Interns!

June 20, 2020, Volume 15, Issue 24

Incoming!!

Interns! We’ve got ‘em. And we love ‘em. We told you that we finally have Alyssa back with us; now we also have a couple new faces: Preston and Sophie- and Flora was able to be with us for a couple weeks as well.

Gotta say, time and again I am impressed by these guys- they have been working tirelessly to ride with quality, gather cattle off of the mountain, and make sure the ranch stays as spotless as Shayne and Des see it fit to be. Preston, especially, has made some major adjustments to his riding as he’s settled into life at the ranch; coming from a background of very limited riding, there was certainly a learning curve but now he’s a huge help and a delight to ride with.

While Flora was only able to stay for a couple of weeks this time she will be back next month for more adventures and horsemanship. And Sophie, fresh from quarantine, was allowed to ride out to gather cattle off of the mountain with Kevin and the gang.

All week long the steers have been gathered off of Ferguson and put onto Shayne’s mountain. Only the stragglers remain. Those sneaky, sneaky steers. Here’s the deal: they don’t want to come down the mountain and by far prefer to stay way up high on the side hills. There’s a reason why these fellas are the last to remain on the mountain: they are impeccably good at evading our efforts to bring them downhill.

We were faced with a similar situation last year when there was one lone steers left on Ferguson. Nobody could catch the stinker. Finally, we left one of the gates at the bottom of the mountain open into one of the meadows so that he would come through to graze on the meadow grass. Once he came through we closed the gate and snatched him right up. Hopefully it won’t come to that this year.

Some of the best times at the ranch are when we can all be together. For me, one of the times when this is most apparent is after our Friday night dinner. On Fridays, Emily concocts a feast of epic proportions for us to all enjoy together as a cap on the week. However, this feast means that there is also a lot of dishes to be cleaned up at the end of the evening. But here’s the fun of it: everyone helps. Everyone squeezes into the back kitchen, washing dishes, putting away food, joking around, and singing to music. It’s a joy to be one of these people.

Alrighty folks, that’s all for this week.

Happy trails,

Anna