big girl

i've been offered a real, big kid job with wagonhound! so, i'll be moving to the apartment that's over at the mare barn, and i'll be staying in Douglas, Wyoming for the time being.

i don't know if/when i'll be able to come home, but i'm going to try to make it back at some point.

back in the Midwest

I've been living in the Mountain Standard time zone since January 15,2012. and this weekend I got the chance to have 2 full days off from my wonderfully time consuming job at the mare barn. knowing slightly ahead of time, I was able to book tickets to go see my dear friend, Coleman, in Omaha Nebraska! Why Omaha? You guessed it, I got to go watch the US Olympic team trials for swimming!

The weekend didn't come without its share of frustrations, but i can assure the positive aspects far outweighed any negatives.

My flight on Friday was delayed by an hour, so I didn't arrive in Omaha until 1am. Thankfully Coleman is a nice guy, and was still willing to come to the airport to get me!

Saturday morning I sat in the nosebleeds to watch the prelims for several of the races. But really, I don't think there was a bad seat in the house. I was really impressed with the setup.

I lucked out and got to use one of the swimmer's credentials for the rest of the sessions I was there, so I got to be down on deck with Coleman and sort of behind the scenes. It's amazing to watch this caliber of swimming on television, but it's just not quite as good as watching in person! I think Abbie was sufficiently jealous that I got to be so close to Ryan Lochte.

Omaha is a pretty nice Midwestern city, and I was glad to have experienced this Olympic trials! It's pretty special to get to experience it with a good friend.

I'm now waiting in the airport for my flight to Denver, where I have a 4 hour drive ahead of me. Unfortunately, my flight has been delayed until 9:55. So, I will be nice and tired tomorrow morning when I have to work at 7! Not only am I sad to be leaving a friend, but I am sort of sad to be returning to the mountain standard time zone. It's been good to me as far as work experience and gaining some good friends, but I miss my family on the east coast.

falling behind

once again, I've slipped up on my blogging action. i guess I'll try my hand at it again. here I'll post some pictures of some things that have happened around the ranch since my last post. I'm headed to Omaha this weekend, so maybe I'll write some explanations for the photos while I'm sitting in the airport.

Opportunity of a Lifetime

somebody had the nerve to write a letter of application for this internship that said it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to be able to do this job. my boss has jokingly said we need to find that person and actually let them experience it. after today, i say 'let her have it'.

i suppose people would describe me as an outdoorsy person, or at least someone who would rather be in the country than the city. most days I'd agree, but today i say 'bring on the pavement!'

why do i say these things?! as of this afternoon, i am 0 for 2 on seeing snakes BEFORE i was about to step on them. luckily my boss was with me and warned me in time. I've been dreading the time when it would be warm enough for the snakes to come out, and folks, the time has come.

just when i thought i was adapting well to wyoming life i had two snakes cross my path and send me into mild panic attacks. that has to be worse than a black cat crossing your path, right?!

the good life

i guess it can seem like a pretty charmed life when you look at all of the lovely baby pictures I take. and it is pretty fun most of the time, but i have been SO tired lately!!

as far as the eye can see..

it seems as though everywhere you look, there's a mare popping out another baby! since april 26, we've had 4 babies!!! so, the official count as of 9:00 monday night is 23 down, 17 to go. we have a mare in the stalls right now who is pretty close to foaling, so perhaps by morning that count will change to 24 and 16!

we've had a palomino filly, a sorrel filly, and 2 sorrel colts in those last couple days. we've been lucky that they've all been fairly healthy, and our only health concerns are a few bouts of diarrhea here and there (which is to be expected during the mare's foal heat).

i'm still partial to a few of the older babies, but these new little guys are growing on me too!

also, i've been getting some more experience with the breeding, and rita has been letting me do a bunch of the AI work! i'm pleased with my experiences so far, and i'm glad i ended up here in the middle-of-nowhere wyoming...for now, at least!

stranger things have happened...

2 weeks after abbie's visit, my seth came to visit me! i had worked all weekend the weekend prior to his visit so i could have a day off to show him around my neck of wyoming. unfortunately, at 5:00 on friday, chatty cathy decided to roll the gator on her foot, which is where my story begins.

at 5:00 friday, chatty cathy came rolling back into the barn, "hopped" out of the gator and limped into the lab. i asked what happened, and that's when we got the 25 minute story about how the gator rolled on her foot causing her to fall over, twisting her knee in the process.

i suppose "twisting" is a bit of an understatement.

poor rita had to cancel her friday evening plans to transport chatty cathy to the ER in douglas. several doctor appointments later, we've come to find out that she actually dislocated the patella when she fell, and that injury caused one of the ligaments in her knee to tear. long story short, chatty cathy is in a hunk of metal brace, and i am the only healthy intern now. she's still waiting to find out if surgery is necessary.

needless to say, i did not get a day off that weekend and poor seth got to be the other intern for the duration of his trip. rita and i were grateful to have the extra hand. and seth, luckily, enjoyed his weekend here anyway.

first visitor!

my first visitor's trip is coming to an end. we'll be heading for Casper tomorrow morning. but I'm thankful for the time I've had with abbie.

i think ab is more than ready to get home and not have to do ranch work, but she DID get to do SOME fun things in wyoming. saturday, we went riding in the windy wilderness. though it was quite cold, hopefully ab enjoyed the view on the mountain. after that, wee saw the lovely wagonhound lodge, where Abbie tried her hand at ping pong and pool! then we spent the rest of the day shopping in Casper!

we went to the Easter service yesterday and enjoyed an afternoon of relaxation.

overall I think it was a pretty successful sister weekend.

and I'm looking forward to my next visitor!

lost luggage

poor abbie still hasn't gotten her luggage. but i got the day off yesterday, so we got to spend some quality time in casper.

Happy Easter! luckily, this weekend has been pretty "slow" as far as stuff going on at the barn, so i got done this morning with plenty of time to go to church. the church was having the service at the local high school, so we went for the hymn sing and service they were having.

we had a mare we needed to breed this afternoon, so abbie and i had a sort of late lunch. now, we're heading back to the barn to do the afternoon chores. we get to be back at the barn at 8:00 tonight to ultrasound another mare.

apology

i used to think, "why would anyone start a blog if he/she's not going to actually keep writing?" i suppose i'm an example of hypocrisy at its finest. it's been since february that i've updated this blog. it's no excuse, but we've gotten so busy with breeding that i have just let this slide. so, i'm sorry to everyone who has been looking forward to these posts! i will try harder to update a little more often. 

here's a quick rundown of things that have been happening for me in wyoming:

-most importantly, my lovely little sister is sleeping on my couch as i type!! my first visitor to wyoming is here, and i am so very happy about that (even if she did lose her luggage and we're having to deal with that)!!

- we now have 13 foals on the ground. 4 new ones in the last week or 2. all of these birthdays are running together for me! i stopped remembering birthdays after the two colts born on march 8 (George and Jones!)

-we've been breeding mares nonstop (or so it feels). this past weekend, i was at the barn WAY longer than normal weekends because we had so many mares to breed and ultrasound.

-yesterday we started the first of our heartbeat checks. if i remember correctly, we have 12 confirmed pregnancies now, with 11 additional mares bred (haven't been bred long enough to confirm pregnancy yet). SO, the heartbeat checks were pretty cool. i wish i had taken a picture yesterday when we did that.

-we kicked out some of the older kids yesterday (kicked out to a pasture instead of pens closer to the barn)

- there's a mare in the barn right now who will probably foal tonight, so i'll probably lose some sleep tonight. 

i'll try to update a little more regularly now, and perhaps in subsequent posts, i'll share some better details!

the time has come

the seventh baby is now on the ground- a tiny buckskin filly! in keeping with the country singer theme for names, she's been names Cline (for Patsy).


it's official- we've inseminated the first mare of the season! after two nights of getting up at 2am to check to see if she'd ovulated, we finally bred her with frozen semen from CD Olena this morning.

it's been a while

saturday marked the day we had baby #5. a black colt who is taller than my hip at his withers! "cash" is all leg and just a wee bit of body! monday, cash was still having some joint stiffness in his back end, so we have him some banamine. that seemed to be the trick, because he was trotting after his momma the next day!

we have 5 mares up in the barn to ensure that we won't miss anything and have babies born out in the pasture. madonna or bailey will probably be the next ones to burst!

I've also moved out of the bunkhouse to a house closer to the mare barns. it took me many trips to finally get everything moved. that was yesterday, and by this afternoon, enough snow had melted for me to move my car to this house too! I'm working on getting settled back in, but I'm lacking some motivation to unpack!

the weather doesn't seem to care that I'm not in kansas anymore! It's been blowing hard all day, and it's so gusty right now, it sounds like whistling while im sitting here in the living room!!

single digits

when i checked the weather this morning, it was 31 in newville and 7 in douglas. it's supposed to "warm rapidly into the 30s", but i'm not buying it! bring on the cold, wyoming. i've been waiting for the winter that so many people had to warn me about.

left out

i just realized that i posted on monday around 8:00 about only having 2 foals. we're at 3 now!! tenina popped dolly out around 10:00 on monday night! she's palomino with a pretty cool blaze, and a couple jagged-edged socks. dolly has been our easiest, smartest baby so far! we were out of the barn by 11:00 that night. it took her MAYBE 20 minutes to stand, and then it was only a few minutes until she nursed. so, we are working on halter breaking all 3 of those babies. they're all coming along nicely now.

beautiful day in the neighborhood

After a cloud-covered day yesterday, our Saturday has turned out to be pretty perfect! I even took advantage of the weather and went for a run. I had the day off today, so im catching up on laundry, paying bills, and trying to stay busy! I sound like a grown-up (almost).

6 more weeks of winter?!

i'm not even sure if punxsutawney phil's predictions work in the mountain time zone, but he certainly made that prediction accurately. we have an inch of snow on the ground this morning! while i've enjoyed the 50 degree weather we've had here this week, i am looking forward to some frozen ground. the pastures have started to turn into muddy messes, and we've had to drive in 4 wheel drive just to get through the mud ruts the feed truck has created!

this week we moved mares around, so we have the mares due in march closer to the barn. while we were sorting mares, we went ahead and gave vaccines to all of the mares and dewormed the ones that needed it. i must say i am glad that it was warm the day we did that!

our yearlings returned to the pasture with their dear friends, and they were SO glad to leave that tiny little pen. poor bambi went head over heels over an irrigation ditch as they were all galloping as fast as they could to get back to their buddies! 

it's cold today, so i'm betting rita finds a bunch of stuff for us to do inside. we've also started halter breaking the baby babies. little waylon is catching on quickly, but merle and dolly are a little less interested in doing such a silly thing as walk with a two-legger.

hurry up and wait

we're still at 2 foals and holding. mare #3 just doesn't seem interested in having a little one, so i guess we'll just have to wait!

we worked hard this morning to get the barn looking clean since there will be more people coming through once the babies start dropping. and this afternoon, that hard work paid off- dustin, the general manager, complimented us on the good-looking barn!

after lunch, we worked with our 4 yearling projects. camille and i had some "come to jesus" moments, and finally got on the same page after about 30 minutes of "arguing" about who was going to win. who says working with horses can't be a workout? i was huffing and puffing after that battle!

i got to ride on saturday, and i am hoping i can start riding a little more often. something about being on the back of a horse is so therapeutic (cliche, i know, but it's true). i'd been having a lot of back pain last week, and after riding on saturday, i have had minimal pain just between my shoulder blades. thank you, Rusty J :)

keep your fingers crossed for more babies! 2 down, 39 to go.

the eagle has landed!

spring has sprung early at wagonhound land and livestock company! we have 2 colts on the ground now! The first came yesterday..he's the sorrel colt, and has a blaze in his face. He was born around 5 am we think. He was discovered at 6, and luckily his momma, Kuki, was up in the barn rather than outside.

The second colt came today around 11.30, and his momma, Della, had been turned back out in a paddock for the day,so we discovered him on te ground outside on the coldest day we've had this week! We brought him into the barn on the back of the gator with mom in tow.

We've decided to go with a country singers theme for the nicknames or the babies this year. The first two are Waylon and Merle, respectively.

Tenina is in the barn tonight for observation. Who knows- we could have 3 babies before the end of January!

housekeeping or horsekeeping?!

i was beginning to wonder if i had signed up for the right internship. it seems like all i've been doing is cleaning! the smell of bleach, pine sol, and 409 cleaner will be forever embedded in my nose thanks to this past week of barn cleaning. while this was all in preparation for the foaling/breeding season, i have to say my arms are tired of scrubbing and pushing a broom!

today i got to get my hands on several horses!! we sorted out 4 yearlings to work on handling. we're going to keep them separated from the group for the next week or so. we'll work on them learning to stand tied, brushing, picking up feet, lunging, and just being handled by people more! this week, we have Annie, Dodge, Camille, and Bambi in the pen. Annie and Dodge seem to be the calmer of the 4.

i'm having trouble with my ranch truck, so hopefully it'll start tomorrow morning when i head to the barn. if not, i hope the ranch will get it fixed quickly so i'm not stranded with a car that won't make it through the snow drifts!

learning "the hard way"

when i left for wyoming, i had no idea about what to expect. i've already had several learning experiences since i left good ol' PA on january 8. i'll share a few of them:

-when driving from kansas to wyoming with high wind warnings, all you have to do is avoid high profile vehicles! everyone still flies around at 75mph regardless of the 45mph gusts. and anyway, you'll be experiencing at least 50mph gusts when you arrive in wyoming.

-gas is cheap in cheyenne (40 cents cheaper than it was in PA) fill up there! douglas sells '85' gas, so you're paying for '87' as if it were mid-grade or premium gas.

-if you have to go more than 100 yards, why walk when you could drive?! we use the feed truck for EVERYTHING! and my boss was so excited about getting a john deere gator the other day so we'd have another vehicle to drive around the pastures for quick access.

-drive the feed truck away from the wind gusts so you don't end up with a green face from the hay blowing up all over you!

-"close" is a several hour drive

-wildlife is abundant. i was joking with rita the other day that i must have accidentally signed up for the white tail deer breeding internship (they like to congregate by the hay shed and eat out of the feeders with the horses). i was also told to watch out for bears if i decided to go for a hike. "make sure someone knows where you intend to hike and when you're going" is what i was told. i was also told to watch out for the many rattlesnakes and bull snakes that will become regulars when it starts getting warm.

that's just a few i can think of right now..i'll keep the list going as i think of more, maybe.

oh, and there has been a bobcat spotted by the bunkhouses on a few occasions over the last few years (not recently, i hope).

What a beautiful day

Though it was a windy day, I was so happy for a 50 degree day!! We had a productive day reorganizing one of the "tack rooms" of the mare barn. We got a new Gator for chores, and it's already covered in mud! One of the yearlings tried to steal twine off the feed truck so I got to run after him and try to grab it! We also had a mare come in with porcupine quills in her foot.

More blog posts to come..I'm trying to catch up on sleep and what-not. I'm still adjusting to this whole living-in-Wyoming thing

wild, windy wyoming

i got to feed mares this morning in 6 degrees.  the wind was whipping fiercely, and i'm pretty sure i inhaled several pounds of hay before the morning was over! luckily, i had dressed appropriately for the weather (2 long sleeve shirts, a hooded sweatshirt, jeans, leggings, bibs, and heavy duty gloves and ear warmers!), so i was actually pretty comfortable!

i'm learning quite a bit through this internship. right now, the most important lesson is that of tolerance. my fellow intern is going to be affectionately termed "chatty cathy". she might not be able to remember which mare pasture we're going to feed or where the turn-off is for said pasture, but she can certainly talk your ear off any time. i haven't been able to get a word in edgewise since she got here. i guess i'll just have to start piping up a little more!

after another day of cleaning the barn, it looks like that's what we'll be doing again tomorrow! we're also pulling some yearlings in from the pasture to work on some halter breaking/ reminder work. we're going to work on picking up feet, brushing, ear touching, etc. hopefully we won't have SO much wind tomorrow, but i'm not going to hold my breath on that!!

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

i woke up to a gray, dreary morning, and by 10:00, it was snowing. we got all of the mares fed before the snow started falling, but we worked furiously to scrape the mare's round pen (manure removal) before the pen was covered in the powdery stuff. after manure removal, we started cleaning/sanitizing foaling stalls. we bleached the stall walls, and then had to hose the entire floor.

after a lunch break, we went back to finish the two foaling stalls we needed to clean. i met one of the trainers, Matt, and he took me back to the indoor arena to pick up a truck and trailer that needed to be taken back over to the mare barns. long story short- i got to drive a big ol' fancy truck and trailer!! when i got back, we finished up the foaling stalls.

tomorrow i get to fill out paperwork to make me an official employee of the ranch!

so, i'll leave you with a more uplifting picture than the snowy-ness i had to drive through this evening.

sunday fun day

this morning, i helped feed mares again, and then i got the rest of the day off to take seth to casper for his flight home. we went to the wal-mart to get some groceries for me, and then we had lunch at olive garden (yes, again!). it was really nice to get to spend one more day with seth before he headed back east!

on the ranch road, when we were headed for casper, we got to see a huge herd of antelope, too!! i even saw a larger herd ON THE RANCH ROAD when i got back from casper. i'm still trying to get used to being so close to so much wildlife.

 it was windy and we were trying to get the bunkhouse in the background, but oh well!

it was hard to get a picture without them blended into the background, so here's the best i could do

murphy's law?

yesterday was my first day on the job, and it seemed like everything was going wrong! rita, the breeding manager and my boss for the next 6 months, said, "i swear, things never go as planned!" to start the day off right, the yearlings decided to try to go through the fence, so we had to check babies' legs to make sure no one was injured. then, after feeding all of the mares, we got to go back and fix fence. luckily, seth was there, so we had three sets of hands and were able to get the job done quickly.

by noon, we had the fence done. rita and her boyfriend, cody, invited us to have lunch with them in douglas, which was very fun. they showed us around town, and i got to see the famous, larger-than-life statue of a jack-a-lope! i got a picture with it, but i'll have to post it later. after getting back to the ranch, they took us on a "short" tour of the ranch. we saw some of the guest cabins that are scattered throughout the ranch, and we also saw ranch headquarters. to experience how awesome this ranch is, you MUST see it in person!

around 4:30, we got back to the mare barns and had to bring mares into the round pen for the evening. this group of mares goes "under lights" until 10:00 each evening to bring them into heat sooner (it has to do with hormones that are affected by light). while bringing in mares, we noticed that the neighbor's cows were through the fence and in the mare pasture. SO, rita and i got to move them back into their own pasture and fix MORE fence!!

though some things went wrong, we had a productive day!

welcome to wyoming!

 if i hadn't been driving, i would have jumped for joy when i saw this sign!

 the wyoming air national guard is in the background..this is in cheyenne

 wyoming state capital in cheyenne!

 the statue outside the capital building

 seth got to skype with austin while we were in cheyenne.you can't see it, but austin's on the iphone!

 ..and THIS is beautiful Wyoming!

 when i get back into town (when the snow isn't so bad), maybe i'll get to see the jackalope statue!

1.  i couldn't WAIT to get there!!!

this was the drive to the ranch. i didn't get to take very many more pictures after that with my camera. i was too busy trying to send some on my phone. i have pretty spotty service here now, but i'm doing my best to stay in touch!! i'll do another post later about my first experiences on the ranch!!

nebraska!

 welcome to nebraska...the good life??

 as soon as we crossed the NE-KS border, it was FLAT!

 i waved to jocelyn's family as i passed the exit she takes to get home!

 the best part of nebraska was the sunset!! this is just outside of York, NE

 luckily, we didn't pass any flashing signs

 this was a rest area just before the sand hills of nebraska

 after taking some pictures, we saw this sign and decided to get back on the road!

 the sand hills were pretty spectacular!

AND..we hit the 1700 mile mark of the trip odometer!