June 14- 20, The week of being a HORRIBLE wife.

Monday-
No branding today, Daniel was at home so we had to make the most of our time. It has rained all weekend and we were in a muddy mess. We had to haul dry cows to Blue Meadow to be combined with other dry cows to be bred. Two trip in the truck and trailer. The tractor had to help use get through some of the deep puddles and mud. Daniel was off that afternoon to help Merle set up his branding trap. After that we went out on the 4-wheeler to back ride some pastures to make sure we had gotten all the pairs out of them as we needed to start getting all of our cows close to the pasture we would brand in the next week.
The highlight of the day was when a belly dump semi got sunk out in front of our house trying haul road base onto the refuge road. We tried to get him unstuck with the tractor but no luck- even with a road grader pushing from behind. The best part was he had grown up in the Sandhills and was lecturing us how to drive in the sand out here- but we weren't the ones that had buried a semi up to the axles in sand.
Tuesday-
Daniel was up at 3:30 to get ready and off to a branding at the Joy unit today. Cinch and I were on house duty cleaning the apartment in our basement as a Senior Service Missionary couple would be moving in tonight for the next few months.
Daniel got home from branding early afternoon and we were off to go check another group of pairs to make sure no babies were sick. But before we left the missionaries showed up. We met and greeted them as they were  WIDE eyed and wondering where in the world they were. They are from Saint George and live in one of those retirement villages. So to be in rural Nebraska was a shock! I can't even remember how many times we were asked if there was cell phone reception. The same answer every time-- NO. After their car was unstuck... we were off to check cows. Cinch ended up riding with Daniel that night which meant it was my turn to rope. Luckily there was only 1 that needed doctoring and we got the job done. Then we had to head to Merle's corrals to help him sort sale cows and blue meadow cows that had gotten delivered of a semi earlier that day. We got home to see the tractor moving- a weird sight, one of the other cowboys was trying to haul his dry cows to blue meadow and got stuck as well -so his cows were in our corral till it dried out and his truck got unstuck.

Wednesday
Daniel was up at 2- not to much sleep. It was the BIG rex unit branding. 2.5 hour drive away to brand 1,300 head before noon. Since Daniel was up and gone early I decided to make a trip to town quick to get all the food I would need for my branding meal the next week and try and find Daniel a birthday present. One of the intern's cute wife, Timeree, came to town with us that day which was nice company. We made the most of our trip to Scottsbluff (Big town as I call it, which take 1.5 hr drive one way). We got home in time to greet tired cowboys- can't say I blame them. John, the cowboy that got stuck Tuesday night, came back over to try and haul his cows, we went to push them into the corrals but they jumped the fence and got out into the yearling heifer herd. So as we were giving up- the huge hail storm that I wrote about started. If our missionaries weren't shell shock enough by this point a nice wind/rain/hail storm did it to them. Luckily I got their computer to connect to the Internet so their kids could know they were still alive.

Thursday
Merel's branding day. Merel is awesome and will take a post of his own. He is 68 yrs old and going strong. He has worked here since the late 50's and has lots to teach us. Anyways- his branding day. The wind was blowing or howling. Didn't make it too easy on the roping and the crew was pretty small so instead of the usual noon meal it wasn't til 3. I felt pretty bad for the cowboys that day. Luckily my frozen dessert had stayed frozen from noon. Pulled both of the sister missionaries out of their houses since their husbands were working on houses to come to the branding meal and try to not think of their mission as hell- as they had told some of us! Helped Pam (Merel's wife) dish up the food and clean up. After we had everything cleaned up John came to try and get his cows sorted out of the heifer herd and Ben, another cowboy, came to sort some sale cows that are hanging out in our corrals for the next few weeks.
Most importantly Thursday, June 17 was Daniel's birthday... This is where being a horrible wife comes into play. Yes I knew it was his birthday I tried to find him a present in town, but the day of I didn't tell him Happy Birthday til 3'o clock a be fat F for me. Didn't even get him cake made or anything.

Friday
Breath- not really. But early and moved the furthest group of our pairs a pasture close to where branding will be-- they are about 3+ miles away still. Doctored our yearling heifers that had foot rot. Hauled John's cows to Blue Meadow for him. That evening we pushed cows another pasture closer. It was a day of it.

Saturday
Big push with the cows- they are almost there. They didn't want to move and their calves kept running the wrong way- took longer than it should have but got it done.
Moved yearling heifers to a new pasture as well while Cinch was asleep because they were close to the house. It was too hot and they didn't want to go but we got them moved finally- we had to doctor a few more that had foot rot.
After Cinch woke up we went and mineraled the heifers. After this is was way too hot so we blew up Cinch's new kiddie pool and let him cool off- pretty nice.

Sunday
Day #2 of being a horrible wife.
Got up and ready for church, breakfast ate, lunch packed and out the door.
Sat down in sacrament meeting and after announcements realized - it was Father's Day, yep it was now 10:00 and I hadn't said a word to Daniel. Horrible wife award for sure! Oh what a week. If we can make it through 1 more we will have it beat.