The Calendar

Hello! Things are really starting to happen around here. Spring and fall are particularly busy on our ranch, and the calendar is reflecting that. If you want something done, or a day to do something specific, you better write it on the calendar, in a bright color, where everyone can see it. Pencil at the bottom of a date won't get you anywhere this time of year. You'll have to step up to pen or marker to get noticed around here!
These are our next few weeks, and this is just the ranch work. In addition to the ranch related activities, we have three other businesses running out of our home (a trucking company, record and document destruciton business and my photography/writing). That calendar just reflects the ranch/livestock dates for the this month. Somewhere in there my mom will have to schedule her paper shredding days, my dad and brother have several thousand ton of hay to haul (over the course of the entire fall/winter), and I have multiple stories and a couple potential photography jobs to get done.
It looks pretty hectic, and it is. But, it's also a fun time of year when we see the results of our hard work over the last 12 months. We wean calves, preg-check our cows, sell and deliver our yearlings, ship cattle home from summer leases and a variety of other necessary jobs. We're also trying a couple new things this year I'll do my best to tell you all about!
By the way, if any of the jobs I just listed, or you saw on the calendar, are something you would be particularly interested in hearing about and seeing pictures of on here, just let me know (I have connections with the people in charge of this blog) : )
Another reason there's so much stuff on there is this is a family operation, which for us means that we help my uncle's family with all of his fall work (he ranches a couple hours from us) and he helps us with ours.
My cousins are both currently in college, and my dad just had surgery, so my brother, uncle and I will be swapping help even more than normal this year to ensure everything on both of our operations gets done. We've always done this, and the result is a close-knit family that can work exceptionally well together at just about any task we're presented with. The longer I live and more I see, the more I appreciate that about my family.
This also means we spend several evenings with our calendar out on the table, scheduling dates for two ranches, and writing it all down. Then, after cattle buyers schedule delivery dates, truckers are lined up for hauling pairs home from summer pastures, vet's are scheduled to preg-check and other necessary arrangments are made on each place, we sit back down and go over it all again, making any changes that may have occured.
Most of the days start early, take most of the day, and leave you exhausted in a way only physical labor at something you love does. It's a very wearing, but also very rewarding time of year. I'm starting to get excited about it, which is good because our first round of preg-checking is tomorrow.
I hope you're all enjoying the summer to fall transition too!
Also, just in case you thought fall work only lasted one month, here's a glimpse at what we've got scheduled for October as of now...