CARE Muscles

If an intern is struggling to pull a 300lb carcass into our storage freezer, or they're wheezing for breath as they empty a pool of water with a shovel, or they're stacking bales of hay for winter housing, I have a battle cry I let loose- 

"CARE MUSCLES!!!

Ahh yes- CARE Muscles. I love yelling that out when they're struggling to do something. I do it to motivate people, and I realize that, to some of you, having some big doofus yelling out "CARE MUSCLES!" and intentionally not helping when you're clearly having a frustrating time is NOT motivating...


...at first.


I've seen a lot of people come and go, and I've trained a good number of young interns over the years. Our interns are generally young, studious, & the majority of them have never done any significant form of outdoor manual labor such as you find at CARE. Almost all of our applicants are female, so that comprises the vast majority of my personal experience with interns.

It can make for a funny contrast with the more 'bubbly' applicants because I can be sort of a lumbering monster sometimes. That contrast, however, becomes less and less apparent over the duration of their stay. Without going too deep into gender roles & perception (it's 2013 y'all, let's get with the times), I gotta say, I've seen hardcore beasts unchained inside the hearts of many young women who were pegged into more traditional feminine roles prior to their arrival at CARE.

These girls get here, (some a little princess-y thanks to their fathers) and we throw knives and power tools into their hands and we get to work. These interns go into it with all their being, and they give literal blood, sweat, and tears to their internship at CARE- it's pretty intense.

For four months they're lifting livestock pieces as heavy as they are, they're dragging fences, they're digging holes, they're stacking lumber, & they're driving tractors- real deal stuff. They work some days from sunup til sundown in the oppressive heat, & in the frigid wet winter wind, and I am so proud of the women they become in that short time.

So many times we find ourselves at some juncture where an intern is trying mightily to perform some physical task, and she's having a rough go of it- All I have to do is walk up and easily push/pull/adjust whatever thing they're struggling with (I've been working on my CARE Muscles for years) & we can all move on, but what good does that do? It's a temporary fix, and she didn't earn it. I tell all the interns that come to CARE that you're muscles are no longer yours, they belong to CARE, and CARE wants its muscles strong.

If I do their tasks, how does CARE get the strong muscles it so needs? It doesn't THAT's how.

So we wait, and we watch as she struggles, like a baby bird fighting through it's shell, and I say,

"CARE MUSCLES!!!"

And over time, and through so many stuggles, and hearing my dumb voice yelling it again and again, it becomes a mantra, it becomes a genesis of strength. It becomes a point of pride.

"CARE MUSCLES!!!"

These ladies arrive to CARE limited in their physical abilities, but when they leave, they can crush boulders with their hands- and it's awesome.

Well, It's tiger feed time, & we gotta go get our CARE Muscles in gear. See you later.

-Derek