Journey In Mudboots

Have I told you the story of how we randomly bought a ranch? We sold our 3600 SF new built home with Italian tile, Tuscan kitchen, 5 bedrooms, 2 master suites, theater room, library, game room, 12 ft ceilings and bought a 1969 run down farmhouse with a barn.  I traded my stilettos for mudboots, cowboy boots on the side.  It was like going from city life to Amish!

Winters could be tough.  There are no sick days on a ranch.  The work doesn’t stop for anything short of death.  For a greenhorn who suddenly found herself the owner of a horse ranch and race horses, there was never a shortage of mayhem and hilarity.

From My Life In Mudboots Journal:

John Denver must’ve been Rocky Mountain “High” when he sang…
“Life on the farm is kinda laid back….”
You filthy liar!!!!! Laid back my butt!!!
I got up at 5:30am, made Clay breakfast and got the chili I prepared, ready for his chili cookoff at work. We read the bible and prayed together before he left.

I went out in the 18° weather, wind chill in the negative, and fed the horses. I spent a few hours wading through receipts while doing the paperwork for the CPA for taxes. (Not sure what I pay him for) went out and threw hay in the pasture for the horses and turned them out to pasture.

I cleaned the kitchen, counters, stove, ran the dishwasher, unloaded the dishwasher, swept the floors, vacuumed, made beds, dusted, did 7 loads of laundry, mucked the barn, drug the dump cart with the 4wheeler full of muck to the back pasture and shoveled it out, busted the ice out of the troughs, pitched hay, filled the hay cradles in the barn, swept the barn… all while fighting pneumonia. About to jump a shower, put dinner on and start ironing my husbands shirts for work and put horses up for the night.

 

Ranch life was often difficult and I was working with a definate learning curve but I learned that you can build a loving relationship with just about any of Gods creatures.  I learned the heartbreaking lessons of the circle of life.  I grew stronger with the journey and more capable than I would’ve believed.

At the end of the day, I’d sit on the back porch, watching the Oklahoma sunset above towering trees, taking in the silence and fragrance of wild flowers and green fields.  Jason Aldean sang it perfectly in the song, Fly Over States. “On the plains of Oklahoma
Where the windshield sunset in your eyes
Like a watercolor painted sky.”

Along with the blistered hands, sweat, bone deep weary and ache, there was a sense of peace that can only be found in the country, room to roam, grow, breathe, a sense of community you only find in small town life and a blessed rest that only comes with a hard days work.

 

Read More about my Mudboots Adventure:

The Horse Came Back Alone

Wait! What?

Wildfire

The Garden

Call Me Home, Jesus

Horse Foaling For Beginners

Choke The Man Down

Bird In The Hand

Work That WitWeird Things I Do

The Old Farmhouse Before

The Old Farmhouse After

Life Of Laura: Cinderella