The romantic in me

I guess by most standards, I am not very romantic. By 'most standards' I mean the ones set by the jewelry stores commercials and every other television and print advertisement. When I feel particularly romantic, I don't go to Jareds, I have learned romance comes in all kinds of different shapes and packages. Sometimes very unique shapes and packages.

I woke up this morning resigned to a full day of fence building. Today was the first nice weekend in the past month and the fields are drying out well, or so I thought. We stared on the front side of the pasture, pounding in t-posts and completed three sides. The lower part of the field still had standing water in it, so around noon we were finished.

Our daughter had gone to the ranch with my wife's mother and our son wanted to be dropped off at his friend's house so they could go see "Meet the Spartans'. My wife and I declined the invitation.

So there we were, at home, no children, no chores, and the better part of a beautiful day to spend doing what every we want.

Having purchased a new Honda Foreman 500 this past fall, I was secretly hoping she would want to visit one of her friends and I could sneak off and ride my new quad up at my friend's ranch. I was surprised when she suggested we go take a our quads and ride somewhere.

I called up my friend and asked if we could take a ride, he agreed, as long I brought a rifle in case we spotted a coyote or two on the ranch. We loaded up the truck and trailer and headed up the valley.

We road up and down the hills on the ranch, just enjoying the sun and looking at the cows and calves as the checked out their noisy visitors. When we came to a very steep hill I suggested that we trade quads. The 93' Yamaha Timberwolf is still alive and kicking at its age, but I wanted to make sure if anything went wrong climbing the steepest part, I was riding it. That was a fortunate decision. Half was up the hill, the old quad stalled and if you ride quads you know what a bad spot that is to be in. I set the hand brake and slowly slid off the side and walked it backwards down the hills. One more run at the hill in first gear and I was at the top. My wife climbed the hill with ease on the new Honda.

We rode another half mile up to the fence line and walked out onto the side of hill. I always keep a pair of binoculars on my quad and my wife and I spent two hours under an oak tree in the sunshine watching a small herd of 5 deer graze their way across the hillside. I didn't bring my camera, but I did snap these two pictures with my phone.

We talked, and watched the deer, talked a little more and just enjoyed being together. It was great afternoon.

I fell in love with my wife on an afternoon very similar to this one. We had been dating for a few weeks and I had spent all my money on dinners and movies and such. I knew if she was the one for me, she wouldn't care if I couldn't take her out on another expensive date, she would just want to spend time with me. I came out and told her I was broke until payday and I was going to head up to the hills to let my dogs run around and check the cattle. She asked if she could come along.

This year we will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.

There are a great many people who would rather have a small jewelry box with an expensive trinket given to them than spend an afternoon with their spouse in the hills of the Capay Valley, but those are not my kind of people.