The Next Adventure

The Next adventure

Hello blogisfere.   My name is Brianna and I never thought I would be blogging, but this summer I have been hired on as the Assistant Manager (in training) of a guest ranch in the Cariboo range of British Columbia.  Considering that I am a)born and raised in a city, b)from the west coast where rain is more comfortable than drought and puddles are preferred to dusty fields and c)as unexposed to the world of ranching and all things 'Western" as you would expect a city girl to be, this summer is sure to be somewhat interesting and certainly educational.  I thought I would share my(hopefully entertaining) experiences, stories, trials and tribulations, and new cowgirl knowledge with whoever wants to read.  So here goes…Blog #1.

My new adventure truly started when I received my packing list.  In my position at the guest ranch I am expected to be able to do any job that pertains to guest services.  This meant that when my packing list was e-mailed to me I received 4 separate lists including the cook's, the server's, the housekeeper's, and the horseback guide's lists.  Most were reasonably straight forward for anyone who has worked in remote tourism outfits before (my bread and butter);the standard work and play clothes, rain gear and swim wear, 6 months worth of shampoo and tampons and some kind of hobby to keep you busy in the wilderness when you aren't working, which is rarely.  I was, however, slightly alarmed by the luggage that the guides would be expected to bring.  In hind-sight, I really should have been prepared for the list including items like cowboy hat, rodeo style belt buckle, tailored western button-up shirts, wrangler jeans, Man From Snowy River style oil skin slicker and cowboy boots, just to mention a few things that I had never considered owning.  But no, I hadn't even considered that I might be completely and utterly out of my element riding the range with experienced cow-people on a full-on ranch in the middle of nowhere.  I was entering a new world and hadn't even thought to buy the 'simple Cowboy-speak' phrase book.  Shopping for ranch clothing and accessories felt like halloween in April and showed me just how little I had thought of the whole western side of this new job, but with a little help from some good friends I put together a somewhat reasonable ranch girl get-up.  All I could do was cross my fingers and hope that I wouldn't show up looking like a tourist who bought a whole new wardrobe to fit in somewhere totally exotic.  I had images of myself as a cowboy version of those people in tacky safari photos wearing all khaki and tilly hats with huge cameras hanging from their necks…It felt like the first day at a new school: "Please let me look cool, please let me look cool".   

I rubbed my flashy new 'western style' work jacket in some dirt, crushed up my too-black cowgirl hat a bit, wore my stiff new boots constantly to give them that 'been around the ranch' look and set off for the land of country music, big trucks and horses!

The Ranch House where I'll be spending lots of time this summer!