As I learn about metal and wire work, the term work hardened arises often. It’s the idea of manipulating and/or hammering a piece until is becomes more hardened or brittle. When a piece is hardened just right, it helps it retain its shape and stability. I’ve learned the hard way that too much manipulation of a piece of wire makes it more difficult to bend. This is not unlike over doing when we exercise our bodies. I’m also learning that I shouldn’t hammer a piece too early in the design process, but rather wait until I have the shape I want. The best part is that I do have an excuse for pounding something. It’s great to stop in the middle of a frustrating day and just whack away!

This process is not unlike what is currently occurring here at the ranch. It’s been an exciting couple of weeks at Dreamcatcher. Each May, our bulls arrive back home from their feed test after spending the winter months at another location. We send them away as big calves and they arrive back as big bulls. I enjoy sitting at the very top of a fence watching these magnificent beasts come off the truck and back into our pasture. I never cease to be shocked at the change they make in just a few short months. The goal of the feed test is for the bulls to eat and grow; therefore they mainly just stand around and eat from the bunks. We can’t sell them to our customers at this point because they would melt if they had to work. These 110+ bulls get a rude awakening when they come back home. While they have delicious grass to eat in the pasture at the bottom of a hill, their water is at the top of that rocky hill. Since they’ve just been standing on flat ground eating during the winter, the climb to the top of that hill and back down is monumental, but important.

Through this exercise, the bull’s hooves become hardened and their bodies become muscular. While the climb by the complaining bulls is currently precipitated by a barking, nipping blue heeler, a honking jeep and yelling people, in a few short weeks it will be easy and they will go willingly. As they become work hardened, they will be ready to serve our customers.

While there probably should be a third picture to this blog, I’ll refrain from inserting it. People seem to also get work hardened in both positive and negative ways. Are the wrinkles on my face a result of this process? Has the optimism we became accustomed to during prosperous economic times been work hardened with the current economic drop? If the analogy derived from both the metal work and the conditioning by design of our bulls applies to our economy, becoming work hardened could be a good thing. As with the wire work, will the resulting economy be more stable? Will we take more time to make important decisions? As with the bulls, will becoming work hardened make us better prepared for the future? Let’s just hope so.