Life on a Ranch

Rural life…. if I needed a name for this week’s column, it would be something along those lines. The creative juices aren’t quite flowing enough to come up with a catchy phrase, but the essence was captured by a couple situations that arose in the last few days.

One of the situations makes me laugh, so I’m going to start with it. The back story is that Cooper has been really into riding his bike. He fixed up an old mountain bike of Buck’s this spring and has been riding it enough that he wanted to go up to Mt. Emily Recreation Area (MERA) to ride on the trails. I gladly brought him and went for a walk while he rode. After careful consideration, I decided it would be more fun if I had a mountain bike, too. So, I went into the bike shop in town and found a used one, one that other family members can use as well.

The morning after I bought the bike, I found myself with a little time before I had to log into an online work meeting. Given the extra time, I decided to go for a little bike ride. About that same time, Buck, who had gone out to rake hay, but found it a little too wet, stopped in at the house to grab some water and let me know he was heading out to work on fence. When he found me getting ready to go on a bike ride, he jumped on the other bike and said he’d go for a little ride with me- jeans, work boots, baseball cap and all. Neither of us had been on a bike in quite a while. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun and reminisced about the hundreds of biking miles we both clocked as kids. We only saw one vehicle on our ride, and true to rural life, we knew the driver, a young man who just graduated with Lucy. He happens to work at the neighbor’s goat dairy and

we were riding our bikes right past. He slowed way down, looked visibly taken aback and waved at us with a curious look on his face- clearly, surprised to see us. We laughed. And later that night, when Lucy got home from work, I told her we’d seen Colten on our bike ride. She said he sent her a message, but she didn’t believe him, “My parents don’t go on bike rides. You saw someone else.”

Surprise! Apparently, we do go on bike rides!

Besides being caught (and reported) for going on a bike ride, rural life had another chance to shine later in the week. We needed to haul some cows to a new pasture. We got them in, got them sorted, doctored a sick calf and started hauling. We needed to take a few loads, so we planned to drop off each load in a little holding area, then run back and get horses to push the pairs up to the first pasture. Right before our last load, we stopped at the little corner store in Cove to get a cold drink. Upon stopping, we spotted some friends—Cooper’s fourth grade teacher, Tara Thomas and her daughter, Emma. They were on the way to the Cove Drive-In to get ice cream…. horseback! Since the pasture wasn’t too far, we asked if they wanted a "cow- girl job" to do with those horses they were on. Of course they did!

While we went for the last of the pairs, they rode through the drive through and got their ice cream

before riding to meet us. After dropping the last load, Tara and Emma pushed the pairs right up to the first pasture and saved us a bunch of time, not having to go back for our own horses. The pairs were well behaved, the little move went off without a hitch, and Emma, in particular, was all smiles the whole time.

Aside from those rural life experiences, we’ve been staying busy in the summer rush. The hay on our place is in a bale and we should have water back on by this evening. Katelyn, who spent a few days rafting on the river, before then spending a week at camp, has had a harsh reentry into reality. After a quick nap when she arrived home Saturday morning, she was out stacking hay and she’ll be swathing all week. I’m sure she’ll talk Cooper into riding along with her—he manages to talk enough to keep her from feeling too sleepy.

Lucy is staying busy working for Frisch Family Farms again. And I’m burying my head in the sand, pretending July is a long way off from August, the month when we take her to college.

Lucy must also be in a bit of denial because she is still picking up new animals—she called me on her way home from work last week and asked if I was ready. Not sure what I needed to be ready for, she informed me I was going with her to pick up her new bunny out in Medical Springs. This was a “Craiglist deal”, she said, and it wouldn’t be safe to go alone. I agreed and we showed up at the bunny farm when there was barely enough daylight left for her to pick out a grey bunny, Odessa. When the woman selling the bunnies asked if we planned to eat Odessa, Lucy was horrified. We didn’t realize we were on a rescue mission!

Odessa isn’t our only new animal, we also have a new kitten. Cooper has been begging to get another one after his cat, Amber, went missing last fall. Ebony is a very energetic and wild little fur ball. Just for fun, we put her on a scale and she weighed in at a whopping 1.2 pounds. Ebony doesn’t seem to know how small she is- she chases Cooper around and pounces her tiny little paws, fearlessly jumping off anything she can.

And with that, I’ll wrap this column up, but I would be remiss not to mention our Anniversary. On the 3rd, Buck and I are celebrating 21 years of marriage, but you and I are celebrating, too. This column marks ten years of documenting our agricultural existence here at Agri-Times- a whole decade of sharing some of the tid-bits of our life. The voice I write with is the very same one I hear in my head, so I can’t tell you how much

I appreciate that you take the time to read what I think. If you’ll keep reading, I’ll keep writing…. over here in my favorite place, Union County. ~Chelsea