Insight: The barn box

By KIM BALDWIN
McPherson County farmer and rancher

My father-in-law called me on a recent Friday night to let me know the first three lambs of the season had arrived.

The triplets were born in the pasture and would need to be brought up to the barn and kept in the nursery pens to make sure all three lambs would be claimed by the mother and that they’d all get plenty of milk in their first few days.

When I got the call, my family was in the process of getting ready to make a trip to town to go out to dinner and then catch a movie together.

We knew we would need to move quickly to get the lambs taken care of if we wanted to eat and get to the theater in time to see the movie the kids had been eyeing for weeks.

We quickly drove over to where the sheep were to get the job done. We divided up the necessary tasks and went to work. My daughter got the grain ration mixed and delivered water to the nursery pen while my son, father-in-law and I gathered the babies and separated the ewe from the rest of the flock.

We worked together to calmly move her into her pen where her babies were already wading through a fresh bed of straw. The process took maybe 20 minutes in total to complete, and before we left for town, the little lambs were curled up together under a heat lamp while their mother calmly ate her grain.

As we were walking back to my vehicle, it hit me: Nobody had changed their shoes or clothes before we dealt with the sheep.

I told the kids to scoot their shoes in the grass for a few extra seconds before getting into my car to avoid tracking in anything from the barn that restaurant patrons or moviegoers might smell. I looked down at my sweatshirt and jeans and gave them a quick dust off, washed my hands with soap and water and headed to town.

I know many people who keep a gym bag in their car with all of the items one might need when going to the gym before or after work or school. But me? I keep a barn box in the back of my car.

The contents of my barn box contain my lambing uniform, which consists of barn boots, gloves and coveralls. All of the items in my barn box will remain in my vehicle for the duration of lambing season. It's my way to easily swap out shoes and cover my clothes quickly while working with the animals. Over the years I have found it helps to have everything bundled together so when I need to make a trip to the barn, I have the necessary gear ready to throw on – whether it’s day or night.

But since these three little lambs were born a week earlier than expected, the only part of my barn box in my car at the time were my gloves.

Needless to say, my entire lambing uniform is now stashed away in my car for the entirety of lambing season.

While there’s a pretty good chance I still smell like the lambing barn even if I swap out my attire for my barn box uniform, I feel better knowing that if I get a last-minute call to head to the barn, I can at least change out my shoes and cover up my clothes while I complete the necessary tasks before continuing on with my day.

"Insight" is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state's largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service.