Life Update

Since it's been a little while since I have posted I thought I'd do a quick update on how things have been going. 

First off, J found a job!  YAY!!  Not only did he find a job, but it's a great one.  Good paying and great benefits.  He's just finished his 3rd week on the job and seems to be settling into it now.  He was very nervous and frustrated at first because he had a lot to learn in a very short amount of time but I had faith that he would figure it out and he has.  It's nice to see him settling in and getting some confidence back.  It has been a long 6 months for the both of us.  When he came into my work to tell me he got the job I gave him and big hug and congratulated him.  What I really wanted to do was break down and cry.  I had been trying for so very long to hold it together for both of us and it was like a huge weight had been lifted off me and all these emotions I had been holding in for so long wanted to come rushing out.  His new job may mean some big changes in our life, but I am looking forward to that.  He is working out in Taber and has to commute to work and back each day.  We have discussed the option of moving out to Taber.  This is something we have talked about before.  To be closer to the farm and be able to help out a little easier.  I am all for moving, but with the caviet that we get a new and more reliable car so I can commute back to the city and keep my job.  I love my job and am not ready to find something different.  The commute for me would be a little easier as my job starts a little later in the day than his.  We are thinking that January would be a good time to move. That way he is good and settled in his job and we have time to save up a little money beforehand.  I am really looking forward to this as I find myself growing more and more sick of the city.  I tried to sit on my deck and read the other day and I found myself getting very frustrated with how noisy it was outside!  Construction, cars, sirens, people yelling etc.  And I really miss having a yard.  I think we have outgrown our little apartment and I look forward to something new.

I am offically the stage manager for LMT's production of Hairspray this year as well as my duties as Vice President.  I was very excited that the director wanted me involved in the audition process.  I really enjoy working with this new director so far and I am hopeful for an amazing show.  I really enjoyed watching everyone audition and seeing such an amazing group of truly talented people!  I am glad that the final decision wasn't mine.  I did get the opportunity to call and offer parts to the members of the cast who made it into the ensemble.  That was an interesting experience.  I was expecting people to be a little more excited I suppose.  I was shocked by the number of people who auditioned, said they would accept a role in the ensemble and then turned it down when offered.  Two of the people who turned it down later reconsidered and were allowed back in and two more ended up declining after initially accepting the role.  But all in all, we have a great group of people and some amazing new talent to work with.  I will also be training a new assistant stage manager this year as one of my usual ones has been promoted to production manager.  I'm excited to work with her though and I know she will be an asset to me. So, as has become a bit of a tradition with my, my fall will be exceptionally busy.

Work has been going well, if not a little slowly.  This is our first summer since I've worked there that we don't have an alterations department in the store so we are finding ourselves a little bored at times.  But all in all, it's good.

Some sad news to report.  The little colt who was attacked by the coyote is now an orphan.  Her mother had a heart attack on father's day.  J and I arrived at the farm and were in the house for no more than 5 minutes when we went out to help his mom light the BBQ and found her dead.  We're not sure what happened but we think the stress of the attack took it's toll on her and she had a heart attack.  B said she had slowly been going downhill since the attack.  It was so sad.  I have been on the farm when a horse has died before but this was way harder to watch.  The little filly tried to wake her up and kept pawing at her mom.  I was heartbroken.  I just hope that she makes it.  She has fought an uphill battle since she was first introduced into the world.

On a happy note, I'm going to be an Aunt again!  Ms A and Ms E are going to be big sisters and I'm very happy for my brother and sis-in-law.

Anyway, there's the update.  I'm going to try to to get back to writing a little more regularly on this blog, and maybe my other one too until the fall hits and life goes crazy again.

Being a Farm Girl

So the last two weeks have been crazy and we've put a lot of mile on our little car.  Usually we go to the farm every May long weekend to brand cattle but this year things went a little differently.  Friday (the week before the long weekend) I get a text from J while I was at work that we needed to head out to the farm asap as things had gone bad at the farm.  We rushed out after I got off work and found that things were a bit of a mess.  The cattle where breaking down fences and a new baby colt had been attacked by a coyote. By the time we got there, J's dad had gotten the cattle into the big corral and the colt and it's mom into a stall in the barn.

We got straight to work.  Me, J, B and my nephew T2 went to work sorting the cattle into 3 groups.  One to stay in the field at the farm, one to go to the community pasture, and one to go to the west pasture.  It was going well until I realized that the list I was working off wasn't divided correctly and we had too many cattle in one pen.  It was getting really dark by this point so it was hard to see the tags in the cattle's ears.  We had to give up for the night, but at least we got them settled.  J and T2 did have to do a little hunting to find one mama that had gotten separated from her calf so they didn't break a fence in the night trying to find each other but they managed to do it.  The next day I had to go back to town to go to work.

After working, I headed back out to the farm and found the J, B, T2 and one of our other nephews W just finishing up with the cattle.  The got them all sorted and the cattle for the west pasture hauled away.  Everything was ready to go to brand the next day.  We headed back to the other farm to check on the colt. It was the first time I had seen her and it broke my heart.  The coyote had really done a number on her.  It attacked her rear end and had ripped her up very badly.  Her right hipbone was visible through the wound but she's a fighter.  She was up and walking around and eating well.  And she's gorgeous!  Thankfully she has a really gentle mama so we get easily get into the stall and clean and doctor her when needed.  I love the name B picked for her too.  Because the horses are purebred, their names often have a  bit of their parents name in it as well making it easy to follow the line back. (ie Silver and Gold to Silver Warrior to Warrior Princess)  The colt's mom is names Penny so B named her Penny Many Wounds.  I took some pictures of her about 18 hours after the attack.  Warning, the images are graphic.  The black/dark blue inside the wounds is bactine for pain and to prevent infection.  Just remember, she is doing very well.

Left leg after coyote attack.  

Right leg after coyote attack

Mama and Baby 

Sunday, we decided to brand.  It was a week earlier than we had planned but the cattle were getting restless and hay was starting to run low.  Better to get it done early and move them to the pasture with loads of fresh grass.  The only bad part with this was that the rest of the family had not planned on being out there until next weekend.  They all managed to rearrange their schedules to make it out and by the time they got there we were ready to go.  One of the great parts of my nephews getting older (and bigger!  Holy have they grown) is that they are more than capable of jumping in to help us now. J and B got se up on the calf table while T2 and I made a plan to push the calves.  Usually J and I do this job but it's time for T2 to learn the ropes.  I loaded the calves in the chute and moved them forward and then T2 would take them one at a time and load them into the calf table to be branded/vaccinated etc.  W learned how to vaccinate this year and did a great job.  T2 was so awesome with the calves, who were exceptionally big this year.  He took a good kick in the chest at one point but kept on going with a smile on his face.  We got done in record time this year.  The best part for me was watching one of the dogs work.  Kobe is a two-year-old Border Collie.  She was bred to work animals, but she has had no training with them yet.  The most she has been taught is sit, come and where she is able to wander on the farm and where is off limits (such as the road).  I was to busy working to grab my phone and film her working but it was amazing to see.  No one told her what to do.  She sat in the alley and watched us for the first few calves and then suddenly it was like everything clicked for her.  She would lie in the alley with one eye one the calves in the pen that were finished one one eye on the calf in the table.  When the calf in the table was finished, she would jump up and lead it into the pen with the other animals.  She kept a watchful eye on them and got it in her head that they all needed to stay together in the far corner of the pen.  If one began to wander away from the rest, she would jump and and herd it back with the others.  She never barked once or nipped at any of the calves.  It was amazing to watch really.  Pure instinct.  She's going to be one heck of a cattle dog.

After 3 long days of working with the cattle and the horses J and I were exhausted so we headed back to town.  That night we got the call that a second colt had been attacked.  Thank goodness this one wasn't as bad.  It has a fighter for a mama and she beat them off before they could do too much damage.

Since I already had the long weekend off, we decided to go back out to the farm for the long weekend anyway and do some fix up jobs that had been neglected over time.  Everyone came out with their trailers and tents and we had a very productive weekend.  Me, J and the kids rebuilt a couple of the corrals and cleaned up a bunch of wood that was lying around.  It was so great to get down and dirty and work hard, eat amazing food and sit by the campfire and visit each night.

J and the boys hard at work on the corral

Finished corral

Sunday we decided we had had enough of building fences so we decided to move the horses from the lake up to the other pasture out west.  That involved moving them across the road from the lake, behind the house and into the round pen where we could load them up into the trailer to move.  In the past this hasn't been the most difficult challenge, but with the attacks this year those mares where high strung and skittish.  We made a plan of how to do things and went into action.  

A few of the herd at the lake before we moved them

We dropped of J's sister and one of the boys down the road a little ways to keep them from turning and J's mom and I took our post a little further up the road.  W haltered Penny and brought her out to the gate by the lake to lead the herd across.  That kid was amazing.  Here he was holding this incredibly strong animal who wanted nothing more than to get back to her baby and he kept her under control and kept his cool.  After a few tries we finally got the herd to follow W and Penny and that kid just took off running to show them where to go.  Thank goodness we got them across the road safely as some cars just didn't pay attention to what was going on.  One we got them in the pasture behind the house, things fell apart.  One of the mares was being very uncooperative and kept breaking away and causing the herd to scatter.  Poor W was working so hard to keep Penny under control and she just kept spinning around him and nipping at him constantly.  One of the colts took a hard tumble when the herd turned but she got up and kept on running.  I watched the poor little one who had been attacked take a hard step into a badger hole and open up it's scab pretty good.  As frustrating as it was, it was a thing of beauty to watch.  There's something about a herd of horses running that is just beautiful.  I wish I could have stopped to take a picture.  One of the coolest things I saw was my one nephew outrun a horse.  One of the mares cut from the herd and ran towards him full tilt.  He waved his arms to try to get her to turn but she wasn't stopping.  I thought for sure she would get past him and we'd have to start over but he turned and took off running, got ahead of her and managed to turn her back to the herd and the right direction.  After a while, we finally got them moved and into the round pen where they could settle for a bit and have a rest before we loaded them to move.  Those poor babies were so tired!  They just laid out where ever there was some grass and took a nap.  I took the time to play with Jack a bit and pet T's horse Appy.  

Simple Jack and a baby bunny

I love it at the farm.  I would be happy to stay there all the time!  It's so peaceful out there and I love the hard work.  Here's a few more pics from the weekend.

Our home away from home

The kids decided to make Smores by wrapping the whole thing in tinfoil...

The result of the Smore attempt...

J was playing fetch with the dogs and got the toy stuck on the power line.  B got the tractor to help him get it down. Please don't attempt this yourself.  They are trained "professionals"

The dogs after a long game of fetch...all tuckered out

The view over the lake every night.  This is why I love being a farm girl.

My Vacation

Today is the last day of my summer vacation, and it's been great.  J and I didn't have any major plans but we had a wonderful time anyway.  Last Sunday we spent the day out at my mom's place visiting with the family and spending some time with my Aunt that was up visiting from Arizona.  It was a great time and some great food.  J still had to work Monday so I went in for a couple of hours to get caught up on some stuff and then went and did some shopping.

Tuesday was our anniversary - see last post for details on our day.

On Wednesday J got a call that he had a coaches meeting that night for the football team he's helping with this fall so we headed out to the farm for the rest of the week.  The first few days were pretty uneventful just hanging out at the farm with a few of my nephews.  My oldest nephew and I did sit outside and watch a pretty amazing thunderstorm on Wednesday night which was followed by a biblical down pouring of rain that only lasted 5 minutes but made me wish we had an ark during that 5 minutes.  On Friday, J's sisters both decided to pull their trailers out and we could all camp together.  It was so nice to camp out with everyone and not have any major chores that needed to be done.  On Saturday it was hot out.  One of those sweltering heats that makes you now want to do anything.  My youngest nephew was bored so we turned on the sprinklers for the kids to run through.  None of the other kids wanted to play with him so I decided to jump in even if I didn't bring a bathing suit with me.  I got really tired of the other kids being lazy and just hanging out in their great-grandma's house watching tv and playing video games so I decided it was time to do something about it.  J's dad went in the house and yelled that it was time for them all to come outside and play and as they grumbled their way out the door I got them with a bucket of water and an hour long water fight ensued.  It was so much fun!  After the water fight died down we decided to take the kids swimming in the canal.  The water was clear and moving quite fast and was surprisingly warm.  Despite dousing myself in sunscreen I still walked out with a super bad sunburn.  We headed back to camp and relaxed around the fire while my brother-in-law cooked burgers over an open fire.  They were fantastic!  We stayed up late around the fire visiting and watching J and the kids play a late night game of "war" running around the fields shooting each other and having a grand time.

Sunday we were supposed to leave in the afternoon to pick up a friend at the airport but I decided to stay while J went back to town so I could go horseback riding with my sister's in law.  Things were going well at first.  I caught Jack with no problems and got him haltered and in the round pen with no resistance.  He was acting a little funny once I put his bit in but calmed down after I walked him around for a bit.  I decided to get on him in the round pen and ride a bit in there before we went into the field just to make sure everything was ok and that's when things went wrong.  I got on him and it was ok for a minute and then all hell broke loose.  He just started bucking like mad which he has never done before.  I tried to get him back under control but I soon realized it was a losing battle.  I managed to hang on until he turned away from the fence and then I bailed.  I hit the ground hard landing on my right foot and left knee  I scrambled to climb the fence quick as he was still bucking and had just reached to top when one of the kids and one of my sister in law's rand around from the other side of the barn.  My ankle was hurting pretty bad but I walked around a bit and C and I got Jack calmed and started checking his tack to see if we had done something wrong to make him buck.  C got on the phone and called my father in law to come down and help.  When B got there he checked things over and thought things were ok so I got back on with B holding a lunge line just in case.  Things went good for a couple of minutes and then he started again.  I lost my balance and my inner thigh's slammed into the pommel of the saddle hard and down I went.  B got him calmed and lunged him for a bit and then back on I went.  He seemed much better at this point so B gave me the reins and we went to riding.  I screwed up a bit and scared him and he jumped in response which threw me off balance again and scared him even more and he started bucking again.  In my head I knew what to do, but in that moment my body didn't respond and he managed to throw me high in the air and I cam down flat on my butt and my wrist.  That really hurt and I wasn't able to get back on at that point.  My nephew got on him for a bit and I went back to the campsite.  I found out later that my nephew got bucked off as well but thankfully he's ok.  I, on the other hand, am not.  My ankle is bruised and swollen.  Both of my thighs are jet black with some of the worst bruising I have ever seen.  And I have very limited use of my right arm.  I have injured my ulnar nerve which is really making life difficult since I'm right-handed.  Work tomorrow is going to suck!

Right leg 3 days after.

Left leg 3 days post "rodeo" I love how you can still see the seam line of my jeans in the bruise.

A fantastic weekend

I had an incredibly relaxing and fun weekend.  We went out to the farm for Mother's Day and it was a blast.  We got there on Saturday night (a little later than expected, but I had to see the new episode of Doctor Who before we left) and I gave my nephew T the present I got for him.  The look on his face was totally worth it!  I got him an autographed picture of Lady GaGa.  Now T is obsessed with GaGa so I knew he'd love it, but I didn't realize how timely my gift would be.  When we arrived he was watching the GaGa live from Madison Square Garden special.  I now officially hold the titles of "Auntie of the Year" and "Awesomest Aunt Ever".  This did also mean that I had to watch the Lady GaGa special 3 times in a row with him that night but it was worth it.

The next day we got up after a bit of a sleep in and had a great breakfast and just lounged for a bit.  I ejoyed a couple of hour of reading and then we headed out to see the new corrals for the horses.  It is so nice to spend time out in the field with the horses.  Time and stress just seem to evaporate and you just live in the moment.  I played with the new colts for a while and then Jack came in from the field.

This is Simple Jack.  I fell in love with him the moment I first saw him.  As you can see in the picture, he has a lip deformity that causes his lower lip to hang open all the time.  I thought it gave him personality.  As sad as this is, most ranchers never would have invested the time and money into raising a horse like Jack.  In most cases he would have probably ended up at the slaughterhouse.  He would have been deemed "unsellable" and not worth keeping.  But my father-in-law is a great man with a heart as big as anything.  He saw me go out to the field time after time to visit Jack.  One day we were sitting out on the patio enjoying the sun after a long day of farm work and he turned to me and said "If you pay to break that horse, he's yours".  Just as simple as that.  I was elated!  My very own horse.  I've had a lot of experiences with horses in my life as my own grandparents used to have a few and I used to ride them daily, but this is the first time I've had one to call my very own.  Last year I sent him off for training for a few months, but due to unforseen circumstances I never got the chance to ride him.  Yesterday when he came in from the field, My father-in-law B handed me a halter and I caught him and brought him into the round pen to work with him.  I took him for a walk and brushed out the remaining winter hair and just hung out with him for a while.  Then B went into the tack room and grabbed a saddle and I finally got to ride him.  It was a pretty awesome feeling and I rode for about 4 hours before I was ready to get off.  I have to say I am paying for that today though.  My legs and backside are so sore it hurts to sit.  But it was worth every minute.  Especially when B and I sat down after I was done, had a drink and he said he wanted to go for a long ride with me next time I'm down.  That's a statement not to be taken lightly and it makes me feel pretty great.

I was sad to come home as I usually am when we leave the farm.  One day I hope we never have to leave and it will become home.