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rabies, rattlesnakes, hanta virus, west Nile, rattlesnakes, cactus not tall enough to see just hiding in the grass to pierce your boot soles, skunks, rattlesnakes, badgers, hail and micro bursts that will flatten large steel buildings and silos. Did I mention rattlesnakes?
Then, come fall, the influx of city dudes on hunting trips. Some of them are fine but some simply should not be allowed off pavement. When guys buy two twelve packs of beer per person, one loaf of bread and one package of bologna per group, then head out over private land with large guns they might not really be used to... Well, me 'n the 90 Pound Hound do not walk much in the fall. People around here have had trucks, horses, cows, dogs and 12 year old boys shot by hunters who maybe should have studied more before coming out.
Then there are the dolts who drive out without procuring a motel room first. Two small motels in town and 90 miles to the next one and they don't all call first. I have seen guys in the grocery store just before closing begging for someone to offer them a bedroom. They cannot fathom a place without 25 motels to choose from and 'waddaya mean the store is closing?!?!?!' is not an uncommon cry.
After hunting season comes: WINTER. Depending on how that goes and what the road to your place looks like, you may not see anybody else
for a week or two or three. And while there is always something for the country folks to do around the ranch, winter can turn into a pretty long stretch of just thinking about it.
And when winter really starts getting unpleasant, say along about Feb & early March, well, that's when those little lambs and calves come and people spend a lot of hours in the middle of the night helping critters get born when there are problems. Even without problems, not all momma critters do their jobs just right and it is a circus to keep everybody alive when they pop out wet into 40 below and windy when mom just sorta wanders off.
Then comes time to plant, if the mud dries up enough so a fella doesn't loose a tractor in it. Rush to get the grain in and keep the machines going when it is still cold enough to make metal parts brittle.
After the farming comes the branding. It is a good time, but a lot of work. People go to each other's places and it is a time to catch up on visiting, checking how much the little kids (two legged variety) grew since you saw them last, see who's expecting and who got busted up in wrecks over the winter...
Then there is time to catch your breath, for a week. Then spraying, fencing, spring doins at the schools and pretty soon it is time for graduation.
And about then, the rattlesnakes are all good and awake again. They are ready and waiting about the time you go to put those bulls out with the cows. The bulls are pretty ornery by then and you best be fast on your feet.
Pretty soon, it is time to test each of your cows to make sure they are pregnant. Watch for flying hooves, cactus (not good to land on) and... rattlesnakes.
Check the pumps all over and fix them so the cows and calves don't drop from thirst. Move the critters from pasture to pasture for grazing (not flat and smooth here like in the midwest, this is ROUGH country!) and keep the fences fixed!
So, if you aren't picked off be a mountain lion by the time you are 3 or 4, and you manage to stay out of harms way while learning all the other stuff of ranch/farm life, yeah, you have a good time being a kid in the country. You get to learn to drive much sooner than city kids.
Most of the children around here can move a pickup truck and/or tractor by the time they are 6-8, depending on how long their legs are.
Learning to ride a bike is harder though, without smooth pavement to practice on. And not that many know how to swim, which makes life a bit scary when one thinks about all those little reservoirs around the range for the cows to sip from.
But there are starry nights and early mornings filled with geese, cranes, eagles, pelicans and all manner of song birds. There are breezes scented with sweet clover and alfalfa. There are summer days with dawn at 4 AM and sunset at 11. When there is a break between chores, there is a world to explore and the freedom to do it. Just about everyone you see is related one way or another, so everybody is looking out for you.
Yeah, country kids have it good. Costs them, but it is good.
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