Carter Speaks Up

Editor's Note: Jim Whelan's oxen Chub and Jerry- and now Percy and Carter- have independently learned to type and occasionally send guest blog posts to the MODA blog. It seems as if Jim is unaware of this happening. Is the right thing to do to warn him, or should we simply enjoy hearing of their exploits? . . . I guess Jim can fend for himself!

Percy is still sleeping so this is Carter writing this time. Whenever we are at home and bored and not eating Chub gives us lessons on the keyboard. I think I am doing real well so I am trying out my skills this time. I am pretty good with my left toe but my right one does not work too good. Does that mean I am “left toed”?

This summer has been a very busy time. We went to Purdue University to have our feet trimmed early in June. Mr. Jim walked me into this corner and next thing I knew I was laying sideways on this steel table, strapped down and I couldn’t move. When I was finished I got to watch the doctors do the same thing to Percy.

The end of June we went to Tillers in Michigan. We talked about this in our last blog. Our first engagement was at a canal festival in July. They wouldn’t let us ride on the canal boat and Mr. Jim said we were not ready to try to pull the boat on the

canal. That would have been fun.

We were invited to two county fairs in July. We only had a couple of days off between these two fairs. There must have been over a thousand people come to see us at each of these fairs. We were in with a lot of other farm animals. At one fair there was this really mean draft horse housed next to us. He was so big he reached over the pen gate and tried to bite me on the a…. I let him know that I

had horns that could do some real damage. After hitting the side of the pen really hard the horse decided he had better move away. At the other fair we were housed in a brand new barn built specifically for us. We watched as a new calf was born in the barn. We didn’t know that was how we came into the world and never saw this before. Boy, our mothers must have been really sore.

August brought the state fair. Seventeen days is a very long time so Mr. Jim asked Chub and Jerry to come out of retirement for a few days so we

could have a break. They said they had a great time meeting a lot of old friends. A United States senator came to see them and even drove them a short distance. They said that he comes by to see them every year they were there. I think I remember him coming to see us in previous years.

After five days Chub and Jerry told Mr. Jim that the long 12 hour days with three demonstrations a day had wore them out and asked to come home. By this time we were rested so we finished the rest of the fair. We had fun and so many people came by to see us we lost count. We watched a cow get milked twice a day. We never were on our original farm long enough to see that. We worked with the draft horse before and are pretty good friends. Toward the end of the fair we actually did shows with the horse. In September we went to a French and Indian war. Everyone dresses real funny there, even Mr. Jim. Then we finished our year with a farm festival in Ohio. Mrs. Nancy went along and they explained the purpose of oxen twice a day to very interested groups of people.

So now we are back home, we have our own round bales to eat and

there is plenty of water for us. Our summer was lots of fun and we hope we have educated many people about the value of oxen in the history of our country.

To all our ox friends: we hope you and your drovers have a great holiday season.