A Fine Saturday for Adventures

[rvgrammy1953]

Hello, there, Mitch!!!! You're looking great!!! Keep thinking positive thoughts and a smile that lights up the world....you're doing wonderful!!.....

[dpf]

Good Morning! Busy place today! I took the day off yesterday because it was Homecoming and DH’s 45th class reunion. I got sit on the curb and watch the parade plus help Missy watch her grandson and help him pick up candy! Dennis rode on his class’s float. I skipped the tailgate party and game because I knew the game was going to be a blow out (in our favor) and it was going to be a little chillier than I cared to stand out in for a couple of hours. I did my time when the boys were playing and am now a fair weather fan. Tonight the class is meeting for a banquet. I believe that those things should be for the class members only. Spouses that didn’t go to school with them feel so out of place.
Mitch, so great to see you smiling! Hope the pain meds are doing their job. There isn’t one of us who wouldn’t be there to help you if we could.
Now Tina…if I had only been thinking we could have provided you with your cowgirl dream….free of charge! Plus Stuart, Remi and Audrey could have accompanied you! Ryan would probably take a “green horn” for a week and depending on the time of the year you could have had different experiences. Late May is usually branding. Usually a busy day with one heck of a party in the evening. This time of the year he’d probably put you to work driving a grain truck to the elevator…boring job and you want a good book to read while you’re waiting in line to unload!















Branding day has cowboys galore.

Irmi, I am so sorry about your mother. Please find peace in knowing that you were the best daughter a mother could want.

Better try to accomplish something. Have a great day.

[Bethers]

Mitch, you and the turkey basters are looking good. Glad to see you this morning.

Tina, can't wait for all your adventures.

Lori, looking forward to pictures from the gang today.

I'll be on the road in a few. Last leg to my cg for training.

[AlmostThere]

Hey, Mitch!
Good to see your beautiful smiling face!! Yep, those basters are the worse and cause the most pain IMHO.
Hope the NW GTG can stay dry. Lots of rain, mostly coming in for us in SW WA tomorrow, along with big
winds along the OR coast. Prayers it scoots around them.
Sympathy to Irmi and family at the loss of her Mom.
Tina, have a wonderful, fun and safe time at the dude resort. Can't wait to see pics!
Time to shower and get Choco ready for his weekly small dog walking group, if the rain holds off....
Have a blessed day everyone!

[Rufflesgurl]

Mitch nice to see your smiling face! Take care and rest!!
Tina, have a great time being cowgirl!

Linda

[VickieP]

Great pic, Mitch and I agree with Tina, I think the natural color really does make you look younger, go figure!

Tina, have fun on your adventure, we'll be waiting for the pics. Pat has been nice enough to give us some to tide us over.

So sorry to hear that Irmi's Mother has passed. Prayers for her and her family.

We got tons of rain last night, some got water in their homes and streets flooded. Luckily we stayed dry, probably because just a couple of weeks ago I bought a submersible pump to pump water away from the house. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it!

We'll be heading out tomorrow, hopefully in the morning, north through LA, AR, MO & over to NW TN!

[Redwahine]

Where do I sign up for that free SD cowgirl camp?? Can't wait to see Tina's pictures of cow girl. Mitch, glad to see your wonderful smile (albeit a little help from narcotics ) I agree with the others, I like your natural hair color, it is more youthful. We have had that same storm that hit Vickie. It should be gone by tomorrow. However, be careful on the road, Vickie.

[grammynmaggie]

Great to see you smiling mitch I'll pray for your speedy recovery have a great day!

[Acadianmom]

I think most of the rain has passed us too. It must have rained off and on all night. There is still a big area in the gulf but the line is moving East. Good thing you are not leaving until tomorrow Vickie.

I copied something about being a woman on a ranch from a friends Facebook page. I'll see if I can get it copied over here. I'm sure Pat can relate to this.


If you are going to be the woman on the ranch, here are the top 10 "facts" you need to know!

1. Always load your horse last in the trailer so it is the first one
unloaded. By the time he's got his horse unloaded, you will have
your cinch pulled and be mounted up ready to go - lessening the
chance of him riding off without you with your horse trying to
follow while you are still trying to get your foot in the stirrup.

2. Never - and I repeat never - ever believe the phrase "We'll be
right back," when he has asked you to help him do something out on the ranch. The echoing words, "this will only take a little while" have filtered through generations of ranch wives and still today should invoke sincere distrust in the woman who hears them.

3. Always know there is NO romantic intention when he pleadingly asks you to take a ride in the pickup with him around the ranch while he checks waters and looks at cattle. What that sweet request really means is he wants someone to open and close the gates.

4. He will always expect you to quickly be able to find one stray in a four-section brush-covered pasture, but he will never be able to find the mayonnaise jar in four-square feet of refrigerator.

5. Count every head of everything you see - cattle especially, but
sometimes horses, deer, quail or whatever moves. Count it in the gate, out the gate or on the horizon. The first time you don't count is when he will have expected that you did. That blank eyelash-batting look you give him when he asks "How many?" will not be acceptable.

6. Know that you will never be able to ride a horse or drive a pickup to suit him. Given the choice of jobs, choose throwing the feed off the back of the pickup. If he is on the back and you are driving, the opportunity for constant criticism of speed, ability and your eyesight will be utilized to the full extent. "How in the *@*# could you NOT see that hole?"

7. Never let yourself be on foot in the alley when he is sorting cattle horseback. When he has shoved 20 head of running, bucking, kicking yearlings at you and then hollers "Hold 'em, hold 'em" at the top of his lungs, don't think that you really can do it without loss of life or limb. Contrary to what he will lead you to believe, walking back to the house is always an option that has been used throughout time.

8. Don't expect him to correctly close the snap-on tops on the plastic refrigerator containers, but know he will expect you to always close every gate. His reasoning, the cows will get out; the food will not.

9. Always praise him when he helps in the kitchen - the very same way he does when you help with the ranch work - or not.

10. Know that when you step out of the house you move from the "wife" department to "hired hand" status. Although the word "hired" indicates there will be a paycheck that you will never see, rest assured you will have job security. The price is just right. And most of the time you will be "the best help he has" even if it is because you are the ONLY help he has.

I am still hearing about the time one of the rice trucks ran in the ditch and he had me driving the truck to pull him out. By the time we got the truck back on the road I would have gladly run him over.

Probably the main reason I had a job was so I would have a place to go every day and they would pay me to be there. That and for health insurance we didn't have to pay an arm and leg to have.

I had a sign in my kitchen of our old house that said:

It's not my place to run the train, the whistle I can't blow.
It's not my place to say how far the train's allow to go.
It's not my place to blow off steam or even clang the bell.
But let the damn thing jump the tracks and see who catches hell.

Martha

[VickieP]

Great read, Martha!

[JudyJB]

I am certainly not one of the early birds, but I feel much better after 10 hours of really good sleep.

Nice to see you smiling, Mitch, but I have to believe you are in a LOT of pain. I think it would be awfully hard to sleep on your back and to get up out of bed. Makes me winch just to think of it. Hopefully, they have given you adequate pain meds and that you surgeon is not stingy about those things.

I am just resting in this "resort" RV park in California. I planned this to be a rest week, but I did rent a car for Monday and Tuesday to drive to Lassen Volcanic Park. Just don't feel like man-handling this big rig over there. Then Thursday, I will head to Napa for 11 days. I have a reservation in Yosemite for a week and then probably back to Napa. Going to try to travel more slowly from now on.

Still need to fix breakfast. Going to make sausage and pancakes and then freeze some in packets for fast meals.

[Nasoosie]

Loved your ranching advice, Martha, and loved seeing Mitch's smiling face with her baster in place! (By the way, what are the basters for? Are you on a spit, too, that will roll you over and around every so often??) Inquiring minds want to know the ins and outs of this!

Lots to do while the sun is still shining here, although the winds have picked up enough now for me to have put up my awning before the storms come with the ensuing cold front. Now that it's late lunch/early dinner time, I guess I will take me a bit of a nap! Issy has invited me to her house for beans and hot dogs for supper, so no need to think about anything but a nice rest!

[Bethers]

I must have missed about your mom, Irmi. So sorry to hear.

Martha, that was a great.read.

[dpf]

OMG yes Martha I can relate! A lot of those things apply to being the daughter of a farmer/rancher too. I always envied Mom on #7...she'd just go to the house...kids didn't have that option. Having a job outside the home was my savior! I tried the good wife routine on weekends for two years...that's why I know about waiting in the truck for hours at the elevator to unload. After the boys were born I said no more. Now I don't do farm work at all. Wish I could still ride the horses but my back says "Woman...don't even think about it." And for some reason those horses seem to be a lot higher off the ground than they used to be and old lady bones break easier and take longer to heal!

I'm going to have to pass this on to our newspaper editor for his weekly column...think lots of women in the area would enjoy it.

[IrishIroamed]

Mitch, if I find that handsome cowboy, I will be sure to send you a picture. You need to know there is more than one "Pedro" out there to hunt for!

Montana, here I come.

Tina - find me a cowboy too please

Cowgirl up! And don't squat with yer spurs on