DUMB LAWS

Sydney Schwieder riding a horse without a helmet!

According to Bryce Glenn’s February 8^th Post Register column “Looking Back,” a bill was presented in the 1937 Idaho Legislature to ban the use of radios in automobiles. This got me thinking of some of the bills that are presented and passed with our present Legislature, and maybe some things that should have been made into laws.

I am aware that hooking up seat belts and wearing helmets when riding a motorcycle are safety measures, but I’m not sure we need laws for things like that. The person injured is the person refusing to do these things, thus they are the ones to take the consequences of not following safety precautions. Why do our lawmakers need to spend time making laws to protect us from ourselves?

            What about all the times I washed with the wringer washing machine? I always had the kids helping me and they liked to put the clothes through the wringer. I would put a chair for them to stand on and one would put the clothes into the wringer and another one would be on the other side taking the clothes out. Many times my girls, with long hair, got their hair caught in the wringer. I never left them alone to do this, so we were able to reverse the direction of the wringer and get the hair untangled quickly. Maybe the legislature at that time should have made a law requiring anyone using a wringer washing machine to wear a helmet.

            We never wore helmets to ride horses or bikes when I was young. And we often fell and got scraped and skinned up, even broke a few bones. Once when heading for the swimming hole on Sand Creek, I rode behind my sister on her bike. We weren’t wearing shoes as we were dressed to jump right into the creek. However, I got my foot caught in the spokes of the back tire of the bike. I certainly felt that painful consequence of not wearing shoes when on a bike, and I didn’t need a law telling me to wear shoes next time.

            One time, before the advent of seat belts, I was driving to the ranch with the kids. Our youngest was sitting next to me in one of those car seats that hooked over the back of the seat, and put him so he could see out the window. I had bought groceries and the kids got some candy. Well on the way, the little one swallowed a piece of candy and started choking. Pulling the car over to the side of the road, I grabbed him out of the car seat, put him upside down out the window, held onto one leg and gave him a couple of good swats on his upper back. The candy, plus breakfast, came right up. Pulling him back into the car, I put him back in the car seat and we went on our way. One of these newer car seats wouldn’t have prevented the choking. Do you think a law making it illegal go give children candy before riding in the car would have helped?.

            The other day we watched a DVD of a parade of old tractors, combines, threshing machines, and other farm equipment. The thing that really got my attention was the lack of safety shields over moving parts of these machines, and only an iron seat to sit on – no fancy upholstery, no padding, no springs to make the seat flexible, just cold iron. Those first machines were rough looking, just the basics to get them going. But they sure made a difference to the farming communities. And things have been made safer as new machines are developed. I’m not sure if laws were passed to put those safety shields on the equipment or not, but could have been.

            I guess my question is: do our law makers need to spend their time creating laws to protect us from the stupid things we do?

COLOSTRUM ANYONE?

This is a busy time of the year with our cattle. The heifers started calving in December, and now it’s the cows turn. We like the heifers to calve at a different time than the cows because the heifers are more apt to need some help and have to be watched closer. It is important that the men be out walking through the cows often, finding the ones that are close to calving and moving them into the shed that is prepared – the cow labor room.

With the nice days we have had, it hasn’t been a big concern to have a cow calve out in the front pasture, but the guys like to move the mom and newborn into the shed as soon as possible so they can keep an eye on both of them. In the evening they move all of the cows into the corral area, and then they go out about every two to four hours and walk through them, using the flash light.

Sometimes they have to pull a calf if the cow is having a hard time delivering. This usually takes two people working together. The calves are watched to make sure they start sucking right away. We want them to get that colostrum that mama’s have available before the milk comes in.

And occasionally a cow doesn’t accept her new calf, so the mom and her calve have to be locked up in a separate, small enclosed area to force bonding. This doesn’t happen a lot, but it does happen. When that does happens, that cow is marked (in the little red book) as one that will be culled out after weaning time. No sense in keeping a cow that is a bad mother! And cows can’t be taught to be good mothers, it’s just something that most of them are, but a few are not.

Boyd carries his little red book with him whenever he goes out and it sits on the kitchen cupboard when he’s in the house. He is forever checking it. He knows more about his cow’s genealogy than his own. He can tell how old a cow is, what color of a calf she has every year, birth weight of the calf, and whether she had problems with the birth. His red book is extremely valuable for that is his record keeping program. He also has a binder with a page for each cow, and many mornings will find him at the kitchen cupboard relaying information from the red book into the binder. I may give him a bad time about being computer illiterate, but he has certainly come up with a method that works for him in keeping cattle records.

Quite a few years ago I had surgery during calving time. I developed a complication from the surgery and had to stay in the hospital a few extra days. Boyd, who never likes to go into the hospital in the first place, did come to see me. One time he was there and a nurse was in the room with me. He could only stay for a few minutes he said, as he had a doctor’s appointment. “I have to have my “colostrum” checked,” he said, then turned and walked out the door. The nurse glanced at me with a questioning look on her face. After I finished laughing, I told her that we lived on a farm/ranch, and our cattle were calving. Boyd always becomes quite absorbed with the cattle, so it wasn’t a surprise that he got the words “Colostrum” and “Cholesterol” mixed up. Then she joined me as I laughed again. I don’t know if she shared that story with the other nurses, being a nurse myself I would bet that she did. And I’ve certainly shared it with friends.Later Boyd told me that when he got to the doctor's office and told him he'd come to get his colostrum checked, the doctor told him he'd been around the cows too long.

I really enjoy calving time, although it is a busy time, those new-born calves are so fun to see and watch! And it’s rewarding to see the protective mothers with their newborns.

OUT TO EAT

            Boyd and I don’t go out to eat a lot. We are both very content to stay at home, especially this time of the year when it gets dark early and is cold. He enjoys watching sports activities on TV and I enjoy reading. So when we do go out, it is always special.

This is the time of the year when ranchers and their spouse are invited to numerous “educational” dinners sponsored by veterinarians, animal drug companies, and animal groups. These are usually held at up-scale eating establishments where the food is excellent. The dress for these is casual, meaning we can go dressed in our jeans, so I am comfortable.

            I do enjoy these – a break from the normal slow evenings and a way to mingle with friends and neighbors during the cold winter evenings. The presentations are interesting and educational. Boyd and I both learn a lot at these and there are door prizes too, which are often very lucrative prizes.

            There happens to be hidden deep inside of me something besides: rancher’s wife; cook; gofer; fence fixer; and keeper of the books. That something is called woman.

            When we go to these winter dinners meetings woman emerges. This is one place that I cannot control her. She becomes especially strong as the door prizes are drawn. For some reason woman cannot get excited about:

• Ten free heifer pregnancy tests;
• A free semen and Trichimonis test
• Scour pills;
• A bottle of Uterine Bolus pills, used to help a cow that hasn’t cleaned out after giving birth;
• Pills to give a cow with mastitis
• New hats
• A small container of Roundup spray or other products being presented at the time
• A lariat or a whip
• Leather gloves
• A hot shot, whip or prod
• Ear tags

Can you understand why woman makes herself known to me at times like this? Woman wants to laugh out loud when I win one of those things, not because of the joy of winning, but the humor in my winning.

Woman does appreciate how the men like to win these things, even though she doesn’t want any of them. In fact, she understands why these are given as door prizes, and she doesn’t deny the fact that they are good advertising for the companies that donate the prizes.

I wonder what would happen if Boyd accompanied me to a dinner meeting that involved women and what they do, such as beauty products, cooking wares, cleaning products, crafting, etc. I’m sure I could find one to go to. And then maybe the door prizes would be more to the liking of the female gender, such as:

• A free pedicure and/or manicure
• A basket of lotions, perfume, and/or make up
• A free massage
• A bucket with cleaning supplies
• Free crafting supplies
• A new sauce pan
• Lots of free recipes

Come to think of it, I have seldom been invited to that type of a dinner meeting. Actually, when it comes right down to it my main interest is with the farm and ranch. So I am going to have to try to control woman to keep her from offending the sponsors of these dinner meetings that Boyd and I attend, and hope we keep being invited to them. I do enjoy the dinners and the meetings, and we use the door prizes we win. Plus I enjoy an evening out with my husband, no matter where we go.

And I am going to try to control woman, keep her from voicing her opinion when we are in public. Maybe it is best that we enjoy staying home away from the crowds. Woman never presents herself under those circumstances.

WATCH YOUR TERMINOLOGY

This is a busy time of the year with our cattle. The heifers started calving in December, and now it’s the cows turn. We like the heifers to calve at a different time than the cows because the heifers are more apt to need some help and have to be watched closer. It is important that the men be out walking through the cows often, finding the ones that are close to calving and moving them into the shed that is prepared – the cow labor room.

With the nice days we have had, it hasn’t been a big concern to have a cow calve out in the front pasture, but the guys like to move the mom and newborn into the shed as soon as possible so they can keep an eye on both of them. In the evening they move all of the cows into the corral area, and then they go out about every two to four hours and walk through them, using the flash light.

Sometimes they have to pull a calf if the cow is having a hard time delivering. This usually takes two people working together. The calves are watched to make sure they start sucking right away. We want them to get that colostrum that mama’s have available before the milk comes in.

And occasionally a cow doesn’t accept her new calf, so the mom and her calve have to be locked up in a separate, small enclosed area to force bonding. This doesn’t happen a lot, but it does happen. When that does happens, that cow is marked (in the little red book) as one that will be culled out after weaning time. No sense in keeping a cow that is a bad mother! And cows can’t be taught to be good mothers, it’s just something that most of them are, but a few are not.

Boyd carries his little red book with him whenever he goes out and it sits on the kitchen cupboard when he’s in the house. He is forever checking it. He knows more about his cow’s genealogy than his own. He can tell how old a cow is, what color of a calf she has every year, birth weight of the calf, and whether she had problems with the birth. His red book is extremely valuable for that is his record keeping program. He also has a binder with a page for each cow, and many mornings will find him at the kitchen cupboard relaying information from the red book into the binder. I may give him a bad time about being computer illiterate, but he has certainly come up with a method that works for him in keeping cattle records.

Quite a few years ago I had surgery during calving time. I developed a complication from the surgery and had to stay in the hospital a few extra days. Boyd, who never likes to go into the hospital in the first place, did come to see me. One time he was there and a nurse was in the room with me. He could only stay for a few minutes he said, as he had a doctor’s appointment. “I have to have my “colostrum” checked,” he said, then turned and walked out the door. The nurse glanced at me with a questioning look on her face. After I finished laughing, I told her that we lived on a farm/ranch, and our cattle were calving. Boyd always becomes quite absorbed with the cattle, so it wasn’t a surprise that he got the words “Colostrum” and “Cholesterol” mixed up. Then she joined me as I laughed again. I don’t know if she shared that story with the other nurses, being a nurse myself I would bet that she did. And I’ve certainly shared it with friends.Boyd later told me that when he told the doctor he was there to get his colostrum checked, the doctor told him he had been around the cows too much.

I really enjoy calving time, although it is a busy time, those new-born calves are so fun to see and watch! And it’s rewarding to see the protective mothers with their newborns.

AMISH

I love to read and do a lot of it. Lately I’ve been reading some fiction books featuring the Amish cultures. These books have made me do some serious thinking about my way of life. There were a couple of things in this last book I read that I especially took note of, (figuratively speaking, and I wish I had made a real note of them but I’ve taken the books back to the library):

• All work is like a prayer to God.
• The “English” are always rushing through what they are doing to get to the next thing.

These two things really made an impression on me. I am one that rushes through a task so I can get to another one. It seems like I live with the motto “let’s get this over with.”

So this morning I decided to take my time cleaning the house and not rush things, but think of honoring God by making our home clean and organized. (Of course the organization of it will take some doing, but I’m working on that too.) I’m surprised at how much I actually enjoyed the cleaning. Yes, I have other things I want and need to do, but the immediate task was the one I focused on. WOW! I can’t believe the good feeling I had not only as I was working, but when I was finished.

I tend to hurry through too much. Some of the things on my “to do” list are actually not important. Often my priorities are out of whack.

According to the books I’ve read, the Amish homes are very sparsely decorated. They live without electricity, although they do use propane gas and gas motors to run some things. Their first priorities are, not necessarily in this order: family; God; home; and neighbors. They don’t believe in “revenge” and work disagreements out among themselves. Yes, they are human, they do have disagreements and arguments, but they don’t believe in harboring the hurts from those. They believe in forgiving and asking for forgiveness.

The women do a lot of hand work, sew on treadle sewing machines, wash with wringer washing machines – powered by hand or propane gas generators, and cook and bake from scratch. They don’t have televisions or telephones in their homes. They do have access to phones, and if they have one it is out in the barn. That way the phone is not disruptive to their family life.

The men farm with horses and work in their sheds and shops using what we would call “old fashioned” tools. However, they get a lot done.

They live a simple life. It reminds me some of the times we lived at the ranch during the summer months. That was a simple way of living there, and one that not only I cherish, but our children do also. We don’t have electricity up there, so we learned to do things without it. Our children often talk of the fun and fond memories they have of living there.

Then why do I insist on making life complicated here in the valley. There are many things that add to the self-imposed complications that I have. The television and phone and even the computer are probably the most disruptive.

That reminds me of something I saw on TV the other evening. This 100+ year-old woman has written some books. She said that people could take away everything she had: her stove because she didn’t want to cook anymore; her TV; everything except her computer and she didn’t want anyone to touch that. That’s just how I feel, but I probably need to make sure the time I spend at the computer is productive time! Anyway, I’m going to try to simplify my life and make it more meaningful and comfortable. Meaningful shouldn’t mean cramming so much into life; it means simplifying and enjoying life!

EVERYTHING I KNOW I'VE LEARNED FROM COWS

     


  Many important things of life I’ve learned from being around and observing the cattle on our ranch.

• The grass might look greener on the other side of the fence, but there a good chance you will get your head caught in the fence or at least a catch in your neck by trying to get to that grass. You might as well be grateful for what you have on the side of the fence that you’re on and make the most of it.
• It’s a good idea to walk the entire fence when going into a new pasture. We haven’t moved around a lot since we finished our college years, but there is real wisdom is getting to know the area you live in. I still find new things in our area that add to my knowledge.

• Rules are made to be challenged, so walk the fence and look for the holes that will enable you to get out. How else will you see the world if you don’t find a way out of the fence? (Are we back to our boxes again?) However, there is also security with the fence. A fence may help keep danger away, or least make it harder for the wolf or coyote to get to you. There may be a poisonous weed just beyond the fence that you shouldn’t get into. So there is a time and a place to challenge this rule. The problem is, we don’t know the time or the place and sometimes have to face the danger from challenging rules.
• There is safety in the crowd, but being alone is also good and for some of us a necessity. Being with the crowd can be beneficial when storms come, as there is protection in numbers. And isolation gives us a chance to view things slowly.
• Teach children to obey. Obedience is importance throughout our lives and it is best learned when young. It is interesting to watch as a young calf will lay in an area, not moving, until its mother gives it the okay to get up or until she goes to get the calf. Teaching children to come when called and to stay where they are until told to move should be done while the child is young and doesn’t question everything.
• Face challenges head on. When a stray dog wanders out into the herd, the cows face it, letting it know it won’t go unchallenged. How many times do we turn away from challenges because we are afraid or unsure of ourselves? Facing things head on takes courage but also builds character.
• Work together, share others burdens. As I have watched the cows out in the pasture, I believe that once in awhile one of them is designated as “baby sitter” for the day, as there will be one cow and lots of calves around her while other cows are further out grazing. Also, in sharing their burdens, and I know I have mentioned this before, I have observed older cows surround a young heifer that is having labor pains. The older ones will be “lowing” in calming and soothing moos, as if to say “we’re here with you and know you can do it.” A shared burden is one that is easier to get over.
• Follow the leader to water. The path is being made by you and the others to the watering hole. There will always be leaders in our lives, and we need to pay attention to them.
• Treat everyone as equal. Don’t look at color, size, or shape. Just accept people for who they are, give everyone a chance.
• Dependent on others. We are all dependent on others for some parts of our lives. The cow is dependent on its owners for its food, especially in the cold winters. Learn to accept dependence and not fight it. 

• Chew your cud. Take time to think things out, slow down, enjoy life. And don’t criticize others for doing the same.

A DAY IN SUN VALLEY

A couple of months ago we spent a day in Sun Valley. It was the weekend of the Trailing of the Sheep festivities. Trailing of the Sheep is a special celebration recognizing one of the rituals of ranching in the West, that of bringing the animals in from summer pasture. 

It happened to be the weekend of our first snow storm this past fall, and we seriously considered turning around and heading home before we even got as far as Arco. It turns out that the snow storm was considerably less intense the farther west we traveled.

I had signed up to attend a writer’s symposium, “Women writing & living the West”. This was the first year this symposium was offered. Diane Josephy Peavey,  author of Bitterbrush Country, Living on the Edge of the Land, was a co-chairman of the event. In the past I had attended a couple of other workshops where she was on the program and have read and enjoyed her book. I highly recommend it to anyone, especially women who are new at living on the land.

            Teresa Jordan, moderator of the event and an award-winning author of several books, said, in her opening statement: “[Through writing we are] celebrating our history and our culture. Stories are the owners manual for our lives. If we don’t tell these stories they will be told by others who don’t understand either our history or our culture.”

            Dianne Josephy Peavey advised us that “you will forget things if we don’t write them. No one else can do it for you.” She also brought out that ranching families work together – no one is left behind, quite different from jobs in town.

            This turned out to be an interesting day with women from many states, telling their stories of ranching. A lot of them are involved with sheep, but some have cattle, and some have both. Quite a number of these women are owners of ranches, and they talked of the problems they face.

            Many women at this symposium told their stories of struggles, heartaches, and challenges. But there were also uplifting stories of  challenges faced and won, of helping each other, of overcoming the odds and being able to hold their heads up high among their male counterparts.

            Agriculture is still mainly male dominated, and one of the last big businesses to accept women as leaders and equals in their domain. However, this is slowly changing.

One of the major things that make the business of agriculture different from other big business is that the CEO of a ranching or farming operation does not wear a suit and tie and sit behind a desk all day. The majority of times that person, male or female, is dressed in jeans or overhauls and boots, sitting on the seat of a big truck or tractor or in the saddle on a horse. Working at the desk takes place at night when all of the other work is done, and usually when everyone else is in bed.

            This symposium wasn’t to encourage women to take over the ranch, but to encourage all of us to write our stories, to share what it means to live in the West, to write the history of the land we live on. It wasn’t a time to complain about what should have been, or what could have been, but a time to reevaluate what our position as women is in preserving our histories.

            Because of family commitments, Boyd and I weren’t able to stay and see the actual trailing of the sheep. However, we were able to watch and enjoy some of the dog trials. We missed a lot of the activities of the weekend, but we saw enough to feel the excitement and to resolve to go back next year and stay the entire weekend. I would recommend attendance to anyone!

COMPUTER 101

Boyd has started to take more and more interest in computers lately. Some of our friends have been putting pressure on him to learn computer skills. I would be the first to admit that he is an intelligent man and understands agriculture and animal husbandry exceptionally well. But he is computer illiterate, and that is putting it mildly!

            So I decided to test him on some computer terminology by asking him to define some words. Following are the words and his definitions:

• BOOT: Heavy shoes you put on when working in the corral or around the animals. Used especially in the winter in the snow, spring when things are muddy, and after a summer rain storm. Also used for irrigating all summer long.
• REBOOT: Putting your boots back on after taking them off.

• DOWNLOAD: Maybe another way of saying “unload.” For example, “I need to download this grain at the elevator.”
• FREEZE: What happens to water and plants when the temperature gets below 32 degrees. It’s what we worry about during late spring and early fall when we have crops in the field that are susceptible to frost.
• SPAM: Meat that comes in a can.
• BYTES: Something to eat like “I think I’ll have a bite to eat.”
• MEGABYTES: Lots of bites like Thanksgiving dinner.
• HARDWARE: Tools like wrenches, pliers, screw drivers, drills, screws, nuts, bolts, nails. Things you would have in your toolbox.
• SOFTWARE: Are you sure you don’t mean “soft wire?” That’s this wire that is very flexible and useful for small repairs around the farm and ranch.
• FIREWALL: The insulation and rocks put on the wall behind the free-standing fireplace to keep from burning the house down.
• VIRUS: Something that makes you sick – like the flu.
• DISK: Equipment to work the soil in the fall after harvest and in the spring prior to planting.
• BACKUP: Going backwards, opposite of going forward.
• WEB: Something a spider spins.
• WEB SITE: Where the web is: a window; corner, ceiling; etc.
• WEB ADDRESS: Maybe the room the web site is in. I didn’t know they had addresses. Do they get mail?
• BLOG: Probably a unit of measure used with thick liquids like oil. A “blog” might be a certain number of “glugs.” A “glug” is measured as you pour, for instance oil, and it makes the sound “glug.” You count the “glugs’ to measure, so maybe ten “glugs” equals a “blog.”
• CHAT ROOM: The local coffee shop.
• SEARCH ENGINE:             Would that be like the ATV or helicopter looking for a lost hunter or hiker?
• KEYBOARD: The board next to the kitchen door where all the keys to the vehicles are hung.
• HARD DRIVE: Moving the cattle from one pasture to another when they don’t want to move would be considered a “hard drive.” Another “hard drive” would be driving to the ranch in the early spring when the roads are muddy, and slippery, making it almost impossible to navigate.
• Mouse:  An unwelcome rodent.
• Cut & Paste – We learned to do that in the first grade. Remember the old paste that a lot of the kids ate?
• Crop – That’s what out in the fields all summer that I irrigate, spray weeds out of, and watch closely in the hopes that I’ll get a good harvest.
• Web surfing:  Well, surfing has to do with water, right? So maybe this is what ducks do with their webbed feed.

As you can tell, I have a long way to go before introducing Boyd to computers. But we are both content: he keeps his hands off my computer and I do any computer work he needs done. This sure keeps the anxiety level down at our home.

BOXES

After Christmas there is always a myriad of boxes needing to be discarded. Have you ever noticed how a small child is often more interested in playing with the empty boxes than with what came in the box? I find it entertaining to watch an imaginative child create things out of an empty box. Sometimes a child will crawl into a box too small to hold them and get stuck. Thinking about them trying to get out of a box made me think of how we as adults also get stuck in boxes.

            Are we sometimes stuck in a box that we have outgrown? Do use our “boxes,” t as an excuse to not try new things? Is there sometimes a false sense of security in our boxes?

            If we all took the shape of the boxes we are hiding in, it might prove not only interesting but humorous. If I had my choice of a box to be stuck in I would want one that held a huge chest type freezer. That should give me plenty of room to move around. But would it give me any more opportunity to grow? Perhaps an expandable one would be a better choice.

            We have a friend who doesn’t like to travel. He is perfectly content to stay at home, but his wife likes to travel. She teases him about getting “out of his box” and trying different things. This isn’t easy for many people, probably most people.

            Another friend made the following comment on her blog:  “If you don’t get out of your box, how will you know how many other boxes are out there waiting to be explored.” This is a woman who travels frequently, tries different things, and finds life challenging and fun. She has moved in and out of many boxes and her experiences have made her an interesting woman to be around.

            What about the rest of us? Are we willing to step out of a secure place into the unknown, just to experience something different? When I went back to school at the age of 45 to become a nurse a friend told me I was “lucky” to be able to do that. Well, I didn’t think luck had anything to do with it. My thought on that is: “luck is nothing more than being prepared when the opportunity presents itself.” This was something I wanted to do, so I stepped out of my box and worked toward it. I had to apply for a scholarship for the financial help I needed, another step out of the box. I’ve never regretted those steps.

            Other times I have cowered in a corner, probably pulled my blanket up over my head, and very likely missed many opportunities. My box can be overly comfortable. And I have found that the older I get the harder it is for me to face change. My box seems secure enough and exciting enough for me.

            I guess I didn’t realize how many of our population are stuck in boxes until the recent controversy over the color of the Coke cans. Coke, in deciding to change their can color from red to white, caused a lot of discomfort in boxes throughout the nation. Because of the outcry over this, Coke went back to red cans, discarding the white ones, and everyone went back into the safety of their own box.

            Many boxes out there must be fastened with both baling twine and duct tape, and are holding people as hostages! It is too bad that more of us can’t break loose and venture forth, if for no other reason than to find another box. And I’m sure we could all find plenty of boxes in dumpsters right now. But if you are looking for another box, better check and see how you feel about a different color.

THE GRAND FINALE

Tomorrow we celebrate the grand finale of the year 2011. In a musical, the grand finale usually has some loud, strong music as if signifying the importance of the ending.. Maybe we should look back and instead of celebrating the entrance of a New Year, perhaps we should celebrate the past year. Did we earn a “grand finale” this year? Do we have anything to celebrate? What did we do with last year? Did we accomplish the things we wanted to? I think I’ll review my last year’s New Year’s resolutions and see how I did.

• I will look forward to and enjoy the winter storms, the birth of new calves, the long evenings in front of the fireplace and face the challenge of slick roads.

I always enjoy the long evenings and the more relaxed schedule we have in the winter. The birth of the new calves is a miracle-in-progress in my mind, and I love watching the cows with their new offspring.

• When spring arrives, I will welcome the sight of the first robin, marvel at the song of the meadow lark, and anticipate the spring cattle drive.

I always look for the first robin. It seems like robins are a promise of good weather to come. However, I know I didn’t take the time to marvel at the song of the meadow lark. In fact, I hardly remember listening to that beautiful song all summer. Most summer I try to walk along the canal bank up to the end of the pasture and back and few times a week. That’s when I listen for the song of the meadow larks. This summer I didn’t do my walking. I missed out on a lot there. Watching TV and the Gabby Gifford story, they told how music can help the brain heal. I need some brain healing myself, but in a much more minor way than Gabby. The song of the meadow lark would definitely help. Must work on that this year.

• The long summer days will give me the opportunity to garden, work in the yard, take photos, and have picnics, with the chance of spending time at the ranch and with family. 

Oops, failed again. I did spend time at the ranch and with my family, but not as much as I had hoped to. As I looked through my photos I’d taken, I didn’t do as well on that either. We didn’t spend one night at the ranch this past year. This fall I made the decision that next summer we will spend at least one and maybe two nights a week up there. I need to keep working on that.

• Fall time, the time of harvest has always been a time of celebration for me – the hard work is over and we see the fruits of our labors as we harvest our crops, preserve the vegetables from the garden, enjoy the cool evenings and hot days. And we have the added benefit of being able to observe our annual color show when the trees and shrubs put on their fall wardrobes, which prepares us for the black and white of  the coming winter.

Boyd and I did go for a couple of rides this fall and enjoyed the fall foliage. And I did can a lot of food, but my garden got neglected a lot along the way.

When it comes right down to it, taking time to enjoy the journey we are on is really important. If we get so busy with mundane things, we miss out on a lot. And where would we be if we didn’t have things to strive for, to do better, to improve, to make things better for others. Those are things I will work on this year and hope I earn a “grand finale”.