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.
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.
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