Change of Life

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh no! We overslept! Get up!

 

Give me a break--since when has 5:45 A.M. been known as "sleeping in"? My favorite cowboy ignores me when I whine like that. In case you haven't guessed, I am NOT.NOT.NOT a morning person. I am a night-owl. I think he's getting even for all the times I stayed up until the wee hours working on our website.

 

We are living in a cow camp again. Only this time we have the luxury of electricity. We were pleasantly surprised to open the door to this tiny little old cabin to find nice carpet and lino, a full bath, full kitchen, and a washer and dryer. We had to hire help for this job, so thankfully there was a little twin bed in the living room. A vacuum stood at the ready to suck up dead flies and mouse droppings.

 

The first night I stripped the used bedding off the lumpy mattress on the bedroom floor, and threw the sheets and pillowcases into the washmachine. It stalled after the wash cycle. I forced it to the rinse cycle, and it rinsed. Then stopped again. This time there was no forcing. The sopping bedding sat in a basket on the front step until Ray and I could wring it out the next day. The dryer works fine. Good thing. There is a clothesline out back, but no clothespins. The bedding would have ended up in Madison County.

 

We were warned about the wind when taking on this heat-detecting and A.I. job. But we're used to that. Right. I don't think I will ever get used to wind. It was OK the first couple of days since the temperature was in the 30's and 40's. But then an icy blast roared in from the North Pole, and stuck around for a few days. I told Ray it was pretty bad when you were dressed the same for April 30th as you were for November 30th. I figured my flannel-lined jeans and wool socks were overkill, and foolishly left them home--along with my scotchcap.

 

Yesterday, May 1, it was a frigid 11 degrees with an icy breeze coming off the top of the snow-capped peaks as we saddled our horses at 6 a.m. I led Flash for about a half-mile before I loosened up enough to climb aboard. She was still pretty tight so I already knew that if any of those hair-brained hot cows wanted to get in a horse-race, they could have at it. By themselves.

 

It was just Ray and I yesterday. One of the cows we brought in had no intention of getting in a horse race. She simply crawled through the fence. Then crawled back in after we rode around to get her. Then, as we approached the gate into the trap, she crawled through the trap fence. Once she realized she was in a trap, she trotted over and crawled through the fence again. We managed to get a little gate straight into the pole corral open about 4 feet, and went after her again, and actually hit the gate this time.

 

Ray spent the next hour fixing fence while I brought in hot cows.

 

We are only a couple miles from this tiny town. I'm glad I brought my laptop because the tiny cafe offers wireless internet. I try to at least have a grilled cheese sandwich. Their sign is clever, but sadly true for tiny rural towns:

 

"Wi-fi - If you don't stop we'll both starve."

 

Psalms 118:24 - This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.