Ranch Life

The daily in and outs of ranch life.

Trading the bullet for a rocket

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I mentioned in my previous post that I would tell the story of my new car, so here it is.

I have not owned many cars in my life. Actually when I moved to Wyoming in 1995 as a sophomore in college, I did not own a car. I was brought out to Central Wyoming College in Riverton by my mom and aunt. I was staying on campus and really didn’t need one.  

In 1996 they gave me my sisters ford tempo. Let me just say it didn’t last long. Then after we married in 1998, we inherited my husband’s mom’s car. She had passed away suddenly in November only a couple months from our wedding. 

These were all inherited cars. After graduating college in 2001, the transmission went out of his mom’s oldsmobile. I decided it was time to buy and I purchased a 2002 Saturn sl with 50 miles on it. It was the prettiest thing I had ever seen. Plus it was a stick. 

Well driving from the ranch to my teaching job in Wright was 60 miles one way. I racked up the miles plus the yearly trips to Tennessee to see my parents and numerous other ventures. The little Saturn was great on gas mileage at 38-40mpg. It was awesome.  

Now between my house and Wright are several coal mines. They do shift work and me driving and then driving. You get where you recognize the cars. I didn’t know any of the people but the cars I knew and unfortunately they knew me and my driving. 

You see I had an hour to work. No matter what it was an hour. On snowy slick days it might be 2 hours. For me why get up early to put on makeup when I could do that on the way. My far became my office. Plus I had two kids in there with me. 

I unfortunately had friends who worked at the mine and they told me that my car had been named the bullet by the miners. Don’t ask me why, well yes there are a few stories about swerving, speeding, and reading while driving. I know bad, bad. But that is how it got its name.

The bullet was my first real car. I bought it. Well over the years and the miles it developed a severely bad problem that I could not cure. I tried and tried. I cleaned and cleaned. I even took the seats out and put steel wool in every hole I saw and covered it with silicone. But it was to no avail. The mice would comeback. It was awful. Whole families would be in there. I would get my oil changed and they would be in the air filter. It was gross. 

This summer since I had made the decision to not return to teaching, I decided that at 217,000 miles I was selling the Saturn. Believe it or not I sold it within 2 days of posting it for sale, and got a darn good price for it. I was honest about its problem but they were okay and assured me they would handle it.

In this process I decided I was getting a convertible. I know it’s crazy, I love on miles of dirt. However it was fate. The week I had decided to let the bullet go someone posted a car that was perfect. It is older, but the price was just for me. Okay it was cheap. I grabbed it up. The kids loved it.

It has been so much fun. The kids and I decided on the rocket. It will make its first venture to Tennessee soon and it is going to be a fun ride.  

Now the downfall. It has been in the garage at the hunting house ft since the big snow storm hit on the first week of October. We don’t have a garage at our house so our big truck and now the rocket will store over there when needed. I brought the rocket out on Friday and it did well on the roads. I was a little worried about clearance and the ruts hut it did fine. 

So midlife crisis or just fun here I come. 

Poor Joe with his cast January 2013

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Poor Joe with his cast January 2013

Joe was jumping off a 4- wheeler to gather cattle, when his front leg snapped in half. He yelped once and that was it, he never made another sound. He spent months being locked up and becoming a house buddy. ( which by the way be loved.) He has healed and although he can’t go as long out trailing he does go, but catches a ride from someone on the 4-wheelers when he needs it.

Here we go.

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Can I rant a little? Well of course it’s my little blog, in my little world. We live on miles, I mean Miles of dirt roads. It’s awesome. Who doesn’t love a good dirt road. No one comes down our road unless it’s the UPS driver or oilfield traffic. Basically we are in our own little civilization here. What could be better? What could be bad about it right? Wrong.

Dirt roads bring dust. Not really an issue until there are 30 or more semi trucks delivering water to the wells. Let’s just say going slow is not one of their finer skills. I will say dust I can handle. It could be worse.

Oh wait it is. Next comes mud. That’s right when the snow melts as it has this last few days, it seeps into our tired deprived ground and creates a wonderful layer of slippery goo. If mud bogging was a skill, let me say I am up there. I can rooster tail with the best of them. Well mine is not on purpose, but I can do it. Mud also creates ruts. Deep truck rocking ruts. When the road is driven on over and over and then the mud dries the ruts are deep. They pull your tires in and keep you in the tracks. It can rattle your teeth at times let me just say. I could slow down a little more, but I am also racing something. Usually it’s beating the clock to get somewhere on time.

Well yesterday our road had basically dried up. You could walk outside with out the need for muck boots. But that tricky mother nature, she loves me. I can tell she does. Last might it started raining and it rained, and it rained. So that it was a muddy, sticky, gooey mess outside.

Today was vet day. Yes I scheduled all four dogs to go in and see my amazing Dr. Root. (aka best vet ever). I let the dogs in at about 4:30 am when the rain got bad. Of course my Jipsey was already in, snuggled up on our bed. It’s awful I know.

When the kids were ready, I went out in my trusty Muck boots and started the truck and spread out a sheet on the back seat. I could not have my dogs getting the truck muddy. I then realized that one of the kids would have to sit on back with the dogs. So I devised a plan. Yes, it’s possible. I decided to carry each dog individually out to the truck, so that they would not have muddy feet. Oh my gosh. The three females were no problem. Our big red and white border was different. Since breaking his leg in half. Yes completely compound fractured and completely disgusting. He has healed, but in his confinement of about 10 months, he has gained some weight.  Now he is a large dog anyway.

Let me say I am small. Yes, I will admit I am vertically challenged. At 5 foot 2 inches, this dog is about as long as me. So you can just picture me trying to carry this dog in slippery gooey mud to the truck and once there I had to open the door. My goodness that was a task. I am surprised we didn’t fall and both of us roll in that muck.

We made it to the vet. The kids made it to school. They even remember to switch shoes before they got out of the truck. Oh the life!