in Montana???
Well.......first off I'd like to say that Montana is gorgeous. And no it didn't have a thing to do with the weather. That is what we miss the most actually! Secondly I want to say this, and this is the most important thing....
God never said we had to stay.........He said we had to go! And go we did! Would we do it again?? Would we move almost 1700 miles across the country to a place we'd never been, and where we knew no one? If we felt God leading us we surely would.
Ok, now to the meat and potatoes of this post. Life on the ranch wasn't what it was supposed to be. There, I said it. We went out there looking to work together. What happened was that The Man worked 7 days a week and I sat in the house...all...by....my....self. I begged, pleaded, whined, and nagged to be allowed to help out on the ranch to no avail. Those few blog posts I did? That was the only times I was allowed to help. I didn't want paid, I just wanted to be a part of the ranch. I was so excited and I had the ability to be a real asset and help, but Mouse just would not let me be a part of anything. That was a real bummer, to put it mildly. Mouse was the only woman that worked on the ranch and she was determined to keep it that way. Her mom had the sheep, that was ok because sheep were stupid and they treated Mouse's mom as they would treat a child that you thought was stupid but you humored her and her silly ideas.
Mouse was one of the meanest women I'd ever met in my life. Picture the meanest girl you went to school with and multiply her by 3, that would be Mouse. She was awful to Pied, and horrid to her husband PK. The only person she wasn't mean to was her dad. The two of them had more of a husband/wife type of relationship. It was very odd. The Man began to hate her, and I don't use that word lightly. I'm married to a good man and a gentleman, but the way she treated her daughter and her husband was just atrocious and embarassing and uncomfortable and awful. Herry Ford and Mouse were some of the most condescending people I've ever encountered. They literally acted as if they were the King and Queen of Montana and everybody in the world should be honored to be speaking to them.
Don't get me wrong, they didn't treat us all that badly, but let me tell you the story of Elmer Fudd, the young man hired to help with calving. Elmer's real name was Jason and he was a really sweet young man. He had a bit of a lisp, which is how I chose his name for my blog. He was young, around 22 or so and we took him under our wing. He lived in what was known as the "cook house" which was a pack rat infested mess of a house. Anywho, in the evenings after his shift in the calving barn was done, he'd come over to our house and I'd have him a plate of supper covered over with some foil and he would visit with us and pick out a couple of VCR tapes to take to his house and watch in the tiny little portable TV that was his only source of entertainment in the rat house. The Ranch Family was AWFUL to this kid. Just horrible. Mouse saw his truck at our house one evening and informed me that I didn't have to feed him, just to run him off. I told her we didn't mind him coming over and visiting. A couple days after that Herry Ford stopped by the house to tell me the same thing, that I certainly didn't have to feed him and that he'd run him off if I wanted him to. I was horrified. I said no, he's just fine being over here. Jason was almost full blood Cherokee Indian and his grandfather had taught him all sorts of neat stuff that I found fascinating so we talked of those things quite a lot. The Ranch Family never missed a moment to make fun of him and his heritage and the way he spoke. He was hired for the month of March and about 2 weeks in he was so miserable from the way they were treating him he was ready to quit, however they'd made him sign a contract stating that if he quit before the end of March he would be paid nothing. Jason had grit because he stuck it out. I admire him for that and wish him the very best. He was hired by another rancher in Big Timber and last I knew was working there.
The night time calving guy told Jason that he had been doing the night calving for this ranch for 10 years and they had NEVER had a repeat daytime calver. In 10 years they couldn't get anybody to come for more than one season. The only reason he has been doing it so long is because he does it at night and they leave him alone, and because he is a hunting guide and he does it in exchange for hunting rights on 30,000 acres of land. I myself don't think it would be worth it. Every single person we met said the same thing, "Oh I'm so sorry you had to get hooked up with them!!!" The turn over time for their ranch hands is about 6 months, and the longest they've ever had anybody was 5 years.
So...........The Man wasn't happy, and I wasn't happy and The Youngun, being as she marches to a different drummer, wasn't happy. We talked and we prayed and we decided we'd stick it out until The Youngun got out of school.........in............five............years..............wow, that seemed like a really super long time to live with these people who were so in contrast to everything we believe in and stand for. Then.......The Man's Granny B had a stroke and we couldn't go home. Then my dad had another surgery on his back and we couldn't go home. We were beginning to feel that we were way to far away from family. We decided we'd save and save and hopefully in a couple years we'd have enough money saved to move back home.
Then Granny B called us up (her stroke was minor) and said out of the blue.......I sure wish you kids would move back home, and I'll give you the money to do so. That was that, The Man gave The Ranch a month's notice and the morning after The Youngun's last day of school we were in a U-haul headed for Kentucky.........
I think that's enough for now, but there is more to come in a few days
until then....I remain yours in Jesus
