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A Memory Thing
As Told by Grant
Confusion
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JFR Notes - Grant
The bull starter is from when I was probably 10
Grant's Story - The Bull Starter
When you grow up on a farm, it is a lot of work. Times for diversion are few, so it is important to make as much of your free time as possible. This is the tale or one of those times.It was a beautiful summer day. My older brother, Scott, was the idea guy, I always looked up to him for that. It was fun to see what he would come up with next. One particularly memorable invention was the Zap box. A devious contraption that would turn an ordinary 9 Volt battery into a painful experience. But this is the story of the bull starter.
I already said it was a pretty summer day. We must have had some time off between moving sand piles from one place to another and then back. So we (he) hit on a plan to make our work easier. Cows are dumb animals, they are probably only smarter than sheep. Back to the bulls. It is difficult to get any cow to move except when you want them to stay still. Perhaps that moving ability is proportional to their brain power. Scott somehow hit on a plan to help us move cows from one place to another, now we come to the bull starter. An extremely simple but effective device.
It consists of three things. 1. A bull, 2. A corral, and 3. A very large nail. By these standards, it could be considered a simple machine. The bull is the only moving part, at least that is the intention - that the bull move. On our farm, we constructed everything we could. If we couldn't make it ourselves, we didn't need it. In the course of construction (with such cheep labor) many things are overlooked. One example is that a lot of materials might be left out after a project. In this case, very large nails used to attach the corral fence slats to the posts might be found by kicking in the dirt with one's foot. Such was the lucky find of this day. A 6 penny nail (?) (a nail about 12" long) was the tool we needed to accomplish our task. By driving the nail into a fence slat from the outside of the corral to point to the inside, a bull starter was constructed. The trick was to get a bull to back into the nail so as to poke himself in the hind quarters, causing himself pain, and causing further that he would jump with a start - hence the name - The Bull Starter!
Scott and I spent the best part of the afternoon trying to get a bull to back into this huge exposed nail and verify that the invention worked. As I mentioned earlier, cows are not known for their intelligence, however on this day, they out smarted us. We spent our time slogging in the corral muck maneuvering as best we could any bull that would chance to be in the area, but not a one backed into the exposed nail known as the bull starter.
Of all the inventions in history, a large nail in a fixed fence that required a bull to back into it to get a start, is one of them. I am confident that no one has taken out a patent on this idea, leaving a tremendous opportunity for an entrepreneur to jump in and grab the prize. After all, it is still true to this day that getting a bull to start when you want him to is problematic.
Page Contents
The Bull StarterA Memory Thing
As Told by Grant
Confusion
Site Notes
Grant's Story - A Memory Thing - July 1988
When I was in the Ensign 8th Ward in Salt Lake, I was asked to speak in church on one occasion and I was quite concerned about my topic and trying to deliver a spiritual message and I finally hit upon thermodynamics. My intent was to relate it to relationships and how energy needs to be applied to them to keep them vital and alive and that's the way it is with our Heavenly Father.There were 3 speakers that day and I was last on the program. I'd spent a great deal of time in preparation and felt good about my talk, but when the first girl spoke, she talked about growing up in Missouri, and the dirt floor in the house, outdoor plumbing, going to school and that stuff. As I listened to her talk, I thought about growing up in Rupert with 11 brothers and sisters and the good times that went along with that. I remember I mentioned that with 11 kids, if you got home from church with 10 or so that was close enough. And if it happened, you could always be picked up at Sacrament Meeting, or whatever.
The thermodynamics thing got touched on a little, but I spent 10 minutes talking about Rupert and family memories. When I got done, I had the feeling I'd said almost everything I'd planned or needed to.
The most incredible part of the memory was that up to 4 weeks later, people came up to me and said what a good talk I'd given. That's never happened to me before, and I think it wasn't the talk, but the family feelings it must have stirred in those who'd heard it.
I think the preparation I did prepared me to talk about other things and my family is very dear to me and the feeling I have for them came over the pulpit.
Whenever I kneel down to pray, I thank they Lord for my family and the strength they are to me.
Page Contents
The Bull StarterA Memory Thing
As Told by Grant
Confusion
Site Notes
As told by Grant, Nov. 10, 1996
One day, I was at home, probably 10 years ago, and Julia came up to me and grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me, and said, 'one day when you were a teenager, you came running out of the basement and dad came running out of the basement after you. You ran out into the desert with dad on your trail and I want to know why he was chasing you!'We talked about it for some time so I could get a reference to the event, but I could not remember what happened for the life of me and to this day, I don't know why dad chased me out into the desert.
------ ------ ------- :-)
On another occasion, I was home from college and mom and I took dad's pickup down town. We were diving down 10th east when we came on some kids playing baseball or football in the street. Well, everybody knows that 10th east is one of the busiest streets in Mt. Home and those kids shouldn't have been playing ball in the street. We slowed down and waited for them to get out of the street and mom and I commented on their stupidity but continued down town and took care of our business.
On our return trip, they were still out in the street playing ball, those dopes! But, this time, as we had to slow down to pass them, I rolled down the window and yelled at them "Get out of the road". I'll never forget how mom just broke up laughing and couldn't stop laughing. Well, I was glad to have made mom laugh that day!
Page Contents
The Bull StarterA Memory Thing
As Told by Grant
Confusion
Site Notes
Confusion - 1959
This about sums up my life! This happened 1959 and I’m still trying to overcome confusion. Mom gave me this clipping probably in the 1980's.
Page Contents
The Bull StarterA Memory Thing
As Told by Grant
Confusion
Site Notes
Site Notes
My intention with this site is a format that allows updating and keeping current. It is more of a news format so I hope to get things current especially as reunions happen.The layout and design for this site is from a Macintosh site I frequent called Apple Insider. It used to look like this site but they have changed since I put this site together. Apple Insider
I took the menu system on the first (home) page from OpenCube NavStudio. They appear to have moved on from when I started the site. If you are using MS Internet Explorer, the menus on the home page will have visual effects. If you are not using IE, you won’t see the effect. I’ve tested this site with IE and Firefox on the PC and Safari and Firefox on the Mac.
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