He Man, Woman Hater Gate!

Lately, we've been harvesting sorghum, which has required me to do a bit of driving around the place to help move tractors, fuel tanks, motorbikes and men. I've had to do battle with one of these wire gates too many times lately! After one especially frustrating attempt to close the cruel little sucker, I have re-named them.

He-Man,Woman-Hater-Gates.

(If you've never seen the movie Little Rascals, this name may not quite have the ring to it that I have in my own head - in this movie, a bunch of cute little children play at being very grown up, and the boys create a He Man, Woman Haters Club!)

Some people call them simply 'wire gates' - that doesn't go close to identifying the hideous nature of the beasts! Others refer to them as 'cockies gates' - presumably to reference the 'cow cockies' who build them, to keep cattle off their crops.

 

I personally think He-Man,Woman-Hater-Gate is the most accurate descriptive name possible! There are a lot of men around here - especially when it comes to working out in the paddock, and they cannot grasp the difficulty we girls, with our girl strength muscles and our feminine upper body strength have in maneuvering these nightmares of engineering on and off that skinny bit of pipe that holds them in place! These gates are constructed entirely of wire - barbed wire - attached to a steel post at the opening, which is stuck into a loop of wire close to the bottom of the strainer post it closes to, then pushed  - and here is the part requiring the strength - until it's upright alongside the strainer post, then that skinny bit of pipe is sort of poked in behind the post and pushed around until the gate is tight, and hooked up on another loop of wire on the top wire of the gate. Once that pipe is in place, the whole thing is under quite a bit of tension, so that when you come back to open it again, you need to be very careful not to let it slip and slam into your lower ribcage. (Ask me how I know....)

I just re-read that, and I don't think it makes any sense...much like these wretched gates - but I can't fathom a clearer way to explain it! So, I apologize if all this post serves to do is bewilder you...my thinking was to share one more aspect of "Country Life" - albeit a totally frustrating one for me! In spite of the frustration, these are my rewards for struggling with the dastardly He-Man-Woman-Hater Gate...

Beautiful scenes of peace, quiet and abundance...so worth it...

The skin grows back on the knuckles, the bruises fade from the torso...but the beauty of this place lives in my soul.