Between The Fenceposts

Malcolm in Heaven

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:48:00 +0000

We have driven 1,158 miles since loading on Friday in Colorado. It's been an easy weekend, except for a few moments of nasty weather. There was the wind in Wyoming that I told you about yesterday. And then last night, right at dusk, we ran into some of the nasty snow that's been in the weather reports. This was just across the Nevada line after leaving Utah.

Today, we've been relaxing in Reno. We had breakfast, showered, went shopping at an outlet mall, and then Malcolm went to heaven. (I'll explain in a bit.)

After he was done in heaven, we headed on west to get across the Sierra Nevadas. We were put out a bit, because they had reinstated the chain law and we were going to have to put on the snow chains, or "throw iron" as another trucker friend of ours says.

There are two ways of looking at what happened. On the one hand, you could say "well at least you don't have to put on the snow chains now!" On the other, you might say, "well sh**!"

At every entrance to California, at least within 50 miles of the border, all vehicles have to go through an agricultural inspection station. They look to see if your hauling any fruit or house plants or such with you. And if you are, they take them away. For us, they check our paperwork and take a sample of our product. And as it turned out, and this is our first experience with this scenario, they needed some papers we hadn't been given by the shipper, and so they won't let us in!
Yep, California has kicked us out of the state, sent us packing, tails tucked back to Nevada!!!

Malcolm has made some phone calls and we have to wait till tomorrow to see what happens now. I figure it will be one of three possibilities: either they will work out the details and we'll go across the border tomorrow and make a late delivery (provided the road is still open b/c they are supposed to get a ridiculous amount of snow tonight in the mountains) - or - we'll be haulin this corn back to Colorado - or - they'll sell it to someone else and we'll take it wherever that may be. HUGE inconvenience and irritation, but never fear...we get paid, regardless, for all miles no matter where we end up going with it. It just is very irritating and a waste of our time.

Anyway, I was going to explain heaven, Malcolm's heaven at least.

Having been ousted from California, we are now parked in the parking lot of the heaven in Reno. There are, in truth, 34 heavens in North America, soon to be 37! They are adding three more sometime soon! More are added every year.

this and the following pictures were taken at the Lacey, WA store

We're talking about Cabelas, folks. The Mecca for all hunters and outdoors men! There are 34 Cabelas stores in the country. I counted.

We have been to 15 of them. Malcolm has set a personal goal to get to as many of them as he can. Guess trucking is good for some things after all!

Have you ever been to a Cabelas store? If not, your missing out.

They have thought of everything and everyone! Outside the stores they have provided facilities where your dogs and horses can relax in comfort while you shop...

...and inside they've even put consideration towards those of us who are not hunters, fishers, or serious outdoors men. It's pretty darn interesting to go in and take a look around! It's not just about men! They have thought of the hunters prettier counterpart and have stocked some nice items that appeal to the interest of the wives!

Ok, in all seriousness though, they do have a pretty nice clothing department and I've found some pretty sweaters and nice jackets and such there.

Outside of clothing, they have all sorts of camping supplies, including stuff for cooking at camp. I like to look at that too.

For Malcolm, the draw is the guns and such. He's big into reloading ammunition and shooting it too. Guns are kind of his thing. All the stores have a wide selection of new and used guns, and most stores have a special room for special guns, and if your a special person who has lots of money, you can buy one of these.

In addition to the gun library, all the stores have a "general store" where there are lots of goodies for sale to tempt the taste buds...

...including a large supply of various fudges, all of which can be sampled free of charge. I love free samples!

And if your hungry now, many of the stores have a grill inside where you can order buffalo burgers or roast elk sandwiches. They specialize in sandwiches made from specialty game, pretty much anything from buffalo to ostrich to elk. After several hours of browsing, the grill comes in handy!

Here's one of the things I do really find interesting to go into the store and see. Each store has a display of mounted game. It's usually pretty interesting, and usually displays animals from the region, though not always.

I grew up with family members that hunt, and I'm married to a hunter. I'm not bothered by it as I know some are. And these pictures might bother some of you. But I support hunters and believe it has it's merits and is part of wildlife management. And I think these displays have educational use. There are plaques for each animal telling what they are and a little about them. It's very tastefully done, and there are usually some really nice pieces of taxidermy work.

All the mounts have been donated to Cabelas, or purchased by them, from hunters or estates. None of these were just randomly shot for the purpose of decorating the store.

And a number of the stores, particularly the ones in regions where fishing is a great interest, also have a walk through aquarium where the regional fish are on display.

Always fun to walk through there and watch the fish at face level.

Cabelas....sportsman's paradise. In Billings, the guys at the gun library are on a first name basis with my husband. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. Hmmm...

There are 34 Cabelas stores in the country and my husband wants to see them all. He's seen the 15 he's gotten to on multiple occasions. We've been to this one here in Reno, where we're parked now, at least a dozen times. I don't resent his time at Cabelas. It's one of the few recreational activities he really enjoys. I don't go in much anymore though. For me, once you've seen it, you've seen it. But if you ever get the chance to go to one of the stores, go in and take a look around. Don't just sit in the car and read a book while your honey is shopping. You might just find some cute sweater, or a coffee mug, or a camouflage bikini you can't live without. At the very least you'll get a free sample of fudge!

And after you've gone to Cabelas a handful of times, then come join my new campaign. I'm going to petition them to start building Barnes and Noble bookstores next to every Cabelas! That way Malcolm and I both get to spend some time in heaven!

Pushing Wind in Wyoming

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 18:58:00 +0000

Last Saturday morning we delivered a load of sand in Sidney, and then headed home to camp out a couple of days waiting on the next load.

Well, a couple days turned into several because the farmer was waiting on paperwork. So we took care of some home chores, played and relaxed, and tried to stay warm. Saturday and Sunday were nice, but by Monday the temperatures had plummeted into the frigid ranges. On Tuesday, Malcolm and I went out to get some bulls in who had gone wandering onto a neighbors land and we went ahead and brought in the adult horses too. All the water holes in that pasture had frozen due to the extreme cold, so there was no use in them being out there.

Everyone looked pretty good, but they were all happy to get to the water tank and then the hay. Dawn, much to my consternation, still has milk! I weaned Gemma more than 2 months ago, and thought surely Dawn would be dry by now! There's not much of a bag though, so hopefully she's getting close.

Reba, my sweet girl who loves me, does NOT love the other horses. She seems to have assumed the roll of "mom" to Gemma, even though Reba herself is not yet 2 years old. She doesn't like other horses to come near her "baby" and also wasn't too thrilled with them being in her castle and eating her hay or drinking from her water tank. I still had Dawn on a lead when Reba decided to let Dawn know she was getting to close. I wasn't even thinking, and that's my fault. I should have been watching and expecting it. Anyway, Reba suddenly whirled around and feet flew. She wasn't aiming for me, but my arm got in the way. And I'll not be making that mistake again. It's true that experience is the best teacher.

and this is 4 days after the kick, so it's faded a bit

We finally got the go ahead to load on Thursday. This was the closest load we've ever gotten from home. It was only 36 miles to the southeast. We took a load of organic wheat to Platteville, CO and delivered Friday morning. Then we spent the better half of the day trying to get reloaded with organic corn about 60 miles away.

We stopped last night just shy of the Wyoming state line, and slept. Then got up and had breakfast in Laramie before heading west.

We're taking our time getting to CA, kind of hoping the storms over the Wasatch and Sierra Nevada ranges blow themselves out before we get there. We'd prefer not to have to chain up this weekend! In the mean time, it's still a little slick in spots out here in Wyoming...

...and as usual the wind was blowing going over Elk Mountain. No surprise there. I think it always blows on that stretch of road!

It makes for some challenging driving at times. Gusts suddenly shove us from the side and Malcolm has to hold the wheel at an odd and uncomfortable angle almost the whole way across, fighting to stay in our lane.

Today was a good day though on Elk Mountain. Despite the strong wind, we only saw one wreck and though it looked really ugly, it didn't appear there were any serious injuries.

I had a fun surprise waiting for me this morning when I opened my email! Dreaming, Doc and Pippin over at Living a Dream awarded my blog the Liebster Award! I am so honored that she selected my blog as one of her 5 to pass the award to, and also touched that she feels like we've become "dear" friends through blogging! I feel the same way about her and several others. Blogging has opened a world of friendships for me and I hope it's done the same for you! .

Liebster means “dearest” in German, and the award is intended to help up-and-coming blogs get the attention they deserve. Here are the rules:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who gave the award.

3. Pick five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.

4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs

I'm passing this along to these five dear bloggers whose blogs have touched and enriched my life.

1. Michaele at Sprout 'n' Wings Farm. She is always up to something fun, whether it be crafting, cooking, or playing with her critters. And she and her lovely daughters are always off on some fun adventure!

2. Valerie at A Garden of Thoughts. She is another of my dearest blogger friends, and would be even if she wasn't my mom, because her blog is so much fun to read! Gardening, chickens, and wonderful recipes! (plus a little peak at what's going on with my family back home in TN).

3. One of my newest buddies whose real name I still don't now, but her blog is MTWaggin. Three main reasons why I enjoy her blog so much: (a) she's in Montana, (b) she has naked dogs like mine as well as a beautiful standard poodle, (c) she posts lots of beautiful pictures of her naked dogs and her poodle having the time of their lives in Montana!

4. Shirley at Ride a Good Horse. I'm bending the rules a bit for Shirley because I'm supposed to pick blogs with less than 200 followers and Shirley has 208. However, she definitely fits the "dearest" description. She his been a consistent commenter on this blog for a long time, a great horse mentor to me, and now also a good facebook friend. I first "met" Shirley through Sunday Stills, and continue to admire and enjoy her photographs of her Canadian Mountains and her beautiful horses.

5. Meagan at My Lens On Life. Lots of wonderful recipe ideas, beautiful pictures, and she's always up to something fun! This is my sister who is a new mommy, a wonderful cook, a self taught photographer who does some beautiful work, and all around cool person to know and read about!

A Loss and a Gain

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:41:00 +0000

On Wednesday, January 11, I lost something precious, but gained something of even greater value.

We loaded pecans in Willcox, AZ and proceeded to make our way back to central Texas on Wednesday morning. We drove as far as Las Cruces, NM and stopped for some lunch. The welcoming committee was standing at his station waiting to greet visitors from the west.

This is a large metal sculpture of a road runner that stands out by the interstate as the road begins its descent into Las Cruces.

And this is Las Cruces.

It is nestled up against those snowy mountains, which are noticeable for miles and miles, especially since they are situated in a fairly flat environment.

After lunch we crossed the border into Texas and drove through El Paso. We don't get here very often, but I am always fascinated to look across the Rio Grand into Mexico. The difference is astounding, even though those buildings and the Texas ones are separated only by a narrow shallow river and a train track. It never fails to leave me overwhelmed with grattitude for the blessing of living in this country.

We stopped to fuel in El Paso, and then proceeded on east. We were about 10 miles out of the city when I felt a sharp barb on my wedding ring. (I sit and twist and fiddle with my ring all the time. Just one of my unconscious habits.) I thought how odd it was that there would be a rough spot. There was a reason for the roughness. Somewhere between Willcox, AZ and El Paso, TX one of my diamonds had fallen out. I am not a happy camper!

Logic says there is a high probability that it's in this truck somewhere. But we've both looked to no avail. Between the grit and lint and sand and pebbles that get tracked into this truck, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack even though I had just cleaned the floors. We only looked for a short time and then decided we might as well accept that it's gone. At least it was one of the smaller ones. And it can be replaced, but in the mean time, the hole is rather obvious and unattractive.

I may have lost a diamond, but on the same day I gained an even more valuable jewel in my life. My sister's baby was born on January 11 in the evening. She weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 20 inches long. I say was, because she's 2 days old now and I have no idea if she's already grown or what. It stinks being so far away from "home" at times like these more than others. Anyway, I'd love to introduce you to Miss Ava Grace Hooper. Now I have 4 beautiful nieces to love and spoil!

I can hardly wait till February to see her and my sister. It's hard not to turn this truck east and head in that direction right now.

However, my responsible side is keeping this rig heading in a north-westerly direction. We loaded in Oklahoma last night and pulled out at mid-night. Right now we're heading out across Kansas, where there's not much in the way to block the view...

...but then there's not a lot to view either...

...which for me is part of the attraction. I do love big open spaces with not a lot in them!

We're hauling drilling sand bound for Sidney, MT. We'll be delivering that tonight and then heading to the house for a little break till Monday morning. Malcolm's going to take the opportunity to put new tires on the trailer, and I'm going to get the laundry done and play house wife for a while. We're looking forward to a little tiny break. They always make it easier to stay out a long time.

The Southern parts of the Southwest

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

During a winter as mild as this one is turning out to be, it's interesting that we finally end up running into snow and yucky roads in south Texas! But that's exactly what happened Monday night south of Abiline, TX. The roads had about 3 inches of thick wet slush all the way to south of Odessa and it was coming down hard in big, fat, wet flakes. I'd say the ground off the road had to have had at least 5-6 inches of snow and it was still piling up, even though it never went under 33 degrees.

I quit while it was still snowing and let Malcolm take over. It's kind of tiring driving through that mess, especially in a part of the country where people aren't as used to it, and therefor do foolish things. I was glad to let Malcolm take control of the wheel, and I went to bed and slept surprisingly well considering it was in a moving truck, something I still struggle with even after all these years.

Malcolm woke me up at 6:00am in New Mexico. He was tired and so I took back over. We were traveling on I-10 through the southern parts of the southwest.

We stopped in Tucson, AZ to shower and eat. There is a truck stop there called the Triple T. If you ever are through Tucson, it's a good place to stop and eat. It's been in operation, by the same family, for about 45 years. There aren't a whole lot of the old family run truck stops left. So many of them have closed up, many put out of business by the big chain truck stops. So we like to give our business to the ones that are left when we can.

After breakfast, it was two more hours or so of driving, passing into the area of the state where the famous saguaro cactus grow...

...and then into Phoenix where we delivered in the afternoon.

It took till late evening to get unloaded because technically we weren't scheduled to deliver till this morning at 10:30. But they worked us in, thankfully. So often our loads are scheduled to deliver according to the time it would take a solo driver to get the job done. But since both of us drive, we get there in half the time. Usually places are pretty good about working with us, but occasionally we have to sit and wait till they have room for the product. That doesn't happen that often though.

Since we were unloaded on Tuesday, we were able to drive back east towards our reload and get that done this morning. We parked for the night in Casa Grande, AZ, and finished the trip to Willcox this morning. Malcolm got up to drive and I stayed in bed a couple more hours. But I woke up just in time to enjoy a spectacular sunset over Arizona's rocky hillsides.

We just finished loading up unshelled pecans here in Willcox. This is the first load of pecans we've ever hauled. I asked Malcolm if he knew he was hauling gold, since pecans have gotten so expensive. We'll be pulling out here shortly and on our way to a central Texas delivery for morning.

On the home front in Tennessee, today is the big day! Ava Grace apparently gained another pound last week, so my sister's doctor decided they'd just go ahead and get the job done before she grows any more. They induced this morning at 5:30 central and I'm waiting to hear the announcement that she's here! Happy Birthday Ava Grace!

Over the River

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:36:00 +0000

We crossed back over the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers on Tuesday and have been in the west ever since.

I don't have a lot to share this week. Just been here and there, running pretty hard, which is a good thing, but leaves me feeling not so motivated to do a whole lot of anything else.

What little get up and go I had, I've used to start my new book blog. I seem to read a lot. A whole lot! And I love to talk about my books. So I decided I'd just go start a whole new blog and only talk about my reading there, and save this blog for travels and home time. If your interested, here's a link to my new blog, Along Those Lines. There's also a link over in my side bar for future use.

I have Malcolm to thank for the title. And my first post about my first book of 2012 is already up. If your a farm/ranch lifestyle enthusiast, or animal lover (especially working dogs, specifically Border Collies) you'll enjoy this book!

Back to trucking:
First a picture from just before we got to TN for our family New Years celebrations. This is the city of Memphis, TN as viewed just as you begin to cross the Mississippi River from Arkansas.

Here's what we've been up to this week! We took a load of chicken by-product from south Georgia to Denver.
That was on Thursday morning. Afterwards, we hopped up to just north of Cheyenne, WY and loaded sunflower seeds bound for California. We were out of Cheyenne by mid-afternoon, and dropping down into Laramie, WY in no time.

I was somewhere between Rawlins and Green River, WY when the sun was setting, and as usual, it was a beautiful show!

We delivered the sunflower seed on Friday morning north of Sacramento. Then we drove south to Stockton where we reloaded and headed south and west.
Right now we are just west of Dallas and will be delivering in the morning in Mount Pleasant, TX. And after that, we'll turn around and head to Phoenix, with the intention of delivering there as soon as we can on Tuesday!

Nothing like starting the new year off with a bang! If the rest of the year is as busy as this....
Well, busy is good, but let's hope that among the busy there are some good breaks too!

Wrapping up the Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:35:00 +0000

...and where we were for the past week, wrapping up the holidays and bringing in the new year with my family in Tennessee! Hadn't seen my family, or been across the mighty Mississippi River for that matter, since April! This visit was long over due!

You are about to be subjected to what is probably an overload of family pictures you probably care nothing about. But I'm also posting, not just to share with you, but to share with family members who were unable to join us. All the silly family shots are for them. But your welcome to come along for the visit.

Malcolm and I got to Chattanooga, TN on Wednesday night (last), and after a visit with Mom and Dad, we all went to bed. A big weekend ahead of us! Thursday, Mom and I packed up, stopped in to say hi to Grandma and Grandpa, and then hit the road for Nashville!

As many of you may know, my sister and her family live in the Nashville area. What you don't know, or might not anyway, is that Meagan is very pregnant. Ava Grace is due any day now!

Well, as if Christmas wasn't hectic enough on it's own, add pregnancy to it, and on top of that, Meagan and her husband, Chris, finally found a house! They'd been looking for the perfect place and hoping to be moved in and settled before Christmas, but definitly before Ava Grace was born!

I honestly don't now how Meagan has coped. I would have lost my mind trying to do all this at once! And then, to put icing on the cake, the day before moving day, Meagan's doctor gave her strict orders to park herself in bed or on the couch and stay put until delivery! So there they were with a new house, lots of boxes, and lots of holiday expectations to fulfill!

They got through Christmas just fine with lots of fun and the regular hoopla. But because she was on bed rest and unable to travel, our family Christmas (which we've started doing on New Years Eve) had to come to her. And since she was going to have a house full, Mom and I went up early to unpack boxes, and put things away, and set up sleeping arrangements, etc. We arrived Thursday evening, and got lots of visiting and laughing done amid the unpacking and decorating, and by Saturday afternoon, Meagan and Chris's house looked like a home! It was a big team effort, with Meagan directing from various perches, and Mom, Chris, and I putting things in place.

After that, the real festivities could begin! Dad and Malcolm arrived Saturday afternoon and we all visited and played games like Boggle and Operation with Lily, and watched TV and on and on. And then Saturday evening, while we waited for my brother, Ken, and his family to arrive, Lily made "cakepops,"...

...or I should say Meagan and Chris did. You can see Lily in the background playing, after she got distracted from her cake pop project. However, she was quick to return and do her part when the decorating needed done.

And they all turned out beautiful! She's a great cake pop decorator and Meagan and Chris are great cooks! They were quite yummy for dessert later that evening.

Unpacking, cooking, decorating...the weekend was all about team effort!

Finally, the rest of our party arrived! Ken had been working all day at the restaurant and they were busy, so he hadn't had a chance to eat. So we made that our first order of business! We had decided to keep it simple, pannini sandwiches and Ken's wife, Sarah (and yes that can get confusing having 2 Sarahs in the family) had brought chips and dip! It was all yummy! After that, it was time to visit and play and wait for 2011 to come to an end!

Ken and Sarah's youngest daughter, Kenslee, will be 2 in May. She stole the show all evening. I don't know how they keep up with her!
While Kenslee investigated the toys that were present, her sister, Bentlee, and Lily got on the computer with Granmommy to shop for more American Girl Doll stuff. These three are American Girl Doll addicts! It's their #1 favorite thing to play with when they are together, and they love shopping for new stuff together too!

Papaw got in on some snuggle time with all his girls, though it was hard to get Kenslee to stay close for more than a few seconds at a time.

My brother, Ken, didn't get left out either. I think those three girls were every where at once, spreading love and holiday excitement!

As you can see, Paris got in on the action too! She wanted to be involved in every step of the cake pop making, thought that it was a truly wonderful thing to be doing! I had to restrain her through most of the process, but we allowed her to be in charge of crumb patrol during clean up, something she is extremely efficient at doing!

Ella and Carlie Jean had to stay with my mom's dog's groomer back in Chattanooga, but I didn't want anyone else to have to be responsible for Paris and her broken leg. So she got to be the only dog member of the family in attendance, and believe me, she new she was special!

We all finished letting our dinner settle...

...and then it was time for the big event of the evening.

With me and my siblings getting married and the arrival of children in our midst, it's become too complicated to get all the Christmas-ing done on Christmas! So a few years ago, to take some of the strain off, my family started having our Christmas gift exchanging on New Years Eve. And then we all stay up and bring in the new year together. This is the first year that Malcolm and I were able to be there on New Years since this has become tradition. I really liked it, plus it just prolongs the fun of Christmas!

Our New Years Eve elves handed out all the gifts and the fun began. We have a tradition in our family that each person takes turns opening one gift at a time. Even the little ones participate in this, and we keep going around the circle until all the gifts are open. In this way, we all get to see each gift and no one misses anything, AND it makes the fun last!

There were some creative gifts this year, and some creative packaging too! I think the box Mom made for Malcolm's gift took the prize though!

Aunt Meagan and Uncle Chris gave Kenslee a "Band in a Box," a gift Meagan said would come back to bite her one day. We'll see. In the mean time, Kenslee loved it and all three girls got in on the music making!

Kenslee knew exactly what to do with all the instruments and soon had turned herself into a one man band!

And her big sister, Bentlee, was just as eager to show off her musical and dancing talents!

The last gifts of the evening were from my sister-in-law, Sarah. She has carried over one of the traditions from her childhood, and on Christmas, the girls get a new pair of PJ's. I think this is a neat tradition and fun too. This year's PJ's were perfect, as we were about to have one big family slumber party!

We rang in the New Year in style, toasting with champagne and sparkling grape juice! And then the little girls were packed off to bed while the grown ups stayed up into the wee hours of the morning laughing and catching up!

Our greatest accomplishment of the weekend....

The first family photograph taken in a long time! Seems like there is always someone missing! But not this year! We were all there at the same time and took advantage of the moment. Mom set the timer on her camera and we all squished together. And what a miracle! The littlest one looked right at the camera just in time! This was the first, and ONLY, picture we took! The whole family photo project was successfully completed in less than 5 minutes!

You'll notice the space between me and Meagan. I had hoped Ava Grace would make an appearance while I was in town, but it was not to be. She is due Jan. 13 and neither me nor her mother were going to complain about an early arrival! But she apparently is a schedule keeper. So we have to wait. BUT though she's not visibly present in this picture, we will always look at it and know she is with us in it. Meagan and I were just about as close to each other as Ava Grace would allow!

Malcolm and I had to hit the road on Tuesday morning. We had such a good time visiting our loved ones and it was rather hard to leave because it felt like such a short visit! However, we'll see them all again in a few weeks! We'll be back the first week of February to welcome Ava Grace into the world...

...and for another special event for Malcolm's family. But I'll tell you all about that.....in February!

Traveling Through Corn Husker Country

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:39:00 +0000

Lucy and I said our goodbyes the other night. She had rubbed most of the skunk smell off, so I took her for one last four wheeler ride to the top of our favorite hill to watch the sunset with me.

Monday morning it was back to work! We drove west to Billings and loaded sulfur, which was delivered Tuesday morning in Nebraska.

Western Nebraska was after dark, and mostly after midnight. But central Nebraska was after unloading on Tuesday. We reloaded 30 miles north in Lexington and headed east towards Arkansas.

Driving I-80 is always interesting, and always crowded. I-80 is one of the busiest interstates in the country, and it's busy all the way across from Boston to San Francisco!

Driving on I-80 through Nebraska, you will see many interesting things. The road pretty much follows the Platte River, which is mostly evident by the thick stands of trees that shelter it's banks.

Another common sight along the interstate are large ponds right next to the road and occasionally the active sandpits that will later be more large pond.

Nebraska is home to the world's largest aquifer, the Ogalala Aquifer. It stretches out under surrounding state boundaries. About 27% of the United States irrigated land is over this aquifer, and it yields roughly 30% of the countries ground water used for irrigation.

Another common sight along I-80 in Nebraska is land marks and historical points of interest.

Because it follows along the banks of the Platte River, it is also following the path of the California and Oregon Trails. This part of the country is rich in pioneer history! Nearly every little town along the way claims some museum or point of interest to pull in travelers. Some require a little drive off the beaten path, while others are right by the interstate. The easiest one to find is this one...

...in Kearney, NE. You can't miss it because you drive right under it.

And of course another common sight in Nebraska, something your guaranteed to see even if you don't stop at any of the tourist spots....

....cows and corn!

I like Nebraska. It's one of my favorite states. Malcolm's family ranched in western Nebraska when he was a kid, near Scott's Bluff and Chimney Rock monument. We have friends there still. Nebraska is a good state! For a few more interesting trivia facts about the Corn Husker state, you can click here.

We delivered last night in northwest Arkansas, slept for a few hours, and then this morning, our broker couldn't find anything good heading to where we wanted to go. So we're bouncing 680 miles to Chattanooga to see my family for New Years. We should be there this evening sometime.

But until we get there, we can enjoy some pretty scenery of Arkansas hills...

...and in a few more hours, we'll be back in my home state of Tennessee! Looking forward to a visit with this side of our family. We haven't seen them since April. We'll be down here till after New Years, and then I'll be back to blogging to share our travels and adventures.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and enjoy bringing in the New Year!

Lucy's Idea of a Good Time

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 23:11:00 +0000

Y'all remember Lucy don't you? Lucy and I are big buddies. She often tags along with me where ever I go, unless there's something more important going on, like a cow to chase or a tractor to ride in. Lucy likes a good time!

Your not going to believe what she did yesterday, just for fun!

(Don't look at me that way Lucy! I don't care if your embarrassed! I'm going to tell them what you did!)

Yesterday afternoon, Lucy and I went to the corrals to play with the colts.I took everyone into one of the barns, where I was giving Gemma a lesson on how to stand quietly while tied to a post. (It was her first time, and she did pretty good if I do say so myself!) And while Gemma made friends with the post, I was helping Sky, the overgrown lap dog (he thinks), learn how to have his hooves cleaned and handled. We're working up to an overdue trimming lesson. Reba was just in there with us for moral support. She's an expert at all these things because her original human mom was on top of her job and taught these things to Reba at appropriate ages! So Reba just watched and took advantage of Sky being tied up to harass him, because she just doesn't care for his pushy friendship ways.

Lucy was with me, snuffling over in the corner of the barn, and after some time she found some ~~delectable~~ disgusting dehydrated thing (I think it was afterbirth from last spring's calving), and wanted to leave the barn we were working in to go enjoy it in private. NO PROBLEM! So I opened the door and let her out because I didn't really want to watch that dinner go down!

Lessons over, I led the youngsters back over to their large corral winter home, and Lucy reappeared to escort me and all my baggage (a bucket of brushes, a bucket of grain, and three halters with lead ropes attached) back to the other barn to put things away. Gee, you'd think she could carry some of the load, or at least get the gates don't you?

This is what is generally referred to as the lambing barn.

There used to be sheep on this ranch, and this is where the ewes had their lambs. Now that the sheep are gone (temporarily I hope) this barn has become handy for storing things like...insulation for a future construction project... and all our horse tack.

By this time is was nearly dark, so I flipped the light on in the barn and proceeded to put away all my stuff. I was hanging up the last of my halter's when I heard a scuffling noise behind me.

I turned, and was momentarily startled to find Lucy coming down the isle towards me from the opposite end of the barn, violently shaking...something...that was obvious alive and fighting back.

My initial thought was "oh, not a cat!" because she's been known to go after the random cat in the past. And then, "OH she got a raccoon!" because they've been known to use the lambing barn as a place to nap and poop. (nice huh?)

And then....she dropped it, right about in the spot she's sitting in the picture below, and bailed out the open door.

Imagine, if you will, my dismay, as the thus far unidentified mystery creature, quickly regained it's feet and a vividly, pristine, WHITE stripe appeared on a fluffy black background as an equally fluffy black tail shot straight up into the air!!!!

And there I was, standing in the corner of the barn, with a large, rather angry (I can't imagine why?) SKUNK between me and my only route of escape!

And all this happened without a single voice. Not mine, not Lucy's, not the skunnk, through the whole ordeal! No one made a peep or growl or squeel! Strange huh?

I suppose I was lucky. The skunk, after a moment of stumbling around, probably dizzy and dazed from his shaking experience, but with tail still erect and fluffed, trotted back down the isle from whence he'd been reluctantly hauled, and stood facing the wall, tail towards the barn (and me). I decided this was my best moment, and best opportunity to escape with the least amount of "damage," and made a dash for the door.

The odor, which I had not yet detected, was overpowering around the door. I knew I had just trotted myself right through the lingering cloud, but how else was I to get out? Lucy, bless her heart was right outside the barn, rather frantically rubbing her face, head, and body in the snow. I suppose the ole girl got a face full of spray. Probably a mouth full too judging by the amount of snow she ate between the barn and the house.

The two of us made our way to the house, Lucy stopping every few feet to rub her face in the snow and eat a few mouth fulls, and me pausing every few gasped breathes to tell her to" get away from me, for the love of roses!" My word that dog was RIPE!

When we got to the house, Lucy just kept right on going, straight into the tree row and the tall grass where she proceeded to roll and rub in the snow. I stepped inside the door to tell Malcolm there was a skunk in the lambing barn and that Lucy had attacked it while I was in there. He was in the other end of the house. I hollered my report to him from the doorway. A brief pause of silence. A response. "I can smell it on you," he said (from the other end of the house? Oh dear!)

Malcolm came back to the barn with me and spent some time banging around trying to scare the skunk out of hiding. At first we didn't think it was going to happen, but at the last minute, just before giving up, Malcolm spyed him, at the opposite end of the barn, right where I'd been standing when the whole event transpired. The culprit was quickly disposed of, and Malcolm appreciated the opportunity to use one of his new guns, though he probably would have preferred a more pleasant environment to try it out in.

Any stink that was on us seems to have washed off, and my coat and our clothes came out of the washer smelling fresh. So it must not have gotten on me too bad. Our boots are the worst, as we were both wading around in the hay. I imagine most of the musk is at ground level anyway, since that's how high the skunk is.

I wish I could say as much for the insulation being stored in the barn, my new halters, and my brand new saddle pad which I have not had opportunity to use yet. I imagine they all reek! I went down to the barn this morning to get my illustrative pictures, and even after standing all night with both doors wide open, you still have to hold your breath to go in. It's pretty pungent. I'm not sure how I escaped smelling not quite like a rose, but not like I'd slept with a skunk. It's a miracle!

As for Lucy, I'm giving her a wide berth for a while. We'll play more next time I'm home, when she's had some time to air out. Poor Zadie, who has to share a dog house with her. Must be true love, because they were curled up together and Zadie didn't seem to be complaining any.

And next time I'm home, I think I'll keep a closer eye on things, and have a little more to say about what Lucy considers to be a "good time," at least when it's going to involve me in some way. But I'll be speaking up before the good times take place, not fussing and fuming (no pun intended) after the fact.

Blocks, the Broken Leg, and a Book

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:16:00 +0000

Good Morning! A few odds and ends to share now that I've finished my peppermint stick hot chocolate, fresh from the vending machine at the truck stop. Hey! I got to get my holiday cheer where and when I can!

Blocks:

Yesterday we delivered first thing in the morning in Woodburn, OR. After we were empty, we had no where to go, so Malcolm asked the plant employees if we could park in an empty area near the back of their facility because I wanted to go for a walk rather than spend the day parked at a truck stop somewhere.

It was early and very few business were open, which was fine. I just wanted to take in the sights and stretch my legs a little. It was kind of fun having practically the whole town to myself.

One of the great things about photography while traveling, is that since you don't know any of the people and in all likely hood will never see them again, it's easier to move past your self-consciousness and do things like kneel on the sidewalk, or hang your head at an odd angle to get a picture, because who cares if these strangers think I'm weird?

There was pretty much just one strip of stores, all of which were catering to what must be a Hispanic area. It was interesting to peer into the store front windows, (and later in the morning, Malcolm and I walked back into town and ate one of the best Mexican meals I've had in a long while)! But after I'd walked main street, there wasn't anything else to see. I was turning around to go back to the truck when a glimpse down a side street changed my mind.

It seemed to call me to wonder down it, and I am so glad I did. There were holly trees galore, red berries gleaming in the morning sun.

Old homes stood behind shade tree. Gurgling fountains and singing birds could be heard as I passed by some of the fenced yards.

And some of the Christmas decorations looked like they came out of magazine pictures.

But my favorite sight of the whole morning was this house that I stumbled upon. It sat one house down from a corner on a street I almost passed by. I would have never dreamed of painting my house mint green and then putting raspberry red trim on it. I'm glad someone else thought it would work, because it definitely does! No need for Christmas trimming in this yard, because the house is festive just as it is, and lovely the whole year through.

My stroll through Woodburn, OR was a delightful way to start the morning.

The Broken Leg:

Thought you might like an update on Paris's broken leg. It has been a bit of a thorn in our sides, our sides, not Paris's. For the most part it's gone smoothly, but when something goes wrong, it's such a frustration because I worry so much that we're going to cause her permanent damage. The splint simply would not stay in place. Over the course of the week, it would slip further down her leg, a centimeter or so at a time. And since we weren't supposed to mess with it but maybe once a week to change the wrappings, it was hard to know if it was OK to fix the slipping or not. Add to that the challenge of keeping her from getting sores beneath the splint, sores that I can't see, sores that I don't know if they're forming or not, because I can't unwrap the splint but once a week.....it was a headache.

Last weekend we were home for a couple days and since we were there, our regular vet said I could bring Paris over and she'd check the leg, etc. So Monday before we left, we went down to her house and when she saw how much Paris's splint was slipping, she laughed, literally. I guess a laugh is better than her being upset!

( I should have taken a picture, because your probably picturing Paris with one leg 6 inches longer than the other. Really it only extended her leg by maybe an inch, but I didn't know how much was too much slipping and how much was ok.)

Anyway, she called Paris's surgeon in Belle Fourche and conferenced with him on the phone, and they came to the conclusion that it would be ok to leave the splint off. Yippee!!!! We were all celebrating, especially the patient. She has been SO much happier ever since!

As I had been assured and reassured that the splint was really just a secondary support, I felt more relief than concern. The only real "warning" was that she absolutely must not jump. Of course you all know how ~~easy~~ impossible that is prevent! I thought this would be my only challenge.

Paris was quick to show us that the splint had not just been a secondary support, but also had been protecting her stitches....from herself. We were home a couple of hours and just before leaving went to dinner at Malcolm's parent's, and upon returning home, we found Paris unbandaged, with swollen, angry looking stitches. She'd been hard at work during our absence.

We bandaged her back up, hoped for the best, and headed out for eastern North Dakota.

By the following afternoon, we had delivered our load, reloaded the next one, and rebandaged Paris's leg FOUR times! She was also, by this time, missing two stitches, and absolutely delighted with herself.

Obviously this wasn't working! I was tempted to put the splint back on just for it's protection, but it was creating it's own problems, as before mentioned. The solution was found in Miles City, MT, where we stopped that evening to have dinner with Malcolm's parents who were in town running errands. Before diner, we went to the ranch supply store, to their pet supply aisle.

Things have been a whole lot simpler for me since last Monday, though not near as nice for Paris.

She'll thank me for it later, though at this moment you wouldn't have been able to convince her of that!

It has several benefits. She can't get to her leg to lick and chew the bandages, she won't sink if she decided to go for a mid-December swim, and it's a lot easier to locate her beneath the covers when she's hiding in bed.

Actually, after a few days we decided that it was ok for her to wear the inter tube necklace only when she was unsupervised, such as when we're out of the truck or asleep.

So she gets to lounge beneath the floor heater in comfort, snuggle in my lap, and she doesn't have to charge her way between the computer stand and passenger seat to force her way past. (it was rather comical in a sad sort of way to watch that). Of course the other day, during what was supposed to be a "supervised" time, the supervisor forgot to keep an eye on her, and later she was discovered curled up in the sleeper floor, with the bandage down around her ankle, two more stitches removed, and going to town on a third one.

We have an appointment next Wednesday with her surgeon for a check and xrays. I hope the rest of the stitches, the remaining 4 of the original 8, can come out honestly at that time. Fingers crossed, because it would make one less concern for me to keep track of.

And a Book:

I just finished a book I picked up over Thanksgiving weekend. And since I wanted to start saying more about what I read, rather than just put the picture in the margin, I decided this would be a good start.

It's one of those books that I picked up because the title and cover picture appealed. And then I read the synopsis on the jacket cover, and was hooked.

The Dovekeepers, by Alice Hoffman

Set during the Roman siege at Masada, The Dovekeepers tells the story of the siege from a woman's perspective. Four women, their lives and fates intertwined, tell their stories through first person accounts, of how they came to be at Masada and what transpired there. The book is broken into four parts. The first part begins with Yael, a motherless women whose father is an assassin, telling her story of love and tragedy. In the second part, Revka, a widow who has watched her only daughter be brutally raped and murdered by Roman soldiers and now has the care of her grandsons to consider, picks up the story where Yael leaves off. Aziza, a warrior at heart who is raised as a boy, but then confined to woman's garbs, continues where Revka's part leaves off. And the stories telling is completed by Shirah, a woman who knows ancient magic and medicine, who is devoted to those she loves, even though she knows it will be their undoing,

For the full synopsis you can use the link above to go to the author's website. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's the first of Alice Hoffman's books I've read, but I plan to look into what else she has to offer. Consider adding this one to your 2012 book list. And if your in a book group, this one would be great for discussion, especially in a group with diverse religious and cultural backgrounds.

On an Icy Day in Oregon

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 23:22:00 +0000

Crossing the Cascade range today on state route 58 in Oregon, we were heading west, from the high desert regions south of Bend, over to the balmier I-5 corridor near the coast.

At the highest point of 5000 feet, we ran into fog, though it felt almost more than fog. The mist is so heavy and damp here, it seems to want for more of a name than just fog. Maybe it has one. I don't know.

Sunny skies from half a mile back down the mountain soon were completely obliterated by a heavy cloud of freezing mist that was doing it's best to encase everything in a frozen crust of ice.

Further down the mountain, the fog had lifted, but the sunny skies were no more.

We made our way down the mountain, meandering along, taking our time because we only had 200 miles to go today in order to deliver Monday morning.
About half way down the mountain I discovered that I had forgotten to keep an eye on Paris, who was lounging in the floor of the sleeper, delightedly accessing her bandaged leg and removing more stitches (another story in and of itself...these past weeks have been a test of my patience in so many ways.) The road was winding so I asked Malcolm to find somewhere to pull off so I could re bandage the leg, and we'd just go ahead and let the girls out while we were stopped since their last break had been a while.

The place he found to pull off the road.

Leg bandaged, dogs relieved and back inside the warm truck, I told Malcolm I wanted to get out and take a few pictures.

These last days, no weeks really, have truly been a battle of wills within myself, at the center of which has been a river of feelings, mostly centered around uselessness, unfulfilled, empty. Thus the lack of blog posts. I wake up in the morning thinking "I should blog today" and by the end of the day absolutely nothing has inspired me or felt noteworthy. The same can be said for pictures. I used to love taking pictures, but lately I see nothing worth the effort of getting the camera out and looking through the lens at.

But moss laden trees in the picture above seemed to insist that the effort be put forth for at least a few pictures.

I'm glad they put their roots down and insisted that I come out of the truck to do the job. One step forward, and a glimpse down the ravine, and a few more steps became absolutely necessary.

The path was short, but steep and rocky, and everything was encrusted in a thin layer of ice. And as I stepped down onto the first slippery moss covered icy rock, I realized how long it's been since I did something like this. I've become afraid of falling and get nervous walking down even a grassy slope unless I have Malcolm's hand to hold. When did that happen and why?

Here I was stepping down onto cushions of icy wet leaves covering rocks I couldn't really see, feeling my feet on unsteady ground, feeling my nerves get edgy and my confidence wane and I didn't like it. I almost turned back, only one step in.

But that's part of the problem. I'm tired of feeling like I'm not participating in life, seeing it slide by my window and not being apart of it, missing out on things. That's been a huge part of my self-inflicted misery of the past days, feeling sorry for myself because we miss out on so much. And I sit around blaming the truck and our career of choice. But realistically, I guess a great deal of the problem is not so much the truck, though it does complicate participation in many things. It's me. I have taken a truck load of things I want to do and can't really because of the position I'm currently in, and let it become a weight around my neck, holding me back. The reality is, yes I'm missing out on things, but while I sit around feeling sad for what I'm missing, I'm loosing opportunities that I only have because of what we're doing!

I think I need to make myself get out of the truck more and climb down more icy paths more often. The reward is worth the momentary feelings of discomfort and uncertainty.

And though I will still regret what I'm not able to do because we're on the road and not at home, I hate to think one day I'll be home instead of on the road and look back and regret not taking the opportunities I had that are no longer.

Each cautious step down that slippery path revealed one after another beckoning to take a closer look through the lens. I really should do this more often. I've missed my camera.

That 5 minutes that I was out of the truck, with my camera in my hand, with minimal road noise because the creek was drowning it out, and all by myself, creeping out onto water's edge boulders that were mossy and icy so that I could get a limb free picture of the creek...

I felt peaceful. I should climb down those icy banks to the water's edge more often.

I have had a dark weekend, caved up inside myself, brooding and thinking and not much of it has been positive. But out of the darkness, there are a few points of light starting to emerge.

And one of those is a re-realization that I'm missing out on more than what I'm pouting about missing out on.

I don't think the dark thoughts are over. I know they aren't because I haven't finished meshing through them all yet. But those 5 minutes among the icy leaves and ferns, I realized how much I've missed blogging and my camera.

And I really hope that I can find motivation and inspiration to participate in this activity that I love so much. It has been a creative and social outlet for me, and I need to not let it fall to the wayside.

When I felt I'd spent as much time as I should in the creek bottom, though not as much as I would have liked (I would have stayed there all day) I climbed back up the bank, and got back in the truck, and showed Malcolm one of the pictures I'd taken that I thought I'd like a lot once it was on the computer and large enough to really see. He pulled out onto the road, and I got settled and pulled up facebook on the computer to put up a picture to share. And since I was on, I scrolled down the page to see what other's had to say today. And someone had posted this:

Kind of makes me feel like looking over my shoulder to see if there was someone there reading my thoughts these past days. The thing is, I know there was Someone doing just that.

An Illustrated Recap of November...

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:36:00 +0000

...because it would take too many words to tell it all. Well, there will be a few words, maybe quite a few, but I'll keep it to a minimum as best I can. You know how "wordy" I can get sometimes.

We were home for a little more than 3 1/2 weeks.

There were some early mornings...

...and some late nights.

After our trip to Helena to pick up Reba and Fancy, the next big event was rounding up cows...

...sorting in the corrals...

...and loading the calves up to go to their new homes.

Over the course of 2 1/2 weeks, we hauled cattle 4 days, taking calves to the scale in town, the rest of the calves to the sale barn near Belle Fourche, hauling "open" cows to the sale another day, and bringing home 4 loads of bred cows from summer pasture. In all, we ran about 1200 miles just shufflin' cows around from place to place.

Aside from cow business though, there were other things going on. Friendships were formed....

...some more reluctantly than others.

And old friendships were rekindled. Judy from Loves Ranch Life and More made the trip to Baker to have lunch with me one day, and on another day my mother-in-law and I went to a neighbor's for a short visit and to get some of her wonderful home made soaps.

I just love these soaps from Pure Prairie Soap, and the lady who makes them is a delightful person! I was so glad to finally meet her and get to visit, and my mother-in-law enjoyed getting to catch up with a friend.

Back at home, there were crafting successes....

...and cooking failures.

my sister's carrot cake runeth over. Delicious taste, stinky mess in my oven!

Injuries were mended...

...and lots of pampering of the princess commenced to make her feel better.

And just because the calves were shipped and another years "crop" was in the bag, that didn't mean outside work was over. Maintenance is an on going chore, and often requires some creativity. My caption for this picture? How many men does it take to change a light bulb?

The answer? Two! If they have a bucket of tools, a step ladder, a semi trailer, a tractor to lift them up, a woman to run the tractor, and a dog to wait patiently in the warmth of the tractor and out of the wind. Smart girl! Some chores take team effort, no matter how small they may seem.

We also made time for some outdoor recreation while the weather was still nice! A motor had been recently acquired and fitted to the S.S. JMBAR Cruiseship, so we had to take it out for a test run before it all got packed up for the winter. It sure beats rowing!

And of course, Gemma got a few lessons worked into her busy schedule. The dog and I are her best buds! She's even started to whinny at me when she sees me coming and meets me half way.

It's sweet, but I sure hope our friendship doesn't take on similarities to her bond with Lucy. I had a surprise opportunity to catch my future cutting horse (?) at work. I'm not sure her play partner was enjoying the game as much as she was.

I appologize for the racket. I was standing at the gate where all the mama cows were congregated looking for their missing calves. They sure can raise a ruckus!

The last week at home, my mother-in-law and I made a total of four trips to Belle Fourche, SD for Paris's leg injury. That's about a 3 hour drive there and another three hours back. So we had lots of visiting time. We also discovered a neat quilting shop and a very pleasant coffee house across the road. On Friday we had our last vet appointment during which I became concerned that Paris couldn't come with us after all. The vet needed to change her splint bandaging once a week, and there were already sores forming on her leg. Turns out hairlessness is a disadvantage when your wearing a cast!

I was very frustrated because I'd been counting on taking her with us, and now it didn't look promising. BUT...our home town vet whom we adore (but who isn't set up for the little guys yet, thus our trip to Belle Fourche) had Malcolm and I, and Paris, come to her home on Sunday, where she spent an hour going over the process of taking off the dressings, medicating the sutures, and re wrapping and splinting the leg. I was leery of being responsible for it, but she assured us that we could do it without problems, and also reassured me that the splint is actually just a secondary support. In fact, if the sores persist or get worse, we're to take the splint off and leave it off. All that metal in her leg (see earlier pictures in this post) is what's actually supporting her while the bones heal. And it all gets to stay in there too. Little Paris and her new bionic leg.

The last days at home provided some beautiful scenery...

...to be enjoyed from the window as I baked cookies for the girls, wrapped Christmas presents, and gathered our things together for re-packing the truck.

It was a busy home time, lots of work, a little play, a few traumatic moments, but even with problems and being tired, it was just good to be home!

We left Monday morning, loaded near Timber Lake, SD and headed south towards Colorado.

Leaving home is always a bit bitter sweet. We hate to leave, and yet by the end of these long breaks, we feel compelled to be productive again. Home time was great, but really, it's not so bad being back in the truck.

Especially knowing in a few weeks we'll have more time off, and this time it will be for a Tennessee Christmas! We haven't seen my family since April, and we haven't had a Tennessee Christmas for a couple of years. I CAN'T WAIT!

Mom's beatiful garden under a rare TN snow last winter

Update on Paris

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 23:01:00 +0000

Just a quick update on Paris, but first a huge thank you for all the well wishes. I was over-whelmed to open my email when we got home this afternoon and find so many thoughtful and heartfelt remarks.

Paris's surgery went well, and her doctor was pleased with the procedure and the result. He said that she's resting fine now. She will have to wear her splint after surgery, which he wasn't anticipating but b/c of how the bone cracked down the length, he wants to give it extra support while healing. So she gets to keep her cool hot pink cast!

We get to bring her home tomorrow, but he wants to see her again the end of the week. Another trip to Belle Fourche!

More good news:
Malcolm talked to our broker this morning, who was understanding and the load we had was very flexible. We are home until further notice, at least the end of the week, so we can see Paris through her ordeal and hopefully take her with us when we leave in a few days.

SO: Paris is good, we get more home time, Malcolm now gets a few days to play since he worked the e.n.t.i.r.e. time we were home and is worn out, AND my mother-in-law and I discovered a delightful little coffee house and fabric store while killing time in Belle Fourche! We're all feeling better today!

A Bad Ending

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 01:29:00 +0000

We're having a bad ending to our time at home. After 2 busy, but uneventful weeks home, we are all set to leave for work again. Or at least we were until yesterday morning.

It all started early in the morning as we were preparing to haul a load of open cows to the sale barn. I thought, rather than leave the girls home alone all day, I'd let them come with us and stay in the semi like they are used to doing.
In their excitement, Carlie Jean caused an incident.

You know how she loves to run. And in her running frenzy, she tripped me. And as I fell, I dropped Paris. As much as she screamed I knew instantly there was something wrong. So as soon as I got my breath back from falling flat out on my back, I scooped her up b/c Carlie and Ella were intensely interested in what was wrong with her. Her little leg was just flopping around, so it was obvious what the problem was right away.

Because we're in ranch country, it's hard to track a vet down on a normal day, but try and do it in the fall on a weekend. We ended up just having to take Paris to Belle Fourche, SD with us and to a vet there, 2 hours away.

When I picked her back up the nurses had french braided her hair and told me they tried to match her outfit and so gave her a pink cast. She was obviously very well pampered while at the vet.

Turns out her little tibia is snapped and fractured further down so that a simple splint and cast won't do long term.
The temporary fix has made things...complicated.

She is being quite the trooper, not crying and seems not to hurt unless she turns it wrong. But she is sad to not be able to bounce around like normal, and it's hard to keep her confined but that's the only way to keep her still and quiet.

Brief little visits to her grand-people's house have cheered her and I think she's liking all the extra attention.

But tomorrow morning, we have to drive back to Belle Fourche early and she has to have pins and wires put in her leg and stay over night.
Malcolm and I may, if it will work out, stay a few more days. But a load is already lined up and if it can't be rescheduled, we'll have to leave Paris behind and she'll be staying with her grand-people for an unknown length of time.
I'm doing ok with the break, but the idea of leaving her is upsetting. I know all our bloggy friends would want to know about Paris and her situation. I'll keep you posted and fill you in on the good parts of our home time later on. In the mean time, thoughts and prayers are appreciated for tomorrow. I know she's just a dog, but for me, she's my baby, and even though I have three, Paris is my first and favorite. She has a special place in my heart. I'm not looking forward to the days to come!

Last Weekend...

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:57:00 +0000

...we hit the road again. Not in the semi, but in our pickup. We just can't seem to stay off the road!

We left home at 5:45am on Friday morning and by sunrise, we'd already stopped in Baker, coffee-d up, and were well west of town!

Eighty miles west of Baker, we hit the interstate, stopped in Miles City for something to eat and fuel, and then continued west. By 10:30am, we were pulling into Billings.
This was not our final destination, but we did have a lay over here.

We had some errands to run in Billings, a couple of business appointments, and a quick visit with a friend. Bless her heart, she came out to meet me even though she was a bit under the weather, and then proceeded to let me drag her around town, playing taxi cab for me, and she didn't even get lunch out of the bargain! No time! She must be a true friend and quite a trooper!

By Friday evening, we were appalled that we hadn't even finished half our errands and we were out of time. Stores and offices were closing. A friend from Nebraska was delivering a few horses to the Billings Livestock Commission for their big monthly horse sale. So we met him there and then went to dinner. And then found a hotel and fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.

Saturday morning we were on the road by 6:00am, headed west again before sunrise. The day was just beginning to show light and we were already nearing Bozeman.

We had about 3 1/2 hours of driving to our destination. We stopped in Three Forks, MT to have breakfast at WheatMontana's main store and warehouse. And then turned north. Do you know where we were headed yet?

Malcolm presented me with a gift he had snuck into the truck. He had gone to a special store...

...and bought me a special gift...

...to commemorate the purpose of our special trip. As if this trip wasn't gift enough!

Any ideas what we were up to?

I had no idea that our destination was so close to Three Forks. It doesn't take any time at all to get up there!

Eight hours of driving in all, from home to Helena, and then we were there all of 45 minutes before turning around and heading back east.
"What?" you may think. "Why on Earth would you drive all that way and not spend time there? What were you two up to?"

Well we were able to make it such a quick errand because we'd done our shopping two months ago. The merchandise was already chosen, signed over, and paid for. It was just waiting for customer pickup. But first it wanted to finish it's breakfast.

Meet Fancy (above) and Reba (below). Sorry, they are too distracted by strange men and breakfast to look at the camera.

You may have noticed their pictures over in my sidebar, listing them as members of our herd. We acquired these two lovely mares a couple months ago from Roy and Cindy Swanby of Rocky Mountain Paint Gallery. They have some lovely horses, but I'd fallen for these two, and Malcolm got tired of me drooling over their pictures, and gave me the go ahead. So in early September the deal was done, but we didn't have the chance to pick them up till last weekend. I was so happy to finally be bringing them home. Bouncing in the seat happy and talking Malcolm's ears off about random things. (I get chatty when I'm happy and hyper.)

And so we loaded them up into our trailer which still had a lot of cow poo in it from a few days before, and it was obvious that was a new smell to the girls. They were fascinated, especially Reba. But they loaded so nicely, despite the strange smells and unfamiliar surroundings (Malcolm had a large air compressor strapped in the back section of the trailer that they had to walk past). Clearly Cindy has done a great job starting her colts and keeping her herd in tune!

We were headed back east with our herd additions in tow. It was an uneventful trip, thankfully, and by 3:00 we were back in Billings. We finished up the "have to" errands that hadn't been done the day before, and at sunset we were pulling out headed home.

We were home by 10:00, unloaded the pick up, and were in bed before midnight! Sleeping at home...there's nothing like it!

Sunday morning we rushed through breakfast so we could go visit with the girls and introduce them to their new world.

I originally thought I'd keep them in the corral for a while till we got acquainted better, and also give them a chance to get to know their new herd members, but the corrals were going to be a busy, noisy place in the coming days. So we opted instead to just turn them out...

...into what may be the biggest pasture they've ever seen. They seemed a bit overwhelmed at first, but soon settled in to chowing down.

Friendships have been slow in forming. Fancy is the kind of gal that falls to the bottom of the totem pole and gets picked on, so she's not easily approached for friendship. She has rebuffed both Dawn and Gemma's invitations, and by all appearances seems to have decided that since she's in a new place, she's going to set down some ground rules from the start. She might even turn into the top dog. Time will tell. I figure they'll all
work out their new roles and friendships over time.

It was a good trip, even with the early mornings, and its good to have them home at least!
We enjoyed looking out the window and seeing them grazing happily all day. Sunday was a nice relaxing day at home.

And then Monday was another really early morning...

...but that's another blog post for another day. Right now, I have horses to go play with!

Headed Home

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:56:00 +0000

We didn't get loaded up till Monday morning but that was ok. The scenery more than made up for the delay, as we usually make a lot of that trip after dark. The colors were outstanding coming across Lookout Pass on the ID/MT border. So incredibly vivid! The gold was so bright it almost hurt your eyes.

And then Montana was not about to let Idaho's leaves get the better of it. So, though the leaves were a bit duller over in Montana, the sunset over Butte was superb.

In about 4 hours we will have been out on the road for 9 weeks and 2 day.

Granted, we had a little 3 day layover at home the first weekend of October, but I never really count those layovers as "home time."

And sure there have been a few breaks. We lounged around a weekend in Sacramento waiting for sunflower seeds, and again this past weekend in Moses Lake, WA waiting on the same product. But if your not lounging at home, its not really lounging.

Nine weeks and a day. The longest we've ever stayed out since we started hauling around this hopper trailer 3 years ago. And it turned out to be the busyest round on the road we've had in a long time! In fact they are so busy, the broker was somewhat reluctant to lose us for 2 weeks.

By the time we get home, we will have driven 45,935 in nine weeks! That's an average of about 5,100 miles a week, about 1,000 miles/week over what we aim to average!

Home time does not mean we step out of the truck and forget it exists for 2 weeks. We're shipping calves on the 31st and that involved us haulin' a load or two to the scale in town, in addition to haulin' the cows home from summer pasture. So we'll be doing a little bit of driving. And when we're not behind the wheel, there are other things to attend to. The wheel seals are starting to leak on the trailer really badly, and we need some tire work. There is some welding needed on the trailer frame as well, and some other jobs that need done that Malcolm will see to. For me, there is truck related laundry that needs attention. Lots of bedding to wash, and I'll probably lug my vacuum out to the truck, b/c me little car vacuum just doesn't dig out the deep dirt. And there is, as always, lots of paperwork.

We'll be having a meeting with our accountant while we're home and I've been crunching some numbers to take with us. It's always fascinating...and a little bit startling...when I do that. We were both surprised to learn that we've already spent over $100,000 on fuel this year. Over last years total and we still have two months to go. I haven't felt like the price/gallon was that much higher than last year, so perhaps we've just used that much more. I have yet to add up our total miles for the year thus far. That should tell me. Might be interesting, especially considering we took nearly 2 months off this summer!

I am going back and forth about blogging while home. I enjoy sharing our home time activities almost more than our road time activities, sometimes. But yesterday I started feeling exceptionally reclusive and private. Perhaps I need a few days to be a hermit. So I can't promise blog posts from home, maybe one or two, but not a lot. Time will tell. I might get home and have a sudden burst of blog inspiration.

We are in Billings, MT right now, unloading in the dark. The sun is not yet up. It is cold, about 31 degrees. Time to get the girls fleece PJ's back out. And there were a few flurries in our forecast here and there over the next few days.

Cold or not, I'll be out in it. I have outside things to do. I'll brave the chill because I know after this break, it will not be pleasant to be outside for a few months. So I have to get in my horse time, my Montana prairie time, and get all the outside soaked up that I can.

We'll finish up here in Billings, make a quick stop in Miles City to look at a hay trailer and get some groceries, and then around mid-afternoon, we'll be pulling into this drive way.

I can't wait!

Takin' It Easy

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 17:07:00 +0000

On Thursday, we loaded in one of my favorite parts of Idaho. From I-15, you take US30 into the mountains of southeastern Idaho, past Lava Hot Springs,

and on into Soda Springs, where you turn north on a state highway that goes out to Conda, ID. As you leave Soda Springs, there is a sign that warns of "no gas for 70 miles." My kind of place!

The colors on the mountains are amazing this time of year! And the vistas are always beautiful!

Conda, ID...I've seen no town by that name, though our GPS can find and lead us to "Conda." Maybe there is a town tucked away somewhere. I have no idea. But what IS there that we go to frequently, is a huge fertilizer plant.

We loaded fertilizer and hauled it to Othella, WA, delivering Friday morning. The plan was to load sunflower seed at Moses Lake and head to Minnesota. But we were told up front that the seed wasn't quite dry enough and we might have to wait.

By Friday evening it still wasn't dry enough, and so Malcolm decided since there was a chance we'd be here for a couple days, we'd splurge on a hotel room at the hotel across the road from the truck stop. So we loaded up our stuff, and the girls stuff, and the girls, and got ourselves settled in.

The lady here who has the seeds has been staying in touch with us. The seeds are close to being ready and we're hoping today is the day. We'd like to be sitting in Minnesota in the morning. We should know if we can load in a couple hours.

In the mean time, we've been enjoying the luxury of showers every day, sometimes two just for fun! And watching TV in our pajamas all day, catching up on rest.

The girls haven't had any complaints. They had lots of new spaces to explore, lots of fun running around and over the top of the bed, and to their great delight, the room has a king size bed, which means all 5 of us fit!

It has been nice for a change, relaxing, and good to be out of the truck for a spell. But its still not home, and we're getting restless, tired of watching TV, and being stationary for so long.

Hope we get on the road today!

Lessons in Letting Go

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:49:00 +0000

I remember Mom telling me years ago that she was the kind of person that mapped out every second of the day, and how deviations from her plan would frustrate her a great deal.
And I remember her telling me sometime later down the road, that maturity and life had helped her get past that so that when plans changed, her world was not turned quite so upside down. She has gotten so much better at rolling with the punches. Her latest blog post is evidence, as they hit some glitches on their trip, and she was able to get past it and write a very cute and humorous description of their adventures and how much they ended up enjoying it.

I share this with you, because I have learned that, though my need to schedule and know what's going on isn't as intense as her's was, I do have a tendency to make plans and then fall apart when something messes them up. Living with Malcolm and living at the ranch is teaching me to get over it.

And I share that with you so to lead up to my story today, about lessons in letting go.

Malcolm told our broker on Tuesday that we needed to go home next week, and would prefer to get there on the early side of the week. As usual, once this official announcement is made, my mind goes into fast gear, arranging and rearranging what all I want to do while home and the order in which I want to do it. And as I plan the anticipation builds and builds.

On Tuesday afternoon, the broker told us after we delivered in California, we'd take a load of fertilizer to Idaho, and it only made sense to us that he'd be working us home from there. And our minds settled on that and snuggled into that knowledge. So on Wednesday morning when the broker called and said that from Idaho we'd take a load of fertilizer to Texas for Friday, and then run a short load over the weekend, and then reload Monday morning and deliver in California Tuesday, my mind kind of short circuited because to me "home earlier in the week" meant I was home by Tuesday afternoon. Home any time after Tuesday is "later in the week" to me.

I tried to suck it up and act like a big girl, and mostly succeeded for a while. I only let two tear drops escape. And then I became angry. Really really angry. And as usual, as unfair as it is, I kind of took it out on Malcolm. I was angry that we were going so far from the right direction for so many days. I was angry that after almost nine weeks on the road, our broker hadn't recognized my NEED to go home. I was angry that I was sitting there watching all my plans and my precious schedule fall apart like a domino chain. And I was angry at Malcolm for not telling them that this wouldn't work. I was angry!

Fortunately for Malcolm it was his turn to go to bed, and so he was able to slip behind the security of the cab curtain. Bless his heart, here he was worn out, wanting to go home as much as me, and add to that, sick since loading pea flour Monday night (he breathed in too much of the stuff and has been plugged up, raw throated, and feeling miserable ever since), and now his wife isn't talking much and starring at the road ahead. I'm glad for his sake that he got to go to sleep.

I made it out of Sacramento without killing anyone. But my anger was growing and turning to rage. I was raging inside. Raging against trucking, how it was cheating me out of experiences and time. And I raged against Malcolm because he wouldn't say "no." I raged against him even though I knew I didn't have a good enough reason to. I got angrier and angrier, and those poor California drivers...it was a selfish day on the road in California. Everyone was being pretty inconsiderate and it did not help my mood any. I'm sure some of them had singed bumpers from the looks I gave them as they passed, not to mention I had a terrible time staying close to the speed limit. The angrier I became and harder it was to care about the speed limit.

Eventually a little voice started nagging me in the back of my mind. It would whisper and ask what was I doing? And I'd block it out and rage some more. A minute later it would come back and whisper, "you know what to do." But I'd push it aside and rage some more. Why is it that we hold on to anger so much? I don't know how it is for men, but why do we women almost relish staying in our anger? I was coming to realize this was silly, but I didn't want to let the anger go yet! I wanted to be angry! How much sense did that make?

The urging voice whispered again, "You know He has a plan. You know there is a reason for this change in your plans. You know it will all work out and you'll still get home and everything will be just fine! Why are you doing this?"

I literally rolled my eyes at this, and calmed for a moment, but then started thinking again about the big weekend I had planned. A special weekend for me and Malcolm that I'd been looking forward to for 8 weeks! And so much of what I wanted to do in the week after that, hinged on accomplishing some things that weekend. Postponing my plans till the following week would ruin everything! I returned to my hot anger.

But maybe the voice of reason was getting through a little. I don't now, but finally between angry thoughts and threats and venting, I paused for a one line sobbed plea, "God, please fix this!" I was so mired down in my anger that I couldn't manage more than that.

And I went back to my anger again, though a little less heated, but still strong and feeding itself. Have you recognized how very frustrated I was? I was, as usual, over reacting, I know. And I knew that all this was going to work itself out, but I also knew MY plans were all messed up now, and it was just more than I could handle at the moment, obviously. But a minute or two later I was able to take a deep breath and put forth a second request. "God, Please help me."

I was still angry. It just kept coming in waves. But maybe 45 minutes later as I was nearing the California/Nevada line I realized I was daydreaming about my horses, and that I wasn't angry, and that I had even thought to take a picture for the blog as I crossed the Sierra Nevadas.

And I thought to myself, "It will be OK. I'll just deal with whatever happens, and we'll figure it out as we go.There IS a reason for this, and regardless of when, we will still be going home and I'll enjoy it as much as I always do."

At the state line, the curtain unzipped and Malcolm was awake and coming up front. He was about 45 miles early, and I tried to tell him to at least go lay down and rest till we got to the fuel stop. I wanted him to rest because he's been feeling so rotten all week, but even more, I was afraid the fire of my anger was only smoldering and I didn't want to burst into flames again and burn him.

He came up anyway and sat in the passenger seat and we were silent a few minutes. And then he told me he hadn't really processed the time frame for the loads the broker was giving us, and that it was cutting it too close for our weekend plan.

I told him I figured we'd just do it the following weekend.

"Why not go during the next week?" he asked me.

"Because, we have to help ship calves on Monday, and the accountant isn't in her office on Tuesday, and we have dentist appointments on Wednesday, and at some point you have to haul your Dad's cow's home from summer pasture. So we might as well wait till the weekend and that will just have to work."

He sat for a minute, then said "Going to Texas and California messes up everything. I'll talk to the broker in the morning and tell him it would be better if we could go home from Idaho if possible."

It had never occurred to me that he hadn't figured out how close it was cutting our time. I had been blinded by my anger and decided that he just wasn't willing to tell them no.
Another pause, I swallowed my pride. "I'm sorry I took out my frustration on you. That wasn't fair or nice."

It wasn't even 5 minutes before the phone rang.

It was our broker, calling us from his cell phone at home, because office hours were over and he was off duty for the evening. But he had taken off from his personal time to call and tell us the farmer in Texas had just called to cancel the load. So we wouldn't be going to Texas, and thus our California trip wasn't going to work. He was working on figuring out what to do with us from Idaho.

Malcolm told him it was OK, because we really needed to be home sooner anyway. "Oh," the broker said. "I didn't realize. Well there's nothing going to Montana, but we can try to get you to Washington with something and maybe get a load of sunflower seed to Minnesota and then find something there back to Baker or Miles City. I can probably get you home Wednesday at the latest."

After fueling, and eating, and getting the truck greased, Malcolm went back to bed. He was starting to feel rotten again.

And so I drove east, further into Nevada towards Idaho, and God and I had a little conversation which started with a thank you, and a big "I'm sorry."

I'm sorry, Lord, for letting my emotions rule my thinking and not leaning on You. I'm sorry for ignoring what I know. Because I know that You have a plan so much greater than my own, that You have reasons for everything you allow to happen.
And most of all, I'm sorry because I know the right thing to do in any situation is to let go and let You do your job!"

I didn't know what His purpose was in allowing that little episode in my life, but I knew, as that little nagging voice kept trying to tell me, that He had it under control and He had a plan. Even though I was trying to ignore what I knew, I still knew it.

I believe now that I know what His purpose was. He was giving me yet another lesson in letting go. Another reminder, as I need one often, to let go of my plans, let go of my need to know what's going to happen, and rely on Him to direct me on HIS path, down His chosen road, to be apart of His plans. And He was reminding me that sometimes He's just waiting for us to ask for Him to help because He wants to be a part of our lives, even the mundane ordinary parts.

Even the little things can pack a powerful punch. And don't ever think that God only concerns Himself with the big stuff in life. He answers the smallest of requests. Even the "God please fix this" about a silly schedule mix up. And sometimes the answer is "no" but take notice. I asked 2 things. I asked for him to "fix this" and I asked for him to "help me."

He "helped me" first, helped me calm down and accept what was going to happen.

So that even if his answer to the "fix this" had been "no," I would have been at peace with that.

I was and still am overwhelmed with gratitude for His lesson in letting go.

Jeremiah 29:11
¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

More of the Same

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:34:00 +0000

My sister and her family just returned home from a magical trip to the Magic Kingdom,

and Mom and Dad are driving around the Oregon coast as we speak on an incredible dream vacation.

What are we doing? We are on yet another trip from North Dakota to California. All 5 of us are getting really bored with the scenery on this route. The dogs don't even come up to the cab much any more. Even the stuffed ones are sick and tired of this trucking thing.

Which is why I haven't blogged for a while, a little over a week actually. Seeing the same thing over and over does not inspire much. I just haven't been in the mood, haven't had much of interest to share, and quite frankly, I've been too tired to care much about anything. Tired from driving and weary of the road. Which sounds pathetic, and I'm not shopping for sympathy. Just telling you where I've been.

But for whatever reason, the blogging mood struck this morning around 3:00 and I composed three blog posts in my mind as I drove, and then had to choose. I decided to just go update you on what we've been up to and then share other stuff later.

Mt Shasta as viewed from Weed, CA

Last week I think I told you, after our long weekend waiting in Sacramento, we took a load of pears to Portland? Did I tell you or was that on facebook? Well, anyway, that's what we did, and from Portland we bounced empty over to Moses Lake, WA to load more sunflower seeds. Yes, sunflower seeds. I think its the only thing anyone grows anymore!

Along the way, we drove the Columbia River Gorge again, which is always enjoyable, and stopped at a little rest area to take a quick break, and even though we were in a hurry, I took the time to take a picture of Beacon Rock and read the plaques there. It was interesting. I have a dream of taking a vacation like Mom and Dad's with no agenda in which I stop at every single roadside point of interest, all the ones I've driven past over the last 5 years and not gotten to stop to see. Maybe I'll stop at them all twice on my dream trip just to make it up to myself.

Also on the way to Moses Lake, after leaving the river and heading across the high plains of Washington, we found the Columbia again, and crossed it again. I love the way the sky looks in this picture, like that gap in the mountains is sucking not only the river water up, but the sky and clouds too. Kind of interesting.

And on the other side of the river, we climbed the big hill, passing this little water fall...

...and also Wild Horses Monument.

All of those things can be seen from I-90 in central Washington, and we've seen them all before. More of the same for us. But I've not put them on the blog, I think, so it was new stuff to show you so there you go!

And then we arrived in Moses Lake to load our sunflower seeds.

From there, it was off to Breckenridge, MN, once again, more of the same. Drove through Montana which took all night, and morning found us in western North Dakota on a beautiful morning driving past Theodore Roosevelt National park. Doesn't this picture just make you ache to climb on a horse and go explore?

Miles and miles of exploring to be done there. One of these days....

After our sunflower seed load, we took a load of beet pulp pellets to California. More of the same. We made record time so we could get there and deliver early (like 3:00am) Saturday morning, so we could drive back to Sacramento and load sunflower seeds for Fargo. More of the same.

We left Sacramento with what was to be the last load of sunflower seeds from there until November...probably. They were too moist and so they stopped harvesting for a while until the seeds have time to dry out more.

By Sunday morning sunrise, I was west of Billings, MT passing the Crazy Mountain range in a mist of rain with a rainbow behind me and a gorgeous sunrise in front.

We delivered in Fargo yesterday morning, then sat most of the day waiting for Devils Lake, ND to have enough product to load us.

We left there around midnight last night, and this morning we were west of Billings again, looking at the Crazy Mountains from a different angle with a little more snow on top, and a lot more sunshine.

We're hauling another load of pea flour to that mill in Sacramento. More of the same. And from what I hear, we're loading in Stockton tomorrow morning, and heading to Idaho.

From Idaho, who knows. But we're supposed to get home next week sometime...preferably early on. And I swear! If I see California again before we go home for a break, I'll scream!

Ella agrees. She's already practicing. It's been a very successful round on the road, but I think we're all in agreement. Nine weeks is too long to be gone!

I know this whole post sounds rather negative, but I have to share the ups and downs if this is truely going to be a representation of my life. And right now, even though I still enjoy my job and don't want to be doing something else, its just time for a break! I'm physically and mentally weary. But one more week, and I can rejuvinate and boy howdy, am I looking forward to it! Home and Horses... two things that are a garuntee to make me feel better.

The Lucky One

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:31:00 +0000

As it is Monday, it is time to choose someone to receive the gift of the two CD's of George Winston piano music that I love so much! I used Random.org to select the winner from among the comments on the post, and

Dreaming of Living A Dream is the lucky one!

Dreaming, I hope you and Doc and Pippin enjoy the music during this season of good things and giving! Send me an email with your address so I can get those in the mail to you!

I really enjoy his music, and think many of you would as well. You can follow this link to see a list of his recordings, as well as learn more about his music and he may even be performing near you. I've been to one concert and would love to go to another! Consider it if its an option for you!

I like this sharing of good things! I might have to do it more often!

Now, keep reading the next post to learn about our adventures with the sunflower seed circus!

The Sunflower Seed Circus

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:21:00 +0000

And truly, the past week has been a circus of sorts, at least where the sunflower seeds are concerned.

Last Monday we loaded sunflower seed in Foxhome, MN and headed out for a Tuesday morning delivery near Spokane, WA.

We hit the Montana state line late in the evening and were driving through eastern Montana's badland country just in time for sunset.

And as usual, Montana put on a show.

All night long we drove, and were parked at the delivery around 6:00 Tuesday morning. I went to bed, and Malcolm got up to wait for the receiver to open, which they did shorty.

Standard proceedure with any grain load is for the load to be "probed" and a sample taken and tested before unloading. They can be checking for anything from moisture content to how much chaff and dirt are mixed in. And usually everything checks out ok. But not this time. They found bugs in the seed. The company we were delivering to mixes and packages birdseed, and as Mom said when I told her about it, "I thought all birdseed has bugs in it." But apparently that happens after its shipped, because the company didn't want the seed.

The shipper called around to see if any other company nearby would buy it, but no one wanted the problem of cleaning it or the risk of contamination, so we turned the truck around and headed back east through Spokane...

...through a very misty and chilly northern Idaho...

...and back into a Montana that was a different world from the day before, where it had been in the 80's and sunny. Western Montana was cloudy, wintry looking, and 47 degrees sure felt cold!

But then we crossed the mountain east of Butte, and when we hit the ground on the other side, the temperature had adjusted to a balmy 67 degrees and climbing, and the sun was out and shining brightly!

So we drove through the night and were back in Foxhome, MN by 7:00 the next morning, where we returned the rejected sunflower seed to its owner. Don't panick too much. The seed was owned by a mill, so the farmer was most likely already paid for it. And fortunatly, we get paid to haul it no matter which direction its going, so we got paid to haul it to Washington and then bring it back to Minnesota. The only ones who were in the hole so to speak were the seed owners. And the birdseed mill was in a pinch b/c they were out of that particular type of seed and in need of some, but at least they hadn't lost any money.

After that there was a bit of a wait to see if the place in Spokane could round up another load of seed for us to bring them in an hurry, but no such luck. So we headed north to Devil's Lake, ND to load some pea starch, which always goes to California.

And on the way west, North Dakota tried to outshine Montana's sunset. It was a close competition.

We stopped for a few hours over night near Ennis, MT, just west of Yellowstone, and you've already heard all about what happened that night and over the course of the next day. SNOW!

We were only in the snow during the morning hours. The rest of the day and evening was on dry roads and since there was no hurry we just kicked back and took it easy.

After delivering on Friday morning south of Sacramento, we drove to the north side of town to pick up sunflower seeds for another trip to Fargo. And the sunflower seed circus came to town again. This time, it was on account of all that mountain top snow, which had been rain in California. The sunflower field was too damp to harvest. They wanted to give it another day to dry out, and told us they'd try and harvest Saturday morning. So the four trucks that were there to load Friday were just out of luck, us included. We all parked at the only truck stop in Sacramento to wait and see.

It is in fact the only truck stop between Reno, NV and San Francisco, and their food is lousy, their building is not kept clean, and they charge trucks $12 a day to park there, unless you spend $50 in the store or restaurant or buy 75 gallons of their over priced fuel. But we didn't have any other options on places to go and wait.

And then Saturday morning the sunflower ringmaster came over to the truck stop to tell us it was still too damp, and they just figured they'd wait till Monday and see how it was. That was really discouraging. I wish they had just made the decision on Friday so that the broker could have found us something else to do. But there was nothing to be done at that point. The broker was off hunting, and most places are closed on the weekend, and so we were just out of luck, along with the other 4 trucks. One of the other drivers was from a town close to our home town, and we spent the weekend visiting with him over meals at a much better restaurant he showed us down the road. We ate to fill the time, and in between meals, I read books, and Malcolm played on the computer, and the girls did what the girls seem to do most of the time...

After an absolutely gorgeous weekend weather wise, Monday morning dawned very gray and ominous looking.

We were all a little apprehensive about how things might turn out. We were called out to the field as the second truck. The first truck got loaded, but as they were finishing him up, it started to sprinkle lightly. And by the time we had pulled into position, it was getting steadily harder. They tried to keep harvesting, but it wasn't long before the sunflower heads were holding the seed instead of releasing them, and so they stopped work, and we headed back to the truck stop. No harvesting till tomorrow, if then.

In addition to the four trucks from Friday, there were now also the four trucks that should have loaded today! We expected to not be around till tomorrow, and sure enough, it wasn't a half hour before our broker had something else for us to do... thank goodness! So long Sacramento!

We drove 40 miles north to load pears. Pears don't mind getting wet!

We'll be in Vancouver, WA in the morning, rain or shine, and unload these pears, rain or shine! Let it rain, it won't matter!

And then the tentative plan is to drive to eastern Washington and load.......sunflower seed. Keep your fingers crossed that the circus is over and has taken down the tent for the year!

Switching Gears

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 18:15:00 +0000

I realize we were just discussing Autumn and how much we all enjoy it, but we're going to have to switch gears here for just a moment. It is the first week of October after all, and so there shouldn't be any issue in moving ahead and thinking about winter, or seeing it in action for that matter. Do you mind?

There will be no complaints about bug splatter on the windshield in this post. That is not what is interfering with my pictures. And though, at a glance, it might look like innocent rain, it was not that either that caused an out of focus photograph of lodge pole pines south of Yellowstone.

No, my friends, those would be splattered snow flakes. Not convinced? How about now? Can you see them here?

Still not good enough for you? Well you can try to be in denial all you want, but no one can ignore the evidence I present in the next picture.

Yesterday morning we were traveling south through the northeastern side of Idaho, making our way towards California. The pictures above were all taken while in the higher elevations. At Ashton, ID, the road descends a steep hill, aptly named the "Ashton Hill" and drops down onto lower, flatter ground. About 60 miles later we stopped in Idaho Falls to shower and have breakfast.

We had left the snow flurries in the mountains, so we were a bit surprised when, as we pulled off the exit ramp, suddenly the sky filled with snow flakes...and we're not talking flurries. I said snow flakes, quite a lot of them.

We showered and then went to the cafe and enjoyed a nice brunch while watching the heavy snow showers very quickly and efficiently cover...everything!

Mind you, I'd been keeping up with the weather, having noticed that the mountains in numerous states were expecting a decent first winter snow. But we had not expected to see snow once we left the mountains, especially since it wasn't snowing in the mountains we'd just left.

By the end of breakfast, there were golf ball size wads of snow falling rapidly out of the sky and splattering and sticking to lots of things.

And I suddenly had three very disgruntled Chinese Cresteds on my hands.

To them, the wet and cold is bad enough, but having to put clothes on is a HUGE insult! However, at 33 degrees, I figured we might as well get the initial "I hate my lady b/c she puts clothes on me" fits over with.

Those fits will continue with Jean throughout the entire winter season. Paris eventually puts two and two together and seems to understand that she's warmer. (she is the smartest one in the lot after all) And Ella has always been kind of indifferent to clothes season, though she did back away from me some this year when she saw what was coming. We'll see how she handles it in the months to come.

The snow was over just south of Idaho Falls and we were in rain till we got to the Nevada line at Jackpot, NV. But those golden hills of my post from last week had a new show to put on. They all got dressed up in lace Wednesday night.

About 70 miles south of Jackpot is I-80, some glorious mountains, and the town of Wells, none of which could be seen. Apparently there were still some lingering snow showers.

In fact, there were a few more scattered showers here and there, but they all stayed well south of the interstate, and we only had a few stray spatters on our windshield through the evening.

There had been some moments of irritation earlier in the day when we read that California was requiring snow chains to cross Donner's Summit in the Sierra Nevadas. Our snow chains were in the garage at home. Nice place for them don't you think? We were holding out as long as possibly so we didn't have to haul around the added weight, but plans this year were to buy new chains, and so we picked up the necessary number of sets while in Idaho Falls and got that over with. Luckily, and we figured it would go this way, the chain laws were lifted long before we got to the NV/CA line around midnight on Thursday. But we've got the chains now, so let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Ok, not really. I love winter, but I'd like to enjoy a few more weeks of Autumn if you don't mind? After all I just got started on my celebration! We'll think about winter later.

End Notes:

Annette, thank you for the blog award! I am touched. I am so glad you enjoy my blog!

To all: If your just catching up with me, be sure to check out the following post. I'm sharing some of my favorite seasonal (that would be Autumn seasonal) piano music with a lucky person. Winner to be announced on Monday.

The Season of Good Things and Giving

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:48:00 +0000

Autumn to me is the season of good things and giving. There is something in the air, even at the first hints of the coming of Autumn, that electrifies my soul. Autumn feeds my senses with delights.

When the first colors start to make their appearance, my eyes feast on the variations. There is something thrilling about discovering the first leaves of color change. I love the colors of Autumn!

I love the tastes of Autumn. Surely you've noticed that the flavor of our food completely changes when the season changes. I start to crave things like beef stew and soups, home made bread and pecan pie. My newest craving is for some of these sticky-bun pumpkin muffins Mom made last weekend. Just their name has "Fall" written all over it! I can't wait to try the recipe when we get home.

The food falls into the scents of Autumn as well. I can just imagine how wonderful those muffins must smell. But even more than the scents of the food, I love the sharp smells the outside air takes on. The smells of baked grasses, warm earth, and so much more. I couldn't even really pin point what all goes into the "smell of Autumn" but it does have its own smell and I enjoy every whiff I get.

I love the sounds of Autumn! The crunch of dry grasses under my boots, the rattle of the breeze in dried leaves.

Even the birds songs seem to change. They are just as pretty as ever, but they seem to carry a new message, a note of "hurry," a calling together of friends to prepare for what's to come. I love listening to the birds songs in Autumn.

Another sound of Autumn for me is the music of George Winston. When I was a girl, my mom shared a record album with me. It was called December and I loved it. I've loved it ever since. When the colors start to appear in the trees, and the grasses start to crunch, and good food starts to be craved, I get my December CD out and start listening to it.

It wasn't just the December album that my Mom gave me really, but a treasure of good music. I have since acquired a number of George Winston's albums and listen to them frequently. My other favorite of his is his Autumn album, and it too gets played frequently during this season.

There is just something about this season that speaks to me. Does it speak to you too? There is something exciting about it. And I love to share good things with my good friends. I can't share those muffins with you when I bake some, and I can't go for a walk with you on a beautiful fall day, but I can share the music of autumn with you! Here is a little sampling. Can you hear why I love it so much?

A few of my favorite songs from my favorite two albums are on that playlist. And since Autumn begins, at least for me, a season of giving, I'm going to share the music of my favorite pianist further by giving these 2 Cd's to someone. I'll draw a name from the comments list next Monday, 10/10/11. If you would like a chance to be the one receiving the the Autumn and December CDs, all you have to do is leave me a comment on this post and share with us what your favorite thing about Autumn is.

(And before I go, I just wanted to share a note on the cabin pictures in this post. This cabin sits by the road down near the summer pasture. It is an old log church, with a tiny graveyard hidden in the tall grasses nearby. I know nothing about its age or history, but hope to learn more about it in the future. I bet it has a story to tell.)

Last Stretch of the California Trail

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:53:00 +0000

The picture above is of I-80 in Nevada where Hastings Cuttoff rejoins the Californai Trail for the last stretch of the journey west. For those who aren't familiar with it, Hastings Cuttoff was a proposed short cut that cut off almost 300 miles from the journey to California, saving travelers nearly a month of time. It is also a huge part of the reason for the Donner Party's ruin, as they were one of the first groups to take the trail, and in its fairly unexplored status, they had many setbacks.

Nevada is a lovely state. We were talking the other day about population growth and other matters, and the question of where we'd go to live to get away from people was posed. Malcolm said Alaska, but I don't want to be so far from family. My answer was Nevada.

Nevada is empty and remote. Perhaps that's why I like it. I read the other day that it averages 24 people per square mile, but they must all live in Las Vegas and Reno. In fact, according to a website, 2/3 of the states population lives in Las Vegas and 86% of the state's land is owned by the federal government! I'm convinced you could walk out across these hills for miles and miles and only the occasional fence and dirt road would give testament to human settlement.

From Hastings Cuttoff on west, I-80 follows the California Trail, traveling along the route of the Humbolt River.

Water is sparse in this environment. It is a land of sage brush, scraggly grasses, and rock. Harsh winters, dry summers, its a rugged land that appeals to rugged souls.

These wide open spaces are the homes to ranches, but from observation, it seems the bulk of the towns are mining towns, just as they have been for decades, since the discovery of silver in western Nevada in 1859. The Comstock Lode opened the doors to Nevada's future as a mining state. Everything from silver, gold, copper, lead and more has been and still are mined here! Mining remains a successful industry in this part of the country. In 2004, Nevada accounted for 8.7% of the world's gold production!

Driving through Nevada, especially when we get off the interstate and hit the back roads, I always feel a little bit like I've gone back in time. I think of Nevada as having never grown up from the old west. The rest of the western states "civilized," at least partially, but Nevada kind of held on to its western ways. Every space is so empty and rustic and rough. What few towns you run across are small and weathered. Bars are more prevalent than churches, and whore houses are easy to locate.
(I know because they openly advertise on the CB radio. As you approach almost every "major" town, the girls are on the CB chatting with the truckers and giving directions. )

A man (or woman) could lose themselves out here. Pack supplies on a mule and walk off into the hills and never have to deal with society again, except on rare occasions when you come back in to resupply. I honestly think there are a number of people out there that have done just that! I've heard that prospecting is still active here. And the Walmart in Winnemucca has an entire shelving unit dedicated to bulk dehydrated foods. Even if they aren't being hermits, stocking up is apparently a big must around here.

A mill at Toulon, NV used to process tungsten and precious metals. It was in use from 1892 into the 1930's.

At Lovelock, the trail splits again. One path went north to finish the journey. The other is now the path that I-80 follows, through Reno, past Donner's Lake where the wagon train spent that awful winter, across Donner's Summit and the Sierra Nevada mountains, and into California's rich fertile lands.

sunsets in Nevada are almost as spectacular as they are in Montana

We end up on this stretch of I-80 pretty often, and every time I find myself thinking about those earlier pioneers. How they must have struggled to cross this land, and were the rewards at the end of the trail worth it? They must have thought so. I still prefer the Nevada side of the mountains to the California side. So I'm always a little relieved to get our business done in CA and head back over the mountains, back into the remoteness, where I can breath a little easier, stretch out a little, drive in a more relaxed state, because I don't have very much traffic to worry over. Its just me and the road and a handful of other trucks making our way to the next destination, which in this case was home.

We're home for a couple days, waiting to deliver more sunflower seed in Fargo on Monday. I have forced myself to sit here and blog because I wanted to share these pictures and my thoughts on Nevada. The girls appreciate your attention because they have enjoyed my stillness. I have one wrapped around my neck, one curled up on the blanket near me, and the third....she's sitting in the sun on the back of the couch where Malcolm's asked her not to be. Well, its just for a momen so I'm leaving here there. She's happy.
But I'm done blogging now, and I'm going to sneak outside to absorb some fresh Montana air, sunshine, fall flavors, and a horse hug or two..or three..or...

24 Hours Near Heaven

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:02:00 +0000

We just spent 24 hours in the closest spot we can get to heaven without actually going there. HOME!

We drove ourselves all night and through the day, stopping in Billings for a few hours that I resented but were necessary. The truck has been sporting a lovely orange check engine light for the past week so we needed to get that checked out. Fortunately it turned out to be a broken wire causing communication issues for the truck computer. Easy quick fix once they had time to get to us. And then it we had two errands and a stop at Walmart for truck groceries (we were out of EVERYTHING in here) and then the last miles to home. We arrived at 10:00 on Saturday night.

I look forward to the day I get to go to heaven! It will be wonderful and God can take me there whenever He's ready. But for now, home feels pretty close to being there, and I'll enjoy every moment I get.

During our 24 hours near heaven, we:

Slept in our bed for 6 whole hours! Which was not near enough! But it sure felt nice!

I washed 5 weeks worth of dirty laundry ,plus all the bedding, utilizing both our washer and my in-laws! It took the whole day, and both my and my mother-in-law, but I assure you, the interior of the truck smells much better now and we have a plentiful supply of clean things to wear!

Malcolm went with his dad to an auction in the morning, and of course they found treasures to bring home.

And then in the afternoon we all met down at the summer pasture to move the pairs that were there closer to the corrals so they could be worked today.

I didn't take the camera out with me on the 4wheeler b/c I'd taken my Nikon instead of my little Cannon Elph. So no cow moving pictures. Maybe next time. I also forgot to take along my allergy medicine, and so once again I'm suffering the effects that a large herd of cows stirring up dust and pollen seem to create for me. When will I learn?

Afterwards, we went into town to eat, and then home to throw our stuff in the truck and hit the road. We left the house at 10:00pm. Call us pathetic, but we only made it to Wibeax before stopping. That's only about an hour and a half. Malcolm had already layed down and I was going to drive as far as I could before stopping. I didn't make it far. But I wasn't going to go any further and run the risk. I was just too tired. So we slept there a few hours and then finished the trip to Fargo early this morning.

Now we're unloaded and headed to reload a short trip to South Dakota, then we'll grab a load and go to California, where we're slotted to reload sunflowers and come back to Fargo, probably by Friday.

Amid all our rushed and hurried home activities, I did manage to squeeze in some hurried quality time with the horses. Lucky me, they were all standing together, even though they are in two different pastures, so I didn't have to travel to say hello to everyone. Malcolm's parent's had told us that Gemma had darkened up considerably, but WOW!

This is Gemma in August, about 6 weeks ago. She was just starting to show signs of turning color in a few places.

And this is Gemma yesterday! Talk about a difference! It was expected, but still amazing!

She is quite the character. Still finds me a little intimidating, but if I sit down or kneel, she's immediately over to me to visit and get a scratching, and she's slowly getting used to the tall version of me. Give her a break. She doesnsn't get to see me that often!
I discovered during this visit that she likes her belly scratched as much as the dogs do, and if you scratch her rump, she'll practically sit down in your lap from the pleasure of it!

With her standing so close, its easy to see all her markings, and she has some neat spots on her legs. She wears bracelets on both her front legs. I think they are cute!

While I was busy visiting with the girls...

...the boys were in a huddle on the other side of the fence trying to figure out how to get me and that bucket over closer to them.

I did go over and visit and handed out cookies, and discovered that all three of them had been rolling and rubbing their heads in something very sticky. It was not a pleasant petting session so I ended it early. And when they realized that was all they were getting, they finally got bored enough to go on about their business of the day.

The fall colors are starting to make their appearance. I love this time of year!

It was kind of hard to leave home after such a short visit. We weren't real pleased about it. But we've committed to staying out till the end of October. Calves ship on Halloween, and we'll stay out till time to go home to help with that and do some other things, and rest up for another round of trucking. It is so tempting sometimes to just throw in the towel and forget it all and go home permanently, but that's not realistic. Until the time comes when we can do so responsibly, these short breaks will have to do. And we'll take as many of them as we can get.

Anyone want to take a guess at what color Gemma is going to finish up as? Originally I said buckskin, but I'm leaning more towards Grulla for now. I guess only time will tell. What do you think?

Crossings

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 23:27:00 +0000

It seems like whenever I've reached the end of my strength, energy, or patience, God creates a situation to give me a boost. Today was such a day. I was beyond tired, worn down, dragging my feet, and not expecting to make it much longer. I need a break. And though one is not visible as of yet, other things, it seems, can pick me up and get me going again. Things like incredible beauty and a visit with friends!

This morning we delivered a load of pears in Vancouver, WA. Vancouver is just across the state line and the Columbia River from Portland, OR. As we crossed the river into Washington, sunrise was just finishing up its show. It was looking like it would be a really pretty day on the Columbia River.

if you look close you can see Mount Hood in the haze on the horizon

We had to wait a little while to unload because some of their equipment was broken. But after a while they had it repaired and were able to unload the pears. They use a conveyor to pile them into wood crates. These pears were for juicing.

Afterwards, we skipped back across the river to Portland to washout the trailer, and then another jaunt across the river for the third time today to hop on US14 and head east towards Pasco, WA.

I know I've shared again and again about driving along the Columbia River Gorge. Its just one of those scenic drives you never get tired of. At least I don't, and so I hope you don't get tired of seeing it.

Mount Hood viewed from US14 near Vancouver, WA

You can't drive along this river and not gape at the scenery. Whether its foggy, windy, raining, sweltering hot, or icy....it doesn't matter. There is always something to admire. And my favorite spot is a break in the trees that provides a spectacular look at the gorge and all its glory.

The pavement and the railroad twist and wind along side by side, sharing the space on the banks and matching each other tunnel for tunnel, though sometimes the railroad tunnels aren't as dressed up as the roadway's. But I actually like them better in their rawness. I'd like to go in one and see it's insides.

The entire morning was very enjoyable. We are tired and drained and don't have a break anytime in the immediate future, but something about the morning seems to have energized me a bit. I think it had to do with the beauty of the day, the delights of God's creations...

...and probably a big boost to my mood was a visit we had about half way to our reload.

As it turned out, the farm girl of Critter Farm, her husband, and her faithful farm dog, Roxie, were finishing up what sounds like a marvelous vacation at a delightful little spot along our route! I can't wait till she gets home and posts about all their fun! It sounds like it was just what I need! I'll just have to experience through her blog posts. Anyway, they were out there camping near our route, and since our paths were crossing, we couldn't just drive by and not say hello. Plus I had to meet Roxie!

It was a very short (basically long enough to let the girls out to potty and hug Danni and Roxie) but wonderful little visit. I just think the world of Danni and her husband and her critters! She is such a delightful lady! And as if her great company wasn't enough, she is so thoughtful. She brought Malcolm and I a couple of cool drinks to enjoy and a baggie of cookies for Roxie to share with the girls. We were touched by their thoughtfulness and generosity!

We couldn't stay and visit near as long as I would have liked. The sooner we get over here to the Pasco area to load, the more likely it is we might have a few moments to park and sleep before delivering. And when I say moments, I mean mere moments, if that! So we rushed our visit and then hit the road in a hurry. But Danni certainly boosted my spirit and energy just in those few moments of shared time. Her energy and enthusiasm is infectious!

If your not familiar with her blog, you MUST visit, and be sure to check out her most recent post about her hen Honey, and the little vacation she's taking while the Critter Farm owners have been on their own excursion! Honey had me and Malcolm chuckling and breaking out in grins even in our tiredness of the morning.

After our visit, we skipped over the river to the Oregon side to finish the last leg of our trip. And on the Oregon side, we passed beneath the rocky hillsides that seem so steep you'd think nothing could be there but grass and rocks. But on occasion we see some surprising critters there, and this morning there were a number of them grazing on their favorite rocky slope, and Malcolm spotted them in time for me to manage to grab the camera and get off a shot, though it came out a bit furry.

We'll skip back across the river again here in a bit and load in Washington. Let's see...that makes 5 crossings of the Columbia River today! And actually it will be 6 by the end of the day, because once we're loaded, we'll cross it again and head south. We'll deliver in Sacramento in the morning, and then its another sunflower load bound for Fargo, ND!
I don't think we've worked this hard in years! We're both feeling it too, weary doesn't begin to describe. But the payoff will be well worth it. I just hope there is a bit of a break somewhere in our future. I'm not sure I can keep going at this pace for another 5 weeks! And that's how long we plan to stay out before taking another home time leave!