Multi-tasking

I'm still here!

I always feel apologetic to you when I haven't posted in a while....as though you are hanging on your computer, checking the Chronicles every 15 minutes.  (Because THAT'S how riveting ranch life is.)

(Sarcasm is hard to express in type...)


It's been crazy busy!
Or maybe just crazy.

And I left my camera at Marisa's house last Thursday, so I've been nearly handicapped! I didn't realize that I took photographs constantly.  All week, I've been wandering around reaching for my camera, only to remember it was taking a vacation in Jordan. And what a week to be missing it!

The kids and I left in a flurry on Saturday to go to the Miles City Bucking Horse Sale parade, swooping in to pick up Celestia on the way.  I'd informed everyone that I couldn't go, because we were branding, so my friends were shocked to see me.  Especially my friend Elise, whom I've never met in real life, only in Blogger and Facebook! She brought her four kids (beautiful, funny, kind kids) and we were able to watch the parade together.

The high points of that day were free cotton candy in the park, Angus touring every bathroom in a 1/2 mile radius, losing my car keys when the town's population had quintupled with visitors, and seeing our favorite Caledonians piping and dancing in the parade. (I didn't say they were all GOOD highlights.)

Sunday and Monday were basically eaten up with my school board job.  I think I complicate things.  Things like Quickbooks, Excel and Word.  Anyway, we had our board meeting Monday night until.....(get this).....a little after midnight, when Traci and I turned into pumpkins and the other two board members gave up on us.  I got home at 1 a.m.   Summer conference had better be a whing-ding-dilly this year or there's no reason for me to continue on with this little jobbee!

Tuesday, we branded a big bunch of calves. And I messed up with the ID tags. I wake up in the night, in a cold sweat thinking about it!  To quickly explain, we are putting button tags in the calves' ear to verify the source of the animal, so when it's processed for food, it can be traced all the way back to our pasture.  The button is about 3/4 inch in diameter and has a 21 digit code on it that has to correspond correctly with the number of the calf tag. 

My job, when we brand, is to put the button tag in the calf's ear, record the calf number and sex beside the ID number, reload the tagger, grab a syringe with Nasalgen and squirt that in the calf's nose, run back and pick up the tagger and then do the Ivermectin on the calf's back before they turn him out.  In a couple minutes. Accurately.  And when the syringe runs out, refill it.  And keep track of the kids, who are running around the corral. 

I had gotten up early to make coffee cake for treats for the crew and was just rummy from no sleep. (My mother-in-law had thoughtfully made bar cookies, but I didn't know that! Drats.) I didn't write down one number, toward the end. That can mess EVERYTHING up, in a big way, if it's not caught immediately.  Fortunately, I caught my error immediately and we adjusted, but it still makes my palms sweat to think about it....

Yesterday, I thought I was going to have to move bulls and work with them in the corral for (Alice, brace yourself) semen-testing.  My father-in-law told me he thought they could handle it without me on the top rail of the corral, waving my sorting stick, ready to bolt. Strange. But okay! 

I went to the green house in Miles City instead, thanks to a kind offer from my friend Traci to watch my kids.

I can spend hours in the greenhouse.  I had the incredible privilege of working there one spring and summer, and don't tell them, but I would do it for no pay.  And when I'm there, I usually end up selling plants as I shop, myself.  And deadheading. 

Here's the thing about green houses: when you assemble your plant purchases THERE, it looks conservative...pitiful, even.  When you get home, the plants have grown in number and size in the back of your car and you wonder where you're going to put them all! (Well, I don't, really.  But my husband does.)

I'll write more about my plants tomorrow.  This post is LONG.

Today we gather another big bunch of pairs to brand tomorrow. And I get to plant up some pots!

Thanks for hanging in with me! Come back to the Chronicles when you can....I miss you all when I don't visit with you in a while.  What's going on in your world?