These last few days have been real “doozies” here on my ranch. Both my husband and our full time cowherd / bull manager took off for Cowtown to go to the Fort Worth Stock Show, leaving behind me, my two daughters and Harley, our show barn manager, to run the operation. And Carlos, our intern.
Obviously, the rank order of that team was 1. Harley 2. Carlos 3. Me.
So while part of our ranch team was “living it up in Cowtown” as me and Harley described it, back here at the ranch, Harley was getting the brunt of all the activity. And I was getting the second most “brunt” of all of it. This included:
- Needing the tractor, only to realize the tractor was 20 minutes away.
- Finding said tractor, only to realize it was out of diesel. (Not naming any names BRANDON….)
- Every cow that was close to calving – decided to calve – on one day.
- Cold snap coming in which means Brahman calves need to be in the barn.
- Loading out two sets of customers who had bought cattle from us.
- Pulling a calf, who nearly shot cow poop right into Harley’s face as he was trying to help her.
- Said cow not wanting to take the calf, and trying to figure that out. (She took to it eventually thank goodness)
- Realizing at 6 p.m. that my youngest daughter was still in her nightgown while we were at the cow pens. Mom fail.
- And lots more…..
So last night, right as me and Harley were trying to get the cow and calf in the barn and Carlos was documenting it all on Snapchat, I asked Harley: “Would you rather have days like this where there’s lots going on or normal days where nothing goes on?”
And I knew what Harley would say, because he’s an amazing person, and while covered head to toe in cow poop and afterbirth, he said:
| “I LOVE DAYS LIKE THIS. IT CHALLENGES ME. I’D MUCH RATHER BE SATISFIED IN A JOB WELL DONE THAN SITTING HOME DOING NOTHING.” -Harley Wade |
And I think that’s a trait that a lot of us in the agriculture industry have. We aren’t afraid of hard work. We aren’t afraid of challenges. Some of my best days are ones where I’ve worked my butt off. Days where I’m so tired I can barely keep my eyes open, but you have this amazing feeling of “being satisfied in a job well done.” That’s better to me than a day lounging around all day. (Even though I do occasionally love a Hallmark movie binge afternoon on Sunday.)
During this time of year, lots of us are tired and exhausted. Maybe you just got home from Denver, or you’re heading into Fort Worth Stock Show. Maybe you’re like us and calving out a ton of cows on cold wet nights and just want to get warmed up and take a shower and get out of your muddy clothes. Maybe you just drove all night with a truck and trailer and just want to get home and back to your own bed.
Whatever you’re doing, I hope you take a little time to be satisfied in the job well done that you’re doing. It makes a difference. You’re awesome.
I always like to tie these emails some way back to marketing. The same principle holds true for us here at Ranch House when we complete a project. We have a message board internally at Ranch House where we share all of our projects with the rest of the team. To just kinda “show off” some of the projects everyone is working on. We spend a lot of time on each of our clients projects and are satisfied in “jobs well done.” Here are a few of our most recent designs and some projects that really stand out to us in last two weeks:
- We just wrapped up hosting the annual convention of the Texas Association of Fairs and Events in Galveston, Texas. This is an amazing event. We provide association management services for this great group.
- We started working with Leachman Cattle on helping provide digital marketing services to help promote their upcoming sales. Check out their Facebook page to see some of their spring activities.
- We are in full “bull sale” promotion mode – working with so many great beef producers nationwide. We love each of these.
Here are a few of our recent print designs for some of our amazing customers. This week we helped design ads for clients at the top of the USA in North Dakota (Prairie Hills) on down to the Thomas Charolais at the very tip of Texas, right near Mexico. And lots of ranchers in between.
If we can assist you with any projects – web, print or digital, we’d love the opportunity to talk with you.
As you can see, we’ve been busy in the last 2 weeks working on all kinds of projects for farms, ranches, food and beverage, animal nutrition and more. If you are needing a new website or something new printed or promoted on social media, let me know. We’d love to help you.
Thanks again for reading and hope you have a great week!