The Hands of Greet Ranch
The skin may be covered in oil and grease.
The fingernails may be full of grit and goo.
A splinter or a barbwire cut is usually evident.
The fingers may curve in atypical directions... blame it on football or machinery or livestock.
There are no rings to snag in a pto.
Calluses are present, especially in irrigating season.
A pat on your back may snag a fancy shirt.
But on any given day...
They create.
They repair.
They concoct.
They build.
The hands of Greet Ranch.
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October 11, 2009 Mother Nature... Saboteur... Artist
I love this post! Wish you'd done more close-ups of the hands. I always notice a person's hands, they tell a lot about you I think, and I find them fascinating!
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Loved loved loved this post- we could likely trade "hands" and have the same work ethic and hand "proof". Thanks so much for this one - i can point to it when someone at school asks "What is all that crud under your fingernails and what happened to your big finger?" Great post!
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Busy hands, happy minds.
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love this!!! when i was a little girl, i would sit on my dad's lap or lay on the couch with him while he was watching tv. i would take his hands and look at them and touch them and ask him questions about where he got this callous or that blister or this cut. i find hands so very fascinating. and eyes also, they tell so much about a person - health, happiness, sadness, love. anyway... i could go on and on thanks for sharing!!
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funny thing about hands, They hold memories as well as tools. I still see my dad's hands in my head;big, thick, strong looking, tough. I still see my mothers hands, too. Aging, more wrinkles than before, long fingers, lovely hands. Thanks for the memories this morning.
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Love this post. Just a quiet tribute to the hard work, but seemingly done with respect and passion for the lifestyle. hmmmm. Question. Is your son a Broncos fan, or just likes the hat? Let me know if he needs a new one!!!
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I could do a post about Daniel and his Broncos hats! We are all Broncos fans, but Daniel has worn only Broncos hats his entire life. They get ripped and stained and ratty and he loves them all the more! I used to buy him a new one every fall for school, and those would be his "dress" hats. He had a big wreck with his horse this spring... in a highwater creek... pretty scary at the time. He and his horse both underwater... but when he came out, he was MAD. MADMADMADMAD He'd lost his most ancient nasty ripped up Broncos hat! He still mourns its loss - I kid you not! He'll look back at old photos and sigh... "There's my hat I lost..." The boy's crazy about Broncos hats!
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Ah, I really liked this! So true.
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That is one of the most beautiful love poems I have ever read. Makes me a little teary.
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Funny how many commented the same thing on my mind. "I love this post!" Those hands... my Dad's hands, my Mom's hands, the way my own hands used to be. Those hands are beautiful.
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What is a pto? (Hopefully this isn't too silly of a question!)
Cool post!
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Taylor, It's not a silly question at all! PTO stands for Power Take Off. It is part of the tractor that when engaged, spins very fast! You can hook all sorts of equipment up to the PTO and through the shaft and various gears, it runs the equipment. PTOs can grab loose clothing, jerking the person into the spinning shaft, sometimes losing a limb or perhaps their life. PTOs account for many unfortunate deaths in the farming and ranching communities.
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