Ranching 101

This past week has been a whirlwind. We packed up and moved out of the Beaverton rental house on Friday and Saturday, loaded the storage unit in Redmond Saturday afternoon in 90+ degree weather, and spent Saturday night in the Casita in Mom and Dad’s driveway. Upon reflection, moving out of the house, taking a vacation on the property in the Casita, and then moving into the Bend rental may not have been our best decision. The logistics were difficulty but we made it work.

Living on the property for a week has been awesome - dirty, hot and exhausting but awesome. We hiked almost every morning. The weather broke 100 degrees at least two days and was in the 90s the other days. I think Mike saw every sunrise, and we even caught one sunset. We’ve seen bunnies, jackrabbits, lizards, quail, doves, buzzards, fawns with their parents, and I’m sure more that I’m not remembering.

We talked with our neighbors and showed Gene and Marcy our house. We then borrowed Gene’s post hole digger and rock-javelin-thing to help us dig post holes to install the gate on 74th. We tested our abilities by starting to dig in 90-100 degree weather, and we didn’t get very far. When we started earlier the next morning, we made some good progress. We made a couple trips to Coastal Farm (I love that store) and strapped the gate to the top of the truck. We put 300 lbs of concrete in the hole of the post holding the gate - perhaps overkill or maybe we dug the hole too wide. The other post received only 200 lbs. YouTube videos were our instructions, and Iris was our cheerleader from the comfort of the nearest shade. We’re so proud to have put it up.

We can’t believe how quickly that week went. Unfortunately, we have to pack up and head to Clackamas County now for some depositions. We can’t wait to return to central Oregon on Wednesday.