Numerous famous authors have recorded gut wrenching accounts of the loss of beloved animals. Steinbeck’s The Red Pony and Rawlings’ The Yearling come to mind, but there are many others. Those writings were required reading as I experienced secondary English education. Form, content, personification, and symbolism swept over us like a tidal wave. However, living the event of the loss is far more grievous than reading about it.

A black notebook began to store the names and addresses of harness makers, shaft manufacturers, grain mill sources, hand operated water pump folks and many other sources. I always insisted on buying the gear and using it before I tried to sell it. Can I get the leathers to restore the pump? Can this guy make a new set of quarter straps? Are you going to continue to make cotton plow lines? Without realizing it, I had accumulated a rather extensive list of sources and a barn and shop full of the “right stuff,” actually becoming a source of supply for other people who encountered the same problems.