Fleeting Summertime

I thought I had more time.

When June arrived and all of the cows and ewes had babies by their side, I made a list of so many great summertime activities – sleep in the teepee, fix the roof on an old building, add rock to the driveway, ride horses in the mountains, and paint the house trim, among others. I had the entire summer to accomplish all of it.

I blinked then flipped the calendar to September.

Summer was behind me.

My daughter and I took a trip and company came to visit a couple of times. We rode our horses in the mountains twice and I gathered rocks for a few of the potholes in the driveway. I reinforced a lot of fence and we put the teepee up two days before a windstorm blew it almost to North Dakota.

I told myself that I could still accomplish all of my summer projects; I still have three months of nice weather.

Then I laughed out loud at that preposterous idea.

I couldn’t even find my summer jobs list.

I decided I better focus on preparing for winter instead.

It turns out that I must not be alone. September is National Emergency Preparedness Month.

I don’t think they mean what I mean, though.

My biggest winter preparation job is to move the hay from the alfalfa field to the stackyard.

I didn’t need to tackle this job last year because I didn’t have any hay in the alfalfa field.

None.

Drought eliminated that task. This year, I am so happy to tackle stacking hay that I might burst out singing.

If you see hoards of deer, porcupine, antelope, jackrabbits, gophers or elk join my sheep, cows and horses on a dead run, you’ll know I couldn’t contain myself.

To move hay, I use the tractor to load it on a truck and trailer. My brother, Roger, drives the truck to the stackyard and uses the skid steer to stack it.

This means I needed to prepare to prepare for winter.

The tractor needed a new o-ring on a hydraulic fitting. That was an easy repair.

The skid steer developed a flat tire on the Friday afternoon before Labor Day weekend. The tire shop wouldn’t be open until Tuesday morning.

One pickup needed a new fuel filter. I could buy a new fuel filter while I waited for the tire to be repaired.

While I waited for Tuesday, I tackled my second winter preparation priority -- discovering how my yearlings had found their way to my neighbor’s yard the day before my daughter and I took a trip in July.

Out of time before our trip, I had moved the yearlings to a secure pasture in the middle of the ranch, knowing I needed to go back and find the hole later.

Now, it was later.

The hole was the bone-dry creek bed. When my water runs in the creek, the yearlings stay home. When my water gets held up at the neighbor’s reservoir, the yearlings visit his yard.

The yearlings will graze that pasture this fall, before our water issues are resolved, so I stretched some barbed wire across the creek to discourage neighborly visits. With any luck, next spring the wire will be washed out by high water.

By Tuesday afternoon, my brother and I were happily hauling hay. He wore his Airpods to listen to anything besides my singing and both of us were glad to work on this prepare-for-winter job.

When we finish hauling hay, maybe I’ll put the teepee back up. A few mornings of waking up to the sun rise glowing on my sleeping bag will remind me that I still have a little summer left.

I still have time.