The Andrus Ranch

On President's Day we spent the day at the Andrus Ranch in Lava Hot Springs and there Lava is pronounced with a long a. We had a lot of fun and we did a lot of things. Kevin Andrus was Darren's roommate his first semester of college and he invited Carlee, Maddie, Jordan, Darren and I down to his ranch. In the morning Kevin castrated some horses and we were invited to witness that but we arrived too late. We did get to see the remnants of them littered about the ground and were even offered to eat them but I guess they used too strong of drugs to put the horses out that it might have traveled all the way down to the nether regions. Anyway I would have NEVER eaten them, even though Kevin's uncle claims they are a delicacy and delicious, but Jordan probably would have. After we visited the newly castrated horses Kevin took us up to see some new baby lambs but on the way up to the lambs we met this little guy... Meet Thomas my boyfriend. I LOVE this dog and I am pretty sure he is in love with me too. He followed me around and wanted me to pet him all day. He was the biggest, fluffiest, friendliest dog I have ever seen and I wanted to keep him. He was definitely the highlight of my day. He may have only loved me so much because he doesn't get much lovin' because he is just a guard dog for the sheep and not a pet, but I gave him a lot of lovin' that day so we bonded. I hear that there is a Mrs. Thomas around somewhere but we never found her on that big ol ranch. I told Thomas to go find her and make me some puppies though, so hopefully they get on that! After I bonded with Thomas we got to hold the baby lambs. They are so cute but they are hard to hold cause they wiggle around like crazy! You really have to grip them tight! The mama sheep are a little scary and they make weird noises, but they make cute babies.

Oh, and here is me with my boyfriend again :)

Later on in the day we got to feed the cows! There are so many cows around and it was a little intimidating at first, but guess what? Cows are scared of you! If you just talk to them they walk away. Here is a picture of me and Carlee with the cows.

And Darren was there too...

While you feed the cows someone drives the truck and someone pulls the hay off and shoves it onto the ground for the cows to eat. Darren drove the truck and Kevin, Carlee and I rode on the back to feed the cows. It was a little scary at first because there was so much hay on the back of the truck and hardly any room to stand but once Kevin had taken some hay off there was more room and Carlee and I moved our way to the back of the truck and started to pull the hay off and kick it to the ground. It was really a lot of fun even though I ended up with hay in my eyes and all over my clothes. Overall it was a great day at the Ranch and those ranchers are pretty impressive! After we froze our little tootsies off we headed over to the hot springs to warm ourselves up. I love the hot springs, they are so toasty warm and I love the gravel bottoms. When we were done soaking we went out to dinner in a little hotel that we have eaten at before and then headed home. It was a great day off and thanks to the Andrus family for teaching us a little bit about ranching!