Good Monday morning to all you critter and land loving folks. This past week we got off the ranch for a few days and took a little vacation. This brings several things to my mind this Monday, first I needed to get away more than I realized. When you have stock, it’s a consuming thing at certain seasons, and it also wears on me to run on less sleep, lose critters, and never feel caught up with the to-do list. All these things are also what I love about this business/life. I love the new life being born on the ranch, I love when I can save a critter, and I will admit, I absolutely love checking things off a list! But that doesn’t mean a break isn’t needed to recharge and come back to what I love. Secondly, ranchers have to be the worst bosses out there, for themselves that is. I have been mostly self-employed all my working days, and I can tell you, getting out of town is hard for the boss. It takes prep, lining someone out to cover, and some days it didn’t happen because the funds weren’t quite there. Just think, most jobs come with some sort of vacation time or sick leave, not ranching. No joke, the morning we were set to leave, all our custom cattle were out of the paddock we wanted them in, still on our property, but out. What did we do about it…we left. In ranching we could keep ourselves here one more day, hour, minute, because something needed attention. We left an hour later than planned, but we just took off, those cows weren’t going to thank us for putting them back in, and they weren’t hurting anything, so we jetted. That brings me to one last thought, ranching can feel like a thankless job. This is another reason to take that trip, spend time with your family that you maybe only ever work alongside, and invest in other memories. It wasn’t a fancy, or long vacation, but it was enjoyable, and hopefully something besides ranching our kids will remember.

Blessings to you, yours, and your operation.