Another week at the ranch

The time is flying here at the ranch! It's hard to believe we have finished our second week! We've been having a lot of fun working with the staff on our projects. The guys finished up the hardie/cement board and will start on the trim Tuesday. We have tomorrow (Monday) off since the staff has the day off for MLK Day. We worked on Friday to make up for Monday.

As for us gals, we are still helping out in the kitchen... Maybe they are trusting us more now, as we are being given more duties. We love serving the kids, though. The other day we had steak for lunch. (95% of the food is donated to the ranch from a food bank, and they send lots of good things) The cook has two ways of cooking steak...either medium or well. One of the ranchers was looking for as rare a piece as he could get. We had a discussion then about how to get the most tender steak. He said he needed to train the others, and he would do it by cooking a brisket for them all. But he wasn't sure they could be retrained. Haha. Dessert is only served a couple of times a week because some of the ranchers would only eat dessert. As it is, they load their pockets with as much as will fit . Lol. And.... This is "sweet tea" territory, so Mark enjoys it on occasion.

One of the cottage parents retired this week after serving here for 18 years!! There was a big party at lunch and their family and alumni were invited. It was so heartwarming to listen to the stories of how one couple touched the lives of so many young people. 💚

Incidentally... Mark has made a new friend here at the ranch...I have NOT!!!

There are some really nice hiking trails here. The terrain is so different than in Michigan, but beautiful in its own way. We were warned to be watching for snakes sunning themselves on the trail and/or hanging from the trees. I'm happy to report, that we didn't see any on our hike yesterday.

The foliage was very thick, sort of like yucca

The white sands at the river's edge looked like snow

Close up of the yucca

While on his way back from a hike one day, Mark noticed a young man at the corner of the property, kicking away at the dirt on the fenceline. I had seen him there one day also and thought he was one of the boys that came through the lunch line... one with a chip on his shoulder. Mark stopped to say hi and asked him if he was a rancher which he affirmed. He said he was working on the fenceline as a punishment.  A day or two later, Allie and I were walking, and there he was again, in the same spot. A little anxiously, I wondered what I might say to him, whether he would have an "attitude" with me so I quickly asked God for the words He would have me speak. Well... This young man and I talked for about a hall hour!!!! He just wanted to talk, talk, talk. At one point I thought I better ask him if he was on the clock because I didn't want to get him in trouble. He said he and his twin brothers had been at the ranch for a year. Their mother is in rehab with  the possibility of two years jail time ahead of her. He shared about everything and smiled and laughed. I feel like I really made a connection with him. The stories here are so sad and just so many. It is encouraging to hear some positive outcomes from some of the alumni though. There is hope! Everyone needs hope. This young man I met does have hope! He's seen progress academically (a year ago, at 16 yrs old, he was at a 4th grade level, now a year later he is up to 8th grade) and has a goal.

The ranchers are diligently working on their horsemanship skills, but with such little time to learn how to ride PLUS learn the group routine in the show ring which is highly dependant on timing and spacing...keeping your horse at an even pace and evenly spaced from the other horses. That is so important, because the pattern they are learning is a moving figure eight where the horses have to cross paths without running into each other.

It's hard to tell, 

but they are working 

on the figure eight

The other night seemed to have it's challenges for the ranchers remembering the patterns and keeping their horses under control, so their instructor threatened then with "up downs". You may recall from the movie "Remember the Titans" the football players doing "up downs" when they didn't get things right... run in place, hit the ground, repeat. Well..."Up downs" in this arena means dismount and remount, which can be extra hard for some ranchers that carry a few extra pounds. 😩

This is one of the longhorns.

The last week here has been very humid and warm here, much to my chagrin. I never expected this, but many of you in the North may not have any sympathy. As I see some of your pictures of snow, I am envious. Hahaha

One last interesting little tidbit... One of the first mornings here, about 7:30 am, we were taking Allie for a walk. The roads immediately around us are all sand/old pavement, lots of potholes... very rough!. It was just getting light when an older man approached on a bicycle, holding a rifle!! Not something you would ordinarily see on a walk. 😂 Later we asked about him, since he was so close to our camp site, and found out he hunts regularly on his mother's property which is across the road from the Boys Ranch property. That was a very interesting start to our time here. 😂