02/04/2022
To all of my fellow badazz women farmers and women in agriculture!
She went to bed at 2:00 A.M. this morning, after pulling a calf.
She did not sleep last night. Her grandmother rode the waves searching for crabs off the Alaskan shores, in a ship that never came home
She drove the truck through mud and snow, to pick up the calves from the holding pens on the south range.
She mended the broken bridle before dawn, by the headlamp she wore in darkness of a barn enveloped in snow, and frozen in time.
She put her baby to sleep, before jumping onto the Kawasaki Mule to feed the horses in the corrals, and bottle feed the leppy calves in the barn.
She talked the banker into giving her another week to make good on the loan, until the harvest was delivered to the buyer, in a truck she drove.
She mended the tear in her daughters blouse, fixed the supper for her son and husband, and went to the PTA meeting at school.
She dug the mud and s**t out of the stock trailer, so that the cattle and horses would have a somewhat clean place to ride tomorrow at 4:00 A.M., when she met the crew at the catch pens in nowhere Nevada.
She put the chains on the tires of her Diesel truck, just before Donner Summit.
She balanced the books, made the budget, and dressed for a night on the town in "Flyover USA".
What she did not do, is march in protest of "inequality".
She did not march, because she has walked the walk of independence.
She will not ask for someone to give her, what she has given herself.......
Freedom of stereotypes, and the ability to be as strong and productive as she herself is.
She threw away that crutch, the first time she pulled a calf, breathed air into it's lungs, while sitting in the frozen snow and mud.
She will be damned, if her ability is defined, by social standards and news reports that say she is shackled by society.
She defines her society, society does not define her.
By the way, she knows how to use a knife to castrate.
Don't push her, don't define her, and don't pity her.
And God help the man or woman who tries to use her.
She is the king., queen, rook, bishop, and knight.
But she is never the pawn.........
You will find her in many small towns, all across this nation, and world.
And you will find her grave, on forgotten places of loneliness.
The backbone of tomorrow.
The photograph was taken by Chris Douglas.
(Written by Bob Golden, January 2021)
Hannah Ballantyne is the woman in the photo.
