My husband is great at judging distances. If he says it’s a quarter-mile away, it’s almost always a quarter-mile away. If he says we are going to trot through pastures A, B and C, and it’s 3 miles round trip, it’ll be pretty close to 3 miles. Of course, as you become familiar with the land around you, it’s a lot easier to just know how far something is because you’ve done it before. However, even if the terrain is new, he’s a pretty accurate judge of distance.
Time is another story.
If he says, “I’ll be right back,” that does not mean to wait for him because he’ll be right back. That means, “I’ll get some stuff done and when it works to circle back around, I’ll see you.” It could be five minutes or it could be five hours. Also, if he projects that something will take a few minutes, we don’t plan on anything afterward.
But … I don’t think it’s him. Nope.
It’s the ranch.
Most likely, it’s every ranch.
The story is like a rancher’s version of Laura Numeroff’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. As the story goes, if you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for a glass of milk. When you give him the milk, he’ll probably ask for a straw. When he’s finished, he’ll ask for a napkin. The book continues until the mouse needs a haircut, a broom to sweep up, a story before nap, and he’ll want to draw … until, finally, he needs a cookie again.
Ranching is sort of like this.
A rancher’s version might read something like:
- If a cowboy sees a fence down, he’ll want to bring fence stretchers and wire.
- When he gets there to fix the fence, he’ll realize the H brace needs to be rebuilt.
- So he’ll go to get posts and a post pounder.
- When he goes to get a post pounder, he’ll realize that skid steer needs fixed before he can use the post pounder.
- So he’ll go to the shop to fix the skid steer, where he realizes a tool he needs is in the side-by-side.
- When at the side-by-side, he’ll notice that it has a flat tire. So he’ll go back to the shop to get the air compressor.
- Back in the shop, he’ll realize the tire can wait until tomorrow; he needs to fix the skid steer.
- After he gets done with the skid steer, he builds an H brace, decides to make a gate and fixes the fence.*
My hubby is very focused and organized – truly, so this “story” doesn’t happen because of neglect or carelessness – and he’s very methodical about upkeep and maintenance. But as you all know, there are a lot of moving parts on a large ranch, and something always needs to be done.
I recently saw a meme that said “Being a rancher means saying, ‘Next week won’t be so busy,’ every week of your life.”
As a general rule, ranch projects seem to take longer than expected, at least for us. If I said it was just my husband, I’d be lying because I do it, too. Maybe we are overly optimistic. I create to-do lists that rarely get to-done in one day. In my head, it seems completely doable, but then either I wasn’t being realistic or surprises pop up. You know, the proverbial “opening a can of worms.”
There are days when everything gets done and sometimes faster than expected, but there are also days when it is a lot longer than expected. Sometimes the longer days come because we rush, but that’s a story for a different day. Let’s just say that someone got the truck stuck trying to skirt the field and didn’t notice the leak in an irrigation pipe. And someone got very stuck and needed help getting pulled out of a field. And since someone is writing this, she shall remain nameless.**
Perhaps ranching is like parenting. You are so exhausted some days and surprises pop up, that you wonder about what you’re doing. Then, your kid comes and gives you the biggest hug and tells you you’re the best mommy or daddy in the whole world, and suddenly nothing else matters. Or in the case of the ranch, the cows move exactly as expected and your horse makes you look good.
No matter what kind of day we have, we know that one thing is rarely one thing and will often lead to another. Now, I need to finish making supper, which will remind me there’s a load of laundry to swap and dishes to do …
*All situations mentioned are purely hypothetical and do not represent the actions of the writer or her family. Ha, ha, ha!
**This happened a couple of years ago, but still is a good reminder to watch for leaks.
