Mountains in Kansas?

Mountains in Kansas, that title makes you wonder don't it?
Makes me wonder how to start this story.... Well, lets just jump in.
On the farm, you do a lot of things that other people have no idea that its ever done. To bad Mike Rowe wasn't around with his dirty jobs TV show back then.
Animals require a lot of care. Some of what you have to do seems really cruel at the time. Branding is what seemed the worst to me. Have you ever smelled burning hair and flesh? Has to be one of the most putrid smells ever.
When we branded, it wasn't done out in the pasture like you see in the old westerns. We had an electric branding iron. Meant you had to be close to a plug in. We did all of our branding in a barn up by the house. It was closed on three sides, so the aroma hung in the air. You didn't just walk up to the animal and slap the branding iron on their hip. We would pin them up, and then run through a squeeze chute. A squeeze chute is like a portable stall that has a gate their head will fit through and the size can be moved in against them and a gate across the back. This protects both you and the animal, because they aren't going to like whats about to happen to them and will try to get away anyway possible.
When branding, we also did all the other things that needed to done to the animal. No need of stressing them out more than once and you probably couldn't get them back to chute again after having their butts burnt anyway. Other things we would do were dehorn if needed, give shots, poke pills down their throats and castration.
Dehorning meant cutting their horns off. This was done with a hand saw. They had to be cut close enough to not grow back. This meant you drew blood cutting them off. We had medication to put on the wound to stop the bleeding and make them heal faster.
Now the worst of the doctoring, castration.
This was done two different ways on our farm. First was a handy tool looked like a pair of tongs that would clamp off every thing going to the testicles. All the animal parts stayed in place but would shrivel up. The animal still didn't like like this. The second method was a bit of surgery. The scrotum would be slit open, the testicles pulled out and cut off. The removed testicles would be put in a bucket and finally the animal released from the chute.
When we worked cattle, it was an all day job. Everyone involved would be tire and hungry by the end of the day. I would be too, even though my work consisted of playing with toy tractors in the dirt by the barn.
Mom would always go in early to start cooking the evening meal to have it ready when dad came in. I usually stayed out and watched whatever dad was doing until he came in.
On our way into the house, dad said mom cooking mountain oysters. Hmmm. Even being just a little kid, I knew there weren't any mountains in Kansas and I had no idea what the heck an oyster was.
Eldon wasn't at Supper, he had football practice and was going to be late. That was always a good thing. You always had to get all the food you wanted before Eldon or else he would take it all. Never such a thing as left overs at our house.
It turned out that mountain oysters was the best tasting thing I had ever eaten, whatever they were. I ate till I couldn't force anymore down. Now I'm thinking, once Eldon gets home, I'll never get a chance to eat these tasty treats again.
After supper, I got into the old round top refrigerator to fill my tea glass up again. OH MY, HOW GROSS! There are two cookie sheets in the fridge packed full the testicles from castrating the calves earlier. A brainstorm sweeps over me. I say to my dad, "lets tell Eldon what we had for supper are those things in fridge, that way he won't eat any and we can have the rest tomorrow".
My dad starts laughing, "Son, those things in the fridge ARE what we had for supper".
Eldon ate the left overs and I've never tasted a mountain oyster ever again.