My day started by having to feed 40 cc's of Pepto to a sick horse. My husband was on a buying trip and I was Ruling my Roost, which means having to take care and oversee the barn. I went in the lab, cleaned my syringe and loaded it up with the pink stuff...
Normal, right?
Well, no, its not normal to have a sick horse. That doesn't happen often around here- and its not normal to not have Big D around to doctor them. He hardly ever leaves the front gates, for anything. Everything he needs in his whole world is right here on the ranch and he is perfectly content never passing the front
porton.
Normal, right?
While doctoring the filly, I remembered that I had a bunch of meds stored in our fridge since Hurricane Ike. I should bring those back to the barn... but for us, there's always cattle and horse meds floating around the house.
Normal, right?
As I helped in the barn, little D helped the workers finish cleaning stalls and hay the horses. The workers all speak spanish. Little D and I typically speak english together, but to keep the workers involved in conversation, we both moved in and out of spanish and english like a dance... english and spanish all jumbled together... span-glish if you will... understood only by us...
Normal, right?
We worked at the barn until about 1pm when Big D came back with 19 horses from Abilene. There was excitement in the air. New babies, new mares, an amazing buckskin stallion... Little D jumped hay bales at the arena pretending to be Spiderman as I worked the fences and allowed trucks and trailers to come and go, but kept the bull from storming the gate. After the horses were unloaded and put out to pasture, we sat. Sat in stone, cold silence, Big D and I. After awhile, "so... whaddya think?", he asked me. After 10 years of careful observation, I have become a good eye and my opinion matters to this cowboy. "Well... I don't like the little palomino, but there are buckskin and bay babies in that group to die for... oh, they all just need their Mama"... (I call myself the 'Mama' to every single animal we have and assume the responsibility of mothering them all!
"Yep" was all he said and walked away. It was 3pm. In all the excitement, we had all forgotten about breakfast, lunch, showers, and anything else that might have been important. Everything we had done all day, each one of us, up until 3pm, was for the horses...
Normal, right?
Everyone's version of normal is different. Whats normal and right for one is not necessarily going to be for someone else.
I also think that by and large, its very hard to sway the opinions of most adults. That comment might not seem to fit with this post, but it comes after reading two blogger's recent posts and after a day to think about each of them.
See, I think circumstances, past experience and free will causes even similar persons to move in different directions through life, thereby creating different 'normals'. I think thats why I find that most adults are vastly different from one another. Different strokes, different folks... Difference is wonderful, yet sometimes confusing.
In the case of the two bloggers, both are mothers talking about protecting their children and to what extent from pedophiles and whatever other harm might come their way. Obviously a mother wants to protect her children and wants whats best for them- always. However, their viewpoints on how best to do that is going to be different every time.
The general thought is that each of us is trying to move through the day making sound judgments and intelligent decisions for ourselves, our families, and our loved ones... But what one family decides as their 'normal route' may not be someone else's... even if that someone else is a close friend, as was the case with the two bloggers I mentioned.
Both loving mothers with different views on how best to protect their young. Are either wrong? No. Is one more right than the other? Not my place to say... Maybe each one is right for their particular circumstance...
I was thinking about what a 'normal' life is for us. My normal life is so un-normal to others... there is no one that quite 'gets' us or why we do the things we do...
I remember when my son was a newborn. My inlaws were outraged and outspoken about the fact that I didn't boil D's bath water before I bathed him. "Totally ABSURD!" I said loudly to my mother in law. However, their past experience in a different country dictated the need to boil the filthy tap water...
Also as a newborn, I was forced to employ a nanny. It was their normal, but not mine. That's their custom- but one I couldn't-and wouldn't- adopt. In my country, in my hometown, it is not common or
normal to have a nanny. I wanted to be a hands-on Mom... which was a very un-normal thing to my in-laws. My 'normal' was not theirs-
I learned long ago after marrying into a different culture with a different geographical address, language, culture, financial situation and more- that each does the best with what situation they're given and that there really aren't 'rights' and 'wrongs' or better or worse; more often than not, there is really "more than one way to skin a cat".
When I think about how we live our lives here, I have to laugh. What we consider to be normal is un-relatable to most. Our lives are an interesting balance of my husband's South American and Italian upbringing and my Midwestern roots.
-We've never gone anywhere, and I mean anywhere... without our son. We have never, ever hired a babysitter and never will. Its not that we can't or won't, we just don't want to. We want to be together... we can't stand to be apart. We do everything together. To us, that's normal...
-We work 365 days a year without complaint. We don't have weekends or holidays off when you have 600 animals depending on you. Even when the animals are fed, there's still hay to cut, pastures to fertilize, maintenence to be done and business to be made... so you can guess that we rarely take vacations...
-We don't talk much about plans and don't stick to much of a schedule. We won't ever, ever agree to rituals like "Monday night bowling" or something of the like... why? Well, because of kidnapping in South America. You don't have set schedules or routines there, because you're a target. Targets get kidnapped and at the very least, they lose all their money, and maybe also their lives... We don't announce our plans to anyone, and don't make plans in advance... old habits die hard...
-For fun we set off fireworks in the road, or chase armadillos or hunt the wild boars eating our pastures. Ride horses... a wild night for us is going to the movies in a nearby town or a shopping trip into Houston. Simple pleasures mostly...
-We speak Spanish and English with complete fluency in our home. The staples of our diet consists of tons of fresh fruit and vegetables, french bread, arepas*, platanos, carne mechada, rice with most meals. My pasta sauce is never, ever store bought... always homemade and we spend more money on cheese and wine than anyone else might consider normal but the French.... the way we eat is a much more european way, TOTALLY different from the way I was raised... but, its evolved to our 'normal'...
-We have several outdoor cats that are all named Pepper. Strangely enough, we all know which one is which... its Pepper. There's Big Pepper, Little Pepper, the Other Pepper, Pepper's Daughter, Dr. Pepper, and Jalapeno just to name a few... (oh and there's a zillion more)
That's normal, right?
Most of our dinner conversations involve talking about semen. Bull or stallion semen is big business and reproduction IS the essence of the cattle and horse businesses. We buy and sell semen, freeze semen, transport semen in Nitrogen tanks... we have semen stored around the world. Semen is a big part of our lives...
Normal dinner convo, right?
Earlier this summer, we got little D involved in our AI Program. You ask, "Casey, what is an AI Program?" Well of course you would ask... its not normal for most. But it is for us... AI stands for Artificial Insemination. Our broodmares are typically Artificially Inseminated instead of the Old Fashioned Way... and Big D has successfully bred 100% of our herd 2 years in a row... We have a lab on site and a sterile environment where we artificially inseminate our mares with no need for a veternarian. This summer, little D AI'd his first mares- successfully! Of course, being a proud Mom, I took photos and posted them. The photos brought zillions of questions from friends and family, the 2 most common were: "Where is his whole arm?" and "Does he know what he is doing (birds and bees stuff)"... Of course he does. He learned all that before he could walk. Its the essence of our lives here on the ranch. My 5 year old can totally explain how the sperm impregnates the egg, the gestation times for livestock and our procedures for newborns...
Normal, right?
Whatever your opinion of my 'normal' is your opinion, it won't change my normal. We do what we believe to be right for our family. Whether my son can sleep over at a friends or not (he can't and won't) is what we've determined to be right for us based on our personal situation. I know that my 'normal' isn't normal for anyone but me and mine, and I'm okay with that. Heck, I think its the reason you keep reading my blog!
It may not be normal, but this odyssey is always entertaining!
Normal, right?
Well, no, its not normal to have a sick horse. That doesn't happen often around here- and its not normal to not have Big D around to doctor them. He hardly ever leaves the front gates, for anything. Everything he needs in his whole world is right here on the ranch and he is perfectly content never passing the front porton.
Normal, right?
While doctoring the filly, I remembered that I had a bunch of meds stored in our fridge since Hurricane Ike. I should bring those back to the barn... but for us, there's always cattle and horse meds floating around the house.
Normal, right?
As I helped in the barn, little D helped the workers finish cleaning stalls and hay the horses. The workers all speak spanish. Little D and I typically speak english together, but to keep the workers involved in conversation, we both moved in and out of spanish and english like a dance... english and spanish all jumbled together... span-glish if you will... understood only by us...
Normal, right?
We worked at the barn until about 1pm when Big D came back with 19 horses from Abilene. There was excitement in the air. New babies, new mares, an amazing buckskin stallion... Little D jumped hay bales at the arena pretending to be Spiderman as I worked the fences and allowed trucks and trailers to come and go, but kept the bull from storming the gate. After the horses were unloaded and put out to pasture, we sat. Sat in stone, cold silence, Big D and I. After awhile, "so... whaddya think?", he asked me. After 10 years of careful observation, I have become a good eye and my opinion matters to this cowboy. "Well... I don't like the little palomino, but there are buckskin and bay babies in that group to die for... oh, they all just need their Mama"... (I call myself the 'Mama' to every single animal we have and assume the responsibility of mothering them all!
"Yep" was all he said and walked away. It was 3pm. In all the excitement, we had all forgotten about breakfast, lunch, showers, and anything else that might have been important. Everything we had done all day, each one of us, up until 3pm, was for the horses...
Normal, right?
Everyone's version of normal is different. Whats normal and right for one is not necessarily going to be for someone else.
I also think that by and large, its very hard to sway the opinions of most adults. That comment might not seem to fit with this post, but it comes after reading two blogger's recent posts and after a day to think about each of them.
See, I think circumstances, past experience and free will causes even similar persons to move in different directions through life, thereby creating different 'normals'. I think thats why I find that most adults are vastly different from one another. Different strokes, different folks... Difference is wonderful, yet sometimes confusing.
In the case of the two bloggers, both are mothers talking about protecting their children and to what extent from pedophiles and whatever other harm might come their way. Obviously a mother wants to protect her children and wants whats best for them- always. However, their viewpoints on how best to do that is going to be different every time.
The general thought is that each of us is trying to move through the day making sound judgments and intelligent decisions for ourselves, our families, and our loved ones... But what one family decides as their 'normal route' may not be someone else's... even if that someone else is a close friend, as was the case with the two bloggers I mentioned.
Both loving mothers with different views on how best to protect their young. Are either wrong? No. Is one more right than the other? Not my place to say... Maybe each one is right for their particular circumstance...
I was thinking about what a 'normal' life is for us. My normal life is so un-normal to others... there is no one that quite 'gets' us or why we do the things we do...
I remember when my son was a newborn. My inlaws were outraged and outspoken about the fact that I didn't boil D's bath water before I bathed him. "Totally ABSURD!" I said loudly to my mother in law. However, their past experience in a different country dictated the need to boil the filthy tap water...
Also as a newborn, I was forced to employ a nanny. It was their normal, but not mine. That's their custom- but one I couldn't-and wouldn't- adopt. In my country, in my hometown, it is not common or normal to have a nanny. I wanted to be a hands-on Mom... which was a very un-normal thing to my in-laws. My 'normal' was not theirs-
I learned long ago after marrying into a different culture with a different geographical address, language, culture, financial situation and more- that each does the best with what situation they're given and that there really aren't 'rights' and 'wrongs' or better or worse; more often than not, there is really "more than one way to skin a cat".
When I think about how we live our lives here, I have to laugh. What we consider to be normal is un-relatable to most. Our lives are an interesting balance of my husband's South American and Italian upbringing and my Midwestern roots.
-We've never gone anywhere, and I mean anywhere... without our son. We have never, ever hired a babysitter and never will. Its not that we can't or won't, we just don't want to. We want to be together... we can't stand to be apart. We do everything together. To us, that's normal...
-We work 365 days a year without complaint. We don't have weekends or holidays off when you have 600 animals depending on you. Even when the animals are fed, there's still hay to cut, pastures to fertilize, maintenence to be done and business to be made... so you can guess that we rarely take vacations...
-We don't talk much about plans and don't stick to much of a schedule. We won't ever, ever agree to rituals like "Monday night bowling" or something of the like... why? Well, because of kidnapping in South America. You don't have set schedules or routines there, because you're a target. Targets get kidnapped and at the very least, they lose all their money, and maybe also their lives... We don't announce our plans to anyone, and don't make plans in advance... old habits die hard...
-For fun we set off fireworks in the road, or chase armadillos or hunt the wild boars eating our pastures. Ride horses... a wild night for us is going to the movies in a nearby town or a shopping trip into Houston. Simple pleasures mostly...
-We speak Spanish and English with complete fluency in our home. The staples of our diet consists of tons of fresh fruit and vegetables, french bread, arepas*, platanos, carne mechada, rice with most meals. My pasta sauce is never, ever store bought... always homemade and we spend more money on cheese and wine than anyone else might consider normal but the French.... the way we eat is a much more european way, TOTALLY different from the way I was raised... but, its evolved to our 'normal'...
-We have several outdoor cats that are all named Pepper. Strangely enough, we all know which one is which... its Pepper. There's Big Pepper, Little Pepper, the Other Pepper, Pepper's Daughter, Dr. Pepper, and Jalapeno just to name a few... (oh and there's a zillion more)
That's normal, right?
Most of our dinner conversations involve talking about semen. Bull or stallion semen is big business and reproduction IS the essence of the cattle and horse businesses. We buy and sell semen, freeze semen, transport semen in Nitrogen tanks... we have semen stored around the world. Semen is a big part of our lives...
Normal dinner convo, right?
Earlier this summer, we got little D involved in our AI Program. You ask, "Casey, what is an AI Program?" Well of course you would ask... its not normal for most. But it is for us... AI stands for Artificial Insemination. Our broodmares are typically Artificially Inseminated instead of the Old Fashioned Way... and Big D has successfully bred 100% of our herd 2 years in a row... We have a lab on site and a sterile environment where we artificially inseminate our mares with no need for a veternarian. This summer, little D AI'd his first mares- successfully! Of course, being a proud Mom, I took photos and posted them. The photos brought zillions of questions from friends and family, the 2 most common were: "Where is his whole arm?" and "Does he know what he is doing (birds and bees stuff)"... Of course he does. He learned all that before he could walk. Its the essence of our lives here on the ranch. My 5 year old can totally explain how the sperm impregnates the egg, the gestation times for livestock and our procedures for newborns...
Normal, right?
Whatever your opinion of my 'normal' is your opinion, it won't change my normal. We do what we believe to be right for our family. Whether my son can sleep over at a friends or not (he can't and won't) is what we've determined to be right for us based on our personal situation. I know that my 'normal' isn't normal for anyone but me and mine, and I'm okay with that. Heck, I think its the reason you keep reading my blog!
It may not be normal, but this odyssey is always entertaining!