Hi I’m Mike.
Priorities are something that we deal with everyday here on the ranch.
Each morning we have to decide what needs done now and what can wait.
Its those decisions, including a huge one that we made this winter, that dictate the
direction, of Our Wyoming Life.
Welcome back to our Wyoming life.
Thank you for continuing along with us as we explore the ranch life and escape the ordinary.
If you are new here, thank you for taking a few minutes from your day to join all of
us and becoming a part of the ranch.
Tuesday means its time for the project list.
This board behind me is a constant reminder of what needs done around the place, some
projects are time sensitive and some aren’t.
Each project on the board needs done but some need done sooner that others.
Today we are going to be tackling a couple important ones that come down to food and
nutrition for the animals and we are going to take a look at a job that I am dropping
completely, retiring from if you will.
I’ll tell you all about it as we go, but the first thing we are going to knock of the
list today is dealing with the pigs.
They need more food, they have about 50 lbs left and when we have only 50 lbs of pig food,
we are out of pig food.
So a quick trip to town in is in order to pick up more, first we need fuel.
When we came to the ranch, we weren’t sure if it was forever or only temporary and when
coming here I decided to hedge our bets and start another business that focused on creative
services for businesses.
I started out doing voice work, working on radio commercials for businesses across the
US.
From a car dealer in Wichita to cruise ship on board announcements.
This was essential at the time, to help us financially, ranching didn’t pay much, especially
for a glorified ranch hand, and doing those voice overs quickly grew into building and
maintaining websites for local businesses as well.
I guess at that time, I was still holding on to a former life in the corporate world,
much different than life as seen around here now, although I did deal with a few pigs in
the corporate world.
Cleaning up messes, disposing of the evidence and fixing problems.
I am not sure that anything I did in my former life prepared me for dealing with the 4 legged
variety, the amount they eat, the destruction they can cause.
Pigs are like having a room full of 4 year olds, which you leave alone for hours on end
and just hope that nothing gets broken.
You can hope, but everytime I check them, I find something they are doing that they
shouldn’t be.
Today it is their feeders.
Their feeders are normally screwed to the wall, but they have figured out how to tear
them off.
This morning we are going to reattach them again.
This time with lag bolts that hopefully will keep them from coming off again.
Although I don’t hold out too much hope.
But this is a priority, without feeders the pigs cant eat, its that simple.
So it needs to be done.
Anyway, back to my retirement….
Doing the voice over work and website design and maintenance, was one way to hold onto
my previous way of thinking, but I can say that over the years it has really started
to get old.
Deadlines, set in place by someone else, have really become something that I cant stand.
You need to have this done today was the one I probably heard the most, but hey I have
other things to get done today.
I have animals that need fed, waters that need filled, fences that need fixed, whatever
it may be.
This is something that my clients didn’t get, or maybe it was just that my priorities
were changing.
I was shifting out of that corporate way of thinking and more into a ranch style of thinking,
where you start to care about those things that are in your control and things that you
see a direct result from.
See, pigs are fed, and they are happy and most importantly, quiet.
But none the less, things went on like that for years.
Building websites, doing voice work and keeping clients happy.
Along the way, I thought more about keeping myself and my family happy.
And I continued to think about it more and more, that along with how important the ranch
is, for our future, and the cows.
The cows are fed, but they need cake.
Cake is a nutritional supplement the cows get, packed full of vitamins and minerals,
this stuff is like a treat for them.
They love it, they will follow you around like a puppy dog for it.
They will also almost trample you to get it.
That’s why we built this trailer cake feeder last year.
A way to feed the cows cake from the cake feeder, which we used to have in the back
of the gator, but now on the trailer, it is not taking up the whole bed of the gator and
even though a bit more of a pain to hook up and use, it does save time and effort.
Today we are using it for the first time this winter, luckily everything still works, the
battery is charged and we are ready to go.
Each cow gets about 2 lbs of cake, although I cant really control how much each eats,
we are going to put out 300lbs of cake for them to gobble up as fast as they can.
Then its out to the cows, where an auger inside the feeder will push the cake out and down
a chute to the ground where they came come and get the nutrition they need and a change
from just hay.
I needed to make a change too.
So it was this winter that Erin and I decided to drop a portion of our business.
Take a look at our priorities and see where our time was best spent.
With that thought in mind we decided to drop the website and maintenance from our lives.
It doesn’t seem like much, but it frees up Erin and I to concentrate on what we have
decided is a better direction to take our experience and lives.
The ranch has become the number one priority for both of us but through YouTube and social
media we have found a voice.
A chance to bring people closer to agriculture, people from all over the world and that is
where we are going to concentrate our secondary efforts.
It does hit the pocketbook a bit, and losing those clients that I have worked with for
years is a bit hard and I’m sure there might even be some hard feelings.
Priorities though, sometimes mean doing what is best for you and what is best for those
around you.
We hope that by moving farther in this direction we can continue to help others and in more
ways than ever before.
So that’s my story for today, I’m retiring the website business.
Except for ourwyominglife.com of course, that one is still going strong.
Thanks for giving me a chance to share my story today, its one that has been hanging
on my mind for a few months, it wasn’t an easy decision to make.
I had a lot of people that counted on me to help their businesses and help them grow,
but now they are in someone elses hands, and mine are put to work on another project.
I announced this decision to some of our subscribers in the herd report yesterday, the best response
I got was from Mark, who said Congratulations on your retirement, now get back to work.
Aint that the truth.
That’s two things off the project list, fix the pigs feeders, hopefully for good,
and get the cake trailer up and running.
And one more thing that I can take off my personal project list forever.
I guess I have learned that you have to prioritize you own life too.
Figure out what it is that makes you happy, that supports your family and go for it.
It might be building websites, but one thing I know, is that as life goes on, things change
and what may have been the most important thing to you a few years ago, is now slowing
you down from where you really want to be and what you want to do.
More on the way from the ranch, we finally got a date for pregchecking and its coming
up really soon and we are going to find out who is pregnant and who isn’t out here and
Erin has a new video coming out on Thursday, where she is going to be getting into the
holiday spirit.
If you are looking for Christmas gifts for that our Wyoming life fan in your life, go
and check out our website, ourwyominglife.com for brand new gear, drinkware, hats and more.
Until I see you again, have a great week and thanks for joining us in our Wyoming life.