I don't know where to start. The trip was good. I left Augusta real early and got to Albuquerque at about 1pm local time. The baby on the last flight over from Denver gave me high-fives; his name was Lorenzo. After picking up a hat and some groceries in town we made it down to Quemado.
This ranch is so massive. I knew it was 450 sq miles but I hadn't realized that meant it was 50 miles long. The other ranchhand out here, an 18 year-old guy named Jim, reckons he's only seen about 5% of the ranch and he's been here for over a month. I did a little bit of wandering around with my aunt and uncle's dogs when I got here. There is so much sky. Did you know? I had no idea.
My uncle Stephen got home not long after and we had dinner with he and Jim while they talked all about the day's branding and how Jim's roping was coming along. Afterwards Jim and I left to head down the bunkhouse which is located right near the headquarters. He's a real nice guy, definitely just as western-sheltered as I am eastern. His dad's the vet out for the ranch. I was talking to him yesterday about the work and he said, "it's good pay, or rather there's no time to spend it and nothin' to spend it on so it seems like good pay." It's really true. Aside from Skittles and ammo for his guns I don't know if Jim has anything else on which to spend money. With neither of those vices I think food will be my only expense.
I just got my room situated for the most part. It's real big and has two bunk beds in it along with a desk and not too much else. It's great though 'cause I'm right off the kitchen and the closest one to the bathroom. The kitchen is about as nice as back home and there's a washer and dryer in the house too so it's really great. I don't have cell service or internet but there is a landline for calls. That means anything posted on here will be up from Kate and Stephen's house.
This morning I helped Jim with the chores. All there's to do is move certain amounts of hay around without getting trampled by all the horses. Also at headquarters they keep the few cows that are to be slaughtered. They just killed one the other day and we're excited 'cause the bunkhouse gets a quarter of the meat. There're also three calves that will eventually be slaughtered that walk around the yard since they're so small. Jim claims their names ought be Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.
We were supposed to help load hay today to bring down here but Luke just came over and said we'd be doing it Tuesday instead since Sunday is the day off. He and his wife Nancy stopped by earlier and hung around with Jim and me. They're probably in their mid to late 20's and are incredibly nice people. Jim's going to Socorro now to visit his mom for the long weekend. I think I'm spending the rest of the day riding with my aunt and uncle. I need as much practice as I can get but thankfully my aunt has the whole week off so she's gonna be helping me with that process. There's a pasture out not far from their house where my uncle found some pottery shards last week that they dated to the 9th or 10 century so I think we're gonna be giving that a look today too.
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