In my effort to be upbeat and grateful as much of the time as possible, I think I have committed a major error. I'm afraid I have over romanticized ranching and what I do. Please do not misunderstand. I LOVE my job. Truly. However, I may have allowed you to think I spend most of my time galloping horseback over the hills into the sunset without a care in the world.....
For the most part, that couldn't be further from the truth.
I am the secretary, book keeper, decision maker, dinner cooker, laundress, floor sweeper (when it gets done), dishwasher, ice chopper, poop scooper, posthole digger, wire stretcher, windmill fixer (sorta), shot giver, phone call maker, cow feeder, calf puller.....and the list goes on and on.
I spend a good share of my time in the cold months so layered up I can barely move my arms and legs. My fingers are usually so cold from gripping a 4 wheeler grip or ice bar that I can often cannot feel the ends of my fingers. I am generally covered from head to toe with cottoncake dust and while I like the smell of it, it is gritty and dirty. Which reminds me, most of the time, my face is dirty. Really dirty. Like sucking on a pig dirty. Like my husband and Dad make fun of me dirty.
In the summer time, I am usually sweaty, sticky and stinky and my ears are very often sunburned. OR I wear an extremely flattering straw hat and ride the 4 wheeler down the road with the brim flopping up and down.
There are many days that lunch comes at 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon. And we are crabby when we haven't eaten.
I spend a lot of time alone. And I stay home A LOT. There is always something that needs done and more often than not, I'm the one who has to do it. I miss out on a lot of things with friends and family because I either need to work or am just too darn tired to go.
I have no control over the weather. And weather has a tremendous effect on my work. It isn't much fun to work outside in the rain or snow or gale force winds. And unfortunately, when the weather is the worst, well, that's when I need to be out taking care of things the most. Things need done when they need done. That's just how it is. Moving cows in the pouring rain, slicker or not, is miserable. Somehow a little puddle always manages to form right in the seat of your saddle.......so uncomfortable. It feels like you've peed your pants. For hours. The snow pelts your face like little needles when you have to ride into the wind. And speaking of the wind.....yes, we need it to pump the windmills, but, oh my goodness....I HATE riding in the wind. Your horse, no matter how agreeable, needs to spook at everything and it seems like nothing goes very smoothly when it's windy. Cows don't cooperate as well in the wind, either. And in summer when it's hot....well, it's just hot. Since cows don't sweat, they get hot really easily. A nice day for me moving cows is generally way too hot for a cow. So you have to start as early as possible and hope to get there before the critters get too hot.
And believe it or not.....I CAN get enough of riding a horse. As Dad says, "my saddle can get tired." After 6, 8, 10 hours in the saddle moving yearlings or trying to keep baby calves from going back where you started because they can't find their mama in the herd, a person can get enough. Trust me on this.
Sometimes I have to make decisions that I would rather not make. A cow that has lived here all her life, from birth, has done her job for many years, never left Doyle ground, raised a calf, kept her weight up and been cooperative....eventually gets old and lame. She doesn't have a calf in her anymore. She has to go to the salebarn. It is a business, after all. Much better than not being able to get to feed and getting weak when it gets real cold. But it still isn't a decision I like to make.
Critters die. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, critters still die. That's one of the things I will never get completely used to in this business. I have pulled calves and tried giving them CPR, getting all that icky "just born gunk" in my mouth, and they still die. I have drenched scoury calves, given antibiotics to pneumonia-sick yearlings, tried my darnedest to make sure I haven't missed an old cow in the fall......and they still die.
There are days when things just don't go right. Moving cows, working in the hayfield ( that's a whole other story completely), checking water, whatever. There will be days when it seems like NOTHING goes right. Calves stampede into the neighbor's and we have to go sort on a day when we had other things planned, bulls decide they don't want to stay with our cows, they like the neighbor's better, equipment breaks down and you can't get things done, getting stuck in snow or sand and having to walk home to get something or someone to help......I could go on but I think you get the picture.
My point is this. Don't fool yourself into thinking that ranching is always the romantic, happy pastime that is often portrayed in the movies. A person has to really want to do this and there are a lot of things about this business that are most definitely NOT romantic. Many days it is a very physically demanding, emotionally draining, stressful, heartbreaking job. But it is a job I wouldn't trade for the world....mostly because the good days and all the rewards DO outweigh the negatives. But.....I just wanted you to know.
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