Life on a Ranch

March. The month when some days feel like spring and some days feel like winter. And on days like yesterday, it feels like both… at various times throughout the same day.

Yesterday morning, while it felt like winter, Buck and I fed cows on our way to the Shamrock Shuffle, a 5K race in La Grande. Back in January, a friend and I signed up for the race as motivation to keep moving through the winter months. Anyway, due to kids and sports obligations, she realized earlier in the week she likely wouldn’t be able to make it to the race.

When Buck found out, he said he’d do it with me. That may come as a shock to you, and it may even provoke a mental image of Buck in running clothes. You can erase that. Did he walk/ run the race in his jeans and work boots? Yes, he did. Was he wearing a snap shirt, jacket and chore vest? Yes, he was. A baseball cap, too? Yes, cap, too. And he wasn’t alone. He was not the only rancher on the course! In an ironic twist of fate, earlier in the week, he was with our friend Mark Gomes. Mark mentioned that his eleven-year-old daughter Alice wanted to run this 5K race in La Grande on Saturday and he said he’d do it with her. You can imagine his surprise when Buck said he was doing it, too!

On race day, during registration, we met up with Mark, his wife Melissa, and their daughter Alice. Reg- istration started while the snow was blowing sideways, but by the time the race started, the sun warmed us up by shining through the clouds. And as it did, we all walked/ran the 5K. Alice was the most excited and the most energetic. In fact, Mark had to make a bit of an

effort to keep up with her fast start! While we were on

the course, we even saw our friend, Michael O’Rourke, one of the few loyal truckers who used to haul cows and hay for us in and out of Troy, (along with every other place we’ve ever been with gnarly roads). His wife, Tammy, does all sorts of running races, most of them much longer than a 5K. And just like Buck and Mark realized after completing their first race, he thinks they’re “actually pretty fun”. (Note: he does not wear jeans and work boots!)

Aside from the race, we’ve been plugging right along, and the kids are one week shy of spring break.

Once we reach spring break, the rest of the school year always feels like a sprint to summer break. But before we get to spring break, over the last few weeks of school, Lucy’s been working on a project.

To set the stage, you should know that when Buck and I got married, neither of us had a lot of material possessions to bring to our marriage. I had a car, a couple saddles and two geldings. Buck had a small two-horse trailer (that my two geldings hated, but I’ll save that for another column). He also acquired three things that we still have today. First, he finished some logging work with his Uncle Todd in trade for a colt named Rose, out of a mare called Amy and a stud called Blue boy Quincy. He also bought a custom saddle from Ray Wilson. Buck and Ray went round and round about that saddle- Buck wanted a wider tree width than Ray wanted and Ray was convinced he wouldn’t like it. In the end, Buck won out and he’s loved his saddle for

well over 20 years. He had Ray custom stamp the back of the cantle with the word, “Hallelujah” to match the back of the saddle he spent thousands of hours riding behind as a kid- his dad’s. In addition to Rose and his saddle, he also bought his first “real pickup”, a 1994 single cab Dodge. We call it the “Green Dodge” or “Greenie” or “Ol’ Green”, because, well, it’s green.

The Green Dodge was our go-to for a long time. And as the story goes, when Lucy was a toddler, she was sitting in her car seat next to the passenger window, riding along with Buck. We had been

really trying to wean her from a pacifier and since the window was down, Buck suggested she could be done with the binky and throw the last one out the window.

She thought that was a pretty funny idea and decided to go for it. A few miles down the road, she realized it was gone for good and she (and I think Buck, too) were regretting the finality of that decision. They pulled into the driveway and, when he went to get her teary-self out of her car seat, they were relieved to discover her throw wasn’t quite strong enough and Old Green caught her pacifier in the side door!

Eventually, she let the binky go for good and eventually we needed a bigger pickup for all three kids. Over the years, I’ve suggested selling old green, but Buck has never entertained the idea. It’s been sitting for the last couple of years, hardly a mile added to it, but it starts right up when we need it to.

All of that to tell you about Lucy’s project….. Ol’ Green! She decided to sell her Tacoma pickup because it’s not a rig she can take to college, and she wants to start looking for something she can drive to Nebraska. In the meantime, she needs something to drive. So, she’s been working to get Greenie in shape. She'd been wanting a project for her shop class anyway. Teach, the shop teacher, has been instructing her on the mechanical work it needs. They’ve refilled fluids and changed the oil and done some work on its you joints. (I’m just kidding! While I might not know a lot about mechanics, I do know they’re u-joints; I just wanted to make some of you cringe a little when you read that!).

Anyway, Lucy has been loving the project. She’s not quite done working on it but wanted me to go for a drive with her this week to see just how good it’s running. First, she had me drive so I could really feel how nice it’s driving. And not too long into the drive she had me pull over so she could take over, a proud smile on her face the whole time. She thinks it’s cool that it’s “from the 1900s” and we think it’s cool that she’s enjoying driving the pickup she thought she threw her binky out of!

With that, I better sign off. And next time I’ll explain why I’m here, because today, I’m not signing off from Union County, but rather from a hotel room overlooking the bright lights of Las Vegas. ~Chelsea