Muck Boots 'n' Slickers - Life of a Livestock Hauler

Did you ever load hay over at Artesia? Years ago they sure did load a lot of cow wagons with small bales.

 

Never hauled hay, but familiar with the town. We were in Starkville, so 9 mile East on US82, whack a right on US45 South for about 6 or 9 miles you are there.
There were two sisters who resided in Artesia, but spent a lot of time in Starkville. We had a driver who fell for one of them, married her and she did not slow down and divorce pending. He was coming in from New Orleans, and south of town spied her in his car with another man.
Story was; he drove close in a threatening manner, and fact was she shot and killed him with his own pistol. One he had given her for protection while he was "on the road".
Boy was a good hand, but could not read or write. Signed his paychecks with an X. Went all over the country for Garrard, and probably had memorized some road signs, town names, etc. A new place, he would stop along and talk at truck stops on "the best way to get to?" Hitting the town, he would stop a cab, ask him if he knew where this place was (flash is pickup/delivery papers.) OK, tear a $10 into, tell him to drive there, and I'll give you the other half.

Artesia's claim to fame in recent years was Combs Discount Furniture there. He tore West Point, Columbus, and Starkville dealers a new and mangled one for years... Think his wife kept it on for several year after he passing..

 

I hauled a lot of loads of feed over to Artesia. Bullocks feed and seed on the corner since 1899. Started hauling feed over there in the early 80s up until after 2000. Feed store kind of went belly up and he sold out stiffed me on my last check.

 

Lots of hay production in the area. Seitz Lumber Co(3 brothers) owned a large tract NE of West Point ,the old Payne Field airfield.
Black prairie land, johnson grass 3 ft tall, 2 cuttings a year and no tilling or fertilizer required. Railed it out to markets.
Made me $10 a many a Sat or Sun in my 14th year cutting with a John Deere A.. Pitty pat and whicky whack. The farm hands did not want to work weekends, and Seitz wanted enough down to keep baling Mon.

 

I used to pull hay out of Artesia on a regular basis. I pulled a Wilson floating deck triple. Load in south central FL Thursday afternoon/evening, unload in the Panhandle Friday night/Sat AM, washout in Clovis, go down to Artesia, load hay bales on Monday to take to Ocala for the horse farms. Take a day off and do it again. I would run this loop for several weeks at a time.

 

Ya I certainly wish somedays my place was in Texas instead of New Mexico. Our state is run by a bunch of leftists now who don't know anything about agriculture or oilfield, both of which fund most of the state's budget! They have gotten so crazy we have to run up to Hereford to wash out our cattle pots because New Mexico shut down all the washouts because they were "polluting the ground water."

 

Ya the fire finally burned out and they are tearing it all down and hauling it to Ed's recycling in Clovis right now.

 

I found it frustrating how ABQ, Santa Fe, and Las Cruces control the politics and vote against the interests of Lea, Eddy, Chaves, and Roosevelt Counties that make most of the money.

It's truly a case of the government being completely out of touch with the people. And that's a shame, because I really liked all the folks around there.

 

That pretty much describes any state that is mostly conservative with large left leaning population centers. Look at WA and OR. The Cascades divide them. 1/3 west of the mountains lean left and make the rules while the 2/3 east of the mountains sit back and take it because they don’t have the population to vote anything down.

 

Don’t they know the sand filters out the cow #### by the time it makes it 50’ down to the water?