Ranch Hands

I spent a decent chunk of my childhood (probably not as much as I think) helping with farm and ranch work.  I learned a lot of valuable lessons doing things like moving pipe, hauling hay, moving cows and lots of feeding.  Lessons that are deeply imbedded into my brain such as; if you use vulgar lanuage then the cows respond to you better or if you kick the pipe it is sure to come unhooked a little easier.  I am pretty sure the only time my dad lost his temper with us kids is when we were moving cows and we didn't block our gate good enough or something like that. I learned to make myself scarce when I knew the cows needed moved.  I also learned that if we listened on the other side of the barn door when my dad milked we could hear him sing and talk to himself. I learned that it is possible to survive hours at a time of stifling heat in a tractor with no air conditioning while baling hay.  Most importantly I learned that I wanted my kids to have some of these same "miserable' experiences as me because it builds character!

 Both Kallie and Cole have really taken to the horse riding this summer.  Cole has always loved it, but Kallie is just now finding the confidence to enjoy it as well.  I was excited for them when Weston took them to help move cows in the forest.  (Not excited enough to go myself I might add)  They had a great time and were excited to ride their own horses and "help" with the cows.  Weston later told me that Kallie's horse actually crow hopped a little with her but she made her do what she wanted and was just fine.  Their cousin Wyatt also went along and he too has decided just this summer that the horses are pretty fun.  We are pretty lucky to have a VERY PATIENT cowboy who allowed all these novice ranch hands to tagg along.  His comment to me was "We gotta train us a new set of cowboys or we are really going to be in trouble in a few years!" Cole tells me regularly that he is going to be a cowboy when he grows up and when I ask him how he is going to feed his family by doing that he tells me he might rent a couple of pivots to farm too! He hasn't changed his mind about being a cowboy in five years and I don't suspect he will.

While the little family farm I grew up on compares in no way to the ranching and farming business of Weston's family; I am grateful nonetheless that my kids will get to experience a lot of work.  Even if they drive tractors with air conditioning and their is no pipe to move, there is still a lot of opportunities to learn responsibility and hard work.  In my opinion all the education in the world can't teach that!