Pre- or Pre-Pre Easter Sale Picks

I know. Two collages in one week. I wasn't intending upon doing one today--we spent the whole day in the pickup yesterday so I wasn't planning on a post--but then, on a whim, I checked in at Joann.com because I wanted to check on their Easter sale and y'all it's a good one! Easter stuff is 70% off plus another 20% off online coupon on top of that, so I had to share.

We're not doing much for Easter this year in terms of egg hunts and Easter baskets--we plan on starting traditions next year, when Wacey knows what's up, and can like, you know, walk to hunt up Easter eggs. I got a few decorations and a couple of things to get a head start on baskets next year, and for the first time ever I've thought about Easter decorations! In addition to feeding my cookie cutter fire (sugar cookies are appropriate for literally every life event), I think I'll have some eggs around, a bunny or two, and some scripture prints in prime real estate areas, and have done with it.

 I don't plan on completely decking the house out for Easter--I think it's another overdone holiday where the real point is lost--but a few things here and there make the house feel like spring, and I have a wreath problem and I don't care who knows it.

I got the kissing bunnies one, in case you're wondering. I really like the look of the egg wreath, but flatter wreaths work out better for our screen door situation.

So here are some cute options if you're buying for next year, or buying last-minute for this year. The printable scripture prints are especially conducive to last-minuting.

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Bull Sale-ing

If you drive around anywhere where there are cattle in the late spring and summer, you'll see idyllic scenes: cows and calves muching grass in green pastures, maybe catching a little sun, maybe going for a stroll. 

You also might see a bull jumping on top of a cow and ruining the picture for you entirely.

That's nature, folks. The birds and the bees, the bulls and the cows--it's allll nature. 

Now, those bulls have to come from somewhere. Some ranches raise their own bulls, or a portion thereof. Many, however, leave the breeding of big, testosterone-packed male bovines to seedstock producers, and buy them at bull sales.

Every year, typically in the spring and fall/early winter, people all over the country flock to bull sales to buy their herd's XY chromosome providers. It's an excuse for the ranching community to get together, have some food, listen to a (hopefully good) auctioneer do his thing, and maybe buy some bulls. Bull sales are always a pretty good time because it's a rare time for a rather spread-out community to get together and visit. Sometimes it's the only time of year when you get to see your ranching friends in the flesh, especially if one or both of you traveled a good ways to attend the sale.

Also, free food. Usually a good prime rib or brisket of some kind. If you're lucky, there's also cake. Maybe even snacks and free stuff. I don't hate it. 

We went to Torrington, Wyoming last week to visit my brother- and sister-in-law at their ranch's bull sale and it was a pretty fun time, and they served the most amazing all-beef hot dogs (among other things, although I am a secret hot dog aficionado so this was a major excitement for me, don't judge) and it was glorious.

I really miss those hot dogs. 

Here's how it works. The bulls are all brought up close to the sale barn. Customers walk through the bulls in the days and hours preceding the sale with their sale catalogs with all the bulls' info so they can decide which bulls they would like to bid on. 

Once the anthem is sung and the owners/managers make a speech, the sale begins. The bulls are brought in small groups (by lot number) from the pens to the alley behind the sale ring. There, they are sorted into lot order so that the customers know which bull is up next.

Then, each bull is run through the ring and bid on. Most producers run bulls through the ring individually, although some do sell animals in larger lots. Once a buyer is determined, then the bull leaves the ring, and the next one comes in.

Some buyers take their bulls home that day, others opt to have theirs delivered later on so they don't have to deal with another (or more) bull at home--bulls tend to tear things up and fight, and introducing a new bull into a group usually causes a ruckus. 

Sales are fun, but having been on the producer side of the sale, they're also very stressful! Ranchers don't earn a constant paycheck, and for seedstock producers this might be the only payday of the year! It's also a big undertaking to coordinate. In addition to getting all the bulls' pictures and data to print in the catalog months in advance, you have to tag each one, keep them healthy, and get them all to the sale barn sorted into some order. You have to be ready to talk to customers, advertise the sale, and feed and water all those people. Sometimes it's a couple hundred if it's a big producer with a lot of bulls to sell. You have to coordinate the auctioneers and ringmen, the auction film crew (most sales are also on TV or online for remote buyers), the insurance men who are there to offer livestock insurance, the bankers, etc. You also have to coordinate help for the whole affair, because you need a lot of people to get those bulls from the pens to the sale ring in a timely and efficient manner.

 My sister-in-law compared it to putting on a wedding twice a year (their ranch does a sale in the fall, too), and she's totally right. You have to plan meals (usually at least two, because in addition to sale day lunch, many ranches put on a sit-down dinner the night before the sale, and there's also usually at least coffee and donuts for sale day breakfast, too) for lots of people, make sure there's plenty of cold beverages and lots of hot coffee, a plethora of extra sale catalogs and pens, and someone at the ready to answer questions and provide hospitality services all day. If it's a good sale, there's usually some celebrating at the end, too!

Also like a wedding, it's way more fun to just be a guest than to host the whole affair. You get a chance to eat, and don't have to talk to everyone and their mother. You can just sit back, relax, and maybe help serve a hot dog or two, if you're really nice. If you're not really nice, or have no relation to the folks putting on the sale, then you can just sit back, relax, eat a hot dog or two, and hide some muffins in your coat pocket to eat on the ride home.

Or peanut M&Ms. 

And maybe some Chex Mix.

But I've never hid any food on my person--not once--so we're totally speaking in hypotheticals here. 

A Horse Is A Horse

I had big plans for a blog post complete with photos about ultrasounding the heifers, but Wacey got his very first cold and I felt pretty bad for the little guy (and didn't want to infect the entire ranch), so we stayed home. He was pretty miserable, but with the help of a humidifier, my handy-dandy NoseFrida, and a little Benadryl, Hubba Bubba seems to be back to his normal self, albeit with a little more snot.

Since I don't have any fun pictures of ultrasounding, the horses volunteered to be the subject of today's post.

Okay, fine, Ninja volunteered all of them. She's sort of pushy.

Anywho.

Here's the pushy gal herself: Ninja. She's coming four. Her name is Ninja because my oldest nephew wanted to name the next horse Michaelangelo, but the next horse was a girl, so her name is Michaelangela, or Ninja for short. It's fitting because she's an escape artist.

Also, she's really shy and likes to hide in her shell. Obviously.

Suuuuuuuper shy. Not curious at all. Great respect for photographic boundaries.

The poor gal standing next to her is Molly. Molly is a project of Bert's--she's an older mare that we got from another guy on the ranch that needs some work. She's pretty shy, but she's nice, and Bert told me last night that she's doing really well.

She's also Early's mother! Here's a picture of them almost two years ago when Early was born. He was so tiny and sweet.

And here's Early now! He's big and fat, just like he should be. Bert has worked with him a little bit, but will really get started on his training this summer.

Unlike his Mama, he is NOT shy. He's still sweet!

His friend, there, is Jig. He's a horse that the ranch owns that is part of Bert's working string--since Early, Ninja, and Molly are all kind of projects, they aren't ridden for daily ranch work yet. 

Asa is, of course, Bert's main man. Bert started him, and they've been together since before Bert and I have been together! They're like peas and carrots. Or even like a cowboy and his horse. You know, They get along so well, and Ace is Bert's go-to when he needs to rope something, because Asa would help him rope a house if Bert asked him to.

This is not something Bert's ever asked of him, though, just to be clear.

Ace is also my favorite ride. He's so so gentle, and sort of a goof, and takes good care of whomever he's packing around, and I know he won't buck me off and ruin my camera or something, or like, break my leg. Because I usually have a camera, and I always bring my legs along. He'll be Wacey's horse someday!

Miss is our boss lady. We bought her with our wedding money when we lived in Montana. She had some quirks when we got her, but Bert's done a great job with helping her get over some of her issues and now she's in the rotation just as much as Ace. She's also Bert's go-to ranch rodeo horse. I really like her, too. She's fiesty and so smooth and easy to ride and if she were a person, I think she would be a loud-mouthed diva who gets things done, and hates mud, but still gets things done.

She also likes Wacey, which is a big plus. 

So there they are! In addition to these six, Bert also usually has an outside project, too. Right now he has another horse down at the barn from one of the other guys on the ranch. 

I always dreamed of having real live horses when I was growing up. I had (have--it's at my parents') a pretttttyyyyyy impressive Breyer collection, but nothing comes close to the real thing! It's kind of funny because when we moved to Montana, we took one horse (Asa), when we came back, we had two, and now we've upped the ante to five and I think that makes us a little crazy.

And by us I mean Bert, since I currently spend most of my time with the human rugrat and thus he gets to play with the equine rugrats. 

And by play with, I mean feed, shoe, ride, groom, etc. 

And by spend most of my time with, I mean try and play educational games with but really I mean clean up after and snuggle.

We like to keep things honest over here :)

Neal

One of my favorite things besides smoothies and surprise discounts at checkout and when my pants fit is when things come full circle. I love when things are complete, and when stories have happy endings.

Thus, I love when our calves stay on the ranch and become mothers themselves! It's fun to see baby calves grow up and come back to the pens where they were born as a mama-to-be.

This is Neal. I love Neal. I wrote a lot about Neal on my old blog when she was born two year ago. She has a narrow white face, and I could spot her from anywhere! It was actually kind of creepy. I mean, she was always rightthere.

And yes, I know she's a girl whose name is Neal. Look, I didn't know she was a girl when I named her. It just came to me. Nancy Drew has a girl friend named George, and Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have a daughter named James. I can have a calf called Neal.

My other named calves from that year (Fleur, Flour, Dipstick) were boys and are no longer on this ranch--some of them are on other ranches, breeding cows. But that's beside the point because that's not full circle. That's like three-quarters of a circle. But Neal is still here!

Except Neal is no longer a calf! She's a MOMMY! She had a baby two days ago and I got to the barn right as the baby was starting to get up. Good job, Neal!

I'm so proud. I'm extra-special proud because she got that baby up quick. Heifers don't always know what's what, so we all enjoy when they get it and don't need any help.

It's important for a calf to get up shortly after being born--usually within a half hour or so--because they need to nurse and get their colostrum. When they are born, the mom will lick them clean, and start bothering them to get up. They'll nudge the calf with their head, holler at them a little bit, and generally harass them until the calf gets the point and learns to stand.

Good job, Neal.

Super Tuesday

It's Super Tuesday. Buuuuut rather than focus on the madness happening at the polls today,  I am focusing on all the reasons why Tuesday is super over here (while simultaneously praying that America just knocks it off already and quits goofing around with the fake support of bad candidates). 

I'm also drinking my daily lemon water, while simultaneously praying that if American doesn't knock it off, someone else gets nominated anyway because let's get real, here.

Reason #1: This morning, BEFORE Wacey woke up, I got in 6500 steps and all of my active minutes. I'm trying so hard to be healthier and while I don't enjoy waking up early every morning, it's worth it sometimes to have that goal checked off my list first thing. I re-watched the two episodes of  Friends where Rachel has Emma, and man, having a baby changes how you watch episodes of sitcoms where people are having babies!

Reason #2: I FINALLY ordered the paint for the dresser makeover I've been planning. I've been putting it off because there's a store in Colorado Springs that sells the paint and I thought I could make a worthwhile trip down there, but I haven't had the time so I just ate the shipping cost. I'm so excited for it to get here!

Reason #3: I'm dressed, my face is on, Wacey is asleep, I'm caught up on getting my calves entered, and that means I have time to work on other projects for work, aka sorting out DNA.

Reason #4: My Living Proof proof order is On Vehicle for Delivery today, according to my tracking number. My samples ran out a couple of days ago and I can't wait for those full-size miracle workers to get into my hot little hands!

Reason #5: Our driveway got graded today. As I've said before, in Rural America, road graders=happiness. 

Reason #6: I have leftover tortellini for lunch. Even though I don't pack lunch anymore, having something other than my standard gets me SO excited. I'm a loser. It's okay.

Reason #7: It's March, the weather is beautiful, and I can't help but start looking forward to spring! I know we'll get at least one more big snow--it is March in Colorado, after all--but it's nice to know that we're on the downhill side of a mountain with an usually snowy winter. That was a really awkward metaphor. 

Reason #8: Does anyone else feel happy (or at least a little proud) when they adult? I do. I know, I'm in my late twenties, married with a kid, you would think being responsible would lose its allure, but no siree bob! If you saw my "Continue Watching for Cassidy" queue on Netflix, you would know that adulting does not extend into every area of my life.

I've been working with our insurance agent to get our renter's and personal property insurance up-to-date (because apparently we are saddle/chaps/bit/spur collectors now), and I added life insurance (because it feels irresponsible to me to have a kid and not have life insurance), and opened savings accounts for us and for Wace that accrue much higher interest than our current setup. I'm particularly excited for the last part because having an automatic debit into an account that's harder to access (aka not linked to my checking account ha) with higher interest payments is pretty exciting! I know. L on the forehead. Haters gonna hate, I'm just gonna earn interest. 

Worst song ever.

Happy Super Tuesday! May we all wake up tomorrow to much better political news! 

An Adventure & A Story

You guys. Do you ever have a morning where you find some weird amount of motivation and energy and get so much done?

I know, it's like the unicorn of morning conditions.

But this morning, this unicorn showed up on my treadmill at 6:15 and I wish it would stay. Wacey and I had to go to town to get some important supplies for Bert, so we made an adventure out of it (I always feel like running to even the close town is an adventure since it's forty miles round trip, haha, it makes it more fun).

Our objectives:

Okay, fine, we really only needed a box of calf electrolyte packets (on the left), but you can't tell me that I'm going to town first thing in the morning and not stopping by SB for Productivity-Inducing, Mood-Booting, Coffee Drink.

The Adventure to Accomplish Objectives:

Wake up early, hop on the treadmill and knock out 4,000 steps and half of Downton Abbey before 7:00. Lament the fact that I can't do this every day, but then resolve to try much harder because it's seriously the best. Also lament the fact that Downton Abbey is ending this season and there's only one episode a week even though it should be like Friends and have hundreds of episodes. Lady Violet, y'all.

Scoop up Wacey, and get him dressed in his hilariously cute little track suit because nothing says ADVENTURE like baby-sized exercise wear, gather up allthethings because we can't leave without, you know, everything, and zip out the door.

Wave good morning to our favorite cowboy ever.

Wave good morning to the road grader and get SO EXCITED because the roads have been so rough since the last snow storm and this guy makes them so smooth!

Wave good morning to our resident deer herd--there's a guy that lives right here who feeds them, so they camp here and I like them. 

Take a beautiful picture of what was supposed to be Pikes Peak but is actually an oddly huge fog bank.

Take a picture of my toddler being unhappy about the hood he is wearing, but not so unhappy that he wants to take it off. The struggle is real, y'all.

And then, stop and take a picture of the exact same spot that was sunny and gorgeous less than an hour before. Huh.

And now we come to the storytelling portion of today's post. I am about to tell you a story about one of the oddest, most hilarious shopping experiences of my life. 

For our wedding, we got a starter set of cobalt Fiestaware (which I registered for, thank you very much! Actually, thank the Wanbergs very much for buying it for us). When I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to get three more place settings, they sent me back to the china department to order what I needed. While I was there, a girl about my age struck up a conversation about weddings and such. She said "Oh, are you here registering for china?! Me too! What's your pattern?" And I was like "No, just, ah, completing my Fiestaware set." According to her face, I said "No, just here smearing boogers on the counter" while simultaneously kicking puppies with knock-off shoes. She and the salesperson went on a passionate pitch to try and persuade me to buy a real, twelve-person set of china, complete with gravy boat and silver soup tureen, which simultaneously waxing poetic about the lost traditions of china patterns. I tried to explain that everything we own must be durable and dishwasher safe, because of the ranch and the cowboys and the fact that I hate handwashing. Oh and because of life and our lack of staff or aristocratic titles. You know. 

Insert the girl asking "Wait so your husband is, like, a cowboy? Like for his job?" 

I also tried to explain that the only time we would have twelve people over would be at a branding, in which case Chinet will be used. Whaaaaaaat?! However, I will say that we spring for the heavy-duty, pounds-of-meat-holding Chinet.

"I don't see why it matters. Everyone should have nice dishes."

(I do. My "company" set is gorgeous. My "everyday" set is half aforementioed Fiestaware and half Waverly toile. Not china, but gorgeous, and durable.)

"Besides, it's not like your dishes will end up at your barn or whatever." 

 When I was dropping off the electrolytes at the barn, I noticed this:

 

So there's that.

Spoiler alert: I didn't buy any china, and we are still not in possession of either a soup tureen--silver or otherwise--or a gravy boat. Le sigh. 

Happy Tuesday, may you have many happy adventures, and may you always feel free to buy the dishes you like!

The Weather Outside is Frightful

It was fifty degrees and sunny today, with no end to the good weather in sight, so we're far enough removed from freezing our hineys off that I can write about snow!

Storms in calving season are the worst, but we expect them, since we sort of live in a snowy state and we calve in the winter, when it, you know, snows.

A question we get asked a lot is "What do you do with the cows when it snows?" They stay outside, we just take extra good care of them!

The main thing is food, food, food. Cows eat more to keep themselves warm and keep up their milk supply. Bert will feed the cows extra hay, and then give them a whole extra bale of oat hay or straw for the calves to lay in. He’ll also bring them into a pasture between the pivot (where they go when they’re big) and the barn (where they’re born) that’s mostly trees, to give them more shelter.

In the pens, we’ll bed them deep with straw, feed them extra food, and try to bring the cows into the barn as they calve so the babies are born in the barn where it’s warm and dry. 

The calves are checked a LOT more often, too. Normally, you don’t have to worry as much about the older calves since they are bigger and stronger, but when we get a lot of snow and wind, they can freeze down or get buried, so it’s important to make sure that they are doing well and their mothers are taking good care of them.

 
If a calf gets cold or sick in these storms, there isn’t always time to bring the mother and the calf in together. While that’s always the ideal situation, sometimes it’s more important to get the calf warm and treated than to bring the pair in together. They are reunited as soon as possible, but keeping the calf alive is always the number one priority. One of my greatest frustrations involving cattle is when you’re trying to bring a mom in to her calf and she just won’t go because MOM JUST COME WITH ME I’M TAKING YOU TO YOUR BABY GEEZ.

Cold kills more calves than the snow does, so storms like the one we’re in now where it snows a foot and then gets down to below zero at night are the really scary ones. Checking, checking, checking all the time.

How do you know if calves are cold? A good way is to put your finger in their mouth. If it’s cold inside, then that calf is cold inside too. You can also feel their feet or their ears, since you can tell by touching them if the calf has or is well on the way to having frostbite, which is another good indicator that they need to be warmed up. You can also tell by how they look or how they’re laying if they’re feeling poorly or if something’s wrong.

If a calf gets cold, they come into the barn and get put into the hot box. Every ranch has a different variation of a hot box involving a box with a small opening or a door lined with straw and heated with heat lamps. If the hot box is in use or too far away, the floor boards of the pickup with the heat blasting are also a popular option, as is inside a (heated) vet room, or the kitchen floor!

So, next time it snows, or gets very cold, or next time you hear someone say that ranchers don’t care about their animals, remember that while the rest of the world is taking snow day, they’re working even longer hours—sometimes around the clock—outside in the blizzard taking care of everything.