Life on a Ranch

 It was my very first day at my new job. I was a Certified Nurses Assistant (CNA), a certification I received from a high school “Health Occupations” class. I had taken the class because an older girl I looked up to had promoted it and the teacher, Mrs. Fereday, was one of my favorites. Anyway, I not only had the certification, but I had finished my pre-requisites and had formally been accepted into the nursing program at Lewis-Clark State College. I was home for the summer and was hired at what used to be McCall Memorial Hospital. And it was my first day. And I had my first patient, a new admit being wheeled over from the Emergency Department. The nurse informed me he had kidney stones, and she handed me an emesis bag to hold. He proceeded to use the emesis bag quite profusely. In between bouts of emesis, he looked over at me and considering we were in the same age range, he seemed a little embarrassed, “You must see this stuff all the time, huh?” Having never held an emesis bag for a single person in my entire young life and having no idea what we were going to do to help this guy, I practiced my reassurance skills,  “Of course! Don’t worry about it a bit. Let’s just get you feeling better!” That was my first experience with kidney stones, but it wouldn’t be my last. I’ve taken care of a lot of patients with them. I also had personal experience, having them while I was pregnant with both of our girls. And now I have a new experience- our child, the one who lives halfway across the country, has them. I’ve never wished I was holding an emesis bag as much as when Lucy called me needing one. Since I couldn’t be there, I was thankful a friend of Lucy's took my place. I kept myself busy between initial updates as she went in to figure out what was causing such acute pain. I was grateful for a sweet ER nurse who called to tell me their plan and check in to see if that sounded good to Lucy's mom. I appreciated the great care they gave our girl as they quickly figured out what was causing her pain and mostly that they were able to get it under control. I’m not capable of sitting around and worrying, I have to worry in motion. So, I’ve been getting a lot done! I had and still have a lot of outside work to do. I picked a bunch of tomatoes and have been roasting them with onions, a variety of bell peppers, garlic and spices, then blending it all into tomato soup. We’ve been enjoying some and I’m freezing some, too. In addition to the prolific tomatoes, my raised beds are beyond full bloom with Dahlias, Sunflowers, Snapdragons and Cosmos. The Cosmos have taken over a bit more than  I intended, getting taller and taking up more space by the day. I’ve decided next year, the Cosmos aren’t going to get quite so much room. And while I should be spending more time weeding and deadheading, I’ve had more fun taking pictures of all of them- the Dahlias, in particular, are quite spectacular. A couple months ago I started an album titled, “Flowers 2025”. I have no idea what I’ll do with those, but I’ll start by sharing a few with you! Besides and before all of that, we also weaned some calves this past weekend. Katelyn was busy, but Buck, Cooper and I gathered and sorted. You probably don’t know this about Cooper, but he actually doesn’t love to ride. It isn’t that he won’t or that he hates it, but he won’t choose it if he’s given the option. While it might not be his first choice, I really love it when he does! When he was little, I pony’d him behind my horse for more hours than I can count. I have such fond memories of that time, Cooper chatting away with him while we trailed cows. On really long days, he would take off his boots and we’d tie them on with his saddle strings. Needless to say, he keeps his boots on nowadays. In fact, his legs are long enough that he temporarily swiped Lucy’s saddle and fits in it remarkably well. He still uses his time in the saddle to visit with me and one thing is for certain- when I chat with Cooper,d I always learn something new! Anyway, not only did we have a fun day together, but we weaned one bunch of calves and got them home. The cooler temperatures have definitely helped, but they weaned up really well. I woke up to bawling for a couple nights, but on the third night I had a moment of panic when I woke up and heard nothing but an eerie silence. I grabbed a flashlight, (one I didn’t need because the moon was so bright!) and walked out to the corral, relieved to find the calves all laying around, chewing their cud. They’ve since been moved to a small pasture, one we like to use for weaning, and they’ve been the most settled set of calves I think we’ve ever had. Besides those calves, we have one more bunch to gather and a few more calves to wean. We’ll do that in a couple of weeks and will have fall gathering done much earlier than usual due in large part to it being an exceptionally dry year. In addition to gathering, Buck and I did get in an unexpected ride in. It was a beautiful day and the air was fresh and cool following an early morning shower. Those are all things I would have enjoyed if we hadn’t been on our way to other plans with friends when we discovered cows out. After cancelling our plans, going home, and getting horses, we went after the renegades who had walked over an electric fence and crossed the river where we found them happily grazing in a neighbor’s pasture. It all went smooth and easy… something I would have appreciated on another day, one without ruined plans! Buck and I have an upspoken rule that only one of us can be really grumpy at any given time. So, lets just say, it was nice of him to stay in a good mood so I could take a little extra time to come around to joining him. And that my friends, is the real life of the Matthews Family- from kidney stones to weaned calves and get ting cows back where they belong, we’re trucking right along out here in Union County. ~Chelsea