Playing Catch-Up

The past few weeks have been so busy that I've hardly had any down time, which is more than apparent through the fact that I haven't been on here much. I'm backtracking all the way to last week Sunday when Brenda and I went to Monterey and I'm sure that I'll miss some stuff along the way but I'm going to try to get as much in as I can.

We left on a beautiful Sunday morning in a diesel GMC Sierra. It was a pretty sweet truck to drive. We had bikes in the back and Lee, my Garmin GPS, in the front with us. With Lee's help we successfully made it to Monterey while it was still really cool out. It was also humid and I had forgotten what humidity does to my hair when it's down. It kinda went nuts but I figure that I'll never see anyone from there again so I didn't really care what my hair looked like.
When we got to Monterey the first thing we did was found a parking garage so that we could ditch the truck and bike around. The parking ramp we found was in a great location. As we were pulling in however, we realized that we had no idea how tall the truck was. The clearance was 7 feet and a few inches and we just made it under. It was so close that I had to lean out my window to make sure we were clear. Well, the truck cleared but the CB radio antenna didn't. We heard a loud twang as we pulled into the garage and had no idea what was going on. We kept going and finally figured out that we were the ones making that noise. Thankfully the antenna was fine and we were able to find a spot.
We unloaded the bikes and headed for the coast. I wish that I could post the pictures that I took but I don't have my camera cord and the pictures aren't on my memory card. There were sea lions and seagulls all over the place! Brenda spent a good deal of the morning laughing at me every time a bird got too close for my comfort. We biked up and down the coast and then made our way to the aquarium. (We went right when it opened and only dealt with masses of people on our way out.) The exhibits were so cool and we were able to see them feed some of the fish there. We took a lot of random pictures and even felt manta rays! Yes, I actually touched one, Mom :) It was gross and I'll probably never do it again but at least I can say that I have.
After the aquarium we decided to leave our bikes locked up and walk down Cannery Row. That is a very neat area of Monterrey. There are lots of old sardine cannery buildings that have been converted into shops and restaurants. After walking up and down the row we went to Sly McFly's Refueling Station for lunch. We both got the fish and chips and it was really really good! After eating we biked back to the truck and went to try and find the 17-Mile Drive. On our way there we found ourselves lost in downtown Monterrey and then on a one way street going into a military base. Thankfully the guards were very understanding that we were just 2 Midwest girls lost in Monterrey and they let down a barricade and we pulled a U-turn and left. When we finally did make it to the 17-Mile Drive, which is a scenic drive along the coast and foothills, the first animal we saw was a HUGE whitetail buck! So what did we do? We stopped in the middle of the road and tried to back up so that we could get a picture of this deer. We were definitely true to our Midwestern roots. The rest of the drive showed us amazing sea views and forest landscapes. We kinda felt like we were driving an awkwardly large boat as all the little cars passed us in our big diesel truck, but we didn't care.

The next week was pretty typical with the exception of the State Fair. We started early every morning to come in and walk the cows before starting our chores. With the fair coming up the cows were taking off their TMR and put on a special diet of beet pulp, a grain mix, and grass, oat, and alfalfa hay. They were also washed every day and tied up for a few hours. On Thursday, Brett and I went to the Stanislaus County fair to figure out what needed to come back to the dairy on Monday. Thursday night I got to drive up to Sacramento to pick up Yosemite's intern from last summer. Brandon came back to help with the state fair. He and Brett left early Friday morning to set up for the cattle that we loaded into a semi on Saturday morning. We took around 25 animals to the fair. It was quite an event and I was excited to go up on Monday night.

On Friday the interns toured another dairy and Saturday was a quiet day on the dairy after loading the animals. Things got done quickly and the day ended without a hitch. On Sunday I went to mass with Brenda. This was the first time I have ever been to a Catholic service but it was a good thing to experience. There were definitely things that I didn't agree with but I think it's important to experience different churches.

Sometime during the week (and I may have written about this already) but Dr. Liz and I necropsied a cow that had bloated to death and literally blown up like a balloon. She was also wedge under a freestall

Sunday night things got crazy! Because everyone was up at the fair I was figuring on going into the office to do some work for Brett to get things ready for vet check on Monday. I was supposed to go in around 8:00pm but at 4:45pm, all electricity to the dairy went out. Antonio and I spent the next few hours running around making sure that the generators were going and that the wells were getting water to the cows. Brett ended up coming back from Sacramento to make sure everything was okay and helped Antonio and I figure out the water situation. After that Antonio went home and Brett and I tried to work on the computer for a while but the dairy's generator was sending energy slugs and kept shutting the computer down so we unplugged everything and just called it a night. The electricity came back on around 11:30pm.

The next morning I went to the Turlock fairgrounds to get 4-H equipment that stays at the dairy. When I got back Brett helped me get started with Dr. Liz on vet checks before he went back to Sacramento. That afternoon I had a meeting at Hilmar Cheese with the other interns. It was a banking meeting and it felt like a repeat of Farm Management with Vos at school. When the meeting was done Brenda and I headed back to our dairies. That's when Steve called me and told me that the alarm in Brett's office was going off and if I was around to come and turn it off. I drove over there and called Brett to figure out what to do. He told me the security code that should have disabled it but it didn't work. Then I called the security company and they needed a code that was inside a transformer box that was located in the ceiling of Brett's office. When I finally got up there the box was locked and there was no key for it. Steve was helping me and finally figured out how to unplug the whole system and we got it turned off. Then Clauss' manager, Danny, came over and did the same thing I had been trying and it worked. The only idea we have as to why it went off is possibly because of the electricity failure the night before. The mystery is why it went off when nobody was around and the door was locked instead of going off when Brett or I had been in there earlier that day. We still haven't figured it out but it hasn't gone off again.

Monday night Brenda and I drove up to Sacramento for the State Fair. We got to work there on Tuesday and Wednesday. We helped bed the cows, walked them back and forth from the wash racks, helped the fitter (the person who cuts the cow's hair) and caught a lot of manure. The cows get washed first thing in the morning and they have to stay clean all day long, which means that their bedding also has to stay clean so we get to catch all the crap in buckets and then wipe the cow's backside clean with a paper towel. That was not the highlight of my day, however. The fun really started when the show started. Making sure that everyone was where they needed to be took a lot of people. We had around 15 people for around 12 animals. Some people were showing and others following with buckets. We showed from 2:00pm until 7:30! It was a long day, but so much fun! I even got to show a cow for the first time!!! Colin and I showed Bullet and Elsie as Best Pair and we took 3rd. Overall I think the dairy took 2nd, but don't quote me on that.

Here are some more pics from the fair:

This is Shakira, the cow who walks you, not the other way around.

(See the bucket and paper towels? We were serious about keeping those cows clean!) 

Half of our string of cows 

Shakira in the show ring 

A junior show class 

Callie and her show heifer Bethany 

Elsie

We had fun walking around the fair on Wednesday afternoon. 

Our show heifers

As you can see, it was a busy couple of days. We came back and went right back to work the next day. I got to move cows on Thursday and I got a crash course on the criteria for moving a cow to a different pen. On Friday we toured another intern's dairy and got to see what the inside of a malignant tumor looks like. It's cool in a very gross way :) I ended Friday by entering sheets into the computer and then a few of my friends from school came up and visited for a few hours. Brenda joined us and I showed them the dairy, we went out to eat, and then we played spoons at my apartment. They left at 10 and Brenda and I were invited to a going-away party at someone's house so we headed over there for a while. I didn't have to work on Saturday or Sunday but I still stayed really busy! Saturday morning a bunch of people from Clauss Dairy and I went up to Mr. and Mrs. Clauss' house boat on Don Pedro. We spent the whole day on the lake and I got another sunburn. It was gorgeous weather and the lake was nice and warm. It was a fun day! 

Today I went up to Oakdale for church and then came back for a BBQ with people from the dairy. It was a long, fun day. Doreen has a pool at her house so we lounged around the pool and had a tri-tip dinner and delicious peach cobbler and homemade ice cream for dessert. It was a good day and I was able to track down the source of the many rumors about me that have been flying around the dairy and Hilmar. In the past two days I've been asked if I am Morman, if I'm 14, if I'm Amish, if I'm engaged, and if I have 2 boyfriends. (For the record, none of these are true). The same person spreading all these rumors also has ridiculous nicknames for me and often calls me by my middle name. 

It was a wonderful week and weekend! I can't believe I only have two weeks left! I think the time will fly by much faster than I want it to. 

I'm Still Alive, I Promise!

Here's a public link to pictures that I've put on Facebook but haven't made it to the blog yet. I'm working on the next entry but it's not quite done yet...


https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1733776233177.2088862.1501680171&l=b03c519572&type=1

What A Week!

The past week I have literally been all over the place! I don't think I did the same thing twice very often! This might be a long post, but it's been a good week so I feel like it's worth it to take the time to write about everything.

Monday:

We started the day with the vet checks. Yosemite, Clauss, and Sunwest dairies recently hired an on-staff vet that will work for all three dairies. Her name is Dr. Adams but she prefers Dr. Liz. One new thing that we are starting with her is sexing all of our calves before they are born so that we can make educated decisions on whether or not to keep a cow around if she gets sick or hurt. This was the first week we've done this and it took almost twice as long as it used to. Dr. Liz thinks it will only get faster as we keep doing it.

For vet checks we divide into two groups: one group goes through and finds the cows that need to be checked by the vet and the second group goes with the vet later and records everything. The second group also gives shots. That took all morning.

In the afternoon I finally got to try my hand at driving the skidloader because we had to clean the calving pens. For most of the summer the guys haven't let me anywhere near the inside of that Bobcat. I didn't know that it is controlled the same way as our New Hollands back home so when I got in and started driving around, I was thankful for all those times that Grandpa made me drive the skidloader back home even if I didn't want to.

Tuesday:

On Tuesday everyone started at 5:30 walking the show cows. Once they were walked I went and spent the rest of the day with our breeder, Steve. He taught me to breed cows, look for cows that are ready to be bred, keep the breeding records, and how to tell when a cow is almost ready to calve. Steve is a lot of fun to work with because he is funny and he likes to have fun while he is working. We laughed a lot on Tuesday. It was a really good day. Another thing that happened on Tuesday was that Colin and I got a lesson in cow reproduction from the retired breeder, John. It was probably more funny than it was educational for me because I'd seen it before in school but I think John repeated the lesson 4 or 5 times before we were done.

Wednesday:

Wednesday was a big day! A group of 9 people from Yosemite and Clauss Dairies, as well as another intern and his manager, went on a hike to Yosemite National Park. We climbed Clouds Rest. It's probably the most intense hike I've ever been on but it was well worth it.
We left Hilmar around 4:45am and made it to the park around 8. It was a crazy drive out! The road we took was carved out of a cliff and the drivers were making time! I didn't really notice because I'm used to my dad's driving in the Black Hills back home in SD, but everyone else was making comments about how fast we were going. 

When we made it to the park we found the head of the trail with only a little difficulty. Once there we unloaded and started down the trail. 100 feet later we came to a snow-fed creek. We were slightly confused because it looked like the trail went right where the water was. There were people on the other side and when we asked them how they got across they said they went across the creek. Well, most of us still wanted to go on the hike so we took of our shoes and socks, hiked up our shorts and waded across the creek. It was only 3ft deep in the middle and 40 degrees cold... no big deal. 

When we were finally all across we set out again. The next obstacle we faced was keeping to the trail when it disappeared under 2 feet of snow! We only lost the trail a few times but the views made it well worth it.

When we stopped for a rest Antonio broke out his camera and started taking pictures. Thanks, Antonio, for sending these to me!

Brett, Zach, Erin, McCallister, Dr. Liz, Brenda, Colin, and Sabino

Brenda and me

McCallister, Brenda, Dr. Liz, and Sabino

Brenda, McCallister, and C.A.

After our break we started up again. This time I'm pretty sure we lost the trail until we reached the top of the mountain. It was a long, hard hike. Antonio broke out the camera to keep us smiling but we weren't buying it.

By the time we were almost to the top we were exhausted, only to find out that the most difficult part of the hike may not have been the climb. In order to reach the summit you had to walk the ridge of the mountain with a drop-off cliff on both sides. The path was so narrow I could see the drop-off on both sides of me when I looked at my feet. This is what the path looked like looking up at it from the bottom:

 And this is what was below:

The views were well worth it and I'm glad I pushed myself. Once up there we stopped to rest and eat and relax. That's when the marmot decided to make an appearance! The guys had lots of fun feeding it Goldfish and turkey and whatever else they weren't going to eat. 

The way back down was much easier because we followed the path this time! There was still a lot of snow but it was fun.

  When we finally made it to the bottom and back across the creek we were exhausted but we had all had lots of fun. We got back home around 9:00 and in bed so that we could work the next morning.

Thursday:

On Thursday Brenda, Dr. Liz, Danny, Oscar, and I went to Vlots Custom Heifer Ranch by Chowchilla. This is where we currently send our calves to be raised. We went to scan the calves (like taking an inventory) and to make sure that they were healthy. Thursday afternoon Dr. Liz necropsied two cows to see what they died from and Brenda and I got to watch. 

Friday:

I was with Steve again on Friday morning but I also got to go to a weekly management meeting. There all of the managers and higher ups from the three dairies met to discuss problems or new things that were coming up. 

Saturday:

I helped Colin in the hospital on Saturday when I wasn't working with the show cows. It was a relatively easy day which I was thankful for. That night Brenda and I were planning on meeting people at the Turlock fair but we were running late and told not to bother coming because the seats weren't worth the $20 to get in. So instead we went to Redbox for a movie and I ended up locking my keys in my car along with both our cell phones. I couldn't remember the code for my door which frustrated me all the more! We ended up going into the store by the Redbox and asking or a phone book. The manager was very nice and even went to look at my car to see if he could get it open without a locksmith. Thankfully that's when I remembered the code and we got in but we did panic for a second!

Today Brenda and I went to Monterrey but I have to work in the morning so I will write about that in my next post. 

My Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Okay.... maybe the title is stretching is a little, but it's not a day that I would choose to relive if I could. I spent the last week in the hospital barn working with Sergio. It was good and I learned a lot! On Friday I found out that I would get to work in the hospital all by myself on Sunday! Brett talked to me about it and while we both knew that I didn't feel comfortable about it, he said that it was probably the best way for me to really learn and apply everything I had been doing. I agreed  that it would be best, but that didn't mean that I was looking forward to it.

Sunday morning came around and things were generally going well. Slowly, but pretty well. It's crazy how much time is saved when two people are putting on milkers verses one person. I milked the fresh cows, then the show cows, then the cows that are being held for antibiotic withdrawal days. All of this went smoothly. The guys working outside were around and they helped me when I asked for help. I did learn quickly, however, that if I asked for help with one cow, whoever was helping me would stick around and help with all eight, then leave so that I could bring up eight more. I was done by 11:30, only half an hour longer than it takes Sergio. It wasn't so bad. Overall the morning was pretty good. If only the day had stayed that way...

The afternoon milking rolled around like usual and one of the outside guys, Jake, came in to help me with the freshened heifers that like to kick. After we were done with the fresh heifers he went and did other stuff but stopped in every once in a while to see how things were going. Nothing needed to be treated in the afternoon but I still had cows that kick and didn't cooperate when I tried to put the milking machines on. I really needed the most help with some of the hospital cows, but when I got to them I found myself alone. Completely alone. It was 4:30 and the guys had gotten off early around 2:00. Jake had stayed til 3:30 but finally called it a day when he thought that I had things under control. Well, when he left I did, but I had four cows that were in the hospital being treated for mastitis and they really liked to kick. Normally it would take both me and Sergio to control them: one person holding their tail to make them stay still while the other quickly put the milking machine on. And that was with a rope around their middles so that they kicked less. I tried calling Brett and C.A. but it was their day off so no one was answering their phones. Finally I called Brenda and she came to the rescue. In no time at all the machines were on, off, and the cows were back in the pen by 5:30. Not too bad. During this time, though, one of the feed trucks broke down and Antonio had to get it fixed so he asked me to enter sheets for him. I was figuring on that when a milker showed up in the hospital barn and told me that there was a cow that needed calcium and that he would put her in the transfer lane that leads to the hospital. She went down and couldn't get up and she was in the main intersection of the transfer lanes going from the pens to the milk barn. She had to be moved. So, I started calling people again. I knew I couldn't do this by myself. Anyway you look at it, I just can't roll a cow into the bucket of a skidloader by myself. I didn't get a hold of anyone except Jake, who lives 20 minutes away but was on his way the moment I called him. It was easily 6:00 by now. A few minutes later, Brett called to ask what was going on. I explained that I had a down cow that I needed help with and he said to wait 10 minutes and he would be there. I called Jake and told him Brett was coming and that he could stay home.

While I was waiting I got everything we needed to treat a typical down cow: calcium, dextrose, blood tubes, IV needles, etc. I also finished moving cows back into the hospital pen. That's when one cow that's been struggling with ketosis tripped on a curb and went down. Now I had two down cows to deal with. That's when Antonio got back. He had gotten back and already entered the sheets into the computer. He asked me how my day was going and when I said I was frustrated he made me stop what I was doing and do "yoga breathing" for a few minutes. "Breathing comes before movement. Movement is always secondary," he said. I have to admit, it actually helped a little.

 When Brett got there we had one of the milkers help us and we loaded the first cow into the bucket of the skidloader and we took her to the hospital. Once we got there we took blood samples and I.V.ed calcium and dextrose to her. I'm happy to say that I was able to take the blood samples and start giving the calcium thanks to the large amount of practice I had had in the past week (as well as good teaching from Dr. Kreykes back home). Brett took over giving the calcium and dextrose so that I could finish cleaning the hospital barn up, which I finally knew how to do thanks to Jake. Once I got back out to the pen, Brett thought she could also possibly have a case of bloody gut so we gave her half a gallon of mineral oil. When it was all said and done, I clocked out at 7:00. Thankfully Brenda was around to hear about my day and then cheer me up with stories about what she had done during the weekend. We also went out to eat at a taco truck for the first time. It was really good and I'm glad she waited for me, even though it was really, really late.

Hopefully this week should be a lot better. Today I ran the scanner for part of the vet checks then I "learned" to drive the skidloader and put new bedding into the calving pens. For most of the summer I've been saying that I didn't know how to drive the skidloader because I had never been in it. I didn't realize that even though it's a Bobcat, the controls are the same as the ones in the New Hollands that we have back home. Whoops... I'm not sure what is all in store tomorrow but I have to be at work at 5:30am so that we can walk the show cows before the day gets started. Then on Wednesday everyone here at the dairy and at Brenda's dairy are going hiking in Yosemite National Park!! I'm so excited!!! It's gonna be a lot of fun! Thursday, if all goes as planned, Brenda and I are going to Vlot's Calf Ranch with Dr. Liz. We aren't sure what we'll be doing but all of us are excited to go. Anyway, that was my Sunday in a nutshell. Maybe more of a book,
but whatever : )

A Cow's Guide to Life

I found a book in my apartment called "Laughing Stock: A Cow's Guide to Life." I was bored tonight so I picked it up and started reading it. It's all little sayings that supposedly apply to cows. Here are a few that stuck out to me:

• The only way between a rock and a hard place is through it.
• To a cow, every day is just an udder day.
• If you never climb a hill, you will never know it is different from a plain.
• To err is human; therefore, cows can do no wrong.
• What's a metaphor? A place for cows to graze in.
• One man's sacred cow is another man's Big Mac.
• When the herd turns on you and you're forced to fun for it, try to look like you're leading the charge!
• Life is like a cow pasture: it's very hard to get through without stepping in some muck.
• If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs, you obviously don't understand the situation. 
• Being stubborn is the only way to stand out in a herd.
• To know the total of a herd, count the hooves and divide by four.
• Every tail has an end.
• You can cover it with sugar and bake it in the oven, but a cowpie is still manure.

Okay, so this list may be more than a few, but they are the ones that made me smile. Hope you enjoyed it!

A New Job

This week is completely different from anything I've done out here. Well, kinda. I'm working in the hospital barn with Sergio and it's quite the experience. I'm still working with fresh cows, just before they go out to the milking pens. I'm also working with all of the sick cows on the dairy.

Sergio and I start at 5 in the morning and we work until 11. Then we have a 2-hr. lunch break and start again at 1 pm. Today we finished the afternoon milking around 4:30. The morning milking takes longer because that's when we treat all of the hospital cows with their medicine. My first day was Tuesday and I only worked the morning shift, but Sergio and I found a routine pretty quickly. We start by bringing the newly freshened cows (the ones that had calves overnight) into the milking barn and we milk them for the colostrum. Then we bring the rest of the recently freshened cows in. We treat all the fresh cows with a little oxytocin. Once they go out into the milking string they don't get it anymore.

After the fresh cows are milked we bring the show cows up and milk them, followed by some fresh cows that had complications and aren't ready to be back in the milking pens. This usually goes pretty quickly. What takes the most time is the hospital pen because we have to go through and make sure that every cow gets treated with the right medicine. We also test milk for antibiotic residue before they go back out into the pens. It was really hot out here on Tuesday: over 100 degrees and humid, which is somewhat unusual for this area. Either way it was hot! Today was over 100 degrees, too, but not as humid so it wasn't so bad. The cows, however, are feeling the heat and it's affecting their intake and production levels. When it's hot out, they don't eat as much and then they start to lose weight and things go downhill from there. Thankfully we have a great team of people working in the feed area to figure out how to help the cows. Next week the weather will be in the 80s and that will be a welcome relief.

Anyway, back to what we do in the hospital barn. In the past 2 days I've successfully given several IVs to cows, armed a cow (for the first time!), given lots of shots, been kicked at (thankfully the cows have had bad aim), and become fairly efficient at putting milking machines on. I'm learning a lot and I'm loving it!

Brenda and I went to the Stanislaus County Library in Turlock tonight. Last week we went and got our library cards but we could only check out three books each because we needed proof of address. Well, the only mail we had both gotten was packages in cardboard boxes. The ladies at the desk laughed so hard when we handed them the front of the boxes. "In 10 years of working here, I've never been handed that before," one of them said. They thought it was hilarious that we had brought in pieces of cardboard boxes instead of mail. We informed them that neither of us had been here long enough to be getting regular mail. In reality, we used the mailing addresses of our dairies since neither of us actually lives in a place with a street address. We both live on our dairies so that's what we used. It was funny and Brenda and I are pretty sure that they thought we were sisters. But hey, that's fine with me. It was a good time in the library : )

Getting Stepped On

It was actually a surprisingly "normal" week here at Yosemite Jersey Dairy. I went about my usual activities and such. However, two major things were added to my list of things I get to do/can do.

The first is halter breaking cows. Yes, full grown, 1100 lb. cows. The first step is to tame them down and get them used to being touched and petted as well as being tied for a few hours every day. That was last week. This week I got to start teaching them to go on a walk without trying to run away. The trick is that you have to show them who is the boss and I'm getting to be pretty good at that. If someone wanted to make me crabby and have a "don't mess with me" attitude, then having me work with show cows all day is the way to do it : )

Anyway, so yesterday I finally took two of the cows out of the pen for a walk. This is the first time that I've walked a new cow outside of a pen and the first time the new cow has been walked outside a pen, so it could have had a very bad ending (such as one actually getting away from me and running on the road, which didn't happen). Thankfully the first cow was really, really good! She'll be ready for the fair if they decide that she is one that actually gets to go. (Out of the 9 that I'm working with, only 4 or so will go.)

The next cow I walked was definitely more high-strung than the first. She was kinda wild but I was able to calm her down every time she tried to get away from me. It was (and still is) a learning process. We had been walking for about 10 minutes when suddenly our breeding vehicle came around a corner and totally spooked the cow. We had been in the process of turning around so somehow she got my foot pinned upside-down under both of her front feet. Because of the awkward angle my foot was at, I ended up leaning up against her to stay upright. Then she decided to stop moving around and stand completely still. With my foot under her. Now, the breeder had seen this all happen but he had no idea what to do. He backed the vehicle up to see if I needed help (which I did... having a cow on top of your foot is not what I would call a pleasant experience) but he doesn't speak very much English so he just kinda stared at me. Well, when he had backed the vehicle up close to me and the cow, the cow backed off and got off of me. Then the breeder took off and I gritted my teeth and walked the cow back to the pen, tied her to the hitching post, and went to find some Ibuprofen. Nothing was broken, thankfully, but I don't even have a really good bruise to show off! Part of me hopes that cow doesn't go to the fair but another part of me says she will because she's one of the better behaved cows in the pen. We will see, I guess.

The other major thing that I'm going to start doing is pushing up feed. It might not sound like much but I'm excited to be able to do it. Today I had "tractor lessons." I now know how to drive a simple tractor. I'm still a little rough when I shift to a new speed but at least I can do it now. I was supposed to practice for a half an hour this afternoon but I was enjoying myself so much that I just kept driving it around. Before I knew it I had been on the thing for 1.5 hours! I thoroughly enjoyed myself and seeing the smiles on the other workers faces was fun, too.

On a side note, the guys at work have started referring to me as "la niña" which I though meant girl. But I was mistaken. One of the workers informed me that they mean is as "baby" or the "little girl". I'll admit, when I was first here I didn't like it at all, but now that they know that I can pull my own weight and that I will pull my own weight, it's not so bad. At least I know that they're talking about me when I hear that. I catch more of what they say that what they think, though, which kinda makes me laugh. They're a lot of fun to work with.