Shovels and Pitchforks <====

O how about another exciting day on the ranch!

So...today I was really hoping for no disasters- problems- or just plain cruddy situations. The best part is, we managed to avoid MOST of them- but not all- (haha of course.) Merele called before I made it out of the house. He asked how things where and what we had been doing, and I tried to come up with all of the things we had done that had actually turned out decent- seriously the man needs to quit worrying! While doing morning chores this morning I noticed that we had a calf with a nasty cough that seemed worse- so we shot him up with some LA200. In the process of trying to do so Ross ended up poking the poor thing like four or five times because the needle was blocked...oops- I think the calf is looking better already though. So, in the mean time I notice that Joe looks alright, but still a little sluggish and slow- although he ate well so who the heck knows!

By the time Ross had the steers caked I was just finishing up chores. Somewhere in the mess of chores a gate got left open where Ross came in and I turned the bucket calves into right about the same time. So basically we had nine free roam bucket calves all day long...o boy was it hillarious. Do we try to chase them in? O no, why would you do that- haha!

First task of the day: clean out the barn. Yes, I mean like pitchfork in hand clean out time. This really doesn't bother me, but after a couple hours of smelling the rotten straw underneath and worrying about my horse who decided to lay flat on his side and moan and groan for a couple minutes (apparently he always does this and somehow I missed that?!- shows how clueless I am sometimes!) you can imagine the excitement level I was at. But shortly thereafter we decided to go and get some feeders out of a winter pasture and clean them out- with shovels. After shoveling for an hour or two we tried to spray them down with the garden hose...yeah bad idea- too much crap and not enough drainage equalls nasty sledge stuff! So we moved the feeders out of the yard (we only did two or four) and decided to abandon the task 'till later when "Merle can use his fire hose to spray the water out"...yep. Ok, so we head on to clean out the garbage pit where everything from November had been burned and now needs to be taken out to the hole in the pasture...mmm fun job. But, we got it done and I headed back to the barn to thrown down and string fresh straw, and for some reason this straw was put up a little green so with every single bale I unwraped I wondered if I was using the right staw! Turns out I was, but it was definitly a little scary:s Well that took most of the afternoon. Also, it turns out the dead tractor simply needed to be charged or jumped with some better cables (that's right, I actually knew something)! So I finished off the day with evening chores-2 new late calves today! 2 cows left to go. Then, Joe and I went for a walk just for the heck of it and to get him out and moving. We'll see where I decide to turn him out tomorrow.

Overall things have been super duper, I'm working hard, but having a great time and trying to soak up all the info that I can. A few things I have learned: I dont' know if it's just this place or most places out here but they bring everything to town to get fixed or worked on before winter. At home, we do most of that ourselves, so it's kind of odd, when something breaks down I want to crawl under it and look around and everyone else is like- o just leave it we'll have someone look at it later...haha I guess its just a difference in the way ppl operate. I have also learned that this place is not a whole load of excitement on a Friday night- hmm I work tomorrow and am eating a cookie. Obviously I dont' have a ton going on because I would never write a blog this long if I wasn't lost for things to do at the moment!

Thanks for reading my ridiculously long and too detailed post. If you're bored call me on the land line: 605-462-6144.