I'll love you till the cows come home???

I’ll love you till the cows come home…

I don’t understand this one… I’ll love you till the cows come home… ?

They. Come. Home. Every. Winter.

At least on our ranch.. maybe back in the day when this saying was created they didn’t come home. Maybe they were free-range cattle and you just roamed and moved around with your herd?  This saying makes me laugh because it reminds me of something my then boyfriend shared with me.  A quote he created on the fly that puts the cows coming home to shame!

Roughly 23 years ago I packed up my Ford Probe and headed to a family reunion in Chelan, WA.  Packed up in that tiny car was my boyfriend.  He wasn’t tied up in the trunk or anything although looking back that would have been an easier way to get him there.  It wasn’t as much that he didn’t want to go to my family reunion, as he just didn’t want to leave the farm, like ever. 

Begrudgingly my boyfriend decides to go with me.  I mean begrudgingly.  The entire time we packed I listened to him complain about going and trying to wiggle his way out of his commitment to go.  Finally we were on our way but the whining became worse.  Something about being in a tiny car and having a 2-hour plus road trip in front of us made the whining impossible to listen to.  We were barely half an hour into our trip, hadn’t even left Lincoln County and I abruptly pulled off of Hwy 2 somewhere.  This was a fork in the road for us, major fork. We’d been dating for a little over a year but had previously dated in high school for a couple as well. He was the man for me (or so I thought), but I couldn’t listen to his whining about leaving the farm.  One. More. Second.

Boyfriend: What’s wrong, what are you doing?

Me: I’m turning around and taking you home.  I’m going to my family reunion without you. When I get back from the weekend, I’ll come grab my things and we should take a break.

Boyfriend: (stunned) He’s speechless.  He whips his seat into the full recline position and mumbles, “please keep going, I’m sorry I’ll be quiet”

I’m near tears; I don’t want this to be a fork.  I don’t want to give an ultimatum but my boyfriend farms and works with cattle and it was extremely difficult to peel him away from his work.  I don’t know if I’m overreacting or if the confined space to listen to an adult whine was just too much.

I pull back onto the road; I get to Almira before my white knuckles lose their grip.  I start to relax a little.  My boyfriend who has been riding in the reclined position the entire way is quietly flipping through the pages of a Wheels n’ Deals.  He slips me a note that he has written on the corner of a torn off page.  The note reads.

I’m sorry.  I love you and I will always be there for you.

Except for,

• Haying
• Harvest
• Seeding
• Calving

I’m gushing!  I’m instantly over any anger held before and I know we’re going to have a great time this weekend.  I’m so in love with this man I have no idea that the note basically said….

I’m sorry, I love you and will always be there for you.

Except for,

• Spring
• Summer
• Fall
• Winter

We did have a great time at the family reunion.  He proposed on our drive home.  We were married a year later.  We just celebrated our 22^ndanniversary in September.  Our wedding/honeymoon was planned around seeding. We’ve taken one other trip together where we left the farm for more than 3 days, also planned around Seeding/Calving and this time he snuck in working around Elk hunting season. 

This fall morning as I sip coffee and laugh a little at my husbands “love note” I’m grateful for forks in the road, for a man that knows when to recline and stop whining, and for the life lessons farming/ranching has taught me too. A lifetime of lessons, some you notice on a daily basis and others can take years to appreciate.