A Calf Named Forrest
Ah, the delights of spring break! I tried to make it to Butte by 11 on Sunday morning, but made it there at 12 instead. Oh well. It was a delightful morning to pack, clean, and get all my ducks in a row. (No, I was not out terrorizing the poor ducks at the pond...) I met my family at church as it got out, and we switched vehicles. I sent all my gungadin home, so my electronics and guitar wouldn't get too cold sitting around in my car all day. Tassie and I decided to drive all over Butte in search of a new place to eat...but in the end, we ended up at Melaques anyway. :) Gotta love Mexican food!
In the afternoon, shortly after parting ways with Tassie, I made a quick visit to the Liesches before going to the Wolstein's for Jeff's b-day party. It was great to see the family again. The food was fantastic, as always, and I enjoyed myself heartily.
The following day, I pretty much did nothing useful. I read some more of Frye's "A Natural Perspective" for my Shakespeare class, tried to figure out what was wrong with the router Jason sent us, and ate food that I didn't have to cook. Yay!
The boys had school all week, so it was pretty quiet in the mornings and early afternoons 'til they got home. Mateo, Caleb, and I fed the cows one evening, as Mom and Dad were at PTC for Mateo. That was an adventure. We fed above the ditch, and would have been done in good time, had we not met Forrest. The rest of the cows and the new calves had found their way across the ditch and to the feeding grounds. This little duffer, however, seemed a bit confused as to where to go to find its mother, so I thought it would be a good idea to sorta help it out a bit. I got out of the truck, walked to a location BETWEEN THE CALF AND THE POST OFFICE, and stood there, fully expecting the calf to turn around and run to it's mom not more than 75 yards away. But no, that would have been normal. It dodged around me and took off at full pace toward the post office. It was following the ditch, so I assumed it would eventually find its way through the ditch and back to its mom. So I headed back to the truck. But then, just as we were about to head back to the house, we see the stupid thing had slipped through the fence and was running along the highway. Of course there were two large trucks headed toward it in opposite directions, so we took off across the field in the truck, bouncing through the gopher holes, the pivot lines, and all other lumps and bumps in a field. By the time we reached the calf, (now close to 1/2 mile away from the original location), it had popped back through the fence...but was STILL running. We thought, "Phew, the fence at the end of the field by the post office should stop the little beast." It did...sort of. The calf ran into the barbed wire, BOING, backed up, ran a little farther, and BOING, ran into it again. It also ran into the chain link part of the fence. That was more of a CLASH than a BOING. Anyway, I was out of the truck by this point with the lariat, walking toward it, trying to calm it down. It ran through the fence, got its foot caught, and I finally roped it and we lifted it over the fence. It was exhausted, so we figured we'd be nice and carry her back on the trailer. We discovered that there were too many bumps for this. So Mateo walked her back with the lariat as a leash. But the stupid calf kept turning around and running back toward the post office! We couldn't believe it! And thus was the stupid calf christened Forrest...cuz she just loves to run!
I rode my horse, played xBox, watched a couple old movies, read homework books, loaded some hay, fed cows, sawed wood, cleaned the house, and actually got dressed in something other than pjs or work clothes on Friday and drove to town! It was oh-so-exciting. Whatever. I ran some errands, picked Mateo up from school, and then went back to Divide and began cooking. We had a 13-person dinner with a few of my friends, followed by a bonfire. It was sweet. It wasn't a huge bonfire, but it was very hot. The hydraulics on the yellow truck hadn't allowed the bed to lower yet, so it was still up in the air from unloading the wood the previous day, so we climbed up using the runner boards as support, and then surfed down on our feet. That was fun to do in the dark. :)
We played Moron, (fab card game), Saturday night, and went to church on Sunday. The rest of the fam headed off to Missoula, while I returned to Divide to pack before returning to Bozeman. And now, it's back to work!
In the afternoon, shortly after parting ways with Tassie, I made a quick visit to the Liesches before going to the Wolstein's for Jeff's b-day party. It was great to see the family again. The food was fantastic, as always, and I enjoyed myself heartily.
The following day, I pretty much did nothing useful. I read some more of Frye's "A Natural Perspective" for my Shakespeare class, tried to figure out what was wrong with the router Jason sent us, and ate food that I didn't have to cook. Yay!
The boys had school all week, so it was pretty quiet in the mornings and early afternoons 'til they got home. Mateo, Caleb, and I fed the cows one evening, as Mom and Dad were at PTC for Mateo. That was an adventure. We fed above the ditch, and would have been done in good time, had we not met Forrest. The rest of the cows and the new calves had found their way across the ditch and to the feeding grounds. This little duffer, however, seemed a bit confused as to where to go to find its mother, so I thought it would be a good idea to sorta help it out a bit. I got out of the truck, walked to a location BETWEEN THE CALF AND THE POST OFFICE, and stood there, fully expecting the calf to turn around and run to it's mom not more than 75 yards away. But no, that would have been normal. It dodged around me and took off at full pace toward the post office. It was following the ditch, so I assumed it would eventually find its way through the ditch and back to its mom. So I headed back to the truck. But then, just as we were about to head back to the house, we see the stupid thing had slipped through the fence and was running along the highway. Of course there were two large trucks headed toward it in opposite directions, so we took off across the field in the truck, bouncing through the gopher holes, the pivot lines, and all other lumps and bumps in a field. By the time we reached the calf, (now close to 1/2 mile away from the original location), it had popped back through the fence...but was STILL running. We thought, "Phew, the fence at the end of the field by the post office should stop the little beast." It did...sort of. The calf ran into the barbed wire, BOING, backed up, ran a little farther, and BOING, ran into it again. It also ran into the chain link part of the fence. That was more of a CLASH than a BOING. Anyway, I was out of the truck by this point with the lariat, walking toward it, trying to calm it down. It ran through the fence, got its foot caught, and I finally roped it and we lifted it over the fence. It was exhausted, so we figured we'd be nice and carry her back on the trailer. We discovered that there were too many bumps for this. So Mateo walked her back with the lariat as a leash. But the stupid calf kept turning around and running back toward the post office! We couldn't believe it! And thus was the stupid calf christened Forrest...cuz she just loves to run!
I rode my horse, played xBox, watched a couple old movies, read homework books, loaded some hay, fed cows, sawed wood, cleaned the house, and actually got dressed in something other than pjs or work clothes on Friday and drove to town! It was oh-so-exciting. Whatever. I ran some errands, picked Mateo up from school, and then went back to Divide and began cooking. We had a 13-person dinner with a few of my friends, followed by a bonfire. It was sweet. It wasn't a huge bonfire, but it was very hot. The hydraulics on the yellow truck hadn't allowed the bed to lower yet, so it was still up in the air from unloading the wood the previous day, so we climbed up using the runner boards as support, and then surfed down on our feet. That was fun to do in the dark. :)
We played Moron, (fab card game), Saturday night, and went to church on Sunday. The rest of the fam headed off to Missoula, while I returned to Divide to pack before returning to Bozeman. And now, it's back to work!
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JC