Whew!

Gosh I should be fired from blogging. I'm sure no one is even reading this darn thing because I never update it. It's so much harder to blog this summer because I work much longer/later hours and when I get home it's already a feat to just shower, let alone type about my day.

I have been a little bored at my plant science lab job this past couple weeks. We haven't had a lot to do- or at least not enough for three people to keep busy. But, it is rather nice just to be able to slow down a little bit and just type in data on the computer or clean and do simple, mindless tasks. But, it does get dull after a while. It's picked up now a bit this week since our main boss is back from running her summer greenhouse so maybe things will be a little faster paced in the lab from now on.

As far as the farm job...o so much is always happening. I wish I blogged more often and could include more of my riduculous stories and happenings. I have earned the nick name "wrecking-ball" and that's rightfully so. It seems that everthing I touch has been breaking down. I've gotten several flat four wheeler tires for no reasons that we will ever know. The wheel bearing when out on one of them when I was driving it the day before we really needed it to sort and work pairs. So, Chad (my boss) went to Madison and dropped it off to get fixed- and bought a new one while he was ther! haha only Chad would do something like that. He claimed he was going to buy one for his wife anyway...he said it was a Valentines/Birthday/Mothers Day present...haha! ...men

I've had plenty of other break downs as well including- the 7800 tractor AC, the steering cyllinder on the 7800...which by the way has snap rings on the pins so thaty ou don't have to pound out the dumb roll pins for a half hour before you find those snap rings... O and best of all I had the one inch shaft break on the feed wagon last week. It was on my last load on a day when I needed to leave early to get home for something or another (I don't remember). So, I get out to the pasture and SNAP! I thought it was just a shear pin, but to my horror the entire shaft was loose. As is turns out it was worn and old and already cracked. But still, I felt pretty bad leaving with the load still in the wagon and a broken feed wagon. Now, we're having trouble with the agar I use everyday to put mineral in the feed rations...it just never ends.

It seems like something riduculous is always occuring around their. The other day we loaded out pairs and Bryan, Chad's friend who also works for him was hauling out loads. We basically bring all the cows and calves into a couple lots and then sort of ten pairs at a time, move them to the barn and work the cows and calves. Then, load them up into a 30 ft stock trailer and haul them to various pastures. Well, one place the Bryan went was really muddy and you have to drive through the owners yard to get to the rented pasture. Appartenly Bryan got stuck in the yard after he unloaded and they had to PUSH him out...He was all cranky about and being annoying but we needed cattle there. So Chad sent him back there three times! haha it was hillarious the second time was fine but the last time he got stuck with the trailer loaded and no one was around. He called Chad, but their call got cut off and then Chad Forgot! So Bryan had to unload the cows in the yard and chase them to the pasture. I would have paid to see that.

Another funny story, last night the rear outside wheel bearing went out on the 9520 tractor that pulls the huge disk. So, they unhooked the disk and got the tractor hauled home. Chad sent Randy (the full time hired man who is really good to work with) and Jeff (summer help every year, he teaches in Kimball and is origianlly from Sinai) to go get the tender truck and disk with a big truck. Well, apparently the boys didn't think this one out well and Randy ended up with way too much weight too far back and off of his back axle. He got stuck on a dry gravel road going uphill with his back wheels off teh ground. Jeff pulled him up the hill with the tender truck- I bet it was hillarious.

Another random fact...apparently barn rats (like the huge cat sized ones) are omnivores. Yesterday Chad said he saw literally hundreds of them eating on a couple dead cows we have in a pit that has been underwater way to long. He said he pulled up right next to them with the four wheeler and they didn't even move. Nasty! We didn't shoot them because we want to get rid of those gross cows but tomorrow...I can't wait to get the shotgun out! I also have to open a new 'ag bag' of corn tomorrow...and am a little nervous about all the critters who might greet me as I cut the bag open. O well! As I like to say- they probably don't bite, and what doesn't kill us makes us stronger! I hope this theory works with barn rats...

Stuff like this seems to happen a lot. There is just a lot going on but I think it'll slow down as soon as the spraying and fertilizing does. Today they just started cutting hay so I think I'll be on my own to take care of teh place for the next few weeks. That doesn't really bother me. I would like to visit the ranch soon. Next weekend I would have but I'm going on a family vacation to my aunts lake home. I have never gone beacuse I've been out west, so this will be a good opportunity to take a couple days off. But afterward it's back to work...and then maybe Martin for a couple days :)

I've been trying to keep up with things at home and that's going decently. We got all the corn and beans in that we are going to for the season. It was not a good year for numbers, but the preventative planting insurance will help a lot. One night I drove all the way down to do a few hours of field work (after I broke the 1" shaft) and I drove over a rake tooth and put it through the tubed outside dual...needless to say my bad luck carried over to home too! But we got it fixed the next morning so no huge worries.

Well, I'm going to try to do a better job of keeping this blog up. It's just really hard when I don't get home until 11 or midnight and leave by 7:45. But I'll work on it:) I"m actually attending a welding workshop for teachers today/tomorrow so I've got a bit more energy tonight. It's been really good and I'm glad I took off work at the lab to do it. But, goodnight for now, I"ll try to write again sooner than later!

... Behind

Ugh...I'm always so far behind. There have been lots of goings on over the past week. Once again I find that it's almost midnight and I'm tired. But, I figured that I ought to write someting in here before it appears that I've fallen off of the face of the earth.

I had a bit of a couple frustrating evening a few nights back. When doing chores- it always seems that something has to go wrong, and this night all I wanted to do was go home and sleep...but no. First I got started really late becuse there were so many calves to tag after work at the lab. Now, the night before I realized that I needed fuel on the tractor and parked it while another tractor was being fueled. When I went to restart it...it wouldn't. I had to dink around and wasted like 45 minutes getting it going again. So...I figured the next night would be easy...what more could go wrong with chores- o theres's more.

So, as I said I got started late, then about halfway through my second ration mix, I realized I had started mixing a 3500 lb calf mix and then added the ingredients for a 4300 lb cow mix. Wow...talk about sleep deprivation. Usually, when I mix up a ration I can fix it...not this time. I knew it could be fed to the cows the next day if I measured it out right, but that meant dumping out all my hard work. So, it's already late, and now i have to dump out everhting and start over. So, I dumped the ration into an empty bin and started over. I finally got the right ration mixed and got to the bunk and realized that I sheard a pin. I have not idea how but I did. So....I had to drive all the way back to teh shop and switch the pin, This was quite the task because it was dark and I couldn't see to get the pto lined back up. But, I finally got it and sheared the pin before I even moved again. I started teh process again, adn finally got things fixed and moving. After I finished chores at 11:30pm I went into the barn and started working with the most frustrating calf in the world who wouldn't suck....and ended up tubing him anyway.

Obviously that was a frustrating evening, but things got better the next day as I just worked in the morning, did chores early and then went to see my boyfriend Mark at his farm! I stayed from Friday until Monday and had a great time. His whole family was home and I had a good time talking with his mom and sister and helping Mark and his dad and brother with farm projects. We took in a Memorial Day service and met with some relatives a couple times. It was really nice to get away from Brookings and work and see Mark.

But now...I'm back here and we moved cows today. I think we ended up working and moving about 60 pairs which wasn't too bad for the small time we had. We didn't have any big disasters but did take in one more bottle calf. It was a long day and I managed to lose a pin out of the grapple fork when I was doing chores as well.

So, I'm headed to bed. I'm going to try to keep this thing more updated if possible.

Catch-Up

No...I have not forgotten about my blog...due to my computer charger cord biting the dust, I've been without a computer for a week or so. Not cool. Obviously that means I have some catching up to do. But, I just got home and am not feeling too good so I'll have to update the blog some but not all the way tonight. Since I have written last...here I'll just make a checklist;
Times the cows have been out: 5
Times Sara has been the only one around to put them back in herself: 4
Things that broke when I was running/utilizing them: 4
Four wheeler wheel bearing
Planitary on front wheel assist
Pin on calf catcher
Hydraulic O ring on hose of neighbors tractor
Number of the above listed items that were actually my fault: 1/2
Number of frustrating little calves that Sara has taught to suck: 2
One is pending
Number of nasty dead calf carcasses I used to bait a cow to the barn: 1

Haha...what I list. It's actually been a good few days- there just seems to always be something going a little bit wrong. One day I made some comment that I just couldn't win. I had the cows get off on me twice, fed 500 pounds of the wrong ration to the wrong calves, and broke a bale moving hay. I think after all that I said something like: I just can't win. It seems like wherever I go nothing can go smoothly." Chad then looked at me and said: "Good, you'll fit in well here". That was pretty funny, and mildly true. For example: today him and I were using the hydraulic wire roller to roll up some barbed wire and it should have been a simple task. But we kept having problems with the roller. Then, when we turned out head, Chad's dad was running the disk right through it and dragging wire all over the place. haha...o what a day.

Our bigger event of the week was moving cows yesterday. Chad, Randy, Chad's good friend Brian, and I moved 50 head in the afernoon. I went pretty smoothly but one more person would have made it even better. They have a pretty nice set up so it's kinda hard to mess it up once you have them sorted. I was definitly tired after running and riding four wheeler all day long. blah.

Today, I just did odds and ends and I spent a while folding up and moving calf creep feeders. Getiing the wings up was a chore- but I got it done.

I am going to have to cut this short. I'm in need of along nap. I'll be trying t update my blog as often as possible, but since I can get back so late at night I'm not sure how often that would be just yet.

New Beginnings

Well...it's been a while. I'm the worst at keeping up with anything that is not required during the school year. It just gets too busy and sleeping or spending time with friends and family comes before blogging I guess! haha. It was quite the school year, good, but full of riduculous assignments and long days of work. I have never been so happy to be done with a semester...but it was extremely bitter/sweet. Most (meaning pretty much all) of my friends graduate. After all, that's what you are supposed to do after four years of college...but not me. Since I would like to finish my minors in agronomy and animal science, I will be here at SDSU another full year. This isn't all bad, but it will be a big change as most of the people I know closely are gone. Three of my close friends went to vet school- which is awesome for them, and not all bad for me either since they will still be in school still when I finally do graduate! hehe. They are in Iowa, Kansas, and Georgia...go figure. My boyfriend, Mark (YES, I have a boyfriend and he is awesome!) graduated with an agronomy degree, and went home to Scotland, SD to manage the family farm with his father. Scotland is about two hours away from Brookings (just about 40 miles of so south of Mitchell. So...in a nutshell- Here I am all alone! But in a way it's been nice. This summer will basically consist of work work work, so I don't mind it so much.


Over the past year Virginia has moved into our house at Dad's place and is working at Well's Fargo and I have been working towards buying our grandmother's place and building site. We also started farming on share this year as well...but since all the share ground it bottom land- it's still afloat. I could go on and on with the details of the year- but as far as catching you up- that's the big stuff.


As the school year came to an end I found myself still looking for a summer job. Yes, I would love to be back at the ranch, but it has come time that I need to be at home. There is plenty to do and worry about at home, and farming on share is hard to do from several hundred miles away. So, despite my mother's wanting and many other people pushing, I did not go back west. Of course I miss it and I will certainly be back to visit, but for now, I'm in Brookings for the summer. I had to pay rent on an apartment here anyway, and there were good job opportunities and it's a decent driving distance from home- so I stayed here. Over this past year I visited the ranch a few times. Each time was fun- I brought Mark with once, and Rachel with once too. Jennifer and I tried to go once, but I got sick and that didn't work too well. This past month, Rachel and I went out for branding. It was lots of fun and I got to see many familiar faces. We branded 506 calves in three places in one day. It was lots of work but we had a good time. I always enjoy seeing Rylee and how big she has gotten. She's so cute and we play well togther. Heck, some of her toys intrigue me! I am sure I will be back soon to visit- it's hard to avoid people you love spending time with! And as you may have noticed...I haven't changed the name of my blog. I don't have the heart- maybe someday I'll get creative and add to it.


So, since I decided to stay here in Brookings I had to find a job or two. I was offered a job right away from the SDSU plan diagnostic clinic because I have working in the building for three years. I really didn't want the job because it would mean I would be inside from 8-5 on a state pay rate. That didn't sounds too great- but I knew I would like the people I would be working with and I didn't have any other jobs at the time, so I took a position part time: Wed-Fri 8-5. Then came the hard part...filling in the gaps. I had recieved an email for a local farm/feedlot looking for summer help in Volga. This was the same way I found the job at the ranch and I knew it was a pretty reliable source. So, I called the family and met with the owner, Chad Wosje a few days later. I now work at Wosje farms all day Monday and Tuesday (8am-10pmish) and from 5:45pm-10ishpm Wed-Friday. I am also trying to do one to two weekends a month. This farm job has been a great experience for me so far and I have definitly learned through trial and error.


The lab job is fun, but it's a lot of hours to be inside underneath a sterile hood. In fact, my hands are so caked with dirt (as in they don't come clean) that I have to wear gloves at the lab all the time! haha it's kinda funny. I work with a girl named Megan who I have just met and we seem to get along great. I also work with a girl named Marlee who I have know from previously working in the building- we get along awesome! The two people above us are Grace, the lab technician, and Connie, the lab manager. They are both a lot of fun and it's great to work with all of them. Right now, Connie is gone because she owns a greenhouse, but she will be back in the middle of June, which will liven up the lab.


So far at the lab I have been working on cleaning up a Ascochyta bacteria. Mark (yes he worked there) was actually working on it and now it has been passed off to me. So, last week was my first chance to get the hang of a new lab. Although I have worked in labs before, it still took some time to get used to the new atmosphere. I've pretty much got it down, but it still took some time and patience to learn a new project. In fact, in order to finish one step of the project I was in the lab from 8am until 5:30pm working on the same thing all day long! ahhh...I do appreciate the security of the job though. At least I don't have to be very nervous or scared that I'll really mess something up because I have quite a bit of experience. Another great thing about this job is that we actually produce results in a timely manner and work directly with extention educators and farmers.

This week was also the start of my work at Chad Wosje farms. Chad is a very nice guy who has been very willing to work with me and help me to learn new things. I work with Chad and Randy (the full time hired man). They are both easy going and great to work with. There are a few other seasonal employees that I see come in and out of the yard, but for the most part Chad and Randy are the backbone of the place. Chad and his wife Rhonda and their very cute three year old son Carson live near Sinai, just about 6 miles away from the farm site I spend my time on. Chad farms nearly 4200 acres of row crops with an additional 800 plus of grass/alfalfa hay and his place has the bin site and houses most of teh farming equipemnt. I work on a different farm site that Chad owns. The main focus is livestock. He has a large mixed herd of 300 pairs and 500-800 head of cattle on feed. I was hired as a general farm laborer with an emphsis on livestock herd mangement. Although it would be nice to do more farming- I know I can get that at home and through farming on share, so the livestock has been good. Of course, I have some experience in the area, but everybody manages their herd differently and I have seen that throughout my various jobs.

My job at the farm is a bit more routine that my ranch job, but I don't mind. After all, I really don't have it all down after only one week so everything seems new right now. I usually spend my morning checking cows and tagging and vaccinating new calves. One great benefit of this job is that we are calving right now. It's awesome to calve in nice weather, and I am excited to finally have the opportunity to be around full time for a calving season. I use this awesome calf catcher (I will have to put a picture up) to catch all the calves (or at least most of them) that I vaccinate and tag. I will go out in the morning first thing and make sure that everyone looks happy and healthy. There are two pastures but right now they are both halfway under water, so checking cows takes a while. After I make sure there aren't any emergencies, I go hook up to my calf catcher and nab some babies! (tehehe that sounds terrible but it's mildly true). This machine is like a cage that hooks up to a four wheeler. It's got spit gates that open on the front and all you do it pull a rope to get them to lock open. To close them you just step on a pedal. Neither require you to get off of the four wheeler. So basically I toodle around until I see an untagged calf. Then, ideally you drive up to it with the gate open, then shut them quick before the cow can get too excited and try to joint the calf in the little cage. But, it doesn't work like that every time. These cows know what's going on when they see the catcher and they all send out this baby call...but usually I can catch them in a few minutes. Sometimes I hop off the four wheeler and drag them to the catcher if the cow isn't too mean. It all depends. But, nonetheless the thing works awesome and it a great safe way to tag calves. Some cows really don't appreciate it but at least then you know who's calf it is. Filling syringes and filling out the tags takes a few minutes so tagging each calf takes time. I record them all in a book and then let them go. Once in a while I see a calf we need to bring in, so then I grab the calf trailer. It's pretty cool too. Basically, it's got two U shaped irons covered with rubber. You pick up the calf and hang it in the trailer by it's belly. It's a quick and easy way to bring a cow and calf in at once. Of course, I have had some troubles (how could anything just go smoothly with me) sometimes the dang tagger doesn't work the best and I get tags stuck half in ears which I fix of course, but I always feel bad for the calf. One time I got way out to the far end of the pasture and realized I had no gas in the four wheeler, then I had to decided wheather it was worth the embarrasment of driving back for gas, or risking it and running out. I drove back...it was running out as I pulled up to the shed- good choice. But, no major catastrophies on the tagging and herd health checks thus far.

I can't go into too many detail because I've been working there a week and I need to go to bed. But basically after I tag I will do some odds and ends jobs. Sometimes I move bales (of course I almost always break one) other times I check cows that are already out on grass with older calves, sometimes I fix fence- it all depends. In the later afternoon/evening I do feedlot chores. This takes the average person three hours...right now it takes me five or six hours. I will say though, that it's only beacause I am tryhing to be careful and have never had to use a loader that much in my life! I run an JD :( 7800. Yes, it's green but it's really quite nice for chores (That's really hard to say by the way). I mix rations for three lots of cattle and two more rations for the cows in the calving pastures. This usually results in 6 or 8 rations depending upon how the hay is ground and how much the feed wagon can handle. If you overfill it...you shear pins. I have already done that once because they ground hay and no one mentioned that it was finer and I couldn't put the usual 4,000lbs in. But aside from it taking forever I am starting to get the hang of chores and am hoping that things start going faster for me so I can get home earlier at night.

Today was a little rough though. First I checked cows and tagged calves. I ddin't come until noon but it was still a full day of work. When I was tagging I had some troubles with the dumb tagging needle again- it's that new kind of tag that is all one piece and has the point on itself. The dumb needle on the tagger moves sometimes and I think that's where the problem begins. So after I got done tagging I hooked up to an old wagon and started movign some hay. It's been taking us forever to bring hay to the cows so we thought hauling a few at a time to teh gate would help. Well I think I ended up defating the purpose. The hay wagon hasn't been used in a long time and it appears that it is designed for the old smaller bales. So, I could only fit three on it. After two loads I quite. In fact, within those two loads I managed to drop and break a bale of stalks...in the middle of the driveway. I eventually got it on the trailer but that's pretty hard to cover up...believe me. I tried to scoop up my mistake but instead just spread it all over the yard! ahh! Then, after I gave up on bales I started doing chores since it takes me so long. It was about 5pm. At about 5:45 I was actually feeding at the bunks and noticed a cow out. Once in a hwile this happens becaus they jump the four-wheeler ramps...but no there were multiple cows out. As it turns out, I left the gate open. We actually do that often because this gate is at an end of the pasture that is mostly mudd right now and it's heavily travelled. But instead of leaving it alone like always the cows just let themselves out. I bet by the time I jumped out of the tractor and got to the road on a four wheeler, there were 20-30 cows out on the road. As i'm trying to chase them in frantically to any gate I can see, half of them head to the highway and the other half the gate. Then a few others are eating the feedlot ration I just fed from the bunks. Bascially there were cows going in a gagillion directions. I finally got most of them in a contained area when Ellie, the dog (bless her heart) tried to take a cow to me...not away from me! She chased the cow to the highway. So now, I'm in the ditch of the highway tryhing to chase a cow back. The dog is in the middle of the road, I'm flyhing on a four wheeler that has minmal brakes (which I never noticed until I tried to go from 40mph to a stop) and this cow is still going the wrong way. After loosing my hat, and frantically chasing cows for 15 minutes i got them all back in. Then found the hat and hopped back into the tractor. It didn't take long, and the cows were back out again. I didn't even get the next load mixed before a bunch of them figured out you could jump the four wheeler ramp (which ruins it by the way). So, I get off the tractor again and chase cows back again. By this time Chad and his brother were around unloading corn and mowing so they probably got a pretty good show. I finally got back to chores and Chad blocked the four wheeler gate. It wasn't long before I found myself feeding the wrong ration to the wrong heifers. I think ti was just one of those days. So I call Chad to figure out what to do and he says don't worry about it now. Go get a four wheeler and help me bring this cow up. Well, as easy as that sounds, I actually had to air up two tires on this four wheeler. I'm not sure if it was the pile of steel posts Chad hit yesterday that did the tires in, or if it was my late night trip to shut a gate in the dark, but nontheless I had to clean the mudd off of the tires and air them up. Then get all the gates ready and by the that time he was getting close with the cow who had a breeched looking hoof handing out the back. Then comes the fun part, pulling. We managed to pull this breeched calf and got it out alive. It's funny how things work. Chad was trying to explain why we hung the calf upside down and blah blah blah. I just smiled and did what he said even though I knew most of what he was explaing. But then, I started sticking straw up the calf's nose to make it sneeze and get some more fluid out of it's lungs. I think he was a little surprized. It was rather funny. So we ended up with a monstrous red bull calf who is doing well. I told Chad that it' always boys that cause trouble- then he replied that women always start it...but he was standing right being this cow that we just pulled monstroul breeched bull calf out of at the time. Boy, he's luck she didn't know what he said! We then checked one more cow who had already had her calf before we got there...good deal. Then I got back to chores. I finally got everyhting done by about 10:45 and headed home.

Everyday is a new learning experience. Yay for trial and error. I've really been enjoying my jobs. At this point it's a bit high stress, but I like it anyway. I think I better get to bed so that i can be awake to tag babies in the mornig! Thanks for reading:)

Saddle up and Move out

It took a while to get the internet up and all settled.

I left off on my last day at the ranch.
We got up for early chores at 5:30 and got everything fed and ready for the day. We finally got some more milk replacer so there weren't so many cranky calves around too. I caught my horse and started saddling up with Ross when Lee showed up. We kept on getting ready and in the mean time Delbert showed up with Angie and Dante too. I don't think they were real awake...haha he just let them off at the house and soon enough Adrienne was outside. We were joking that today hopefully we wouldn't keep Angie in the house the whole time and could get her back home by noon!

We got all set up and Delbert, Lee, Ross, Adrienne, and I loaded our horses as Mike was showing up with the Ranger and we took off for the south end of the pasture close to home. We found most of the steers on the south end and pushed them back to the north. As wild as these colored steers seemed, it actually worked really well because a couple of them decided to follow the Ranger for cake. Merle came out with the four wheeler and helped too, but we didn't have too much trouble getting them in and into the corral. Once we did the brand inspector was there so we ran them through and counted. There wasn't really any sorting to do, so once we got them counted and inspected we stood around and ate rolls and chatted for a while until the trucks got there. During this time, of course lots of bs was shared...Adrienne and I started playing with the kittens and Delbert had made some comment about the cats being as prolific as the Allen housing...now that's bad. But, you can't even pretend it's not funny. After a while all the cats where lining up at our feet trying to beg for rolls...this got even funnier becasue he accused the of waiting in line for their commods. ....o the things that you hear on the rez- lol!

Once the trucks arrived, we went back to business. Adrienne and I were still messing around and tried to chuck a paddle at Delbert but it turned into an epic failiure as we watched it hit the side of the alley and make all sorts of noise...drawing all attention to us as we just laughed and walked away. But eventually, we actually bucked down and workd and started in loading. It really didn't take long and we had three trucks loaded.

I was about ready to unsaddle Nelly, when it was decided that we were going to go out and help round up Fannings bulls. These woudl be the cattle that Delbert runs near Merle's. I was game, so we gave Mike some time to saddle up Tanner, and then took off to chase after some white bulls (not hard to find!). Everyone was worried that i should get going- I just laughed, and said I would put off school as long as possible even if it was down to the last minute! We took off and dropped off a group of riders in each pasture. Adrienne, Delbert and I ended up in the second pasture with me and we were able to come up with three bulls. When we entered the pasture I was sending a text message and wasn't paying attention to where we were going because everyone was giving me a hard time about texting boys or some dumb thing like that. So, for whatever reason I got totally turned around and didn't even know it! I asked Adrienne why in the world she was pushing that bull west, and she was like- haha I'm not...I'm going east. She later told me she wondered if she was back with Dean again- going the wrong was all the time! lol...burn! Anyway, they rode the fences and I just pushed them on down the trail to the next pasture where the rest of our riders were. By the time we reached the end of our long, narrow pasture, we had three bulls and one cow that we needed to sort. We met up with the others who had some bulls as well, but as it turns out we missed one somewhere. Debert said not to worry, they woudl find him eventually- so we just moved what we had home. That was pretty easy moving, those bulls never fought or gave us much trouble at all. It was pretty impressive- apparently a few of them were show bulls and the others were older bulls so I'm sure that helped, on top of the fact that they were Charolais.

On the way home we also saw a grey steer we were concerned about from moving the steers in the other day. He looked like he was getting around well, and would be easy to move home in a few days- so that was a plus. Once we got the bulls back home, we unsaddled and Jason (the owner) was there shortly to load them up and move them home.

Once we got that taken care of Delbert picked up Angie and Dante (who ended up at home longer than planned again- but at least not all day!) and Mike and Lee went out with them to have some pizza in town. I was going to go but I decided to stay back and eat left over spaghetti with Merle, Adrienne, Ross, and Rylee. There was a ton of spaghetti left over that Jonni gave us from the postponed fire meeting last Tuesday! So, we ate that up and I played with Rylee for a while until I decided that I had better go home and finish packing up. It took me a couple hours or so to get things all packed up and cleaned. I seriously had my car as full as it woudl go...Bart took the last cupholder and that was about as much as it could hold. It was weighted down and I could just barely see out the back window...I swear I really don't have that much stuff but it seems to accumulate when you move around every few months. I wanted to take out the trash when I went so I had to put in on the trunk like a hillbilly...it was pretty entertaining- I even had to stop once to put it back on the back! haha- but I got there and sent some groceries over with ADrienne and Merle and dropped off my trash. I stopped in and said goodbye to Adrienne and Rylee, and then went out and put some gas in my car because someone told me to stop being stubborn and just take a little gas (much to my disliking). Then, talked to Merle for a while and said goodbye for the summer. :(

As I was driving away it was hard not to look back and smile at such a great summer. It's pretty well impossible to write down on paper how I feel about my experiences from this summer or my experiences at the ranch every. I have learned more there than anyone could ever pay me for. Not to mention the second family that i seem to have acquired and mooch off of way too often! I can't thank those people enough, or be at all regretful of the time I have spent there. It means so much to know that you have a place to go and learn still be welcome to learn and have fun!

My drive home was long, but I spent a lot of time on the phone catching up with people and planning things for work fo rthe next couple days, so it wasn't so bad. I ended up meeting up with a good friend of mine who was in Texas for the summer. She was driving with her dad just ten miles ahead of me on the interstate so we stopped in Mitchell and ate at Culvers. When I pulled in and got out there there was a car next to me already amazed at my weighted down car, but then I went to get out and grabbed my fish in his cup insted of my billfold and took a few steps before I realized it! hahaha...but I turned around and fixed the issue and gave those people a good laugh. I finally pulled into Brookings around 10:45 or 11ish. Jennifer walked from her house acrosss the alley and helped me get my boxes in as my sister was being interviewed by the census people in the living room...ugh census- but that whole federal law thing seems to be a good incentive to follow through! haha

Once I got my boxes in I helped a few friends do teh same thing at their place, talked with Virginia, and went to bed on my couch. It looked much more inviting than my bed full of stuff.

Since, I have been going non stop with move in, work, and trying to plan a training session that will be held on monday for a mentor program I am starting on campus. My water heater was leaking one day, and that was replaced- just my luck. But, at least it's fixed now. At some point I would appreciate some sleep, but this move in week is always like this. We are making posters and organizing like crazy- but eventually when Monday passes, I think things will slow down a bit before classes start getting tough.

I am trying to take it a little easier this semester so I can have a life- 17 credits, two jobs and lots of activities, but I think I can still cut back- we'll see. I hope to update my blog once a week or so but I can't make promises because I don't know.

What I do know was that I had another amazing summer that was well worth the work! :) I am unsure of next summer because I have my own place to get up and running, but we'll see. I hope to frequent back at the ranch this fall and spring- after all, I couldn't fit my saddle so they know I'll be back! We'll see how often it works out. Here's to another great summer out west! Thanks for reading :)

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."" -Mary Anne Radmacher

'Steer'in towards school

For being one of my last posts, this won't be too exciting- but I can't make up any stories to tell you that would ever top the things I have already gotten into this summer.

I got up and met everyone for chores this morning. Merle had started a little early before I got there because Delbert was coming. Ross and I finished chores and grabbed horses and saddle up. Delbert was there shortly after we caught our horses and we hooked up to his trailer (it has three gates rather then two). We loaded our three horses and Merle's four wheeler up.

First stop, south of the place to put a run away steer in. Merle just happened to see him out this morning. We got over there, found him, and Delbert and I were working him towards the gate when he just decided to hop the fence. Delbert's commetn: graceful as an elk. haha- he didn't break any wires to we'll have to give him that.

After we got him back in we loaded back up and took a trip over to Risse's big pasture. You have to drive quite a ways to get over there, but once we did, it didn't take long. We stopped at the well Delbert last saw the steer at, and unloaded there. We took the horses one way and Merle went the ohter. Within a couple minutes he was calling Delbert telling us he had already found the steer. Well...that didn't take long- this is why four wheelers can be so handy.

As we were riding over there I asked Delbert where the corrals were from here- he said: "right here" as he pointed to his rope in hand. Ahh...yes, this might be much better than going the two miles to the corrals to load the sucker up. So, we come up on him and tried to keep him moving north since the wind was so crazy so Delbert could throw a loop. He missed him the first time (i don't think the wind helped at all) and then the steer cheap shotted him. It took about 200 yards and he played out. Just stopped and basically walked into the rope! haha...I could really use that against Debert if I wanted, but it would do not good since I couldn't swing a rope if my life depended on it! ...but i wanna learn.

So, he got him roped and Merle brought the trailer over to load him. He wouldn't jumped right in if Delbert's horse woulda on the first try. But, that didn't work so we finally got the horse in and he drug the steer right with him. Then did some rearranging and got the steer in one compartment, the 3 horses in the other, and the four wheeler at teh back. That worked pretty nice. When we got him we dropped the little fart off with the rest of em right out the side door of the trailer and headed home. We unloaded and let the horses out. Delbert and Merle switched tailers around while I brout a few things of Merle's in the house that I had stashed away at my house all summer. Then, I sat around playing with Rylee for a while and decided that i had better go home and pack.

When I got here I thought it would be a good time for a nap, so I layed down at about 11 with intentions of getting up at 11:30. yeah, like that ever works. 12:30 rolls around and I finally get up and start moving. I spent my entire afternoon basically packing. Boy, it sure wasn't fun. I don't really have that much stuff considering I live in a house by myself, but it's a very very tight fit in my car. I really didn't feel that good today for whatever reason, so the packing was a little slow, but I got most everything boxed up.

I think Merle strung some salt this afternoon and Ross went home after we chased the steer this morning, so we weren't extremely productive. O well, you have to have those days once in a while. I would have liked to mow my lawn, but that wasn't gunna happen from the start. It was way too hot and unbelieveably windy to even want to have grass clippings all over my face in the 100 degree heat. Besides, it took all afternoon and evening to pack and clean.

I took another nap this afternoon cuz I felt like crap. Then did chores, and came home and put most of my stuff in my car. I've decided that my saddle isn't going to fit. But on second thought, that isn't the worst thing ever cuz I"m guessing it will smell after the morning's ride. I'll be back to use it before I would need it at home anyway, so it's not really that big of a deal.

So, most of it is packed up and I have the house pretty clean. Just a few last minute things need to be put in the car and cleaned up. I may need to pick up my mail as well- or I could just skip that part and hope I don't get anything. It's hard to believe the summer is already over! I don't wanna go hit the books at school- not even a little. It will be nice to see my friends, but I'm not excited to become stressed to the max over stupid schoolwork. I know this coming week will be awful with work training and all sorts of preparations for a training I am holding for students involved in a mentor program that I started as the Ag Bio Advocate for the college this year.

Anyway, this has been an amazing summer, once again. Live and learn is probably the best way to put in in few words.

I will write tomorrow when I get back if I have internet and report if I make it in one piece without blowing a tire because my poor car is so weighted down!

"There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day." -Alexander Woollcott

Burning Hot

ughhhh...I'm ready for bed.

Another very interesting day. This morning I woke up and was making my pop tart breakfast and headed out the door when the phone rang. Harv was letting me know where he was at on his way down and mentioned that Merle would be back around 7:30 or so. I don't know if I missed the memo or if Merle just didn't say anything or what, but he went up in a plane around 6ish this morning looking for steers. It was a super cub of a guy in town, whos buddy took him up and they flew for an hour or so.

That's something to wake up to- let me tell ya. I know they have done this before, but I just hadn't ever thought of doing that to find steers. So, I headed down to the corrals and did chores with Ross. We were just saddling up our horses when Harv pulled in. We got everything ready to go and found out that Merle was close, so we just waited a bit for him, hooked up and loaded and headed out. Merle reported that he only saw one steer in the corner of Scott's 560, so we decided to look for it after our hunt for the first two we knew of. He made a comment about the steer not looking really good and I asked how close they were able to get. He said that you might have been able to grab the ear tag... I decided that I didn't know if I really wanted to fly with them or not! The pilot is also a crop duster so they flew really low I guess!

We needed two steers out of Delberts pastures. We saw one on our way in and needed to find another and move them home together. Of course, the steer wasn't in the same place where they saw him yesterday so we all split up and rode the pasture. After a while, Harv flagged me down and told me that Merle was coming with the steers. Right about then he came over the hill with the whole group of cows and the steer. We got him cut off with a cow, but she wouldn't stay so we had to fight him to the gate. In typical yearling fashion, we got him to the gate and he shyed and tried to run back on us. If it wasn't for Merle's fourwheeler to push on him I don't think we woudl have ever gotten him back with our horses. But, we did and sent him towards the other steer in the next pasture.

We gave them a break for a bit and then sorted the yearlings off and headed home. You always try to walk and slow them down as best you can, but not with these. One wanted to run the whole way so they both did. It took all you had not to run up on them because they would just move faster. So, needless to say it didn't take long to get home because I spent most of the time catching up with them! We got them home and up into the pasture on the creek. Merle stopped at home and grabbed teh trailer and we loaded our three horses and his four wheeler and headed to the 560 where he thought he saw the steer in the corner. We looped around that pasture while he rode the back quarter and found nothing. The little fart must have jumped the fence to the west and gone back. So, we loaded up and went home. But, somewhere along the line Risse's called and said that there was still one steer left in their pasture. This is the big (8,000 is acres?) pasture that Ross and I went to find when we loaded up those 12 steers. So...I think I know what tomorrow morning with hold.

Anywho, we came back home, ate dinner, and then went up to unload some barrels of Crystalyx that Harv brought down. After we got that done, I went to help Ross with some oats that he needed sacked and Merle and Harv went out to take a picture of some cows with a lick tub. I thought it was rather entertaining- would have like to watch them set out the perfectly clean tub in the grass and seen which cow ran to it the fastest for a picture! But, after we got all that done, Harv headed out and Merle told me to go home and take a nap and pack if I needed to.

So, I went home and just after I layed down Merle called and mentioned that we forgot the milk replacer (we ran out and Pee Wee is hungry!) in town. He said he felt really bad but if I could go get it that would be great. I didn't mind at all- they were out stringing salt and we really needed it. So, I exnayed the nap and went and got the milk replacer. I headed back home with it and just as I sat down to make some phone calls the pager went off...

I could understand the "Attention Martin Fire" and the word "Hisle". Well, that means it's close. I called Merle right away and got the numbers for people tha twould have heard the page loud and clear. After we made phone calls and got back ahold of each other we figured out that it was a fire near Hisle. Well, Hisle is just up the road so I got in my gear, grabbed the truck and took off north. I radioed us in to dispatch on the way there and tried to listen to their really bad directions to the place at teh same time. When I met Merle he quick put his gear on there on the road, and we left Adrienne adn Rylee with the pickup to head home. So, we take off for the smoke (which is a long ways off from Hisle). We went all the way north to the highway and then back west towards the Weaver place (if that means anything to you). We are going west headed to a driveway that we think is right when we meet the Interior trucks headed the other way. So, we turn around and follow them. Not one minute later we meet them headed back the opposite direction again! So, we turn around again and go back to where we originally were headed. From there, we had a rancher (I think the oldest Weaver) lead us up into the timbers of the badlands. It was quite the trail. In fact the tender trucks that came later had to park way down at the bottom of the hill because they would never make the crick crossing or the hill climbs up there. We finally got there and were really the first set of trucks. I think there was one rancher with a pickup tank there and maybe one other personally owned fire rig. So, we got to giong. It wasn't as big as it looked, but it sure could have burned if it wanted. Merle left me with the truck and headed down in there with a McCloud. I stayed back and made sure there wasn't any back burning and put out hot spots. At one point, I decided the spot I was at was pretty well covered so I rolled up my hose and turned the truck around to watch what else was going on. Just as I did that, Merle showed up. So we took off for the other end of the fire and started wetting down teh edges and putting out hotspots. This was quite the trail to get around. I was surprized we were able to get teh trucks as close as we did.

At one point, when we were rolling up the hose I managed to push the button that rolls the reel too long and sprayed Merle in the eyes with high velocity water. That was brilliant, and I'm sure it felt great on the eyes. Since I hadn't had anything happen to me today or done anything really dumb yet, that was it. I felt really really bad- but what do you do. We ended up there for another hour or so until we ran out of water. Some "firegod" who thought he was in charge of the show basically told us to go home- so we did. We left the other Martin trucks (who had not been there long because they came another route at first and had a tender tuck break down) . We left them to mop up with teh explorers and we filled our truck at the bottom of the hill and headed home. It ended up only being about a 25-30 acre fire, but it was on some rough turf and it did jump in one spot where there was no connection of burn fuel.

I love to fight fire. It's not a good thing- perhaps I like it too much. But, definitly not something I woudl wanna do everyday of my life. Those people are tough. We got out of there and headed home. Wrote down all our records and fueled the truck up for the next fire. It wouldn't take much for that fire to flare back up, so I may be out again before morning. I really woudl like some sleep, but we'll see- a fire is a fire! ...and the other night we did skp another one bale fire. they paged three times- on the third time I almost called Merle, but chickened out. Why should we drive all the way to Martin and west to watch one bale burn when most of the fire fighters live in town? That was my theory anyway.

But, Im in now- probably not going to get a lot of packing done. More interested in showering and going to bed. I won't have much more for blog posts so you all will have to find a new source of daily entertainment! haha...it's so sad that my life is that entertaining!

But, so be it. I don't wanna go to school! Nooooo! ...o well, that's life.

"Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!" -New Testament, James 3: 5