One winter the cows on the Warnock Ranch had a gravel pit for their watering hole.  The sides of the pit were steep.  There was only one route down to the water, and the whole herd readily used it.  All went along fine until the weather got cold, and the ice got thick.  As the ice thickened, the watering hole got smaller and smaller until it was unusable.  The water was there at the bottom of the hole, but the ice was so thick that the cows were unable to reach it.

It was possible to open a large watering hole using shovels and axes, but that method would require a lot of backbreaking work.  The neighbor had a backhoe which would do the job much faster and without the expenditure of so much energy.  The neighbor’s help was enlisted.  He drove his backhoe down into the gravel pit and did his best to open a watering hole, but the ice proved to be too much for even the heavy equipment.

An alternative plan was devised by which the hole could yet be opened without work.  Someone suggested dynamite.  It was tied to a pole, and shoved down into the hole and up under the ice.  Everything was all ready except for getting the thirsty cows out of the way.  Dan Warnock, Jr. got on the tractor which pulled the feed wagon, and began leading the herd away from the gravel pit.  The cows all fell in behind the feed wagon and were finally at a safe enough distance for the fuse to be lit.  Dan Warnock, Sr. and the neighbor lit the fuse, and each headed in a different direction to flag traffic up and down the county road.

At this point one old cow remembered that she was more thirsty than hungry.  She turned around and headed back to the watering hole.  Some of her companions thought “Good idea,” and headed back with her.  Their human guardians saw what was happening, but were powerless to stop the herd’s backward flow without endangering their own lives in the process.  They sent one of their good cow dogs to chase them back, but the cows overpowered him.  The vanguard of the thirsty cows went down the incline into the gravel pit and were standing on the ice when the dynamite exploded.

One cow that had the misfortune to be standing right over the dynamite was blown straight up into the air with her legs all spread-eagled.  She went higher than the power pole which supplied electricity to an irrigation pump there.

“Did you see that?  Did you see that?” the neighbor yelled hysterically.  “That cow went as high as the power pole!”

“Do it again,” Dan Jr. said as he returned to view the carnage.  “I didn’t get to see it.”

When the dust and cow hair had all settled back to earth, an inventory was made of the blast’s results.  The cows now had a small, usable water hole about the same size as before; but three of them wouldn’t be needing it any more, and five others were injured.

“Looks like cows are up today,” one of the Dans remarked.