The Neighbors

    I looked at the clock; it was 4:30 in the morning. I had just put the munchkin back to bed. I guess potty-training is going better than I thought. Not only is she not having any accidents during the day, but now she wakes me up to go at night. My reasoning doesn't really work at these small hours of the morning, so I can never seem to understand why she can't just utilize the diaper I put on her for the expressed purpose of not getting up at 4:30 in the morning. When I tuck her back into bed, I yawn. "What? Need nap Mommy?" Yes, I need a nap at 4:30 in the morning.

    I lied there awake. I hate being up before the birds. A little light was coming through the window and then the little tweet tweets started in. Now how am I supposed to get back to sleep with all those cheerful little tweets hanging around? Ugh. Now my brain is awake. I hate that even more than the tweet tweets. I had all the intention in the world of getting up and opening my computer. Might as well, I wasn't sleeping. My body said no, although now I was starting to get hungry....

    I had a wave of terrible guilt and a giant cricket conscience with a huge voice that flooded my head like the mighty Oz, "You should be blogging". Then as I was trying to talk myself out of getting out of bed, I saw a reoccurring theme. I was going over all the things that have happened on the ranch of late (since my last post, 12,000 years ago), and the thought of neighbors kept popping in my head. Some neighbors are good some are not so good. In ranching, "neighbor" is a loose term. It might be the person who lives next to you, but that might be 20 or 30 miles down the road, or more! In our case, it's not that far, just a few miles to get to the good ones. =)

    Last week we branded our first bunch of calves and it went off without a major hitch. After finishing up some last minute food items, I zipped over to the branding pen. When I pulled up things were just getting going and some mommas were being sorted off. The kiddos were hanging out on a flatbed trailer out of the way and perfectly content. The calves were bawling in the pen, the mommas were milling around and bawling outside the pen. The horses were tied up outside the pen with a couple hobbled, while everyone was getting things set. 

    The combination of a few of these things is what started the chain of events. A momma cow trying to find her calf a little too close for a colt's comfort, the colt in turn starting to crow-hop through the row of tied up horses, which in turn freaked out said cow who ran away, thus freaking out the other colt that was hobbled, who in turn showed everyone how easy it is for a horse to not only run, but buck with hobbles on and subsequently cover quite a bit of county without much effort. The first colt continued on his path of hops and squeals heading for the flatbed trailer.

    Maybe I would have been a better horse-woman, or tougher ranch wife if I had stepped in front of the horse and grabbed a rein and held him. Well, I didn't. I jumped on the flat bed, pushed the munchkin and her 2 year old buddy behind me, and pulled up another little man onto the trailer and behind me, and then I threw a hand up to catch the attention of closer hopping colt to divert his direction. Not heroic by any means, just mother-hen paranoid about my little chicks.

    Anyway, it was all over and done and no one was worse for the ware. A little while later, horses were back in place, and calves were being roped, wrestled, vaccinated and branded. I wasn't able to stay too long, as I had to get back to finish up the food and setting up for hungry cowboys and cowgirls.  It was nice to see some friends and neighbors that we, or at least I, hadn't seen in a while. It was also nice to hear little squeals and kids playing and running amuck in the back yard since the munchkin doesn't get to play with others her age every day.

    We ate lunch, laughed, swapped stories, and sat around enjoying the sunshine and great weather. The beer held out long enough that some stayed for round 2 and we grilled up some more burgers and ate again.  It was a great time all around and it's too bad that branding season only comes around once a year. It's great to have such wonderful neighbors.

    On the other hand it's not so great to have not so great neighbors. A couple of days ago was a very long, busy day on the ranch. One of those days that you leave in the dark and come home at dusk, only to turn around and leave again and not get home till well after dark. The Cowboy, "J" and "Red" were busy sorting, shipping and receiving new pairs (mommas and babies). All week it had been raining and snowing, so it was difficult for the trucks (semi's to haul the cattle) to get in and out. It was a mess. The guys were wet, cold, muddy and tired.

    It was then that they were reminded that not all neighbors are as helpful or as friendly as those that we were with exactly one week prior. The neighbor was mad about all the trucks in and out and threw a fit over an easement that we use (FYI, the trucks didn't even use the easement, they were on the main road). The piece of dirt in question is only about 1 foot wide. When you are faced with situations like this, standing next to the police officer, it just makes you more thankful for the good neighbors.

    Neighbors that bring you 20 pounds of potatoes just because someone gave them too many. Or neighbors that call you up to grill burgers, but don't forget your horse because we're going to rope first. Or when someone just shows up and brings you plants from their garden because they heard you were starting one and thought you'd need some help with yours on the first year. Or when they volunteer to watch your little munchkin so you can have a "date" that involves gathering and trailing cows off the mountain.

    We've been very blessed to have some great neighbors in the different places we've lived. Here is no different. I think that's one of the great things about ranching (and farming!). Even if you haven't known your neighbors for very long, it's a great comfort to know, that they are there if you need them, and you'll be there for them too. It's such a wonderful feeling for people like the Cowboy and I (and the other ranch hands, J and his wife, and Red) that don't always have family close by.

   

    Neighbors become family.

 

(sorry no pictures yet, still working on them, computer has been a little funky lately)

 

 

Comments

[gtyyup/The Rough String Ranch]

You hit the nail on the head about neighbors! I think anyone who lives within 30 miles of us is a neighbor...and most are good neighbors...but there are a few...

I think you did the right thing...get the lil' ones up and out of harms way...very heroic!

[Ranch Wife Tales]

We would give anything to have good neighbors around here. All we seem to have are the bad kind. It is hard when you are the only ranch in the area and the ranch is surrounded by individual houses and people who really don't take care of their things but sure do like what you have on the other side of the fence.