Yesterday was shipping day.
Its payday for the ranch and this is a GOOD year. If you've been to the meat counter lately, you can attest to that. Cattle prices are wonderful, but everything that combines to put that meat on your table: hay, feed, medicine, pour-on... it doesn't take long to rack up a $7000 bill when we're at the vet supply store. Even though this is a year that we'll end up in the black, we're really just making up for all those years where both ends did not meet in the middle. If you ranch for the money, you're in the wrong business, but there isn't a better life.
The boys left out horseback early Thursday morning and as they walked out to the barn to load their horses, it began to snow, Our first snow of the season. I ran outside to grab the receipt from the propane man just as it started to accumulate.
On Thursday we didn't even break the freezing mark. No worries though. The crock pot was hard at work making dinner. Taco Soup was on the menu and the cast iron skillet was ready and waiting to bake cornbread by 6 am. I was planning on making something else, but the weather dictated a change in plans and the way those boys piled their plates and bowls at noon, it was a good decision.
I made biscuits and gravy and eggs and sausage for breakfast on Thursday morning hoping a hearty breakfast would keep them warm. Heck, I was cold just looking out the window and I felt a little guilty being inside in a warm kitchen.
DH pulled on multiple layers and I wondered how he was going to get on his horse. After they shipped out the calves,
they brought in the bulls and vaccinated them:
Yesterday morning I made breakfast burritos and a big pan of cinnamon rolls. I also made DH's favorite cookies - Gingersnaps and Special K Cookies. The boys went to town on the cookies and requested recipes were copied and stashed in coat pockets as leftover cookies were sacked up and stashed in pick up seats.
We had all sorts of activity going on yesterday morning and it was a given that buyers and brand inspectors and the crew would be shucking their coats in my mud room at some point during the morning so I kept the coffee hot and let them munch on baked goods.
When I went out to grab something from the deep freeze this morning, I found a visitor on the back porch. Meet Charlie:
I love roadrunners. He doesn't even look like a roadrunner here. He looks more like a Kookaburra from this angle:
I think they are funny birds.
DH's wool quilt is mocking me from the sofa and I am sorely tempted to give in and add a few stitches. I've been working on it in the evenings and its been a toasty companion. I've been teasing DH that he might have to bribe me to give it to him, Hopefully he won't mind sharing. :) I imagine he'll be wanting it after a day horseback in 20° weather:
