Deer Season

Today was the end of shot gun season for deer hunting.  And that, my friends, is a good thing.  For two weeks, our mighty hunters have traipsed out into the woods nearly every day, waking up before dawn, studying their movements, and occasionally asking Amie or myself to try to scout out certain areas.  Right after deer season began, Ben got a young buck (button buck) that we quickly processed and made venison burger and steaks out of.  But since then, between Forrest and Ben, they hadn't been able to down any more deer.  It was not for a lack of trying or from a lack of deer.  I saw a beautiful 10 point buck in the pine forest (the protected part of camp) that played it safe by staying in the lower part of camp along with his "harem" of girls.  But there were plenty of deer everywhere else.  But today was the end.  After feeding in the rain and cold, I get a text to help scout out deer in one of the woods.  So, since I'm already wet and dirty, I head back out to "help" the mighty hunters.  While I was successful in finding the deer, the boys (rather Forrest) was not successful in finishing the job.  After an hour of running through the woods, I called it quits and headed back to Amie's to change into dry warm clothes and sit down.  After an hour or so and after starting our lego project, Amie decided to take hot chocolate out to the boys while I watched the 3 ornery kids and proceeded to make sense of the lego mess.  Amie stayed out to help the boys a bit more as the natives grew restless back home.  Just towards the end of the day, Forrest finally hit paydirt as he took down 2 deer (one large doe, another button buck).  They succeed in dragging the deer out of the forest and into the truck but the check station is closed for the evening.  As the boys arrived back at the house, it looked as though they had been through a war.  Wet, bloody, and muddy and with clothes that may never be worn again.  Our (Amie and mine) afternoon and evening that was supposed to be spent together playing with legos and making dinner turned into one of us watching kids and the other helping with the deer.   One trip into Delphi to grab subway sandwiches for the adults later, two deer gutted, and one laundry room cleaned and bleached (and I bleached every door knob they touched as I followed their trail from the house to the deer) and our mad day has come to an end.  (By the way, Amie and I still got an hour with the legos.)  I know that 2 deer are awaiting us within the next 24 hours to cut up and that it will be an extremely long night doing it.  It's not just the cutting and processing but it's the clean up.  Cleaning the garage, cleaning the kitchen, cleaning the knives, and everything else too.  But our freezer will now have 3 deer, one lamb, and soon, one very large pig.  We will eat well.  But thank goodness it's over!!

Funniest thing of the night as chaos is erupting all around us as the hunters have returned and decisions are being made:
I'm sitting at the table as Gavin came in asking relentless questions and I commented that I had lost my sanity and could not answer until I found it. He asked where I lost it. I said it was with all the legos (the lego project being a very frustrating one, plus dealing with the kids and their moodiness).  He then said he knew where it was (I'm not sure if he knows what sanity is), ran to the toy room, came back into the kitchen after a minute and pronounced he had all of it in his cupped hands.  And I quote, "It was all over the room but I gathered it all up for you." He held his cupped hands to me and I took my "sanity" back.  Best moment of the day!

Life around here cannot be explained, only experienced.  And it's always an adventure!

Horse Slaughter in the US

Why I am FOR horse slaughter in the United States:

What?!  Did you read that right?  Yes, I am completely for horse slaughter and would like to see it legal again in the US.  I do love horses.  I also believe that there is an overpopulation of horses in this country because we see them as pets.  We also think that just because a horse can be bred, it should be bred.  That's irresponsible breeding to breed an animal without having any good reason other than you can do it.  Not only do we breed everything with a uterus, we also are unwilling to accept that there are horses out there who shouldn't be alive.  Perhaps they were mistreated, abused, never trained, or never trained correctly.  Never mind their background, if they are dangerous, they don't need to be alive.  Also there are lots of older horses out there who have lived past their prime and ending their life is the kindest thing to do (although I'll touch on this later).  The problem with these two groups of horses is that having a vet come out to put a horse down will cost a MINIMUM of $200 and the fee of the truck to come remove the horse is $200.  That's $400 to put down a horse that will benefit no one.  That's a lot of money to fork out, even for us at camp.  Our "sympathetic" nation full of people who value their pet's lives as much as their children's lives decided that horse slaughter plants needed to close.  Guess where all those horses are going now?  Either they are being abandoned, mistreated and neglected, or are going to Mexico.  How is that for "humane" treatment?  Have we sent horses through slaughter auctions?  Yes.  We also barely get any money for them because we are paying for them to be hauled out of the country.  (For those horses that have simply put in their time at camp and done well and have years left as a pasture pet, we try to retire them and find them a good home.)

Do you think that Mexico holds the same slaughter plant standards that the USDA maintains?  I doubt it.  highly doubt it.  The USDA regularly inspects slaughter plants and they are required to maintain a certain standard.  IF we had horse slaughter plants in the US, the USDA would ensure that the horses were well cared for prior (not so in Mexico) and killed quickly and effectively (not so in Mexico).  Is it nice to think about horses being slaughtered?  No.  But neither is thinking about pigs, lambs, calves, goats, chickens, etc being run through the slaughter process.  I know that horses are magnificent animals and I believe that God created them to be different from the other livestock animals.  They are built to carry, to pull, to have a relationship with.  Horses are God's gift to us.  I'm not suggesting that we eat them.  I'm just suggesting that there needs to be a place to take dangerous horses that will get them out of the general population but will still serve a purpose.  Then, perhaps, educating people on smart breeding practices.  Then again, those who keep dumping unwanted cats and dogs, puppies and kittens, just show me that we probably aren't ready to practice smart breeding.  It's not fair to the animals and I'm sorry that they have to pay the price.  Until people are ready to pay the price, it's going to have to be the animals.Maybe someday.

And to all those who are against horse slaughter, do we have your permission to put every dangerous and sick and old horse on your lawn for you to take care of?

Food for thought.....no pun intended.

Thankfulness

What I'm grateful for each and every day of the week:

1.  My Lord and Savior, with whom I have a personal relationship and the many blessings He continues to give me.  Without Him, I am nothing.

2.  My freedom and the soldiers who gave up their freedoms to ensure mine.  I support them and am humbled by their sacrifice every day.

3.  My family-my mom and dad, brother and family.  My parents love and support what I do.  I have 4 awesome nephews who have 2 loving parents that would move mountains for them.

4.  My "other" family-Amie and crew.  There aren't enough words to express my thankfulness to her after meeting her 9 years ago.  She helped change my life and give me more than she will ever know.

5.  Camp Tecumseh-it's the dream job I never knew existed and in times of hardship around the country, we are continuing to grow and instead of getting less, we get more.  Despite all the attacks by Satan this year, we have defended what God has put in place and He blessed that.  And the family I work with-it's a culture you couldn't begin to understand!  And it gave me a house with all I need to live in and then pays me enough to have stuff that I just simply want.

To complain is to be ungrateful.  You can always find something to be thankful for.   

Be in the Now

What does it mean to be "content"?  Recently I posted a status on how the fertility rate of women over 30 starts to drop dramatically.  I had a lot of responses, much to my surprise, as I wasn't expecting much.  Too clarify the situation, I am not "not content" with my current situation.  But that doesn't mean that I still can't have dreams.  Ever since I was in school, I envisioned my future with a husband and kids.  I did not have career aspirations.  I wanted to be a mom.  Obviously, there were steps that had to be taken in order to even get to that point.  Meet guy, date guy, love guy enough to marry him, and have kids at least 9 months after wedding. :-)  I have yet to make step 1.  Hahaha

It might seem like I'm digressing from the point of my post, being content, but stay with me and maybe you'll see where I'm going.  I went to college to get a degree and even though I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to love what I was doing.  I started off in physical therapy but switched to animal science after a year.  (Little did I know that all my years of "What do I want to do with my life?" would take me to the best job ever!)  Think back to when you were in college.  Did you ever spend a lot of time thinking about the future and biding your time before life would finally begin?  Life didn't start until you had a degree and a job and a house and a family?  Were you constantly thinking, "Once I'm out of college, I'll......"?  I'll serve God once I'm out.  I thought some of those things.  I told myself that I'll have more time once I'm out of college, that I couldn't wait to find a guy and get married and "get started" on life.  But I had a light bulb moment about halfway through college.  Why are we waiting for life to begin??  Life is NOW.  Life is happening right now.  Why are we wishing for the future and wasting the time that we have been given now?  Is this what it means to be content?  To be content where we are right now, not wishing for a future time, not the absence of dreams, but the willingness to take what we've been given now and use it.  Don't live for tomorrow because then you'll miss out on today, the present.  And you're never guaranteed tomorrow.

I still want to be married and have kids.  I love being single and being free to do what I want, when I want, and not worry about who I left at home.  I can be a great help and support to my friends and co-workers and I can give all to my work, my ministry.  I appreciate each year I have been single and if God's plan is for me to be single, He will help it to be okay.  But while I have been a support to others and am surrounded by good people all day long, I do go home and there isn't someone there to give me a hug, ask me how my day went, and someone I can tell my stories from the day to.  If I didn't have the great family I do at camp, folks I'm around daily, I'm sure that the longing would be strong.  As it is, that longing is just one that happens every once in while, usually as the holidays and cold weather approaches.  I just want my dream (of kids) to still be a possibility if God decides that's His plan to have me marry.  But God has surrounded me with great folks and I am truly content where I am right now.  Truly content and happy.

"For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."

10,000 miles later.....

Oops, after being so diligent in recording my Yellowstone adventures, I slacked off and neglected to write about my next two adventures.  My bad!  After arriving back home about 2 am Monday morning after safely making it back across I80 (and not being able to meet up with Amie in Iowa due to trailer lighting issues), I got back on the road less than 12 hours later.  My body was NOT ready for the return trip to NE on I80 but we got to Bassett, NE about 7 am the next morning.  The ranch we were on is a working cattle ranch on at least 10,000 acres with over 1,000 cows (not including calves and bulls, I think) and is almost an hour off the "major" road into Bassett on gravel and dirt roads.  These are the sandhills of Nebraska!  We go to bed early each night (8:30/9pm-awesome after a week of travelling!) and wake up when we want (usually 8:30 am).  We rode a few days, gathered up cow/calf pairs one morning, went to a homecoming game, and played lots of Blokus!  The best part of the week was the second to last day when we got to go to a branding.  Life out here is way different than anywhere I had been.  Neighbors come and help out.  Everyone gives a hand, everyone has a job, and all is done with a minimal amount of words.  Early in the morning, well before the sun came up, we got up, saddled up the horses, and headed to the fields.  The first order of business was to round up the cows which is more difficult when it's dark and the cows are black.  But they were rounded up via horseback and we herded them into a round pen.  The cows were shooed out and calves were kept inside. The noise of the cows and calves bellowing to each other was almost deafening.  Add into that noise was the sound of the propane tank heating up the branding irons.  Soon after the sun came up, a caravan of truck and trailers appeared over the hills and cowboys stepped out ready to help.  Trevor went to each one of them and asked them to do a particular job whether is was to rope the calves, hold them down, or brand them.  They rotated through the jobs as they grew tired, once again with a minimal number of words.  Amie's and my job at this point was to keep calves from following the roped ones out.  About two hours later, over 120 calves had been branded and reunited with their moms.  We took a small break, drank some soda, and then we were off to the next location to brand.  This was another neighbor of Trevor's who had about 200 calves to brand, vaccinate, deworm, ear tag, and castrate.  The cattle still had to be rounded up but by the time we were in the saddle, most had been brought in.  At this point we had the brand new, more exciting, fast paced job of ear tagging the calves.  We were in a small space with several other cowboys as three were dragging in calves, two guys each held down a calf, one guys dewormed, two were vaccinating, and Amie and I were darting in and out of the crowds ear tagging each calf while looking out for the hot irons, horses coming in and out, and the guy with the big needle!  Lots to look out for but it was amazing!  After doing about a hundred or so calves, we had to move to a different pasture.  Here we were actually able to ride out into the hills and bring in the cows.  Part of a real live cattle drive (small one).  Another set of calves branded and tagged later and we were done.  The boys picked up all the panels, had a few beers, and off we drove back to the house to eat.  And boy were we ready to eat.  I'm not sure the last time I had eaten so much.  I learned more about ranching, the family traditions involved in it, and felt a real sense of community among those men.  Amie and I were supposed to start driving back that afternoon but we were pretty beat after working all day so we decided a nap, some TV, another good meal, and a bed were in order before we left.  It was just so amazing the experience we had and something that isn't too easy to put into words.  The culture, community, and lifestyle were different that what we had experienced and it was thrilling to be a part of it in the branding.  After 2 1/2 weeks away, I was home....at least for a little bit.

After a week and a half at home, it was back on the road. This time, we were driving down to Oklahoma City to pick up camp's new trailer.  We left late evening of Halloween.  After picking up the trailer the next afternoon, it was on through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.  We reached California after two nights on the road and thus began the day long trek to get from southern CA to northern.  It was a lot of nothing to look at, the southern route.  It took from mid morning until 2:30 the next morning to drive up to Anderson, CA.  It was so amazing to lay down in a bed and then take a shower.  There was no real agenda while in CA.  Just a chance for Amie to catch up with friends, spend time with family, and relax.  We did all those things!  And a trip to Cassie's, Amie's hairdresser friend who is amazing, ended up our trip.  A little color here, a little different cut here, and voila! we don't look so ragged from all our travels.  :-)  We pick up her friend Amber's horse and two minis and we are ready to depart.  A week after arriving, we are off again, loaded to the hilt.  With a loaded truck and trailer, we aren't going to break any land speed records but we are determined to get home within 3 days (absolute worst case scenario is to be back by Saturday morning in time for trail rides) if not less.  After a brief stop in Reno, NV to eat dinner with Amie's grandparents, we hit Salt Lake City by sunrise.  We keep driving, making as few stops as necessary, and hit Nebraska by late evening.  We stopped a few hours each night to catch some shut eye at a rest stop and finally we make it to Indiana around 9 pm Friday night (we left 10 am Wednesday morning).  And my journeys, which began October 1st, consisted of 10,000+ miles, three separate trips, was now over on November 11th.

A journey of 10,000 miles begins with the first push of the accelerator.  

Full Map of Travels