Change of Plans

I was up early, as usual, with my whole day planned out to the hour to make it all work. First my few hours of feeding sheep and dogs, run to town and our other ranch to load up with corn and dog food, get an order that goes the next day, back home to clean up and prepare for a podcast interview at 2, after the interview take time to prepare for my 7 pm meeting, as well as respond to emails, and other computer work/phone calls. I was just finishing up feeding the sheep, feeling rushed to get everything done in time for my interview, when my uncle Dave calls. He had just seen 6 ewes of ours right outside of Rock Springs on his way to supply a camp, and asked if I could go get them. I quickly played out my very strict timeline in my mind, wondering if I could still make the interview work somehow since I had already pushed it back a week, wondering when I would have time to get the order, and if I could make it home by 7. I also thought back on past times when I was unable to go get sheep the day we were called about them, and how we never saw them again… As always, the sheep are my priority, and I tell Dave I will head that way.

My pickup has a shattered passenger window, so I am driving a half ton pickup without a ball. I hurry back home to jump into my mom’s pickup, hook onto a trailer, catch and saddle my horse, and head for the Hams Fork ranch to pick up Nic and Denis for assistance, my dogs in tow of course. It’s about 100 miles to Rock Springs from the ranch. As we approach the area where Dave saw them, there they are! We keep driving to where our portable corral is to grab some panels and scope out the gates along the fence to make a plan of attack. We end up setting up a panel trap into the trailer in the corner of a chainlink fence surrounding a building and the highway fence. They run right in! Trying to bust past us, unsuccessfully thanks to Ivy, only once. We load the panels back up to take back, load my horse and dogs, and head back for the ranch. That was almost too easy!

I am filled with so much joy over our successful gather of the 6 ewes. There is not much that brings me more joy than gathering in our lost sheep with my trusty dog and horse. Although everything went smoothly, the drive takes up what feels like all day, especially as I think of the other tasks that need done! I oftentimes struggle with an abundance of wishful thinking that I can squeeze all the things into a day, but I finally had to admit that the interview wasn’t going to fit in. Thankfully, the host of the podcast is an Ag person himself, so he understands a bit about my change of plans- an unavoidable reality of ranchers, and we reschedule, again. I do make my 7:00 meeting, although late, and without time to prepare or any other planned computer work as the grocery order and feeding the dogs had top priority, and take a few hours, when I got back from Rock Springs.

Two days later, I again, have my day planned around this 2:00 interview. Everything goes as planned, and I am on the zoom by 2! Until a rain storm rolls in (rain in February?!) and my wifi quits working… I tell the host, Father Bryce, that I can head to town to my sister’s house to use her internet. On my way though, I have to stop at Orr, the ranch where I care for the sheep, to unhook a trailer and set up some panels, which I have to pack quite a distance at a jog. This is something I had “planned” for after the interview. My life is a constant reorganizing of plans: daily and hourly. I of course have to do this at high speed, with Fr. Bryce waiting on me, and in the rain… By the time I make it to my sister’s I am sweaty, have rained on hair, and feel overwhelmed and under prepared. I pray that the rush of getting everything done doesn’t come through my voice, and that the Holy Spirit fills me with words that may make a difference in somebody’s life.