This post was first published October 20, 2008.
I’ve heard it many times. Heck, I used to believe it myself. How AWESOME your life must be… you live on a *RANCH*! Well, it is true MOST of the time… It is the small percentage of times when you are doing things like today, that most people wouldn’t enjoy. This is not Bonanza! (though I have lusted many times over that house the Cartwrights lived in!) Today we preg tested the cows we lease from our neighbors…along with their small bunch… about 90 head or so. It was chilly at first, so I slipped my winter hat over my cap. The rain began. It quickly changed to snow. I put my coveralls on. And my scarf. And my gloves. I should have changed into my Muck Boots. Three hours later I’m tired… with barely any energy output the 6000′ altitude is slowing me and my yucky lungs down. Snow has caked on my silk scarf and it is beginning to drip down my neck. My Arctic Carhartt coat keeps me warm, but I swear it weighs 30 pounds and my back and shoulders are tired. Usually I’d still be in good humor, the work load wasn’t bad, and I enjoy our vet’s banter… but enough was enough this day. Thank goodness we were about done! I help put out lunch, our neighbor has taken pity on me and my condition and cooked the whole meal. I promise I’ll do it all next year! The best place to eat is a horse trailer. So there we are, 8 snow encrusted cowboys standing in a horse trailer parked in the lee of an old cabin, eating the best pot roast and vegetables around! We sip hot chocolate and snag another cookie. We discuss the world and laugh at ourselves and shake our heads. A little bit more cowboying and we’re done. That’s when I finally drug my camera out to take this photo of Vernon. Gee. I just don’t remember them showing Little Joe out working in this kind of stuff. In fact, did Little Joe ever work??? I remember him in the house and barn and in town. I never saw Little Joe in Carhartts. I just realized…Bonanza mislead the American public! My vulnerable mind was shaped by Ben, Adam, Hoss, Joe, and even Candy… but I don’t remember Carhartts on the set. OK, so it is a minor point that in the 1800’s Carhartts weren’t even invented, but no one told me anything like this happened on ranches. I figured if you were cold and it was nasty outside… you could stay inside. Ha. Dang, was I like TOTALLY stupid?? Yes. I was. I’m not now!
In a world in which most people work in cubicles, surrounded by steel and glass, but for which we yearn for these conditions, for which we are designed, this is romantic.
Having worked in both worlds at the same time, I sometimes think that those who work full time in agriculture don’t realize how many people simply ache to be out in the outside, even in this. They can’t and they know their lives are the worst for it, even if they won’t acknowledge it.
It has it’s moments, but this sure isn’t one of them.
Now I really miss my youth on our family farm, I left for a job in town at age 20 & never went back-