The Rural Life Suits Us

When Jay and I met, I swore I would never live east of I-25.  I was a mountain girl, pure and simple.  I had to have my mountains, period.

But then we moved out east.  Not far, only about 19 miles from my home town and I immediately fell in love.  I still must have my mountains, but now I live just far enough away that I get to see them.  My drive in to work every day has the best view ever and we're not so far away that I can't get a "fix" whenever I want.

I also get to pretend to be a farmer on occasion, which I love.  A friend of ours has a "small farm" that we get to house-sit when her family is out of town. 

The barn kitties are always fun to watch.

So when that same friend asked if I wanted to come help out on branding day, I jumped at the opportunity.  Last year, my job was to "back pour" the meds - literally taking the medication and pouring it along the backs of the animals.

This year, my job included holding the calves' legs with a rope while they got banded.  A few of the little boys took offense, but they all got through it just fine.

I also got to do the vaccinating this year.  My medical students would cringe to see me shooting the animals.  Human medicine is, in some ways, very different from vet medicine.  No swabbing the area with alcohol and waiting for it to dry, no changing of needles between shots (which means lots of re-capping), no choosing just the right spot.  Nope, it's more, knock the shit (literally) off the skin, jab, inject, re-cap and move on to the next animal. 

Shooting the calves is much, much easier than shooting the cows.  Believe it or not, the bulls were perfect gentlemen while they got taken care of.  The cows, not so much.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to stay long enough to complete the job, because Jay and I had to go pick up some hay.  There were just a handful of cows left to do when I handed off my job, so I didn't feel as guilty as I would have if I had bailed earlier.

I found a screaming deal on hay ($3/bale), but we had to pick the hay up out of the field.  Jay and I called in our substantial families and met them at the field. 

In order to have all available adult hands loading, I threw Deejo's son, The Boy, in Jay's truck to drive while we loaded.  Poor kid.  He had never driven before and was a bit wary.  He's fifteen-ish and should be getting his learner's permit anyway.  He got a quick lesson on which was the gas and brake and how to steer.  I must have been feeling particularly confident in this never-driven-before kid's ability, because I didn't think twice about making T (Junior's son) and Asset (Nebalee's daughter) ride in the cab with him.  Easier to corral all of the kids in one place than try to keep track of them.

With two trucks/crews running, only took us about 25 minutes to load 120 bales.  Not bad - I thought we'd be out there much longer.

Maybe my favorite picture of the day: Asset, T, and The Boy.

In no time, we were headed back to L.E.'s to unload.  We don't have much storage space, so fifty bales were put up inside the pen and the rest were stacked outside.  I just stepped aside and stayed out of the way while everyone else stacked the hay - too many people in one place makes for quick, but crowded, work.

It feels good to have most of the hay laid in for the year.  We've got another fifty bales that we'll pick up next week, and I'll probably buy another fifty in September just to make sure we'll make it until first cut next year.  It hurts the pocketbook right now, but we'll definitely appreciate not having to put out money every month for hay.  My hope is that we won't lose too much to mold, like Mom did last year.  We stacked and tarped with an eye toward air circulation.  If moisture gets into the stack, there should be enough circulation for it to dry out.

Yesterday was busy and physically demanding, but I loved every minute of it.  We have the best family, who were willing to give up a couple of hours in the middle of the day on a Saturday to work in heat and humidity.  It was truly "Just Another Perfect Day".

Working Vacations

I tend to schedule vacation time so that I can go "work" at other "jobs".  Our staycation in May was pretty rare; it's not often I schedule time off of work with nothing planned other than having fun.

Last week, I took the week off so I could work a private health fair that earned me enough money to pay for my new baby. It was a few really early mornings, and I don't like mornings.  I think it's uncivilized to be up and moving before the sun bothers to make an appearance.  However, I enjoy working with the crew I had and I'll enjoy my new baby even more, so it was worth it.

As I was going through my emails last week, I came across a two-fer coupon for a Michael Jackson tribute show, HIStory II.  Jay and I had talked about going, but took one look at the prices and decided not to.  Buuuuutttt, with the two-fer, the price wasn't so bad.

So we went.

And had a great time.


I love to do stuff like this; if I ever won the powerball (in addition to everything else I'd want to do with the money), I would totally buy season tickets - the 2013-2014 line up for the Lincoln Center is amazing.

Now, I'm packing up to head down to Julie Goodnight's place - it's time to shoot the Colorado Episodes of her TV show, Horse Master with Julie Goodnight.  Heidi, her producer, always works us hard, but I learn so much and have a ton of fun that it's absolutely worth it.  If you're a horse owner and you haven't watched it, you should give it a go.

I can tell you honestly that nothing on the show is faked; I've been working with the show for about five years.  Each episode is filmed in a 24-hour period.  Julie watches the horse and rider/handler, gives some teaching (like in a clinic), the horse and rider go work on the new skills, and come back the next day for the "after" footage.  The change in the horses and riders/handlers is astounding.

Delicate Sensibilities

I've got a big work event coming up that requires some advertising.  The Publicity Coordinator has been working with one of our Graphic Artists to design the print ads. Our Graphic Artist is a rock star and has the patience of a saint.

That patience was recently tested, though, when our Publicity Coordinator took issue with the phrase "Pap Smear" in our print ad.

Apparently, it offended her and she thought that we shouldn't put that phrase in our ad.  However, that's exactly what the ad is for...free Pap Smears.  I'm not sure what else to call it, unless we use the actual name of the screening: Papanicolaou test.  Now tell me, would you have any idea what that was?

Nope.  Didn't think so.

So, I told the Graphic Artist to change the name of the screening to "Healthy HooHa".*

It's got a certain ring to it, doesn't it?

*not really, but it's the only other thing I could come up with.

And Now ... A Singing Dog

And that about sums up the week. (Sidenote to Rach: the gist of it is that it's a "great day to whoop someone's ass" - his lips are hard to read and without opposable thumbs he can't sign it.)

I'm in hour 46 of my work week, with a couple hours yet tonight and a couple more tomorrow.

But...tomorrow is going to be a good day.  Why, you ask?

Because it's GUNPOWDER THERAPY DAY and...drum roll, please...Momma Fargo is guest blogging at Girls With Guns!

I'm Off!

I leave tomorrow morning for Las Vegas.

Sounds great doesn't it?  The opening weekend of Wrangler National Finals Rodeo...

Only, I'll be here...

Yup, in meetings. Seven a.m. to five or six p.m. Then back for mandatory dinner at seven p.m.
But...my boss and I did make plans to visit this place...

I hate the cold, so I'm not quite sure why I agreed to go to an ice bar, but it sounds like fun.  Luckily, it's in our hotel so I can just stumble my way up to bed.  I'll be in bed by nine-thirty, tops.  I'm getting too old to be out all night at the bar and then function for a fourteen hour day the next day.

I'll be back to a more regular-ish posting schedule when I come back. 

Have a great weekend!

Random Meeting Thoughts

Warning: Foul language post today.  If you don't want to read bad words, click the little red "X" in the upper right-hand corner.  Also, if I work with you, this is totally not about you, it's about all those other idiots in the meeting.  If you're a co-worker reading this, I totally love you.

Here's a quick sampling of the thoughts that run through my brain at meetings:

• Good Lord, if that woman doesn't shut the hell up, I'm going to swallow a bullet.
• Oh. hell. no.  I'm not going to swallow a bullet, but I just may kill her with it instead.
• Will my co-workers help me post bail if I go up for homicide?
• Seriously, is there an abundance of stupid today?
• That's it.  I'm going to fucking kill her.  Who gives a damn if my co-workers won't pitch in for bail?
• Will she ever shut that big mouth?
• Well...I see someone is fond of flaunting an uneducated opinion.
• Jee-sus Christ if he would let someone else talk, he might learn something.
• Didn't the mediator just clarify that point three times?  Oh, that's right, she couldn't hear the clarification because she was flapping her gums.
• Can I dig my eyeballs out with this pen?
• No, I'm going to stab this pen in my ears instead, then I don't have to hear that voice.
• I wonder if I could hire that guy who came to enroll with the 20 year-old felony for throwing Molotov cocktails to kill all these people who are pissing. me. the. fuck. off. 

Obviously, this was one of those days when just the fact that there were other people being allowed to breathe got on my last nerve.  Mostly, I have a good time in meetings.  Today, I was homicidal.  And I wasn't the only one.  At one point, two other people were arguing so loudly we thought they were going to go to blows. 

I put a stop to it before it went to blows and then instantly regretted it. 

It might have been a fun diversion.

Welcome To My Life

Note to CTM:  I'm not trying to be an MRL.  Really, I'm not.  Call my boss, she'll vouch for me.

Only one week in to my Hell Month, I'm already falling behind, and for that I apologize.  Many of you know that I'm an Associate Dean at a career college.  Sounds kinda like a cushy job, doesn't it?  In addition to being the Associate Dean, I'm also the primary medical instructor.  I love teaching and have no desire to give it up.  However...I would maybe like to teach a lot fewer classes than I am this month.  Our college runs an accelerated program, so the students get a full semester's worth of information in just four short weeks (eight class periods, four hours apiece, for a total of thirty-two hours.  The remaining eight hours are to be done on their own time.).  It's very much like an immersion program and I'm impressed by the students who can stick it out and graduate.

We also have rolling enrollments, which means that every four weeks, we have new students starting, so there is no point where all of the students are at the same level.  Most of the time it works out and we can find classes for everyone.  Ocassionally, though, we run into a snag where we've got students close to graduating who need classes and students who are starting need classes and none of those classes are the same.  We're one week into one of those periods; Thank God it's only four weeks long.

Since I have students who need classes to graduate on time and I have new students who need beginner classes and only have three other medical instructors, it means a whole heap of extra work for somebody.  Being the salaried one, it means that I often take on a lot more than I can chew.  *I'm so not whining, I do it to myself, and I love it.*  

Here's an example of my week:

• Monday: Teach four classes (ranging from 1 - 1 1/2 hours; all are directed studies), meet with the Education Department, get ready to pull from the corporate database for scheduling.
• Tuesday: Teach three classes (two four-hour classes and one one-hour directed study); meet with the Dean, set the class schedule for next mod; attend a two-hour Management meeting.
• Wednesday: Teach three classes (ranging from 1 - 1 1/2 hours; all directed studies); begin scheduling my 280-some medical students into the appropriate classes.
• Thursday: Teach three classes (see Tuesday); finish scheduling 280-some medical students into classes
• Friday:  Print and distribute 280-some schedules to the appropriate Academic Advisors; attend a Phlebotomy coalition meeting in Denver for the 9Health Fair coming up in April.  And, oh yeah, I forgot, working at the gun shop after my meeting in Denver.  I really must find some time to go shooting so I can remember why I torture myself doing data entry at the shop.

And I'm not the only one pulling this duty; everyone in my office works just as hard.  I work with a kick-ass team of women and I'm lucky to get to go to work with them every day; it's nice to know we're all in this together.

When I was whining talking to my sister about it last week, she said that it reminded her of Hell Week from G.I. Jane.  And it soooooo is.  Well, except for the hard-core exercise and Demi Moore's kick-ass body.  In that vein, I leave you with a brief clip of how my week feels, even if I'm not actually crawling under barbed wire in the mud while people are shooting over me.  It's really too bad I don't get to crawl through mud and do all of the physical activity, 'cause I'm afraid I'll never see the scale move if I can't find time to go to the gym. It just ain't happening for the next three weeks, not with working two 14.5 hour days and two 10.5 hour days (and that's just what I'm scheduled for, not what I'll actually work). Maybe being so busy, I won't have time to get bored and just munch though.

Alpha Beta Kappa

Two Fridays ago (whew, am I behind!), we had our Inaugural Induction Ceremony for Alpha Beta Kappa, a National Honor Society.  In order for a student to be inducted, he or she must maintain at least a 3.8 GPA and have completed at least 75% of his or her program.

We inducted eleven students into ABK, all of whom were women, though it is open to men as well.

*Warning: Soapbox moment*
So for all of you so-called experts who tell our young women that they aren't as good as men in math and science, bite me.  Every single one of our inductees majored in either math (Business Accounting) or science (Medical Specialties).

Congrats to all of the young women who worked unbelievably hard for this accomplishment, all while attending an accelerated program, which brings many people to their knees.  You worked hard and deserve the honor; I'm unwaveringly proud of you.

:( Some of the inductees couldn't make it to the ceremony.