Can you see me now? This is where I am.

So what’s a nice Jewish girl from California doing up here in the cold among tough, competent, confident, no-nonsense men and women who don’t wear seat belts and carry loaded rifles in their vehicles? Visiting a very dear family member. My face is wind burnt, my lips chapped, my fingernails split and shredded, but who cares? I’m with people who can do anything, fix anything, brave anything, save anything…or shoot ‘em if they can’t save ‘em. The weather is hellacious and glorious at the same time. The cows are half-wild but the babies are cute and I got to bottle feed an orphaned calf today. These people take damn good care of their cows and horses and dogs. The animals’ needs come first. So what if you don’t eat from six in the morning until ten at night? There are cows calving in a blizzard and babies to get out of the cold. There are steers to be counted and tagged, heifers to be weighed, bulls to be fed, horses to be tended to. The winds were so bad last night that at 3 a.m., the rancher found a newborn calf and had to stash him, along with his mother, inside the rolled and stacked hay bales to keep the baby alive until this afternoon. I helped retrieve the little guy.

In little more than one day, I’ve seen sandhill cranes, golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, geese, ducks, tiny birds of all description, a pair of muskrats, a coyote, and a skunk - up close and personal.

So anyway, I’m tired, I’m dirty, my hair is a mess, my lips are stinging and I’m very happy. Night…

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