Wind of change...

I am sorry for not being able to write here for quite a while. I hope I haven't lost my "followers".  It seems like everytime I get more readers I take an unwanted break from blogging. I've been without a phone and internet for a while so I appologize for not updating...

Anyway, a lot of things are going on and has happened since last time I wrote. I don't know where to begin but well, here's the story.

A month and a half ago me and Jared started to seriously think about what we were going to do with our future plans, if we were gonna stay at the Swanz ranch here in Montana, find another ranch, move closer to Jared's family in Missouri, stay as permenent residents in Sweden, or do something completely different... It has been a lot of thoughts going on. We feel very lucky and greatful for this last year, when we have been able to experience this big family adventure. But aside of all the fun memories, it has also been a year full of planning, packing, travelling, moving and time apart from eachother... We have discussed different options back and forth, and it's so difficult to make decisions about what we are going to do (at least) for the next year before Natalie is really starting school. We feel that we still have time to try out the options we have, before we have to settle more permanent in one location. The fact that we are a swedish/american family will always be present and something that we have to consider when it comes to making decisions about how we want to live our lives, where and even which country we eventually are going to settle in...

Before we took a decision about either getting really settled in at the Swanz's ranch, or pack our things and leave, we had to consider that my visa for permenent residency wasn't done, so we knew I had to leave the country before my 90 days were over. Which meant, no matter what, I had to fly back to Sweden before Easter. At this point all we knew about the visa process was that all papers were approved, but we still waited for a date to attend to the interview at the embassy in Stockholm so theoretically it could be several months again. We knew that we didn't want to be apart for as long as we were over the winter, and we had really hoped and believed that my visa would be done long time ago....but unfortuantely not, so what was the best thing to do?

We both really liked staying at the ranch here. The setting and environment around is so beautiful, good salary and benefits, very friendly community, a charming, safe and educational little school for Natalie and the Swanz family are truly intelligent, positive, considerate and loving people that we really appreciate we got the opportunity to get to meet. Few things spoke against staying but for us as a family they were important to consider.  Since the winters are so long and sometimes rough here, we thought (or mostly me), that the ranch is in a little too remote location. It is hard to find different activities within an hour drive when you have two little girls. To get many options you have to go around 1 h 45 min to Billings and that's nothing you all of a sudden do in the weekdays after school. It's like going from Sölvesborg - Malmö roundtrip just to go swim or attend gymnastic class on a tuesday evening or so...  It might sound like a minor problem when you are at a big ranch full of animals and nature, but in the winter there are long time periods when you cant really take advantage of what the ranch has to offer to activate the kids. It might be of bigger concern for me than others because it's a new way of life for me, and that I'm so use to have things closer. I'm sure that's something I'd get use to, but it still doesn't take away the fact that there are quite a few years until Jamie starts school and that both girls need to get activated and socialize with other kids on a regular basis. ( Of course there are other kids in the area and Natalie already started to make friends and had a very good, stimulating time in school, but it is a small community and there are just not so many small kids around...) Another thing was that I felt that it'd be hard for me, even if I wanted within a year or so, to actually get a part time job because there were no daycares around in the area. I think I'd like to be a stay at home mom for a little while longer, but I am of that nature that eventually I need to work and meet collegues on a more daily basis to feel good, so that could have caused problems if I didn't even have a realistic possibility to do so.  After thinking about this day and night for quite a while, we took an emotional decision to pack our things and leave this beautiful ranch. Jared was going to stay and work for few weeks after me and the girls had to leave. Then take a roadtrip down to the family in Missouri and fly to Sweden from there. If things were different with my visa done, I think we'd stayed until shipping in October so we at least could enjoy the most beautiful and green part of the year in Montana. But there were not so much to do about that since we didn't want to split the family for a longer time period again. So after packing, crying and saying goodbye to the Swanz, me and the girls left the ranch and flew back to Sweden the 14:th of April.

Even though we technically left Montana, I really feel that at least I'm not done with this amazing state. I'm sure we will be back in Montana in foreseeable future! (And of course we will go visit the Swanz family and continue what hopefully will be a lifelong friendship!)

So right now our things are packed down and safely stored in Missouri, Jared is flying over the Atlantic very soon and we are going to enjoy the best part of the year in Sweden. After my visa is completely done, we finally have the opportunity to try to fully live in USA without having the stress that me and the girls need to leave, or that I'm not allowed to work...So no matter where the road might lead us after the summer I'm sure we will have an exciting time ahead of us!

(I will write more about Montana, the community and school another day...)

More branding...

Branding has it's origin from the early pioneers and settlers of the old west. Back then they didn't use any fences, more or less all land was completely open range. So the branding was necessary to be able to sort the cattle when it was time for round up. In the past many land/cattle owners did this together and sorted the herds after which brand the cows had. Nowadays in Montana most land are fenced, but since the pastures are so large, cows always get lost or end up in a far away neighbours cowherd. If you only have eartags on your cows, it's not possible to prove your ownership... I've heard it's not a law anymore in Montana to brand your cattle, but if you don't and they get lost you will have a very hard time get your cows back...

The way people brand nowadays is slightly different from ranch to ranch. Most people still use the same type of branding iron that the early settlers did. They are handmade and heated up by open flames from a real fire, or by using gas. Some people use electrical branding tools. The actual brand is unique for each owner. You can either inherit or buy a certain brand. Then they are all registered to each owner. Many large ranchers own several brands and some has been in the family for many generations.  It is a lot of thoughts put behind how a brand is designed. To make it clear and not to difficult to mark on the calves, it needs to be simple, and not have too many angles and curves. Some brands are very desirable and even famous so when they get on the market they can be very expensive ( 10.000 usd and more...)

The way you catch and hold the calves while branding it, varies to. Sometimes the old school way of roping and draging the calf down to the ground is the only possible way or most convenient. Sometimes if the herd is relatively close to your equipment and corrals, it's preferable to use a squeeze chute to hold the calves. Some ranchers choose the same way they've done for generations, others prefer to do it another way. To brand a calf the proper way takes a lot of training, It's a work of art to get it right. The pressure on your branding iron needs to be just enough to make a visible mark and not too deep to make a blurry scar. On top of that you first need to burn the hair which can be different from calf to calf...I might get the chance to try later! No matter how the procedure is done, the main thing is that all calves need to be branded before they are going out to the summer pastures and spread over thousends of acres...

Here are some more pictures...

Hehe..Giving vaccine in old Wranglers and Peak Performance jacket.

 

 

 

Black & White branding...

Old school. Traditional. Brutal. And Respectful. Rough. Beautiful. Noisy. Smelly. Handcraft. Old Work of art. With compassion for the calves.

I'll tell you more about branding later...There're many more days of branding to come!

 

 

 

 

Working cows...

The guys worked some of the older calves and got a little help... It was time to give them a vaccination shot and spray them with anti-lees, ticks etc on their back. Me and the girls stayed for a while and Natalie wanted to help Daddy get the calves into the pen. Jamie watched from a distance but was very curious about the noisy mechanic thing that held aech calf before the ran out again. She laughed mostly but showed her little sad mouth a couple of times when a calf jumped out too fast and slid in the mud. Good to see that she shows compassion and empathy... Anyway here are some pictures. Within the next few days the branding starts here at the ranch so I'll definately bring the camera and show some of that.

 

Reality...

Survival of the fittest... with some help! Like I wrote earlier, it's calving time at the ranch. Jason (the boss) said that so far this year has been really good, not many calves lost (less than expected, some twins) and more than half are on the ground. The cows that are going to have their calves are constantly supervised outside, and depending on the weather and how the cow's doing when the time comes, they will be put freely inside a barn or stay and give birth outside. With so many cows around there are births going on all the time! Our house isn't close the calving barn, otherwise I could have been watching small miracles almost hourly... And (I guess) being a mom had made me more sensitive because the birth and the newborn calves make me feel the beauty of nature...

Like with all other births, things can go wrong... For the true cattlemen here at the ranch problematic births are something they handle on regular basis. And with all years of experience they have seen and taken care of most all there is to see... I don't know how they actually do with emergency c-sections, but I know they dont have a vet here unless it's really bad..I doubt even then. All calves that are wrong positioned or get stuck or so they pull and almost everytime it ends happily. Jody told me I got to learn that...I'm always willing to learn new things it just hard right now to really take part of the calving when Jamie is so small.. and for now I'm pretty happy to watch from a distance....

My only experience with calves comes from a herd of twinbred heifers (kvigor) one week..and I helped with most things... For heifers it can be alot of problems having twins so I saw a little bit of everything.. At the time I was pregnant myself and I can say if I already felt throwing up sick it didnt help with problematic calving..but you know a man gotta to do what a man gotta do..(or in this case blonde swedish woman...) And even though it's strange and macabre scenes you take part of,  most of the times they end happily and your life just got some new experiences..;-)

Back here at the ranch, me and the girls visited the calving barn and got to see some new cuties! This time I broughy the camera so I give you a few newborns... We also got to see ( I didnt intend to) some calves that didnt make it and were put away all the way back in the barn. Well Natalie was fast back to explore before I saw them, it wasnt so bad with dead calves for her. She knows animal dies (from books and movies) and first question asked was " Mom if  here were dinosaurs around they would eat the calves wouldnt they? ( And no she hasn't seen Jurassic Park...so I don't know where that came from!!)

What I dont think she saw or took notice about was that one of them was missing the whole skin on it's back...And I know thats an old (and well working) trick cattlemen and cowboys use when needed... If one cow loses her calf and another one has twins and not able to care for both/or die so one calf needs a "new" Mom, they cut the skin of the dead calf (as soon as possible) and put the skin on the other calf (in need of a mama) so the cow think its her calf because it smells like hers After a short while the skin can come off and the Mom has a new calf ...sounds a little rough but...simply instincts...

 

Another reality in Montana during winter, is that plans may not happen because of rapidly changing weather conditions... ( In this case wind and snow).. We didn't get to go to the hot springs in White Sulphur Springs yesterday, but we give it a new try another day!
 

 

                                 So nice in the sun for the newborn calves!

 Cutie!

Plans...

So this semester I've decided to study 50% and the other 50% I am taking out my last parentdays for Jamie. This gives me the opportunity to stay at home a little longer. ( With Natalie I started to teach full time when she was around 15 months.) I dont know how well I'm going to be able to read anything during daytime but we'll see..
I found a course in geology 15hp from the University of Stockholm and it's only a distance/over internet so it works fine for me to do it overseas! Hopefully I feel motivated to learn something new and like I told a friend...I might go out and hunt for gold after my newly earned credits...hehe..
Anyway I think it's good for me to keep my mind a little occupied and not only be a stay at home mom. Some days that almost drives me crazy..( but it was no difference some days with the kids back home ...) I guess all parents that stayed at home with two wild kids know what I'm talking about..♡.

Pics from a cooold morning last week...

Something new...

Last 24 h brought me some "first timers"... Yesterday evening I got to try Elk for the first time...I didn't plan to but made burgers of elk instead of the locally produced beef I thought I used... I just got a little surprised when our burgers tasted wild instead of beef... Anyway it tasted really good when I knew why they had that hint of wild. It wasn't a distinct taste, really mild! I guess the bigger animal the less taste of wild you get and Elks are very big. We don't have them in Sweden but sizewise I assume they are in between a large deer and a moose or much more closer to the moose... Beautiful to look at and in the fall we did see them almost daily! Like Jason the boss said, I didnt tried the ranch beef but got the ranch breed Elk and that's more rare...
Like I wrote on facebook here's a link if you think it's a little confusing to name the wild species...

Another thing this morning was that the car didn't start...too cold... I guess that's what happens when the temperature goes below -30°C ( -22F)... It's the coldest I've ever experienced. I remember many years ago being in Bydalen, in  northern Sweden, and skiing when it got down to.-27° C and one christmas night on the way home from Grandma Kerstin and Grandpa Hasse when it hit -28°C...
Anyway Jared started the car so I could go pick up Natalie from her school. She got to start preschool again monday and now she goes three days a week 8-12 for no cost except lunch 40 cent/day ( ca 2, 50 kr). I think it's really good for her to go see the other kids and they seem to be in a good, playful and educational school. It is much more of a school then a daycare. She has a real classroom, different subjects and learning goals of the week... but they still have a playful approach to the learning situations!

Today was absolutely beautiful outside and the views stunning. It's surprisingly how much power the sun actually has...even if it stayed so cold all day the sunshine felt good. We stayed mostly inside but went and saw some newborn baby calves! The most exciting time at the ranch has just started and I will tell you all about it later. I think around 10 are born so around 590 more to go or so...

Snowy days...

Two days last week we had really nice and sunny days. Still cold (around -5 °C, 23F) but we played outside quite alot. Next weeks project will be to find snowracer and a sledge "pulka". We have many hills around so there must be good ones to go downhill!

Sunny days like this makes me wanna go skiing. We have several ski areas pretty close (ski Montana). I know Bridger Bowl is 1.5 h away. That area is known for good offpist skiing...My dear brother Mikael needs to come over and help me shape up my skiing. I haven't been skiing at all since 2009 in Åre... 

 

I know Natalie will join her school on a daytrip to Showdown Montana , and I will definately go with them. Then I'm gonna check out the ski resorts a little more, and hopefully we can go ski some days this winter...

 

 Natalie in a snowsuit and beanie from swedish Didrikson.

 

Jacket Colombia 

 

  

 Jamie is a happy girl in the snow! Gloves swedish Hestra, Jacket and pants Colombia

 Cold evening...

Back in Montana!

We flew out of a warm Florida last saturday afternoon. To get up to Montana you have two flights and we flew FLL-Denver-Billings.  I booked the shortest flight with United, 7h 50 min,~ 500 usd, for all of us. Jamie only pays tax until she's two, then full price for her.

Before we head to the airport we had a nice breakfast at the hotel. They were incredibly childfriendly here to. For 20 usd ( incl. tip) we all got the good Hilton breakfast. After that we spend a couple of hours in the pool, packed again and ran in to the mall so I could buy myself a pair of sunglasses. This time RayBan's Wayfarer. Happy birthday to me...:-)

Before we finally got into the plane, it seemed like forever. I had so much luggage and it took forever to go through the security. Not so easy by myself today...it didnt make it easier with a tired Jamie right at check in/security time... Anyway the rest of the trip went pretty smooth and we finally arrived in Billings around 9.30 late evening.  It was so nice, emotional and such a relief to finally meet Jared when we got out of the plane! So wonderful to see Natalie run and jump into Daddys arms... She had waited for so long and tried so hard to stay awake the whole day so she wouldnt miss Daddy!

We have almost 2 h in the car to the ranch so this was a long but happy day before all of us finally could go to sleep.