" I want that Wednesday"

One of the gal's who's blog I follow, (Dana, the homesteading housewife) does a "I want that Wednesday." I've thought that was a neat idea, but I just don't often think of things I want, but since last time, she put up a tree lined lane, well now, that's the kind of thing I want. So, this week, I thought I'd put in something that I want.

Here it is:

Here's a different one:

I want an autogate. Or, some of you might call them "cattle guards." The correct term is autogate. I don't care what brand they are, I don't care if you can find traffic signs that say "cattle guard ahead". Some people might call them cattle guards. But we Southwest Kansas folk call them autogates. So that's what they are.

I grew up in Open Range country, where many of our roads run through pastures, or open range. Autogates are put in so you don't have to stop, open a gate, drive through, stop, shut the gate and go on. If we had to do so, at times, we'd have to stop 5 or 6 times on one road. With an autogate, you just drive across and move through.

When I was little, we had one at the end of our lane. At night, driving home, riding in the back seat, we might doze off, but once we felt and heard the rhythmic "brum brum" of the tires crossing the autogate, we knew we were almost home. It's always been a soothing sound to me, a sound that says "I'm home."

I also liked riding a bike across one. Yes, you had to keep your tires straight, or you'd have nasty wreck, but I liked that bouncing. (No, I am most definitely not normal!) Besides riding a bike across, they were fun to walk across, stepping on each tube, or skipping one or skipping two, or jumping across the entire thing and back again. Most of our autogates were home made out of heavy pipe, so you drove on the top of the pipes, and walking barefoot across them was fun, your foot could curl around the pipe, making you more stable.

Of course, you might need to watch out for snakes and such, they liked the shade. And, if it was a good autogate, there might even be enough space to crawl under it and play. Oh, I like autogates!

I want one. I want one at the end of our drive. I don't care if we don't live in a pasture. I don't care if there's not any reason to have one. I love driving across them, I love the sound tires make. It means, "I'm home."

That's why I want an autogate. But, [insert sigh here] Kev won't get me one. And Daddy won't get me one either. He's got a perfectly good one sitting out, unused, in his pasture. But, they just don't think I need one.

But, I can still want one.