Scarecrows and Sky

Get up!!  Get up!!!  That's Cooper pawing on the side of the folding kennel and making little crying sounds.  It's 4:00 am again and he is ready to play the ball game.  Ugh .... I just wanted to sleep.

This time I DID remember my hat, but not because of the sun, only because I didn't want to fix my hair.  That takes time and energy.  Turns out that was good and bad.  Good because it was fast and the predicted rain did not happen.  It was sunny all day.  Bad because there was not a breath of wind and it was miserably hot wearing a hat!!

All around the ranch are photo ops for kids and family.  Pretty short handed on this day, I had triple duty.  I started out setting up the snack bar with 20 pounds of cash,  a computer, glasses so I could see, ride tokens and miscellaneous flotsam hanging around my neck (we wear aprons just for the purpose).  

Then I greeted 150 kids, placed wristbands on the teachers and sent at least 75 parents to the pay window.  They all want in free and can't understand why it isn't FREE.  Their kids are here on a field trip and they should be FREE!!!!  The cost per parent is $5.00 to ride all the rides and spend the entire day at the patch.  

Once they were set up in the education center and the snack bar Queen showed up for duty, I landed on the hay ride.  

I always tell the kids to count the scarecrows.  There are 18 in case you wanted to know.

Still no rain, it began to get hot.  Hot almost worse than Arizona.  The hat, though vented, didn't help.  By 1:00 all the little kiddos who just love to pass on their germs, were out the front gate with free pumpkin in hand.  Quiet returned.

That's when I got to work training a new tractor driver, cleaning up trash and trying to look busy.  There's nothing worse for an owner than to see four employees hanging out at the snack bar, so I give them lovely tasks like sweeping the concrete or stocking the ice chests.  I'm sure they all love me.

That's when I got the call.  I KNOW you know what it was.  What day was it yesterday?  Tuesday you say?  My Bingo cohort had a bad tooth and wasn't going to show up.  Neither was I at that point.  Okay ... no rest for me.  I called to say I could be there, but I would be late.  

Hot and miserable, I took the fastest shower EVER, actually fixed my hair and landed at BINGO around 5:30.  It was one of our record nights, meaning we paid out over $5,500 and I was there until 10:00 counting and balancing.  Oh my aching back ... literally.

My poor puppies never got played with.  We went right to bed, mostly because I think I pulled a muscle in my back while tractor training.  At 4:00 this morning, the whimpering began, only this time it was ME!!  Back to the patch ... but I'm going to try and slip in a 30 minutes nap first!!