A Couple of Firsts

Over Memorial Day I went with a few friends up to a Ranch in Idaho. I was told before I left to wear clothes that I didn't mind getting dirty, really dirty. I knew that we would be working with cows, but I didn't know what to expect. It was really one of the worst things. I give props to ranchers who have to do this every year. So here is my first first...Branding Cattle. I could handle the squishing of the cows in the cage and giving them the shots they needed, even the piercing of the ears was fine. It was the cutting of the ears that started the cow really mooing and if that wasn't bad enough, if it was a bull then they would castrate it. By this time they were mooing like crazy, but this is not where is stopped. They then burned their brand into them. Holy Crap, if I thought they were mooing before it was nothing to how they sounded then. You could see the pain on the cows faces...and yes, I may have felt sorry for the stinky little things. Even worse then the look on the cows face was the smell of the hair burning. I don't think I could ever get used to the smell. I could get used to living on a ranch though. (Okay a ranch with cell phone service. This ranch didn't have any service. It was hard, but I made it). The house was amazing with amazing views out of every window. It was so green and had awesome wildflowers. It really was beautiful and very relaxing!

I was a great helper on the ranch. It's hard work holding the gate open!

Jamon and I with an awesome view of the ranch!

My second first is something I never really thought I could do. I don't think I really even wanted to try, because it sounded to tiring. I'll just start with how it all started. 5 years ago I moved to Provo and decided I wanted to start running. So I did. I would run on the trail and eventually was able to run for 30 min, which I think was about 3 miles. Well this only lasted that one summer and since then the most I've run is 2 miles. So last week I went running and thought I'd push myself and run 3 miles. I got on the Provo trail that heads up the canyon. I started at where I thought the 9 1/2 mile marker was and started running. I ran to the 11 mile marker and turned around and decided I'd run to the 9 1/2 mile marker so I would know for sure that I ran 3 miles. Well I ran and the 9 1/2 mile marker wasn't where I thought it was so I kept running to find it. I never found it but ran to the 9 mile marker and back which in all was a 4 mile run. At this point this is the farthest I have ever ran. Two days later I decide to go running again. Now I know that I can run 4 miles so now I feel like I have to run 4 miles. I get to the trail and start running to the 11 1/2 mile marker. I get running and run past the 11 and I'm looking for the next marker. I never found it. I ran and ran and never found the 11 1/2 or the 12 mile marker. I wanted to know how far I ran so I wanted to find a marker somewhere. I looked at my time and I'd been running for 30 min., so I thought I'd better turn around. I ran back to my truck, and if you know anything about math you can guess that in all I ran for 60 min. A whole hour. I still am shocked. I felt like I could have kept running. It was such a good feeling. So I think if it wasn't a 6 mile run then it had to of been pretty close. Two days later I did it again. After that my knees and ankles were hating me pretty bad so they decided to hurt for a couple of days. So know I am a fan of the long runs and haven't run less then 45 min this week. I think I'll try to run a 10K. Some friends of mine want me to run a half marathon with them. Now that sounds tiring! We'll see what happens.