Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Focus On the Journey


A Love Note?

Focus on the journey, not the destination.
Joy is found not in finishing an activity
but in doing it. - Greg Anderson

So! The photo above is the note my husband left me. He is taking a load of our direct marketing beef and lambs to the processor in Idaho.. Oh boy... These adventures are usually when 'something goes wrong' for me!
After I get the kids on the bus... I'll do my best to jump on the quad, take a couple herding dogs (Ernest and Lefty), then get the sheep out of the 'hot wired' pen they are in, tie up our new guard dog Duke, and move the entire herd across the ranch.. The kids depart at 6:40 am... I should start at 7am, and be done in 30 minutes, max....
Any bets on how long it takes me and what catastrophes await? Here are the possibilities:
  • Quad doesn't start - because I have never driven this one!
  • Sheep run off to a different field
  • Sheep scatter in all directions
  • Herd dogs don't listen to me, and we move sheep somewhere else
  • Guard dog refuses to lead
  • Guard dogs ditch the sheep and follow me back!
  • I zap myself with the electric fence (not fun... one time when I did this I thought my thumb blew off!)
I'm not trying to be negative or set myself up for 'trouble'.. It just happens in these situations when I am left alone with a ranch task!

Like, say, the time I was given the task of getting water to ewes one twenty below December day! OK.. Maybe it was just 20 degrees.. But it was cold!! The job was to drag hoses from inside the pump house to a shed and fill water troughs... Just my luck, it was the coldest day we had that December, and just my luck, I left the pump house door open, the water froze up, and the water to the house 'quit' as well! THIS was discovered after I dragged all the hoses, to the shed, and kept undoing them one by one and turning water off and on to see which one was 'the problem'. The problem was the water was not flowing baby!!! I was sweating from my hike through the snow - back and forth, back and forth...

I'll let you know later what happens with my sheep and guard dog drive!


5 comments:

Tami B. said...

You are definitely wonder woman. I'm amazed at the tasks in your day. Can't wait to see what happened today...I hope it went well, and you have some creative time.

Sandy said...

Okay I am SOOOOO glad i read your later post before I got to this one. I woulda been scared you zapped yourself or something!!!

Only one question left:
LAMB SAUSAGE????? Those poor sheepies are so cute, how on earth can you make food out of em?????

:P

Dawn said...

Like Sandy I am glad I read the other post first. Ouch, on the fence thing...Hope that never happens again.. Love the "love note" It's so manly...lol

I also have a question!
How many dogs do you use to get the sheep where they need to be. I konw you have the two new guard dogs to protect..what are the hearding dogs (type of dog) I know what they are for, but does the guard dogs not do that too?? How many dogs do you have...okay i will go now...lol

*karendianne. said...

Look man, I just have to say I roflmao with this one. Things really do have a potential for going awry when left alone with handling a ranch task. Sometimes it just seems you draw the short straw alot!

Growing up I invariably lived that. A couple of good Dramas & maybe one or two minor Disasters occurred. No one really laughed. Bad sign.

Kerilou said...

At least he leaves you notes!! Mine leaves and just expects me to know what to do! LOL..Keri

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