005 I could be a cowgirl!

September 27, 2008 – Saturday

Greybull, WY

While visiting Kathy & Art, I realized that life can work many different ways; of course I’ve known this, but it’s always an awakening seeing it up close and personal.  Their life is one of really hard work.  I can’t believe what kind of work those two do all on their own, it felt good to be able to help out a bit while I was there; I only wish I could have done more.  

I can’t jump straight into that, however, I need to tell you a few other things first.  First of all, I have a new name; Lil’ One.  It was natural to come up with something other than just Sherrise because that’s just not personal enough, so Art quickly and endearingly started calling me Lil’ One.  I like it; and it’s caught on, my parents have taken to it as well.  I quickly started answering to it because otherwise I would have missed out on a lot of stuff like helping round up some horses and ride one of them bareback for a bit.  

After we rounded up the horses into the corral, we headed to the other ranch where we had a lot of work to do.  Yes, I said “we”.  My parents went out for some scootering around the area and I could have gone with, but who could pass up the opportunity to work on a real ranch?!  Not me, anyway!  So, I stayed back with Kathy & Art and helped them with some projects around the place.  

Mainly, we worked on laying pipe for the waterline at the new ranch so that when the horses & cows were brought down there they would have something to drink.  We got it almost completely complete.  We dragged the palette and some pipe behind the four wheeler, put the pump on the back with some other stuff and the three of us hung on for dear life as we brought it all down by the river and the corral.  We did have to make a few trips back and forth, to solve any problems that came up.  

Anyway, since we brought the chainsaw down one of the times, we used that to clear out some of the brush and trees that we otherwise had to climb and crawl over and under to get the pipe laid right; it was much easier after that.  Of course, we waited to do that until we had most of the work done already…  I’m just glad I brought my cowboy hat with me; I don’t know what I would have done without it while I was going head first into the shrubbery (especially those damn Russian Olive trees)!  I ended up with scratches all over, but luckily no trees growing out of me.  Well, we finally ended up getting as much done as we could for the day which wasn’t nearly enough since we had wanted to bring the horses over that night and we wanted to pick up some of the 2000 or so bails of hay.  

However, we found out earlier I the day that we had a flat tire on the horse trailer, so we brought the flat tire to the shop and most the horses and we just ran out of daylight for the bails.  All things considered, I’m pretty sure Kathy & Art appreciated my help.  I can’t believe that they do all everything they do alone.  There’s a possibility that I might come out again to help out some more and go up to Art’s hunting lodge which is something like 5500 elevation, above the clouds where you can see about 40 miles away.  Hunting season opens in a couple/few weeks.  That would be fun.

My mom was a little concerned about me while I was out in the woods tramping around since we had run into a rattle snake earlier in the day on our way to the ranch.  When I say ran into, I mean that literally.  Luckily, Art ran over just a bit of it in the road with the car on the way there so it was slightly injured when he got out of the car to kill it.  Gosh, those things are frightening, and this was just a little baby!  This little guy took quite a beating and still was striking out a good foot or more trying to snag Art, until he managed to kill him with rocks and a hammer.  I have learned a lot in the past few days, but one thing that I learned was about how right now is a really scary time for rattlers since they don’t actually make a sound right after they shed.  Their skin is too new and the rattles at the end haven’t dried up yet, so nobody will hear them coming.  Glad we got that one.  Art got bitten by a rattler once and was able to hobble home but ended up in the hospital for a while.  I found it quite interesting that while he was in the hospital with the snake poison in his system, his hearing was extremely acute.  He could hear a pin drop four rooms down; it sounded like metal crashing..  Did you know that Rattle snake poison is counter acted by Copperhead snake poison?  Copperhead poison gets injected and the two poisons fight in the system.  Also, if a Rattle Snake got a taste of his own poison, he would die.  Crazy.

I suppose, I should close up for the night.  I’m sitting around a campfire right now, getting some of these thoughts down while they’re still fresh.  For all of you doubters, I set up my hammock tonight between a couple of trees and it went better than any time before.  I’m pretty sure that I work well under pressure.  I didn’t feel like sleeping with my parents in their tent…

Thanks, though, to all of you who helped me get everything together for this trip.  I feel horribly prepared and it’s wonderful.  Abby & Erik, especially, I don’t know how I would have done it all without you.  

Sorry to all/any who have been trying to get ahold of me.  If reading the above hasn’t explained much, then I don’t know what will.  It’s funny and wonderful, though, the more I’m without my phone the more I want to be without my phone.  Just to get away, that’s what I’ve been waiting for.