It’s Monday again and everyone is either happy or not enthused to go to work. Either way I hope it’s a good Monday for you all. Today’s blog reflects my weekend at my dad and mom’s ranch. It all started when I left Chico at 11:00 a.m. on Friday and returned for a presentation to Alpha Phi (thanks for the pizza), at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday.

The following is a timeline of my weekend.
10/3/08
• Left Chico at 11:00 a.m. for the family Fall round up. Dad got all the cows in by himself to the upper hill pen but needed help bringing them down to the lower pen. I arrived at 3:15 p.m. and we started right away. After being dropped off at the upper hill pen with Molly and Bo (dad’s ranch dogs) we waited 5 minutes for dad to open the gates down the hill and then we brought the final group of cows and calves down the hill. Unfortunately one cow was a professional escape artist and she escaped through a patch job in the fence. Actually the cow was not an escape artist but a quality control administrator that likes to test whether the fences are good or bad. Except the one escapee we were able to get the rest of the cows and calves into the lower pen.
• 6:00 pm ate a delicious meal fixed by my mom.
• Later mom and I went to the phone store to get cell phone plane updated and get a new phone.

10/4/08
• Got up at 6:00 a.m.
• Arrived at the ranch at 7:00 a.m. and it was raining.
• Dad, myself and a family friend separated the cows from the calves. Not to mention a little help from Molly. Bo supervised on the side. Bo is considered a pet while Molly, a Blue Healer, is considered a working dog and she's pretty good. She’s still young and hasn’t perfected her skills but I have to admit it’s quite a site to see her work. She was wired with adrenaline from the moment we started to the moment we ended.
• Our vet showed up at 8:50 a.m. and we were ready to preg-test the cows. It took 1.5 hours because of some chute malfunctions and we had a lot of cows.
• Once we were done with the cows we broke for lunch. Mom cooked up some cheeseburgers and they were delicious.
• After lunch we went back to work caring for the calves. This took 1-2 hours since we had more chute malfunctions and other tasks.
• Once we were all done we separated some of the cows and then we fed all the animals.
• For dinner we had another delicious meal, this time the main course was meat loaf.
• After dinner dad went to bed. Mom and I decided to watch the movie John Adams with Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. What a GREAT movie. I suggest everyone rent or buy this movie and watch it. Especially during this time of year with the presidential election around the corner.
• Finally went to bed around 10:00 p.m.

10/5/08
• Got up at 6:00 a.m. and spent an hour looking for my wallet that was knocked into a crack between the washer and hot water heater. The story of how it got there is too long and no big deal.
• When I arrived at the ranch chaos had begun. The cows and bull were OUT, not good at all! Somebody, maybe me, left a gate open and half the heard found the hole. Luckily after some quick actions we were able to get most of the lost heard back. After some more separating we finally loaded some cows in the trailer to haul to the auction.
• I followed Dad most of the way as he drove to the auction and then separated to go help my Grandma with some yard work. At her house I probably ate more then worked. She fixed up some good BLT’s.
• After working at Grandma's house, I packed up my stuff, said bye to my mom and started back to Chico. On my way back I stopped by a cousin’s house and he gave me some tomatoes!
• Luckily I made it back in time for a presentation to Alpha Phi.

It’s now Monday, October 6, 2008 and it’s time to return to the website. Stay tuned and have a good week.

Like Porky Pig said from Looney Tunes, “That’s all folks!”

-Andrew