It's A Date!

Once in a while, I just have to laugh about living in Garfield County. It's a life like no other, I can tell you that. (Some who are reading this are currently living here, or have lived here, and they are nodding at the screen, saying "Amen, sister! Preach on...") For many of us, it's 25+ miles and half an hour to the local grocery store, when the roads are good; we can't see our neighbor's house unless we get in the pickup and drive to a big butte, but we certainly know they are there, especially in fire season; we get our mail twice a week, again, when the roads are passable.

SO, when I read the rare women's magazine, in the doctor's office and encounter the articles that encourage couples to have a date night once a week, with no children, to strengthen thier relationship, I laugh out loud! (Drawing stares from the other waiting patients....they all of a sudden get VERY interested in that Outdoor Life magazine.) Where, in the wide, wide world of sports should we go, and what magic hat shall we pull the babysitter from?

Yesterday we bangs vaccinated the yearling heifers all morning and trailed them back to their pasture. I got home about 11:00 and started a very nutritious, artsy lunch for the family. (Chicken nuggets in the oven, big green salad, milk. Gourmet magazine hasn't seemed to help this kitchen, but it looks good on the coffee table.) Wayland walks through the door at ten minutes to noon and on his way to wash his hands, tosses over his shoulder that Vern said we could go to the Winter Grazing Series in Jordan, if we wanted, and they would watch the kids. It started at noon. We both smelled like cows and I'll spare you the description of my hair.

I'LL TAKE IT! So we showered up, stuffed the babies' faces with chicken nuggets and cucumbers, threw them into the car, threw them out at Grandma's and drove to Jordan for our date.

The Winter Grazing Series is comprised of 4 or 5 speakers from MSU and Ft. Keogh Experiment Station, and you spend the afternoon learning things about cow's nutritional needs and how it affects their breed back and subsequent progeny. We learned about range management after a fire, distillery by-products and their benefits and drawback as feed suppliments, how much colostrum a calf needs in the first 12 hours of life. Very romantic.

When the lectures were done, we stayed and visited with another couple that attended, about thier operation. Group date! To wrap up the evening, we went to the grocery store and saw all sorts of friends and neighbors that came to town for the ball game that night AND bought cookies and a newspaper for the grandparents. Honestly, it was the nicest afternoon we've had in a long time!

I'd really like to write to Women's Day or Today's Christian Woman about our date, but they'd never believe me. They'd never believe this was the last outing we've had without the kids since the first part of December when we went Christmas shopping in Miles City, and picked up parts, too. But there are a few women who are reading this who will shut down the computer, walk over to their husbands, punch them in the arm and say, "You didn't take ME to the Winter Grazing Series!!!" Maybe next year.