Keep Your Hands to Yourself

So, apparently cell phones do get reception from the middle of a bale.

Don't ask me how I know.

On a different note, I have a confession to make... I actually started a blog about 5 1/2 years ago. And have never shared it with anyone. Five years of amazing and hilarious stories that I've kept all to myself. Because I could. And because I like to keep to myself.

Ok, so maybe I never shared it with anyone because I never got around to posting anything. Oops.

I started the blog when I moved in with Suzanne in the good ol' De Soto house in Salt Lake. Suzanne and I often joked/predicted that we would become just like our great aunts, Jo and Clara. Single for our entire life. Suzanne was Clara, and I was Jo. We were going to be the coolest great-aunts. Ever.

About this same time, everyone who was anyone started blogging. I wanted to be anyone so I started a blog too. I called it, Just Call Me Jo. I was sure it was the beginning of something great. Monumentous, even. I had really big plans... But then my most favoritest thing in the whole entire world took over me. A little thing I like to call - laziness. And I never wrote a single post.

Fast forward life 5 years and I find myself with a different last name and no longer living on good ol' De Soto Street. Suzanne is married, too. So much for our Clara and Jo idea. I blame Suzanne. She started the whole tie-the-knot thing.

I'm now living on a ranch in Ten Sleep, Wyoming. Which is pretty much heaven on earth - minus the sagebrush. I kind of feel like a fish out of water here, but I still love it. LOVE it. It's so beautiful and I love that I can see deer outside my living room window every evening. Like right now as I'm typing. There's a cute little deer out by the stack yard. If I had my camera I'd snap a picture as proof. Too bad my camera is clear in the kitchen.

 I don't miss the city at all. In fact, if I was forced to move back to Salt Lake right now, I'd definitely go kicking and screaming. I do miss being close to friends and family, though. A lot. And having the nearest grocery store 35 minutes away, and the nearest Walmart and Costco 3 hours away has been a bit of an adjustment.

I'm learning a lot out here. It's been a real eye-opener to see what ranch life is all about over the last year or so. It's a lot of work. A. Lot. Of. Work. The Lymans definitely put in more hours on the ranch each day than most people do at the office. And their Saturdays are just like any other day of the week. A work day. They love the work, though. And they're happy to wake up at 3 or 5am to do it. I used to think they were crazy. But now I understand.

That doesn't mean I join them at 5am. That would just be silly. I'm good with my 6:30-7am wake up time. I did wake up at 5:30am the other day, though. Jared was already out baling in the fields and I needed to get an early start on a project I've been working on for the hospital. I'd been going for about 30 minutes when Jared came in the kitchen and informed me that he'd lost his phone. After maybe 15 calls from my phone to his, and a fair amount of time searching in the house, the tractor, and the truck, we found it.

I love how happy he looks :)

The head net is for mosquitos in case you were wondering. I have one, too. A wedding gift from Jared's sister. They definitely come in handy out here.

Jared's special ringtone for me, by the way?

Georgia Satellites, 'Keep Your Hands to Yourself'.