ready or not

i start training my summer staff today. i'm not ready. NOT READY AT ALL. but they are coming. so i better go get ready...

surviving smells

as i drove into the farm yard and stepped out of my car, i knew that something was going on. anyone would have known; the heifers were billowing like there was no tomorrow. then there was also the smell... imagine the smell of burning your hair with your curling iron... it isn't a pleasant smell. now take that smell and amplify it by about a million. that, rambling readers, is the smell of branding cattle. while helping my aunt and uncle work cattle last saturday, i quickly learned that the smell of branding isn't something that sits well with me. i was dubbed "lever girl" when we started, which had me opening the shoot to let the cute little calves into the "shoot of terror"... in the shoot they got 3 shots, branded, and the boys lost a little bit of them selves. i did fine and dandy for awhile; i got complimented by L, then closed her butt in the shoot (oops), then realized that the smell was too much for me. so i became "herd the calves girl". my cousins, C and G, and i were a good team. we got all the calves through the shoot... all except one. this little guy (C, G, and i named him sleepy):

sleepy wouldn't get up for us. most of the other calves were at least a month or two old. he was two days old. he didn't have to endure the shoot.

after sleepy was returned to his mom i was able to take some more pictures of the other cute calves.


i also had some time to take some others

the horses grazing in the yard

doc vernan resting after taking away the bull calves' manly parts

the roster walking around the yard

the sunset behing the elevator in my little town

the sunset was very distracting while driving home. luckly there isn't much traffic.

i'm alive

i know that i promised you cow pictures... i have them... but they aren't going to happen today. you'll see them this weekend. work has been CRAZY! i'll tell you about that too.

sunshine

for the last 9 or 10 days it has been cloudy, cold and either a) rainy or b) crazy windy. today is NOT any of those things. it is sunny, a little bit breezy, and above 70degrees. it is absolutely GLORIOUS! but... it has me realizing just how close may 24th is coming.

i work at a bible camp. summer is our busy time. counselors come on may 24th to start training. i am still working on the staff manual, the staff training schedule, and finding one more male counselor. so, all that is up in my mix and not letting me enjoy the first sunshine i've seen in far to long.

i did take a "mental health break" as we like to call them here at the office. I took some pictures of the beauty that is around me before chaining myself to my computer for more endless hours. here are some of the pix:










i plan to spend much more time outside tomorrow with my padre at my aunt and uncle's place. i will be helping with the cows. i'll be sure to take some pictures of them for y'all so you can begin to appreciate their cuteness as much as i do.

some needed encouragment

so... i think that cows are adorable. i don't know what it is, but they are. especially calves. SO CUTE. there were some cows that melted my heart last night.

normally when i walk/jog/bike past a pasture of cows they turn their heads, mouths full of grass, and stare at me as if i were an alien from outer space, all while chomping on the grass. yesterday evening i was going for my walk/jog (which are going VERY well if you've been wondering) and this was not the case. the cute black Angus started to run with me. clunk. clunk, clunk. from one end of the pasture to the end as if they were saying, 'you can do it, al. keep on going." it sure made the last ten minutes of my walk/jog better.

i wonder if they'll do it again...

surviving suffocation

most of the time i feel like i'm suffocating in this small town. i have vertually nothing to do except watching tv, going for a walk/run, knitting, or talking on the phone, which is always ify do to touch and go cellular telephone service. i have no one within 100 miles who i can really talk to. there is nothing here that is breathing any life into me.

i get moments when i feel like i can breath. last night was one of those. the church intern in the area has started a young adult group. we get together about 2 times a month. sometimes we have bible study, sometimes we do an activity. it is a good time. we got together last night and had ice cream and played apples to apples. there were a couple new faces. there was lots of laughter. i felt like myself for the first time in a long time. it was so refreshing. i could feel the life returning to me.

so why not get together with one or more of these people more often? that would be because there really isn't anything for us to do. you can only sit and talk to someone new for so long. there are those periods of awkward silence. the times where you don't know what to say. when there isn't an activity to go along with getting to know someone it is hard and around here there isn't anything to do.

today, i'm still feeling good after getting to breath. it is only a matter of time before i start to suffocate again. it is a good thing i get to go visit the rents and my friend n this weekend... if the projected blizzard doesn't come as hard. i'll ramble about may blizzards another day.

important information

i've had the inkling that my gpa is sick for a while now. he is 85, so it makes scene that he has some health problems. i've heard my mom talking about his doctor's visits and medications. but nothing had ever been said to me officially.... until yesterday.

my mom called to give me the play dough recipe i requested. we chatted about how my aunt and uncle from maine were in the area to visit gpa and the other aunt and uncle in the area before heading on their annual montana fly fishing excursion. i currently live 20 miles away from gpa and 40 from the other aunt and uncle in the area. so mom said i should call the maine relatives and see if there were back from taking gpa to get his chemo treatments in the big city. "um... what?" was my replay. mom responded with, "well, gpa's leukemia, you know about that, is making his blood count a little off." me, "no, mom, i didn't know gpa has leukemia." mom, "oh, well, it isn't bad. they are going to do some mild chemo to get his blood count better." me, "oh, ok." then, we chat a little more and then hang up. so now there are a million questions going through my head, "how long has he had leukemia? is there anything else wrong? do i have any other sick relatives that i don't know about? etc" i ended up having supper with the maine relatives at the local pizza joint. aunt m actually talked to me about gpa being sick and the treatments. most patients have 6 rounds of chemo each month. gpa is just having 3 each month. so things aren't that bad.

i think this evening i'm going to call my sisters and see if they know about gpa. that is information that families share with each other.