I wanna be a cowgirl...

Do they do cow tipping in the states?

Yes they do. (For uninitiated, cows sleep standing up - and a source of youthful rural mayhem is to sneak up on a sleeping cow and rush it in unison, tipping it over, then watch hilarity ensue when the cow is shocked awake - not fun for the cow, but cheap thrills for the kids)

Awhile back I was having dinner with a friend, who noted that his niece was attending a small college in a rural area and all they had to do for fun was cow tipping.

Trying to make a smartaleck joke, I said to him, "How much should one tip a cow?" At that EXACT moment, our waitress showed up from behind me, having obviously heard my comment....

as long as I have a face you've got a place to sit it....

Here in Wisconsin, cow tipping is not at all uncommon. One thing of which cow tippers should beware, though; a bull wakened from a sound sleep by the distressed lowing of a tipped cow likely is gonna be a pretty pissed-off, one-ton-plus critter with a fair turn of speed and not much regard for a mere barbed wire fence. Learned that when I was around 13 or 14 years old.

Ok... I'm back online finally! Well folks... I'm hanging up my cowgirl hat. You guessed it... I couldn't hack it. LOL I lasted four days. Well... ok... I was diagnosed with asthma nine or ten months ago. I've never had a problem though. I went out west and had my first real asthma attack on Sunday. So needless to say I told him I wouldn't be able to do the job seeing how every day it was getting a little bit harder for me to breathe... Man that was fun though! Kind of like a mini-working... vacation sort of thing. So anyway, here's a few of the pictures I promised. I'll have to post a few more tomorrow after I've rested up a bit.



This is me and Buddy one of the horses. Yeah... It was a WEE bit cold that morning! Ack...



This is Junior the resident deer there. He's very sweet and he loved my dog as you will see in the next picture...



There they are... Junior would chase my dog around the yard until he would finally play with him. LOL

Now for the really good stuff...



I just happened to catch this one evening as the sun was setting. It gave such a nice red hue to the mountain in my front yard...



And last but not least, my Mom took this picture one afternoon. Yes, snow capped mountains in June. Imagine that...

It was definitely BEEEautiful out there. It's too bad about the asthma thing. I think I might have liked that kind of work. Well, admittedly it was a wee bit harder than I originally thought it would be. He wanted a lot more out of me than I think I could give. I must be getting old or something... LOL I miss the good old days... back when I was 18 and could throw a bale of hay like a sack of potatoes... man oh man... so anyway, I'll talk to you all soon. I must get some rest that was a hard three and a half day drive home! WHEW!

Hey, sounds like it was an adventure! Pity about the asthma. Purty pics!

Sorry to hear it didn't go quite the way you'd hoped. But hey, at least you got to try it, you had fun (even if the work part mighta been more than you'd anticipated), its sure purty country thereabouts, and you were there, not just wondering what it would be like to be there. Thats a pretty neat deal/big thing all by itself ... congrats.

Absolutely, bean there-done that.

Your new motto: Concrete regrets--but no vain regrets.

Glad you're back.

Congratulations!! At least you went out there and experienced as much as you could before the asthma hit. It would have been great fun if you had been able to stay a little longer. Yes, the work is very heavy duty, but to learn about cattle and sassy horses would have given you memories for a lifetime.

I just read your profile and it looks like you are doing exactly what you want to do with your life.

Has anyone heard anything from hephzibah since this thread started? I suspect she's been made into a ranchers love slave!

Then she'll be needing this:

Sozobe wrote:



Thanks Sozobe.

timberlandko wrote:



Thanks Timber. I had great fun while I was out there. It was exhausting though. I am so glad I gave it a chance. I got a lot out of this trip. A LOT. Most important thing is that I don't feel misplaced anymore. When I moved back to FL I wasn't sure where I belonged really. If I even really had a "home" so to speak. Making this trip and trying something new helped me to realize a little better where my place is in life, and that it hasn't changed. Home really is where your heart is. It's not a matter of surroundings or belongings, it's a state of mind, a sense of peace. We can have that anywhere I believe as long as that is where we want to be.

dyslexia wrote:



Good 'ol Dys LOL

Noddy24 wrote:



You got that right girl! No vain regrets. We only get one life... we may as well live it to the fullest eh? Thanks Noddy.


Diane wrote:



Thanks Diane. Well, I do have some good memories now. I think the best one of all is just the fact that after some of the things I've been through lately I still was willing and able to take a risk on something I wasn't so sure about. That makes me feel good. Like I didn't totally lose myself in a bad marriage. That's what I was really afraid of I guess. That work was HARD CORE, non stop, heavy duty, wow... work. LOL It was fun though. Chasing those horses around the pasture, trying to round 'em up and bring them in was such a hoot! I never got to meet the cows though. I was suppose to do that the day I left.

I still have more dreams to pursue. Though I think for now I'm just going to settle here in FL and get a little bit of normalcy back in my life for awhile. I was offered a job here working in an emergency shelter for runaway teens and I turned it down to go out west. I called them before I came back to see if they would still consider hiring me. They were so excited that I was coming back. I thanked them profusely for still letting me work for them, and she was like, "No, no, no, it is me who should be thanking you for coming back to work for us!" How awesome. I figure maybe if I'm good with my money for awhile I could buy a little piece of land here and a small house and do some sort of emergency rescue/shelter type of thing for horses. Yet another dream of mine. We'll see though...

NickFun wrote:



Howdy Nickfun. I'm back. And NO I was not made into a ranchers love slave! So I guess I won't be needing that body detergent after all... :wink:

So, with all that said... Here's the rest of the pictures I promised...



This was the driveway to the Ranch. That little group of trees waaaay of in the distance is actually where everything was. The driveway was somewhere around a mile long I think... Whew... now THAT would be some shoveling in the winter eh? LOL



This is the cabin my parents stayed in while they were there.



This was the Ranch House. They had three rooms in there where guests could stay. It's where we ate and hung out as well.



This is Buddy again. Pretty horse. Very well mannered as well. I really liked him.







More horses!



This was looking out across one of their fields. Just past that third hill line is where their property ended on that side. They owned 38,000 acres. Man that's a lot of land!



Those are the Ruby Mountains. Looking the other direction from the last picture.





And those were my other two sunset pictures. Man my digital camera takes better pictures that I originally thought it did. I wish I would have had more time to take pictures. You can't really do it any justice to try to describe how it was out there. It was breath taking... literally... LOL Well... see ya'll on the boards! Whoooooo!

Unfit because of asthma for the Cowgirl Life in the Wild West, Our Heroine moves to Florida for the Hurricane Season.

Hold your dominion.

Nice photos. It's funny the way life takes it's twists and turns.

Perhaps it just wasn't meant to be.

Hopefully, you'll find your path soon.

LOL! Well... at least hurricanes bring in plenty of air to breathe eh? Hehehe...

You know Reyn, I was just looking at those pictures again and I realized something... Life does have it's twists and turns. Some good. Some bad. But just like the pictures of the mountains, how it looks depends on how the light shines on it. Those are all the same mountains, just looking at them from different angles at different times of the day. Our lives go through seasons. Sometimes it's hard and cold looking. Sometimes it's breath-taking, awe inspiring. I think all aspects of our lives are important. All angles. All perspectives. It is those very things that shapes us and makes us who we are.

Ok I haven't given up just yet I guess.

I was browsing the internet the other day and decided to go to this site that has a bunch of horse jobs. I have a profile there but since the NV trip hadn't been looking really. I figured it was time to just dig my heels in and deal with the consequences of my decisions over the last year. (ie marriage) So... I had to sign in which put my profile right up at the top of the list. A half an hour later I get an email from a dude ranch in TN that would like me to come up there for a trial period because they are interested in me as the head wrangler.

Hummm....

I call just for information. Sounds interesting. Can I have my pets? Yes. Ok, now we're in business. I talk to my parents and they tell me to go for it. Well, ok I'm not going for it in the literal sense of the word. Not like NV. I'm taking me, my dog, and a few belongings and going up there for a 60 training period. I figure I'll know within a week if I can do the job or not. There's a couple of cool things about this though. First off, if it does work out it puts me smack dab in the middle of both of my fathers. No more feelings of being torn between the two, or feeling like I'm favoring one by being closer.

Second of all I get my independence back. I'm on my own again, not working a measly $8 an hour job, trying to find something to supplement my income. And third of all if it doesn't work out I'm not losing anything here. My boss is giving me a leave of absence to go try this job out. So I won't be off the payroll while I'm gone or go through the hiring process again if I come back. AND he's leaving my status at work as assistant manager in training. Heh... now THAT'S cool. I'll be getting paid for the time I'm there so I won't be losing financially either. Whew...

It's a ranch in NE TN. I can't remember how many acres they own. It's IN the smokey mountains, but I don't think their elevation is that high, so my asthma shouldn't be a problem either. Plus it's not dry and dusty there like NV was. They own... get this... 60 arabian horses. OMG. Arabians? They just happen to be my favorite horses in the whole world. They provide food, housing, bills, and a salary. Granted, the salary is not huge, but it's more than enough to pay my bills and put some in the bank too.

I'm a little worried about the physical aspect of it. That's what caused me so many problems in NV. I went from basically sitting on my rear babysitting kids all day to running myself ragged in a dry, dusty, high elevation place. I just about killed myself with that one. Heh... However, I've lost 10 lbs since then, I'm on my feet all day at the gas station, usually running around doing stuff in between customers, so I might be a little better off this time.

At any rate, that's my story. I'm heading out on a new adventure. Next Saturday I'll be leaving early in the morning. If there's one thing I've come to realize recently is that I want a place to call home. Ever since my marriage fell apart I've suffered from this feeling of not belonging anywhere. Not knowing what my place is in this world. Well, I suppose losing my religion has something to do with that too. I'm excited, scared, and thrilled all at once. I'm ready now to start living my life again I think. To stop sitting in a corner crying because everything's fallen apart.

Just a quick update for those who care:

My step dad has done well on the chemo. It has pretty much gotten rid of everything they detected. However, there was a spot on his hip that shrank with the chemo too. That means it's gotten in his blood stream and has spread. So, they say it will come back and since that is the case it could reappear anywhere. But they are intending to continue chemo on him until it doesn't work anymore. They also found new spots in his knees and lower spine on the last scan they did. They did not give a definite prognosis, but said he could have anywhere from two to ten years left. It just depends on the cancer and well... him. Everyone is different.

My paternal father is through with his chemo. They did a CAT scan and were disappointed to see that the tumor in his shoulder had not shrunk as much as they anticipated with the chemo. However, he's feeling pretty good, and getting around just fine for now. He even went to Pennsylvania to visit relatives for christmas. They will be doing another CAT scan soon to check on the tumor. His prognosis is still two years max though.

I won't be taking my computer with me to TN. I'm not sure if I'll have access to the internet there or not, and I think a break would do me good anyway. If it all works out I'll be coming back to FL in a few months to get my things, and by then hopefully will have figured out how to get access to the internet. A break is fine... but it really is a big part of my entertainment in life.

So anyway, just in case I don't make it back here before I leave I wanted to wish you all well and thank you for the help and support you gave me while I was struggling so much in life. I know it got old after a while. I'm sorry about that. That's why I left. I got tired of being a burden and it became abundantly clear to me finally that is exactly what I had become. But, believe it or not, many of you did have a very strong impact on my life and I am grateful for that.

So with that said I will bid you all farewell for now. I don't know if I'll be back. Honestly I hope I won't. Not because of you but because I want to move on with my life now. I want to find my home and my place in this world. I really hope this is it. I'm trying to remain optimistic without getting my hopes too incredibly high. At the very least though, it will be yet another adventure to add to my list. We all know how I love adventure. *sigh*

Take care of yourselves. Many of you are in my thoughts very often and will remain there. Best wishes to all of you.

Sincerely,

Hephzibah

See you round, CowGirl.

Enjoy your adventuring!

See ya round like a rissole heptitude.

Forward
HO-ooo!

I wish you well Heph!

Take care of yourself as you wrangle and enjoy your adventure!

In a way, I envy you, being able to live as our forefathers did in
a time so long ago.

On second thought, naaaaah!

All the best!!!! :wink: