I have not posted on the blog for four months. I will say a bit about that in a future post. This blog is to share a few beautiful things I have laid my eyes on in the past week. We are back at it with moving cows and for us that means time with family and friends. It means lots of action.
Gina flew in from Toronto this week, she and Jill came to the ranch on Friday morning. Later that afternoon this was the scene as Russ had all three of his kids working with him at the PFRA pasture.
Friday evening Clarence and Donna set up camp in our yard. This made it a little easier to be ready for that 5:45am departure out of the yard on Saturday. Donna sent me this beautiful picture of the northern lights over the corral.
The sunrise on Saturday was beautiful. It was another day when I wished that photographer Liz was on the trail with us. What magic this light is! In fact this was taken by my niece Brodie who has a drone photography business. I believe this is Gina and Morgan pictured here.
Becca sent me this picture. She is great about keeping me in the loop of what is going on while I am in the kitchen doing my part. I love her time stamps.
Fall in Saskatchewan. Fields are harvested, the scene is golden and once in a while, you find a herd of cows heading down the road.
My part of the chase on Saturday was to create a meal to be ready about 1pm when the crew got the cows to their destination. They were early, almost an hour early getting to the McNeil farm where the cows would spend the night. Luckily I had the help of Erin Nichols, we boogied and got there only a little late. We took 6 batches of potato beef and bacon soup and a batch of bread. There was enough for the 40 mouths we fed.
The earlier lunch was actually really helpful to me as I had a wedding to conduct at 4:30pm. Weddings can be quite exciting, as couples see their plans come to life. I had to fight back tears at one point in the service, I don’t think its because I was sleep deprived, some of the words they chose just really got me. At supper we sat with fun people and I got asked the question, “how did you know you wanted to be a minister?” I love getting asked questions that invite me to dig around inside, I do alot of listening in life and really only talk best when invited to, so this was a real treat to me.
Our alarm had rang at 3:45am so needless to say that we didn’t stay for the wedding dance. We got home and had a visit with our company, family from Saskatoon, thats when Jill took the following picture. It started being a picture of Jill’s cat, but I was making lists for the next day and the cat was perched on our government desk, so we hammed it up a bit, like I was conferring with him on the plan.
I found Sunday pretty special. It was alot of work but it was special. Part of it was the sunshine, the safety and smoothness we had and all the people action.
Jill got the feedback that Emma just loved seeing her again, the two of them rode together all day. I love this.
Erin and I were set up a little early for the arrival of the herd at lunch, we had time for pictures. Erin can really zoom and easily sees what needs to be done, making her invaluable help in the kitchen.
Erin and I were getting tables set up when the cows were getting across the Alameda dam. Dwayne sent me this picture, a glimpse of how it looked from his point of view.
Here is how it looked from our perspective at the lunch station.
The angle and sunshine allowed a cool silhouette of one of our cowboys stretching his legs.
I like this picture, it captures the tail end of the herd as they eased into the ditch just beyond us, Sharon in the truck having carefully trailed behind and a glimpse of our lunch set-up, ready for action.
I love the varieties of ages in this picture, and levels of warm clothing or not, this is a view I don’t often get, the lunch line from the very back.
It isn’t every meal that we spend the time surrounded by untethered horses so it struck me when this is the scene that emerged.
Bingo turns 10 years old in a couple of weeks. She has an amazing work ethic and works through alot of pain due to arthritis. A few of us are dealing with similiar dynamics. I loved opening this pail of cool water for her.
Gina made a new friend on the trail as evidenced by these pictures. Gina is not exactly a kid person, at least that is what she feels, so she was a little stunned to be enjoyed so much by her new friend.
Gina and Braylee saying goodbye after supper on Sunday.
Gina and Jill got a nap after lunch on Saturday.
It is always a highlight for me when my extended family can be near and take part in things. Here is my niece Brodie and my brother in law Gary. I love their smiles in this moment and hope that despite the pain caused by jumping on a horse after months away from it, they are glad they came and will come back.
Thinking back on the weekend, from my point of view I am struck by the variety of feelings I have. It reminds me of how I felt when I went into the hospital to have Jill. I remember being so amazed at how profound the experience was to birth Gina, but when the morning of my inducement with Jill dawned, I remember thinking “do I really have to do that today?” The reality of it was daunting. When the alarm goes on cow chase mornings there are similiar dynamics. Do I really have to get up and go go go and just hope the work is done before my energy runs out? Do I really have to be in my kitchen that much?!? (26,000 steps over 2 days, most in the confines of our kitchen.) But then the other side of the picture comes into focus. It is so very rewarding to feed grateful people. It is a joy to have their faces draw close at the food table and get a chance to check in. We had the chance to meet some strangers over the weekend and feed them, that was gratifying and gave Russ and I practice at being who we want to be. It is fun to be able to provide treats to kids, at least that is how I interpret the many choices of bags of chips that were on the menu Sunday. It felt good to have some nutrition on offer, apples, cucumbers and carrots, all prepped beautifully by Erin, the carrots from the garden at Joey and Matt’s, our neighbors. It felt great to serve gravy that tasted good, although I had trouble getting it thick enough. Thats when Erin told me about the joy of “blending flour” I will be getting some of that. Slow cooked beef on home-made buns made Russ happy. I really felt pleased. So although the days were daunting for Russ and I both we were very blessed by all the goodness that wove its way through. We have done a little sleeping since! We have some days left in this cow chase season but this weekend was our really big one and all is well.
As Far As The Eye Can See 