The location of a proposed personal and RV storage project off Airport Road, the third storage project heard by the Planning Commission in as many months.
We branded our late calves this past weekend and had a ranch full of wonderful guests for whom I cooked. I spent a good two days before everyone arrived cleaning my in-laws old house and the bunkhouse. On a ranch, you always have to do a pre-company sweep for mouseys. I also needed to dust and tidy up around both places. Our friends and family are an incredible crew who also helped us with some long over due gate and water gap projects along with branding those last few calves.
It feels mighty good to have everything on the ranch branded and by the end of this week, most everything home from the mountains. Patrice handles all of the horseback work and I help her with logistics and support.
Being honest, besides being really thankful to have a big part of fall cow work in the books, my other feeling after the weekend was complete exhaustion. Setting up a couple houses and cooking for 15-20 people was a big challenge for me this time around. It is something I used to take in stride; but these days, I have to plan for it and execute that plan over several days. If I don’t, I end up so tired that I can’t enjoy my friends and family.
So, I made enchiladas and chili verde days in advance and froze them. I made beans early too. I whipped up the guacamole the afternoon before, and made a big pot of sausage gravy for our branding breakfast at the same time.
I took a number of short cuts too. For our supper the night before branding, I chose to start my bbq chicken in the oven and just finish it up on the grill. It was delicious and it sure was easier. If anyone noticed, no one said a word. All I saw were folks loading up on seconds and a lot of cleaned plates at the end of our meal. I used paper plates, plastic forks and cups. I made refrigerator biscuits to go with my homemade sausage gravy. When I realized that I’d forgotten part of supper, I just let it go, and thought “SO WHAT?” Nobody really missed the extra veggies. I also said YES, when people offered to help. My 83 years young mom was a huge helper and she loves being up here, visiting and helping me in the thick of fall cow work.
There’s a lot of pride and tradition that goes into branding weekends and meals. Trust me, I won’t slip so far as to serve folks bologna sandwiches; but, I’ve decided not to kill myself either. I guess that may mean that as I grow older, I’m also growing newer at the same time. I think it’s just fine to employ short cuts, take help and anything else I can think of, if we still get the job done, crews fed, and are able to enjoy friends and family. Bottom line is - that is what it’s all about. If it were just about the numbers, you’d brand everything through a chute, and serve cold sandwiches at the end. Old or not, I can still do better than that.
Kris Stewart is a rancher in Paradise Valley, Nevada.