023 Digging Trenches

October 24, 2008 – Friday

Redmond, OR

Still learning about things around the ranch; I have so many questions and am always asking why.  Why do you have those Alpacas over there?  Why are those separated from the others?  Why are the kids (young Alpacas) kept all together, separate from the Girls (the girl alpacas)?  Etc, etc…  This time, I’m preparing because they’re going to leave me in charge for the weekend while they’re away.  It’s test time!

Today we used the bobcat to dig a trench for a pipeline to get water that drains from the roof away from the building where it tends to gather in large puddles making everything quite messy.  There is a large amount of very solid lava rock in the ground here and some of the chunks are quite huge.  We ended up having to dig three different lines of trench before we had one that was without rock the entire way to the new water hole.  When we finally got the pipe down, we covered it all up and then I used the quad with a palette and some wires attached to drag behind and smooth out the ground.  Basically, I drove quickly in circles for about 10 minutes or so.  Entertaining, I guess!  And afterward, you couldn’t even tell we had just dug up the ground all over the place.  Like magic…

In the afternoon, we decided to have some playtime and hopped on our bikes to visit Grandpa and Mary in Bend.  Just a short visit, but one that was appreciated nonetheless.  When we came back to the ranch just after dark, I helped put “the girls” into the barn for the evening, to complete the chores for the day.  Finally, it was time for a big, delicious dinner and some wine.  You know, it’s simply a healthy thing to do to have 3 glasses of wine a day…  I like the sound of that.

022 Settling in a bit...

October 23, 2008 – Thursday

Redmond, OR

I’ve been settling in just a bit here at the ranch lately.  The last few days have been spent without too much adventure but with much relaxed enjoyment.  Thumbing through thrift stores for treasures and finding deals at the grocery outlet (later known kindly as the used food store) have been keeping my mom, aunt and I busy.  I have found many empty frames from the thrift stores to fill with paintings, in the hopes that it keeps me painting anyway!  It’s been fun hanging out with my aunt, getting to know her a bit more than I have been able to so far.  Yesterday us girls stopped for happy hour at the Red Dog Depot after shopping, had a yummy hummus and pita sort of appetizer and a drink.  As you will possibly find out, it was the first of many stops for me at the Red Dog Depot.  A very cute place on the outside, it was an old rail station that was relocated and redone.  Now, it’s a restaurant/bar with photos of dogs in red frames all over the walls.  Hundreds of them.  And a goat.

I finally have been feeling better, so it’s been time to learn how to do the “chores”.  I really dislike the word chores and prefer to say “feed the animals” or “take care of the animals…”   But people understand the word chores and it’s shorter to say, so I guess I use it sometimes as well.  Anyway, there’s a whole lot to learn about around the ranch.  Especially for me, since it’s a completely different kind of life than I am used to.  So far, I love it; it’s wonderful learning so much about something new, especially hands on.  So, in the morning I hopped on the four wheeler (quad), loaded up the back of it with hay and delivered the delicious stuff to the Llamas & Alpacas, Mini Horses & Ladybug (the big horse).  Patty showed me how she feeds the chickens & doves, cats, dogs, fish & bird.  I took pretty good notes on it all so that if I forget, I can run down the list and figure things out.

Overall, it’s been a nice time.  A bit of a slower pace from running around the country (to say the least) and kinda nice now and then.