Marital Baggage

 As I type this my most valuable possessions are rolling down a highway to their new South Dakota home. Part of getting married is always the combining of two people's things/stuff/treasures/junk, and mine will be no different. I will bring more furniture than will probably fit in my fiancée's house, a car, a big screen TV, lots of kitchen stuff, enough clothes to fill every available closet - probably twice and dreams of things like a beautiful lawn with flower hedges.
But, what is a little different when two ranchers get married is that there could also be the combining of livestock, which is the case with us.

These two are rolling down the highway right now. Adding cows when getting marriage is a little different than adding a hairbrush and lip gloss to the bathroom vanity. Cows eat grass, cows take up space, cows cost money to run, and it's not like you can just add and subtract numbers on a whim. No, there is a lot of management that goes into running cows, and to be profitable most ranchers are usually running as many as they can with their available resources. So, just adding more cows isn't necessarily an easy thing.
But, I am marrying a wonderful man, who just so happens to be a rancher, meaning that he has the ability to make room for cows more so than most people, and he did make room for mine. Not only that, but he offered to let them come now instead of this fall because it was really dry over here earlier this spring when we were making plans.
To prepare for the move, I applied for my Wyoming brand in South Dakota, and am very thankful to have gotten in on the second try. It was given to my dad, who used it before me, and in addition to meaning I won't have to re-brand my cows, also has a lot of sentimental value to me. It also means I won't have to keep track of two brands as my cattle move back and forth between South Dakota and Wyoming in the future.
My family and I also sorted my pairs out from the rest of the cows and put a bull with them earlier than we turn bulls out to get them closer to being on schedule with calving season at their new home.
Then today he carved time out of his busy schedule to come get them when "Delivery Plan A" didn't work out last week. He has it all worked out on the pasture/bull/summer management side for when they arrive, and is also making sure that over time we we will get everyone the right shots as they convert from our vaccination program to his, which are different.

I'm sure there will be more adjustments and management alterations that will have to be made going forward as we work them into the mix. But, I'm also sure they will all work out. I am very grateful to have a wonderful family, and to be marrying an equally wonderful man that all help enable me to do what I love, which has always included owning cattle. As my fiancée has told me many times since we've met, he had no idea a blonde girl could care as much about a little bunch of cows as I do mine. Fortunately, he considers that a good thing.

The Last Little While

 Over the last little while a lot has happened around here. We are down to four heifers to calve! Our cows are pretty much done too. It is very dry here, to the point of being concerning about our entire year. But, we are supposed to get some rain later this week, and are all holding our breathe that it actually comes through. We also got scours in our calves last weekend, which is practically unheard of here. After catching us very off guard, we got on the ball and I have been doctoring and monitoring this week.
My parents, brother and I have purchased a swanky trailer house for my brother and I to live in. I didn't know I could be so excited about a single wide trailer, but I am! The idea of my own bathroom and dedicated office space is something I am very grateful to have in my near future (we all really wish we could just move my Casper home out here). My brother and dad are staying plenty busy getting the water and sewer put in, before the gravel arrives that will elevate the trailer a few inches. We get serious flash floods around here (it's pretty much feast or famine in the rain department), and plan to attempt to divert water around our new home. We aren't looking to be floating down Dogie Creek the next time it does actually rain around here. New house, yes! New house boat, no!

I've been doing some traveling, and the sage grouse, turkeys and various other birds are in full strutting swing! It's like rush hour traffic on some gravel roads around here, and I've been at a complete stop more than once. I'll take this type of early morning traffic any day.

 One trip was to pick up two new Hereford bulls! We will be having a few more cute baldy calves next spring, and are very happy with how the bulls look in general too.

 Not so happy about the "genetic drift" seen in our calf crop this year. We should only have black calves, but have a few red ones that have been showing up. They may be the result of a neighbors bull, or one of our new "Registered Black Angus" bulls not quite being what he seems. I am investigating. Red I can deal with, but that grey one causes my blood pressure to rise. He just came to the feed ground for the first time yesterday, and I was less than impressed to see that one of our cows had managed to find a Charolais bull. Reds will fit on, but that guy is going to stick out that bad his entire life, and will most likely be unwanted by the buyer when we sell these guys in a year and a half.

On a happier note, here is a photo I found of my dad and I in my earlier days. I am using it in an upcoming Farm Bureau presentation, which is another project that has been coming together the last few days. It's always fun to look through old pictures and reminisce (not that I have a great memory of this time in my life).
Other than those few things, in the last month I've sent articles and photos to two new publications, and am working on multiple potential weddings to photograph this summer. Looking forward to meeting with some of the couples during a trip to Laramie for meetings later this week!
Hope all is well in all of your lives!

Hello Monday, goodbye weekend

This weekend I moved into the new house (pictures will be coming soon) and right now have piles of stuff everywhere and only one card table to stack everything on. It's wonderful and I love it!
My wonderful parents were here Friday with all my stuff and helped unload. Saturday morning we organized, did minor repairs and maintenance and they headed home.
Saturday night the previous owner stopped by with a BBQ'd chicken. Me being the genius I am decided to invite people over, despite being exhausted and only having the chicken to feed them on the little card table. So I invited my boss, her bf and another guy.
Oops on the last part. The guy was ridiculous and stayed long after the couple, telling such an amazing string of stories I dozed off to the point he actually noticed and finally left. Boy can I find winners! I will never hear the end of that one from the bosses bf.
The previous owner also invited me to Highland Park Community Church. I agreed and was prepared to attend the 10:30 service. At 9:30 some friends from Sheridan texted and one of them asked if he could go with me. Met him at 10:15 and arrived at the largest church I have ever been in at precisely 10:30
This thing is enormous. There were hundreds of people pouring into a multitude of rooms from a main lobby that was huge. After finding the correct room, my friend and I joined the boss, her bf and another friend for the worship music and sermon. Liked the sermon, don't think I could make it through another round of the music. Just wasn't my thing. But, if you're used to large churches and lots of live music that breaks into verbal praise at times, this would be a great option.
After church my friend at I had lunch at Guadalajaras, which was very good, then met up with his ride and parted ways. After debating for several minutes in the WalMart parking lot whether to change out of the most uncomfortable shoes I own before going furniture shopping I decided to tough it out.
I proceeded to scour Big Lots, Target, Rosses, JC Penny, Sears and Oak Express for the entire afternoon.
My finds included a 47" 1080P Vizio TV. They quit making the model in 2010 so I got a great deal, it was less than the 32" TV's I was looking at. After that I was floating so high my miserable shoes couldn't slow me down. I promptly went back to WalMart and purchased a DVD player. I also ordered this table with slightly different chairs at Oak Express.
Sunday night I had a drink and tried to get the mammoth TV working. So far all I can get is a black and white picture, pretty sure I need a different cable. Yay for the weekend!