Thunderstorm

Chuckwagon Ride

Hey everybody!! I've been really bad about posting on here...work has been really busy and Ive spent my evenings working the horses and exercising the dog and I've come home too exhausted to do more than eat, stare at the TV screen, and fall into bed :( But I want to get better because I have a bunch of photos I'd like to share at some point :)

To kick it off, here are some from last night. I went with some of my friends to the house of some of their friends who train oxen. They use the oxen to pull wagons and put on demonstrations at various old west events.

We went on a ride in the wagon to a field with a campfire for some yummy dinner...
And then they unhitched them and saddled one of the oxen up and let me ride him!

I was so excited...can you see the smile on my face?!?!?! :) It was a cool experience that I never thought about doing, but I'm so glad I got to!

Now I'm off to convince my boss that we need to train one of our cows to let us ride her ;)

Thoughts Before My Birthday

So I'm having a birthday tomorrow...It's so weird, when I was young, I never imagined myself or my life past 21-22. I thought that I was going to graduate from college, find a rancher, get married and have at least 1 kid by now....Instead I spent 3.5 years in retail and then got a job on a ranch, all by myself. I did get a few "kids" though...2 horses, a dog and a cat keep me pretty busy. And I keep reminding myself to savor these nights when I come home from work and can just sit on the couch and watch TV for an hour, then go work the horses until it's dark out and not have to worry about getting dinner or take anyone anywhere. :)
I've learned that I am a strong woman who can handle a lot of things, but who still knows when to get help or go cry on mom's shoulder, and that's ok. I've learned that I need to take care of myself, because if I don't, I won't have the energy to do projects or hang out with friends. And I'll look back and wish I had done more. I've learned that I can be totally happy only going to town once a week. I've learned that there is no formula for a relationship with God (which really frustrates me some days :) ). I've learned that even though there are millions of hours of TV and movies out there, they don't answer that cry for God in my heart. I've learned that if I'm confident in my abilities and know my limitations, I'll earn more respect from the people around me than if I try to fake it. I've learned that it's OK to show my emotions, and will actually help me move through the circumstance if I don't stuff my emotions down deep inside. I learned that to forgive, I have to confront my feelings.
So this next year, I want to continue growing in my relationship with God. I want to hang out with more of my friends - make it a priority. I want to practice my cowboying and get better at my horsemanship. I want to laugh everyday, cry when I need to, and always look for the good in people.

Branding

Last Saturday we went over to a neighbors and branded some of their calves.
We rope and drag, which means that the roper ropes the back legs and pulls them out to where some other people gently hold him down while we brand them and give them their shots. Then they get to go find their mamas and head out to pasture.

My sister came along to her first branding! and we put her to work :)

 Ignore the poor horsemanship in this photo...The Mare and I were having a heated discussion about which way to turn after roping the calf ;)

Here they are branding and giving shots all at once :)

The calf is being dragged from right to left, I'm pulling up on the rope to help tip the calf over on it's side

**Thanks to Lana and Suzy for the photos**

Feeding the Steaks

We have a feedlot on the ranch I work on. We feed our own calves as well as calves from several customers.
These calves were all born last spring and will be ready to eat here in a couple weeks. In fact, some of you might grill part of one up here this summer.

We feed them a mixture of crushed corn, hay, silage, and wet distillers grain. Each ingredient is weighed into our feed truck which has four screws inside of it to mix up the feed.

My sister joined me last Saturday and kept my phone occupied while I loaded the ingredients :)

This is the view from the drivers seat...in the top mirror you can see all the happy steers that have already gotten feed, the bottom mirror shows the spout where the feed gets kicked out, and then there is the scale read-out so I know how much they are getting.

And looking forward, they are lining up for their breakfast!

Sunday, Caydee joined me. She wasn't too happy about being in the loader, so she had to be in my lap to feel safe :)

Then she wanted to sit on my lap in the feed truck, but there just wasn't room....

...but that didn't stop her from trying to get close!

A little after this pic, I turned a corner and she did end up on my seat, right behind me.

Then we compromised by having her lie on the floor right beside me. :)

Sunday was also a very sad day. I accidentally opened the spout door while the truck was mixing feed and didn't notice the feed coming out until I had this huge pile....

45 minutes later....

...and another 45 minutes later, it's all been cleaned up!

But that's life, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. :)