Week one was a blur. It started with Josh and me travelling back to Missouri to grab trucks to drive back home. Josh also got tasked with driving their new trailer back home and even though he is more than capable, driving a brand-new trailer on day one of employment will make most question their capabilities. Josh did fine, I on the other hand turned down a one way road and panicked. All ended well and I still think they should do something about their signs in that area because I generally tend to navigate well. Tuesday Josh met the crew and was assigned to his general area. By mid week he had established his morning routine of feeding and afternoons were spent riding out pairs (putting cows that have calved into separate area than ones that have not). He was also feeding for a different unit and most mornings was seeing a prairie chicken which is honestly a pretty cool looking bird. I am more of a fan of the pheasants, personally. Thursday Josh and his coworker attempted to pull a calf and they were unable. Both said that as soon as they got in the cow their arms began to tingle so there was no way to reposition the calf. Josh said it was one of the larger one’s he’s ever dealt with. Not ideal, obviously. On Friday Josh decided I had been in the house too long and I went with him to ride out pairs. He rode Tipsy for the first time since Florida and she did excellent.  I mainly went in case things hit the fan and he needed a broke horse, but Tipsy proved herself well. At one point she even bit at a calf that wouldn’t  walk and turned to kick a cow that turned on her. Josh lit up like a kid in a candy shop. I am so glad she is redirecting her sass and using it on the cows rather than us. Who knows, the knocked knee little cobb may make it as a cow horse after all (not holding my breath). Also not to toot my own horn, but I did stop one pair from exiting the gate and only let two out overall. Pretty good by my standards. Hopefully next week Waylon comes off bedrest because Johnny can’t handle seeing cows and not working much longer. Everyone blow a dandelion and ask for Waylon to not have to get neutered, please. I personally couldn’t care either way, but Josh feels differently and well that is fully his child so I’ll respect it. Now to the best part of the week. The very small “village” I live in. I have laughed this whole week at how active this town of 117 people is. There are quite a few elderly men that live here and they all ride around in their side by sides/ ATV’s assessing EVERYTHING. The woman that runs the post office also cuts the grass and does the landscaping around the town museum. She has an ankle biter white dog she drags everywhere with her and she ties him to the nearest post and gets to work. I aspire to be her, minus the ankle biter. No one up here fences their yard in they just put kennels up and most just somewhat know their area. Well, one night Josh let dogs out to use the restroom and Bayley brought a neighboring dog home when she returned from darting into the abyss. The biggest adjustments is 4 dogs living in our backyard. I’m sure our neighbors are so glad to have us!! No but in all seriousness, we had multiple people stop in and say welcome to the community and say such nice things about Josh’s employer. Who knows, I might actually own up to who my husband works for here which will be new for me. I only slightly lied in Florida…oops. The sandhills are so interesting because we are right on the edge so when I go south it’s flat and 40 miles of straight corn fields and feedlots as people’s front yard. Swine is also relatively big where we are so that’s a new one. The slurry is horrific and getting sprayed next to the horses this week so I will not be accompanying Josh to feed this week. I’ll let that settle and report back for feed duty next week. I’ll end this with Josh’s best comment of the week. We drove by one of the many feedlots and I said something about the smell to which he responded in his most country accent “that’s the smell of money, honey”.

~GCB