The weather is changing, or at least it’s trying to change. While it tries, I’m also trying to change up our dinner menu. After switching back and forth between tacos and hamburgers for a good portion of the summer, I decided it was time to switch things up. So tonight, we had… taco soup! The weather isn’t the only change around here. Since my last column, school is back in session. We’re starting to find a new rhythm, but to be honest, the first week was a little rough. It was a harsh adjustment with everything starting at once- school and sports all kicked-off in one fell swoop. Our summer was really busy and adding school, practice schedules and pickup times to the already busy routine seemed like a little too much. The first week definitely found us all a little tired and grumpy… and I might have been the worst of the crew. The good news is, after two weeks, we’re settling into a new routine and finding our groove. Speaking of new things, we have a couple of new additions to our life. Katelyn is the proud owner of her first vehicle, a black Ford Escape. She’s had her permit since February and now she has her own rig. Lucy actually made the trek across the state to Paisley to pick it up. She drove over with a friend, Avonlea, and stayed with her aunt and uncle. They went to the Lake County Fair, then Lucy picked up the car and drove it home. It’s just right for Katelyn and now she’s extra anxious to turn sixteen, get her license and drive on her own. Besides the car, our other new addition didn’t require quite as much finagling because “Amber” showed up all on her own. Amber is a kitten that Cooper found in our hay barn. We don’t know where she came from or how she found her way to our place, but Cooper was really glad she did. In an ironic twist of fate, early in the summer he really wanted to bring a free kitten home from a friend’s house and I refused. I refused because kittens don’t have a great track record around our place because our dogs like to chase them. The only exception has been our barn cat we call “Bea”. She knows where to stay safe and she’s also pretty brutal with the dogs—she’s not scared to swat them (or us!) when anybody gets too close. I know she’s not capable of having kittens because I did manage to get her into the vet to be spayed, otherwise I’d think Amber might belong to her. Anyway, when Cooper found Amber he was adamant that it was meant to be and I couldn’t refuse since she just showed up on her own! We do have a lot of trouble with mice in and around our old farmhouse, so Amber is getting to be a partially-inside-cat. The truth is, I don’t really like cats that much and technically, I’m allergic to them. Fortunately, Amber didn't cause too much of a reaction and she’s really growing on me—she loves people and is fun to have around. And if she helps keep down our mice population, I’ll really like her. The girls aren’t super impressed with the kitten—they’ve been asking for a long time to get a lap dog to have in the house and we’ve refused. (Poor kids just don’t have any animals to love around here?!). When the girls met Amber, they immediately brought up the nohouse-dog rule, I laughed and told them, “The cat just showed up in our barn. If a Dachshund puppy showed up in our hay barn, I’m sure I wouldn’t refuse that either.” Then I recognized a wild look in Lucy’s eyes and I quickly followed that comment up with, “That wasn’t a challenge or a suggestion!” And she responded, “Well, it sure sounded like one!” In addition to new things, we’ve been getting some riding in. We pushed cows around last weekend. Katelyn didn’t come with us, she stayed home to catch up on some homework, so Buck rode her colt, Guapo. Cooper has recently graduated from riding our old mare, Rose, into riding my gelding, Bert. They’re still getting used to each other, so they were only semi-helpful. Buck was less than thrilled when Guapo decided to act scared of anything (ie: birds) that moved in the brush and he spent most of his time colt training. All of that to say, Lucy and I did the work. And as long as you keep this between us, I will admit to you that I think it’s kind of hilarious when Buck is on a colt and he can’t actually push cows or really be much help at all. It’s funny because he still wants to be—he’ll head out after some cows, but with the colt weaving back and forth, it’s really ineffective. Or he’ll be getting cows out of the brush and a bird will fly out making his horse jump to the side. It probably sounds a little ornery to enjoy that struggle, but in order to survive ranch-wife-life, I think it’s important to stay a little ornery—not too much, of course, but just enough. Maybe staying a little bit ornery should have been my advice to our friend Bethany Anderson who married Bryson Stitzel last weekend. They had a really fun and sweet wedding up past Hilgard State Park on the Grand Ronde River. Luke, Callie and James came over and stayed with us after the wedding. Before moving out here, Bethany and her two sisters, Ella and Eva, grew up being neighbors with the Royes (outside of Enterprise), and both of their girls, Addie and Lily, were in the wedding party. The wedding was a fun combination of Wallowa and Union County guests, and we enjoyed catching up with a lot of people we don’t see very often. It’s fun for us that Bethany and Bryson live right up in Cove and we do get to see them fairly often. They added a lot of unique touches to the day—their backdrop for the ceremony was a round bale feeder, painted black and decorated. I hadn’t seen that done before and it turned out great. The wedding felt like the last hoorah of summer- the kids are back in school and our favorite college kids have either started fall semester or they're headed that way. The new change of pace is upon us. Soon, there will be cows to gather and ship home as well as calves to wean. In addition to cows and school, the fall also includes plans to go look at some colleges. FFA National Convention is on our radar this year, too. Lets just say, we definitely aren’t going to be bored as I have a sneaking suspicion this school year is going to fly by out here in Union County. -Chelsea
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