long song. “Hey lady, you got the love I need, Maybe or is that enough, Oh Darling Darling Darling, Walk a while with me, Oh you got so much, so much, so much. Many have I loved, many times been bitten, many times I’ve gazed along the open road. Many times I’ve lied, many times I’ve listened, many times I’ve wonder how much there is to know. Many dreams come true, and some have silver linings, I live for my dreams and a pocket full of gold.”)
Stairway to Heaven (For some reason I didn’t think they would play this song either) By many, it is considered one of the greatest Rock and Roll songs of all-time. The only problem is that Dave Grohl has wrecked this song for me. Here is the link to the YouTube to his performance. I don’t think Dave Grohl is mocking the song, but for some reason I like his version better and it makes me laugh. That being said, I was laughing at the concert last night when they started playing “Stairway”. I just love the part where it goes into “…And as we wind on down the road, Our shadows taller than our soul, There walks a lady we all know, Who shines white light and wants to show, How everything still turns to gold, And if you listen very hard, The truth will come to you at last, When all are one and one is all, To be a rock and not to roll.” I have no idea what all of that means. But I like it.










Kashmir (Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream, I am a traveler of both time and space to be where I have been. Sit with elders of a general race, this world has seldom seen, the top of days for which they sit and wait all will be revealed. An open song from tongues of building grace, the sounds caress my ear, not a word I heard could I relate, the storm was quite clear.)

Whole Lotta Love (This was the encore song. Not what I was expecting, I have never considered it their most popular song. A second listen of the song, and yes, it is encore worthy.)
According to on line sources they also played: Immigrant Song, Celebration Day, I Can't Quit You Baby, Friends, Since I Been Loving You, The Song Remains The Same,I'm Gonna Crawl, Rock & Roll
The band was very good, but I won’t say incredible. The singer, James Dylan, was good, but how can you live up to Robert Plant. Robert Plant can’t even live up to Robert Plant anymore. Guitarist, Tony Catania, was much better than I had expected. The bar to live up to Jimmy Page is pretty high, but I think he got there. The production of the show, with the lights, fog and multimedia was great. At one point during the show, I was just marveling in the set. The vibrant red Riverside curtains hanging from the ceiling, the fog slowly crawling across the floor. It just seemed like the classic concert atmosphere. Oh and they had the bass really cranked up. I don’t know if you can tell from the video of the drum solo or not, but my chair, and therefore my arm, was vibrating and shaking from all of the bass. It made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. The show is an absolute must for anyone who is even remotely a Zeppelin fan. I wish they were playing another show in the area. It was just 3 hours of live Zeppelin songs. I could have easily watched another hour. I really wanted to hear “In The Light” and I was expecting them to play “Ramble On”. For the majority of the show, it was a sit down concert. I am cool with the sit down concert, it seems to take less out of you. The only other drawback was that it was on a Wednesday night. It made me behave a little better than I would have on a Friday or Saturday.
I counted it up the other day, this was my 18th concert of the year, shattering my old record of 13 concerts in a year back in 1996. However, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra is going to be performing at The Riverside Theater on December 11th and I am thinking of going to that. Normally I wouldn’t even think about a show like this, but they are going to cover Pink Floyd, including the entire “Dark Side Of The Moon” so it may be something worth checking out. Any takers?

Friday, October 22, 2010

Clearwater Revisited

I got an email from Nate the other day. He was cleaning out his garage and found this picture from our 2004 trip to Clearwater Florida for the Jimmy Buffet concert. Nate labeled this as a classic case of find joy in others suffering. It is so unlike me. It is hard to tell if Eric is as miserable as I am happy.
Here is a quick run down of that day/evening. At least the parts I can tell you.
We got to Andy and Julie's place at 11:00 in the morning the day of the concert. At 11 it seemed like a good time to start pre partying for the concert. We sat in the garage and drank beer until Andy finally came home around 4, even though he said he would be home by 1. We went down to the St. Pete’s Forum in Tampa for the concert, which started at 8:00. We lost Nate right away and no one saw him the entire concert. The concert was good but it sucked that it was indoors. Jimmy Buffet was meant to be seen outdoors. After the concert we all ended up at a bar across the street. Things started to get out of hand there. I recall Nate buying 4 Nates (a Nate is a drink that Nate invented one night at The Eagles Ballroom, basically a slow screw and Jagger Bomb combined) and then just leaving them on the bar, so I took care of distributing the drinks. Later on, right before the picture above was taken, Eric went up to the bar to order some water and ended up buying 8 shots. Then I bought Andy a horrible birthday shot with gin in it that I made up on the spot. The bartender couldn’t believe that I would order someone a shot like that. Andy refused to drink it, but Nate didn’t feel the same way and he drank it without a second thought. We eventually got kicked out of the bar; the straw that broke the camel's back is when Nate was walking behind the bar showing the bartenders how to make drinks. The bouncers were pretty insistent on Nate leaving. And the rest is classified.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Bucky

The Badger game on Saturday night was one of the better games I have seen in a while. I was more into that game than any in recent memory. I watched the game with my brother, Dan, at the 5 o'clock Club where Dan's wife, Jody works. They had $1.50 bottles of Pabst, which was great. But they were in serious need of some big screen HD TVs. 42 inches doesn't cut it in a bar. Anyhow, I was really into the game and jumped out of my seat a number of times. I was also kicking myself the moment the kickoff was returned. I was invited to Madison for a birthday party, but decided against going. I was just in Madison the week before. It looked like quite the scene. But my decision was probably a good one in retrospect. I talked to my buddy, Mick (Man Crush), who was down in Madison just to be down there for the game and didn't even try to get a ticket into the game. He said it was crazy crowded and it was just a joke getting into the bars.
Leading up to the game, I was telling people how I was there the last time Bucky beat the Buckeyes when they were No. 1 back in 2003 and the crowd stormed the field. Well I was wrong, it was 2003 but Ohio State was only No.3. But I was there. I went with Joe and Rob. We parked by La Bambas and grabbed a burrito before the game. We couldn't find any tickets to scalp and ended up sneaking in through the field house, which you can't do anymore. The only seats we could find were the first row behind the visitors bench. It was an absolute downpour and we ended up leaving at halftime because we couldn't see and were miserable. We went back to La Bambas and grabbed another burrito then drove back to Milwaukee. We walked in my front door, turned on the TV to see them interviewing Barry with everyone on the field. Leaving was a huge mistake. Anyhow, if you don't believe the story, here is a picture of me at the game.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Zack's Game

I went to my nephew, Zack's, football game on Saturday. I think they lost 26-0. Here are some pictures from the game. I kind of like this one, and it might give some insight as to why they lost. You can see the ball is in the air, and the only players who are in the frame that could possibly catch this pass are in white shirts. Yes, I did crop the picture, but I did not crop out the receiver in blue, he was no where to be found on the play at all. Zack's dad told me that Zack does not like playing on the offensive line. I hope for his sake he was tanking it so he wouldn't have to play on the offensive line, because if that was his honest best effort, he has to do much much better. Am I critical? Yes. But I am also correct. Here is Zack #52 just getting bulldozed into the backfield on pass blocking. I believe his man got the sack on this play. Don't believe me, ask Zack's dad, Chucker. Oh and Zack, if you are tanking it on offense so you don't have to play there anymore, that is not a good idea, unless your goal is to be riding the pine.This was the very next play. I told Chucker that he son is nothing more than a turnstile. Zack, when you are run blocking you should not end up in the backfield.Here is Zack in a more comfortable position on defense.I think Zack has a similar problem as his cousin, Jared. No killer instinct. Here is Zack closing in for the tackle. He made this tackle. The play before he missed a similar tackle. Just like catching a pass, if you can get your hands on the guy, you should be able to tackle him.Here is Zack closing in for the tackle. But this little guy was quick, got the corner and scored.I also think these kids are spoiled. Look at what a great field they get to play on. I would think they would be excited to play on such a field. What they need to do, is get a couple games on some dirt fields to help them appreciate how lucky they are. I go back to Nick's soccer game under the lights at Hart Park. If I was 12 playing under the lights, I would have been so fired up to play, and yet they lost 10-1. Yes, I am critical. You want to shut me up? Show up on the day after Thanksgiving for some football.
Here is Sarah climbing under the bleachers during the game. A bit of an impromptu foot race broke out on the sidelines during the game. Look at this Sarah beating two boys, one of whom was still in his football uniform and another in his soccer uniform. Apparently Sarah has some wheels.More Sarah pictures. Sarah was suppose to ask me, but her mom asked me for her. Sarah has a dance performance that she will be doing also on the day after Thanksgiving at halftime of the Wave game. It is an 80's theme and she needs a partner. I have heard it is suppose to be her father, but Chucker is unwilling to step up, so her uncle will be filling those shoes.80's themed. I am going to try and find a Michael Jackson Beat It jacket with the zippers on it.

Pickle

Real quick, Happy Birthday to Pickle. He turns 13 and is officially a teenager today. By the way Pickle, I stopped by Saturday to drop off that power point presentation of the bridge pier demolition, but for some reason your computer would not recognize my travel drive. That is why your travel drive was laying out on the desk and not in the computer. But as I was putting together that presentation, I was thinking if there is a career day, I would be willing to show up and give a 15 minute presentation on the finer points of how a movable bridge works. Although Pickle has informed me that he wants to be a civil engineer like his uncle. I wouldn't recommend it. I find it to be some rather boring work. Plus 4th semester calculus (Linear Systems Analysis was a bitch to pass) so was Reinforced Concrete Design and Thermodynamics.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Old Old Story

This is one of the oldest stories that I have to tell. This goes way back to the 70's, or nearly as far back as my memory goes. And before you read any further, let me tell you, for most of you this is a gross story. As you may or may not know, my father is a retired butcher. And I doubt their are many who were better at it than my father. From time to time when I was growing up my father would slaughter and butcher cattle for farmers in the area that we grew up in. At the age of 6 or 7 there really wasn't much that was cooler for me than watching my dad slaughter a cow. But the opportunity to go along with my dad rarely arose. I had come home from school that day at nearly the same time that my dad had gotten home from an 8 hour day of standing on a hard concrete floor in a cold meat department cutting meat for the store that he worked at. The phone rang and it was the farmer who lived next door, Hal Roberts. Apparently one of the kids while driving around one of the barns had accidentally ran over one of their cows and broke one of it's legs. Hal wanted to know if my dad could come over and butcher it up for him. My dad agreed. He sat back down on the fireplace and laced his work boots back up. Then headed to the garage to get a couple of knives. He went to the gun case and pulled out his shot gun or rifle. (I know about as much about guns as I do about fish, so I had no idea which he was going to use to kill this cow, and I still don't.) At this point, my brother, Jeff, and I are begging my dad to let us come along. He said no, like he almost always did. Then we finally told him, that if he didn't let us come with him that we were just going to walk over there anyway, so he agreed to let us come along. We hopped into my dad's old green ford pick up. I am sure my sister and brothers remember that truck. Jeff was holding on to my dad's shot gun or rifle. I got to hold on to the bullets. I was as excited as if it was Christmas morning. My dad pulled the truck into Hal's driveway and as he did we noticed two of Hal's kids washing off a chain saw with the garden hose. What is going on here? We get out of the truck and Hal meets us and then walked us over to the cow, which was now laying on the ground in a large pool of blood, dead as a door nail. We were a couple minutes late to what would have been an even better slaughter than what my dad had had in store. Apparently the kids put the cow out of it's misery buy slitting it's throat with a chain saw. So while I didn't get to witness the killing, I did stick around and watch my dad at least gut the cow. I can still recall the image of the cow getting raised off the ground by the hind legs that were chained to the front end loader of the tractor and my dad pulling all of the guts out. And that hot smell of the cows insides as they dropped to the ground. I think they ended up burying the guts in one of the fields. But that smell of hots guts is a smell you never forget.
I stopped by my parents this past weekend. And on the way over, I drove past Robert's farm and grabbed this picture. Right here in front of the milk shed is where they slaughtered and then my dad gutted that cow.