I\u00a0have been\u00a0debating whether it is too soon to relate a most recent experience of my life here on the ranch? The “I will” won. Here goes…Ok, I admit that I am a curious sort, responsible\u00a0and yes, a glutton for punishment! Now having said all of that, I literally do not have one single solitary excuse as to why I get myself in the darndest predicaments. Incidentally, I might add, I always have a reason for doing what I do. I think so, anyway. \u00a0Now that we have all of my defense laid out,\u00a0let’s get on\u00a0to the most recent source of excitement in my life. Here, in black and white,\u00a0is how it happened.
\nThe sun was cresting the top of the horizon as I\u00a0started down\u00a0the mile long\u00a0drive\u00a0leading away from the ranch house. I was ready for a fun filled day of painting in Palo Duro Canyon along with Anna, my mother-in-law.\u00a0As\u00a0I\u00a0looked back over my shoulder,\u00a0I noticed one of\u00a0“my” heifers laying out on her side in a birthing position. I stopped my rig, backed up, hopped out, and\u00a0ran back\u00a0to the house. I needed to\u00a0rouse my groggy husband\u00a0from his warm bed\u00a0so he could\u00a0tend “my” heifer.\u00a0Half awake, Jim said in a\u00a0not so convincing alert\u00a0manner that, “yes”, he would handle it, and Anna and I\u00a0were to\u00a0go on and\u00a0have a good time painting. As I walked back to\u00a0my still running\u00a0Excursion, I couldn’t\u00a0keep myself from veering away. I just had to go have a look see. So I marched right down to check “my” little heifer\u00a0in order to\u00a0look her over. She was not much inclined to let me see her condition. I pressed on walking around her until I had a good view of a calf’s nose, a swollen tongue and one\u00a0foot sticking out.\u00a0Disturbed from her efforts, the\u00a0heifer tried to get up but fell back down. Then as quick as the blink of my eye, she jumped to her feet! Keeping my eye on her, I started to get\u00a0her hint that I had invaded her privacy. I tried to talk her out of her angry mood, but she wasn’t in the mood for my\u00a0sweet talk. All the while the sweet talk was flowing,\u00a0I was trying to back out of\u00a0her comfort zone that\u00a0I had so rudely invaded. Now this particular heifer\u00a0had taken on a pirate’s\u00a0stance to repel boarders, and that boarder\u00a0was me. It didn’t take but a second of eye contact to realize that I was deep inside her space. She came at me in a dead run, her head low,\u00a0and out to make physical contact!\u00a0 “Now here is where I made my mistake,” as Baxter Black would say in one of his stories. I\u00a0wanted to see her coming, and I didn’t really think she would actually follow through. I was dead wrong on both counts! She hit me at full throttle on my upper right thigh, knocking me for a loop. In one swift movement with\u00a0her head going skyward, she\u00a0connected with\u00a0my left shoulder and jaw. Whereupon my head hit the ground first\u00a0when I was thrown backwards. Through\u00a0my pain and my fighting for air,\u00a0I saw her do a quick\u00a0turn and then\u00a0kick both feet into the air. Luckily in her condition her aim was off. It was not the landing on my backside\u00a0that hurt. It was the impact of my shoulder and jaw that jarred me, making my teeth feel loose. I had an instant headache. That first\u00a0impact had sent my cowboy hat flying;\u00a0rolling over,\u00a0grabbing my hat,\u00a0I gathered myself up and\u00a0stepped quickly to the safety of the fence. Mustering up all I had in me, I\u00a0climbed that fence.\u00a0Not one time did I\u00a0look right or left to see where “Jim’s heifer” had ran off to. Now at this point in my defense, do you think I wanted to admit to Jim that I had just had a tussle with “his” heifer?\u00a0Heck no!\u00a0 I didn’t want to, but I\u00a0headed to the house to spill the beans. It turned out that words were unnecessary.\u00a0\u00a0Jim took one look at me in my blood splattered clothes and boots, covered from head to toe with dirt and manure, and topped off\u00a0with hay hanging\u00a0from my hat.\u00a0In that rather satirical voice of his,\u00a0\u00a0Jim said, “Well do you think you have her good and stirred up for me?” He capped his statement off with a big grin. With my head held high, I proudly said, “Yes, indeed.” She was all ready for him, and furthermore that he had better watch out for her because she would sure get him if he wasn’t careful.
\nSo in closing, you may ask, what bit of wisdom should I impart to you\u00a0my reader? What\u00a0can I\u00a0say in my defense?\u00a0 I admit that I made several mistakes and furthermore, she is, “Jim’s heifer”. Let him deal with her!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u00a0have been\u00a0debating whether it is too soon to relate a most recent experience of my life here on the ranch? The “I will” won. Here goes…Ok, I admit that I am a curious sort, responsible\u00a0and yes, a glutton for punishment! Now having said all of that, I literally do not have one single solitary excuse as to why I get myself in the darndest predicaments. Incidentally, I might add, I always have a reason for doing what I do. I think so, anyway. \u00a0Now that we have all of my defense laid out,\u00a0let’s get on\u00a0to the most recent source of excitement in my life. Here, in black and white,\u00a0is how it happened.
\nThe sun was cresting the top of the horizon as I\u00a0started down\u00a0the mile long\u00a0drive\u00a0leading away from the ranch house. I was ready for a fun filled day of painting in Palo Duro Canyon along with Anna, my mother-in-law.\u00a0As\u00a0I\u00a0looked back [ …<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[142,140,154,152,155,141,157,166,161,146,145,139,147,153,163,162,165,149,151,97,158,156,150,159,167,143,164,148,160],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memories","category-living-the-life","tag-angry-mood","tag-baxter-black","tag-birthing-position","tag-bits-of-wisdom","tag-blink-of-my-eye","tag-calfs-nose","tag-comfort-zone","tag-confessions-of-a-ranch-lady","tag-cowboy-hat","tag-curious-sort","tag-debating","tag-excursion","tag-glutton-for-punishment","tag-heifer","tag-instant-headache","tag-knocked-me-for-a-loop","tag-manure","tag-mile-long-drive","tag-painting","tag-palo-duro-canyon","tag-pirates-stance","tag-privacy","tag-ranch-house","tag-repel-boarders","tag-spill-the-beans","tag-sweet-talk","tag-teeth-fee-loose","tag-top-of-the-horizon","tag-wisdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ranchpaintings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ranchpaintings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ranchpaintings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ranchpaintings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ranchpaintings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/ranchpaintings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187,"href":"https:\/\/ranchpaintings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ranchpaintings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ranchpaintings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ranchpaintings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}