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!