Sometimes ranching isn’t romantic.
Yesterday I spent my morning helping MDH try to fix his broke down truck (okay, okay, I sat in the warm pickup while he attempted to diagnose the problem), then eventually helped him pull the truck and trailer off the county road. It was ridiculously windy and way too cold. He was beyond crabby, because he had hay to haul and breaking down was really putting a damper on his plans. I get it, it IS frustrating when things like this happen.
Sometimes ranching looks like crawling down in a well pit to fix a water pump when it’s -35 degrees. Sometimes ranching looks like sitting on an open cab swather that is blowing exhaust and chaff back on you when it is 101 degrees in the shade. Sometimes ranching looks like picking up rocks out of a field by hand. Sometimes ranching means fencing all day in the hot summer air that is full of all sort of bugs that won’t leave you alone. Sometimes, ranching just isn’t fun.
Have you ever met a grumpy rancher who seems to always have it worse than everyone else? They have exaggerated the difficulties they face beyond the difficulties others face. If you haven’t met this kind of person, then it’s you; you’re the grump. It isn’t always the case, but more often than not, in this industry, it is the men. And it’s likely not the men who need to learn this valuable lesson who are reading this blog post. So go ahead and print it out for them, and highlight the part about not projecting onto others.
It’s easy to let bad events ruin your day. And if you let them ruin your day, you can often put a real damper on your family members’ days, too. But you chose this job. And every single job out there has bad days. The CEO of a fortune 500 company has bad days. The custodian of the local school has bad days. The surgeon at the hospital has bad days. The first grade teacher at the school has bad days. Everyone has bad days at work. The key is not bringing the bad day home with you. Not projecting your frustrations on your spouse and kids. Not letting the bad event consume you. If you do, you begin to lose the gratitude you feel for living this lifestyle, and the reason you chose to be involved in ranching in the first place. Take a minute or two everyday to think of five things you are grateful for, even on your worst days. It might just make your hardships not so hard.
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