Rules to Ranching

In the book I'm reading, Riding the White Horse Home, the author, Teresa Jordan, contends that, "there are a few rules to ranching that mustn't be broken."

1. Ranchers must get up at 5:30.
2. Ranchers don't take vacations.

I guess I'm not what you'd call a rancher, then. Although I did get up that early yesterday. Just woke up. Decided to head over to Maureen's for coffee. We hadn't done that in a while. Back when we lived at Brown's Mill, I'd get up early and drive down to the ranch. She and I'd drink a pot of coffee and talk about all the things we needed to get done. Yesterday, we drank coffee for a while then took a few bales up the hill to the cows. (I forgot to blog about us putting them across the road last Monday night. But, it was so easy and uneventful--we just drove the feed truck up to the old barn and they came running. Two gates later, they were across like a shot, #2 leading the way.) Two of the older cows have yet to calve...and both looked close. After that, I had to meet with John Foster at the Curlew Fire Station to complete my pack test. 45 pounds of weight strapped over my shoulders for a mile walk (in under 15 minutes). I went ahead and did it in spite of my joints, and after a brief period of complaint, they all complied nicely, and I finished in just over 10 minutes. After that it was a quick run home for lunch and back out to Prichards' for a second day of branding. I took Korin and she took on the task of filling the syringes with vaccine, which she did all afternoon without a single word. Doug was very thankful, and I was proud of her. She loves to contribute. We got home around 5pm, ate dinner and got everybody settled for the night. It was a long day. Maybe, for one day, I was a rancher.