Weekend Adventures:
- Yesterday, I got a haircut. It was amazing. I love it! I've gotten my hair cut by the same stylist for ten years (yes, ten), and I love her and the salon. It's an experience that I look forward to a few times every year.
- I also picked up Chinese food because when in town, do as civilized people with excellent Chinese restaurants do, and pick up Chinese. Plus, I used to work there (TEN years ago, are you sensing a theme?) so I wanted to bring Wace by. It was wonderful. Wacey LOVES lo mein, as do all babies, according to my old boss, Jin.
- And you guys? THE WEATHER. It's glorious. Wacey and I will be soaking it up on a loooooonnnng walk (read: visit with strollers and babies with my good friend down the road).
Agriculture:
- Since it's March, a lot of ranches are starting to think about spring. One thing we do is put out high-magnesium mineral blocks for the cows to lick. This helps prevent grass tetany (low magnesium levels in the blood) often caused by low levels of magnesium in new spring grasses. The cows are so excited to see green grass that they go to town on it, but there isn't enough magnesium so we supplement. This is important because you usually find a cow that has grass tetany because she's dead. That's no good.
- As the grass starts to green up, the guys will change up how they feed the cows. Milking mothers need a lot of protein and calories, which they can get from good hay and cake, but not from fresh spring grass. They'll keep good hay in front of them, but might start feeding more cake protein supplements if the cows aren't eating the hay. Which, they usually aren't, because would you eat the dehydrated version of something you can get fresh?
- Spring is also breeding time for the cattle....and horses! We're sending our good mare, Miss, down to one of the other ranches to run with one of the studs and I'm sort of excited to (hopefully) have a baby horse born next year!
On the Ranch:
- SO MANY CALVES. I love it.
- Ranching is very cyclical, and so there are events that happen that kick off every season. It's different on every ranch, but for me, ultrasounding heifers is the unofficial start of Spring Work. We have ten days before the vet comes down to ultrasound, and I'm kind of excited. It doesn't hurt that it was seventy degrees in Denver yesterday!
On the Home Front:
- My house is a wreck. Just thought I would let you know that. Usually I don't have trouble finding time to clean, but I have been in an anti-cleaning mood lately. I did get to the bathrooms and the laundry today, thank goodness.
- I've also been having trouble coming up with ranchy blog content. I think the issue is that I know we have so many interesting things coming up but they're not here yet!
- Wacey is sort of talking!!! We're SO excited. Like, first-time-parent, unreasonable-amounts-of-enthusiasm excited. He will occasionally say "Hi," but his favorite word is "dog," He doesn't say "dog," exactly, but he has a word that he says every time he sees a dog (even on TV or in a book!) and it melts my heart. We did see a Great Dane today that threw him for a loop, but I don't blame him--Great Danes are quite a bit different looking than the members of our motley crew of cow dogs (get it--because Rivet is a merle/motley blue dog?!? Oh man I'm hilarious.)
- I got a plane ticket for me and Wace to fly to a college friend's wedding and I'm so excited!! The wedding happens to be in the same state as most of my extended family so we're making a little family trip out of it.
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