WorldWide Drilling Resource

Through the Front Door! by Jim Kuebelbeck I grew up on a dairy farm with brothers and sisters in the early 1940s, long before I discovered I had an unexplainable ability to sense underground water by the dowsing method. Many of these early mem- ories fade somewhat over time, but some remain forever in one’s memory. One does learn many things by example, especially when one is young and impressionable. Watching and learning from one’s older brothers is simply a rite of passage for younger brothers, as it was for me. For my two older brothers, the making of bows from the willow tree in the grove behind our farmhouse was an annual ritual. In their free time, playing “Indian warriors” was a favorite pastime during the summer months. Shooting arrows across our yard to “fight off the settlers” in the covered wagons coming across the imaginary prairies was one of their favorites. Unbeknownst to my dad, my two older brothers would slice off the edges of some of his straight tongue-and-groove lumber stored in one of the sheds, and make arrows out of them. Notching one end for the bow string and sharpening the other end to a point made those arrows fly quite well. Watching my older brothers shoot an arrow completely over the top of our barn was quite impressive to me at the time and I begged them to make me a bow of my very own. They finally relented, but I had to promise not to shoot at any windows or chickens! (Of course I wouldn’t, would I?) Over the course of the next week, I practiced my archery skills. Noticing my brothers were able to shoot their arrows much farther and higher than I could, I discovered I had something to learn about the laws of physics, especially about inertia and momentum. To make their arrows fly further, on their pointed ends they had screwed on small metal nuts from Dad’s stash of nuts and bolts in his shop. That was the secret. (So that’s how they were able to shoot over the barn!) I was now “in the know”. Some days later when no one else was around, I took one of my arrows into Dad’s shop looking for the right metal projectile! Seeing Dad’s selection of nuts and bolts, I thought to myself that if a small weight made those arrows travel a greater distance, maybe a little heavier weight would make them fly even farther. What a great idea! Taking a much heavier nut, I carefully screwed it onto one of the straightest arrows my oldest brother had made for me. Going out by the barn, I was ready to make my own bit of history. I fit the notch of the arrow firmly into position and stretched the bow string back as far as I could, and when I released it, the arrow sailed over the barn in the nicest arc I had ever seen. I knew immediately it had gone completely over the barn because I heard it fall. The sound it made when it landed was kind of a “thuck”. I thought it must have landed close to one of the dairy cows in the yard behind the barn because there was one heck of a commotion over there. Running to the other side of the barn, I saw what could have been best described as a stampede, with cows running everywhere! I looked for my arrow, but couldn’t find it anywhere. I had a terrible feeling my “lost” arrow would probably turn up some- where someday, found by someone else, and there’d be a question or two I might not want to answer. That same evening, when the cows were brought into the barn for milking, Dad (ever vigilant as usual) noticed a small streak of blood running down the back of one of the cows! Calling me and my brothers together, the questions began. “Do any of you know anything about this?” he asked, pointing to the streak of blood on that cow. (Of course none of us knew anything about it, how could we? Unexplainable things just happen, don’t they?) It’s difficult not to look guilty of something you’ve done, especially when you’ve not perfected those particular “denial” skills at a young age, but nothing more was said about the incident. Nothing more, that is, until some days later when my dad found my arrow in the muddy cow yard. Showing it only to me, all he said was, “I found this in the cow yard”. I don’t know why he singled me out. Why would he suspect me? I had two older brothers, didn’t I? The heavy nut was still attached, but a cow must have stepped on it because the arrow was broken. Without saying another word, he reached up and hung the broken arrow across two nai ls in the barn. My two older brothers found the whole episode quite amusing, because it didn’t take much imagination to guess what had happened, but I had to look at that broken arrow every time I went into the barn the rest of the summer! Jim Jim Kuebelbeck may be contacted via e-mail to michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com 51 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® OCTOBER 2015