A Weekend On The Farm
I am definitely not one to let the moss grow on my feet. Not even 24 hours at home and I was on the road again, this time the very familiar I-90 heading west to my grandparent's ranch. As usual, we made a stop at the barn where they were having one of the "pony parties" they sometimes do. After a brief stop to see Scotch, we headed down to the barn where they were taking the kids around and introducing them to the horses. Stormy did very well, he was very animated because he wanted to eat or go outside, but was friendly enough to reach down to the kids. I think they liked him.
We made good time out to the barn in spite of two stops for beverages and then a quick bite at the McDonalds in Mitchell. It helped that there wasn't too much construction. We got out there and Rich was at the house, so we started pretty much straight into the cards. We had a tasty surprise for dinner, Mom made some ziti using some homemade marinara. It was delicious. Before dinner we had gone over to see uncle Rich's new house he has been building on for awhile. I hadn't seen anything since we'd been out over Christmas vacation, so there had been a lot of progress. It looks like the emphasis has been place on fewer rooms but a larger size of the individual rooms. I like the layout, I may consider keeping it in mind for my own house, especially once I can see the finished product. Hopefully I'll get a chance to before the summer is out.
After dinner, we went over to check cattle since the heifers are calving. En route, we saw two bulls out. So we chased them to a pen further west. We all rode west in the pickup while Rich got on the four wheeler to push them from behind and we got ahead so we could open the gate and let them in. Thankfully they went right in without difficulty. We headed north again and let the two cows in to feed the calves that were orphans up there. On the way back we encountered a rather nasty surprise. Four more bulls had gotten out of the same pen. We could see the wire was dipped in places. Rich said they must have gotten to fighting with each other and one pushed the other through the wire and that led to the lot of them getting out. It happens. We took to the ditch (we had gotten another pickup that had been left at the ranch) while Grandma in the Dodge diesel held the line on the road. It was quite a trip, some of the trees had branches that were poking in through the window as we were going by, so I was ducking both forward and to the inside so one wouldn't catch me in the face or anywhere else. I ended up having to toss a few out the window. We stopped and Rich got on the four wheeler again. I was going to take over with the pickup we were driving, but I had never driven a stick shift before. Rather than take the risk, I switched with Grandma into the Dodge and roared ahead. After Rich and the bulls got into the ditch, I raced on by and sprinted out to get the fence open again. I got it done and out of the way just in time for him to get them in. That was a lot more excitement than I've had in awhile.
After a rather sedate trip to the south pasture compared with what we had just done, we ran into some raccoons on the road back. Rich gunned it in an attempt to get them. The one farthest away was smart, he took to the ditch, the other one kept on the road but was able to scurry between the wheels and get away when we blew past. Other than cards, there really wasn't a whole lot else to the weekend. We did watch the Preakness and were quite pleased with the results. I've always been partial to mares, so it was something to see a filly take the win. We also watched the events that unfolded at Notre Dame this weekend with a fair amount of disgust. I hope they they think what they did was worth it between the honorary degree and the guest speaker at the commencement, I think they're going to be loosing a lot of donations from some of the alumni. It got me to thinking what I would do if the same thing happened at Creighton. I think there was a significant number of students who abstained from attending the ceremony. I was inclined to do that (and a few of my classmates had said the same on Wednesday when we talked about it between OTC and the kinetics test) but the crowd response to the three people that got thrown out got me to thinking. If they just fill in the chairs and have people that are in favor, it promotes an impression of solidarity. I'm inclined to rethink my prior stance of not attending also. My new approach would have been to wait until he gets up to speak and then, all who are in objection simultaneously get up and leave. That was the chairs are empty and the statement is made publicly. I think I'll delve into this in another entry. Right now, I'm yawning and tired and on the eve of my first day back at work at the hospital. I'll maybe revisit this subject tomorrow.
We made good time out to the barn in spite of two stops for beverages and then a quick bite at the McDonalds in Mitchell. It helped that there wasn't too much construction. We got out there and Rich was at the house, so we started pretty much straight into the cards. We had a tasty surprise for dinner, Mom made some ziti using some homemade marinara. It was delicious. Before dinner we had gone over to see uncle Rich's new house he has been building on for awhile. I hadn't seen anything since we'd been out over Christmas vacation, so there had been a lot of progress. It looks like the emphasis has been place on fewer rooms but a larger size of the individual rooms. I like the layout, I may consider keeping it in mind for my own house, especially once I can see the finished product. Hopefully I'll get a chance to before the summer is out.
After dinner, we went over to check cattle since the heifers are calving. En route, we saw two bulls out. So we chased them to a pen further west. We all rode west in the pickup while Rich got on the four wheeler to push them from behind and we got ahead so we could open the gate and let them in. Thankfully they went right in without difficulty. We headed north again and let the two cows in to feed the calves that were orphans up there. On the way back we encountered a rather nasty surprise. Four more bulls had gotten out of the same pen. We could see the wire was dipped in places. Rich said they must have gotten to fighting with each other and one pushed the other through the wire and that led to the lot of them getting out. It happens. We took to the ditch (we had gotten another pickup that had been left at the ranch) while Grandma in the Dodge diesel held the line on the road. It was quite a trip, some of the trees had branches that were poking in through the window as we were going by, so I was ducking both forward and to the inside so one wouldn't catch me in the face or anywhere else. I ended up having to toss a few out the window. We stopped and Rich got on the four wheeler again. I was going to take over with the pickup we were driving, but I had never driven a stick shift before. Rather than take the risk, I switched with Grandma into the Dodge and roared ahead. After Rich and the bulls got into the ditch, I raced on by and sprinted out to get the fence open again. I got it done and out of the way just in time for him to get them in. That was a lot more excitement than I've had in awhile.
After a rather sedate trip to the south pasture compared with what we had just done, we ran into some raccoons on the road back. Rich gunned it in an attempt to get them. The one farthest away was smart, he took to the ditch, the other one kept on the road but was able to scurry between the wheels and get away when we blew past. Other than cards, there really wasn't a whole lot else to the weekend. We did watch the Preakness and were quite pleased with the results. I've always been partial to mares, so it was something to see a filly take the win. We also watched the events that unfolded at Notre Dame this weekend with a fair amount of disgust. I hope they they think what they did was worth it between the honorary degree and the guest speaker at the commencement, I think they're going to be loosing a lot of donations from some of the alumni. It got me to thinking what I would do if the same thing happened at Creighton. I think there was a significant number of students who abstained from attending the ceremony. I was inclined to do that (and a few of my classmates had said the same on Wednesday when we talked about it between OTC and the kinetics test) but the crowd response to the three people that got thrown out got me to thinking. If they just fill in the chairs and have people that are in favor, it promotes an impression of solidarity. I'm inclined to rethink my prior stance of not attending also. My new approach would have been to wait until he gets up to speak and then, all who are in objection simultaneously get up and leave. That was the chairs are empty and the statement is made publicly. I think I'll delve into this in another entry. Right now, I'm yawning and tired and on the eve of my first day back at work at the hospital. I'll maybe revisit this subject tomorrow.