We got up there on Thursday afternoon and stole Christina away from work then went to what my husband calls "the happiest place in the world" (and no, I don't mean Disney World...) COSTCO!! We got stuff for our Pumpkin Carving party with one of Chad's best friends, Brett Walker, and his cute kids before going to the pumpkin patch. We got to even go on a hay ride... fun stuff!!! So we carved pumpkins and had soup in the cutest ever bread bowls that had made the trip from Dan's since they are so cute and look like pumpkins..they even have the green handle on top!! The scary pumpkins I try to carve never look very good so I decided to take Martha Stewarts advice and carve flowers on it instead! To my disappointment, however not to my surprise, they did NOT look like Martha's!! And of course, my sister had to "one-up" me and make a very beautiful flower on hers... no daisy's for her!!! My cute mom stuck to the traditional jack-o-lantern idea with the square eyes, triangle nose and mouth with the teeth... you know the kind!!! They are getting so high-tech these days with the options for carving!! You can do Frankenstein or a princess or a Pirate... all beyond me!!!After that we did the typical Girl's weekend stuff - shopping, eating, more shopping until early Sunday morning when the real ranching experience started...emphasis on the EARLY part!! The ranch hands had spent Saturday bringing down the cows and calf's for what they call "Shipping". The baby calfs get weighed and sold off... the more they weigh the more they cost apparently, and all the while the mamma cows are hanging out Moo-ing, being so sad!! My mom and I were "fence-sitters"
while we watched Brett and Bob poke the calves onto the scale then Christina helped them close the doors behind them so that they could move on the to next leg of their journey... Quite a process!!! And SO dirty!! It had rained earlier on Sunday (before my mom and I had woken up to go out to the shipping party already going
on outside!!) so that didn't help things in the dirty department! I will never understand how they can spend $350 or more on a pair of boots then be totally okay sloshing around in the mud and poop and everything else. I can tell you if I had $350 boots they would not get close to mud or poop...but that is totally cool to ranchers apparently!!! After the actual "shipping" process it was time for the mamma cows to have their turn... except they are not as lucky as just getting weighed then going on a ride on a big semitruck. No, the mamma cows get "preg-tested"...yes, exactly what you are thinking but it is, in fact, worse than you are thinking!! At least for the poor guy DOING the preg-testing!! I will spare you the details but the poor soul has a plastic or latex glove that goes almost to his shoulder... Yeah... Um... Yeah... 
he must have lost a bet at one point or another... that is the only thing I can think!! So while that is going on, one person is spraying them with something, another person is giving them a shot, and the last person is cutting their hair so that the tags show. It is quite a process and very interesting but I was totally cool being the fence sitter with my mom!! Actually, I would have loved to be on a horse - maybe next time I can be like a real Cowgirl!!!!We had a fun weekend with Christina and can't wait until the next time we can go up... there is talk of a Ski trip to Big Sky in February! Hmmmm....!
2 comments:
Rose,
It sounds like you had a fun weekend. I would have loved to be there. It sounds like a pretty dirty job and you have to have some guts to do it. No wonder beaner loves it...she is a tough girl!!
I loved your pumpkins.
I never thought to do flowers on the pumpkins . . . what a great idea!
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