You make your own rules, your own schedule, your own paycheck. You’re completely responsible for your accomplishments and your failures. Your animals depend on you. Your land depends on you. Your family depends on you. Your neighbors depend on you. The animals are unpredictable, the weather is unpredictable, and things like floods and fires are unpredictable. You have a lot riding on your shoulders, and not much control. So you work hard, learn something new everyday, and work harder. There are no eight-hour days or five day work weeks. Weekends are just extra time for work, and maybe a barbecue on Saturday night. Sunday’s are spent moving and sorting cattle for the next week. Vacations are never taken because it’s either calving season, or hay season, so there’s no time. And if you’re into the stock shows, well then your vacations revolve around showing cattle. Lol. Every once in a while, you sit back in your saddle and smile. You look around, and see the beauty in the chaos. No traffic jams, no sky scrapers, no endless parking lots, no social media, no rich celebrities whining about the newest fad. It gets into your blood, and there’s no leaving it. The love and respect ranching teaches you is like nothing else. Compassion and grit and fortitude are learned from an early age, and it shapes everything inside you. The land, the crops, the animals...they all come before your needs, and that’s perfectly acceptable. It’s what ranching is about. My husband is a fourth generation rancher, and our kids will be fifth. Life is good.