Shed

It's baby calf time at the ranch...circle of life renewed....new money on the ground. We spend lots of time riding around checking on the cows.  You notice the bulging milk bags and unmistakable look of a female who has clearly had enough.  Her eyes scream out "get it out already."  The new babies have been licked clean and scamper around with their tails kinked like the number nine.  One approaches his mama and repeatedly butts his head into her gorged bag and she turns to look at him with tired disdain.  I grab my boobs in empathy and quietly tell her I have felt her pain.

Driving around looking at calves and seven miles of new fence, I notice something rising from the green spiders that are called struggling wheat.  Even at a fair distance it can be seen and I yell out "stop the truck."  About that time my kids notice the shed antler too and everybody bales out of the truck leaving doors open and Ed yelling how rude we all are (truck manners indicate closed doors at all times to reduce flies and dirt).  The race is on.  In my head I can hear the theme from "Chariots of Fire" and I tell myself I don't care if they are my kids...I saw it first!  After twenty seconds of top speed in plowed dirt the muscles in my legs start to burn and remind me that I am no longer a spring chicken.  Stop Laughing.  They also scream "but you don't run!"  I tell my legs to shut up.  My oldest is right behind me as I summon just a little more strength to snatch the shed antler from the dirt.  It's a beauty.  Five points, big, and heavy.  I hold it high in victory and basked in my glory between gasps of breath.

Don't look at me that way.  I saw it first.  I won it fair and square.  Stop judging me.  I'm older and it was harder for me.  Shut up.

Every spare moment is spent canvasing wheat pastures and fence lines for shed antlers.  We each are on a quest to find the biggest one.  The kids wise up and get sneaky about it, not announcing their potential find or asking me to slow down the gator and catapult from it and start running.  My children have become natural gymnasts in two days.  Best exercise ever invented, I swear.  Even on horse back, they ride back up to the cabin with several sheds dangling from the tie strings on their saddles.

Although the antlers were dropped by the bucks as part of natural yearly process, we admire our little pile as if we had shot them all ourselves.  Each antler like reclaimed treasure from a sunken pirate ship.  Marveling at the size, heaviness, and number of points.  I smile at my children who were not in front of a TV, playing electronic games, or texting a friend.  We have a rule that no electronics are allowed at the ranch. I smile that they have shed those things and are fully engaged in the world around them...and each other.  They are happy and feel blessed beyond measure.

Amazing what happens when you let go of things that weigh you down.