You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2013.
Just keeps hanging in there….my Apprentice saddle maker came out Monday morning and also Andrea Graham our resident Folklorist who interviewed us and check on our progress…I fed them steak fajita’s for lunch and then Andrea took off and Tee and I worked on saddles for a spell. AI had to leave him at it and go pick up Gus at the bus and then on to Rapid to drop him with his mother, meet up with Cindy and go to the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral and then home afterward. the Chrism Mass is where the Bishop blesses all the Holy Oil that will be used this year for Baptism and Last Rites and any other Sacrament where Holy Oil is used. it is also a time when all the priests of the Dioceses are there and they all renew their vows of Holy Orders. The choir did an excellent job and it was great to be a part of. I stopped and did a little shopping before I met Cindy. she had been at a Church conference/workshop. Said she learned a lot and had a great time. She had caught a ride in with some folks from Faith who were going to the same thing.
Today I fed and have been catching up on odds and ends and doing some leather work and trying out some new flowers and background dying. The dying didn’t go well and I don’t think I will be doing any in the near future….I just finished cutting out a new pair of chinks for me out of bison hide….wait until you see what I am trying! 🙂
I took off yesterday afternoon and met Cindy and we went to Chuck Timmons wedding, stuck around for the after part and ate some real good smoked brisket that Jim had made. we had planned on going to Hill City for the open Mic but the weather was getting nasty and I’d had a report it was worse down south so we played it safe and came home. When we crossed 4 Mile creek and looked south you could see the snow lying on the breaks down there so evidently we were just on the north edge.
This morning we got up and drove up to Mud Butte for Mas, seeing we had missed it the night before. after Mass we went to leave and the keys were somehow locked in the car! I blamed it on Cindy and she blamed it on me and we tried the old wire from a hanger trick and it didn’t work, nobody had a tennis ball so we could try that trick, so Joe McTighe took pity on us as there was a stiff southeast breeze blowing and it was cold! We finally got a hold of Chance and hope and Chance and Colby Shearer, who was up visiting came and got us, drove us to the car and we came home. Oh, they had gotten the extra set of keys at the house and brought them up. Colby told of phoning us and having us place the cell phone on speaker next to the door and they would push the open button on the other set, but they couldn’t get service to call us. I wanted to try it when we got to the car, but they all said it was too cold, so we didn’t. I am going to get a tennis ball and try that trick and also the cell phone trick too, to see if it will work…wind is howling and it isn’t very warm. Chance and Colby rode with me to feed the cows with the team when we got back and it was pretty nice when we started but about halfway there it really started to blow. think I will feed with the tractor in the morning as I need to set some more bales down anyway. My apprentice and the folklore lady are supposed to come tomorrow and the Chrism Mass is in Rapid tomorrow evening. Cindy is going to ride with some other folks to some church deal at Terra Sancta and I will drive down and meet her for Mass afterwords.
Green grass!!!!1
Yeah, it’s pretty short and pretty sparse, but it IS green! Woo hoo!!!
Cindy said the temp in her Nitro said it was 77 when she left Sturgis about 2. Sure is nice out. Got the carving all done on the saddle, oiled it and waiting for it to soak in so I can put it all together…cows hadn’t even cleaned up all the hay I fed them yesterday. I counted on that so took a pretty good bale when I went. they sure are enjoying that old grass with a hint of green at the roots!
I have plans to haul a couple horses up to Dusty tomorrow. See if he can get along with Swiss Miss, she is 7 or 8 and kind of halter broke and that is all. She let me walk up and pet her so i think she will be fine.. he does a good job. Also i will take Brody, the colt I started last spring and have him top him off for me so i can go to riding him… calving will be coming soon and it will be good to have a young horse to ride on cows checking to see if they are calving or have calved.
Here is the last photo’s of the saddle with all the carving. don’t think I ever want to do any more carving on one than this! Lot’s of work and in hard to work places!
Now, off to drive Wren….
The weather! Wind dropped down to a breeze, warmed up to shirt sleeve weather…suh weet!
Took the team and tolled the cows up to Harry’s with a bale of hay, came back and got the lowboy wagon and some bean, picked up Hope and all the kids and we took the bean up to the cows. Then, after i turned the team loose I drove up with the pickup to see if they wanted to eat at the Bull Creek. they did so we did. Saw glen and Bailey and visited a bit until we all were done eating… well and Addy Bear got done playing with her food!
Oh, the big news is, Sam has a huge cavity and a part of his tooth broke off and he handed it to his Mom…he showed it to me and every thing!! 🙂
I suppose this will involve a dentist visit… just a baby tooth, ain’t it? A molar in the back…
When we got back from the big city….I dropped everyone off, took some mineral barrels out and then threw a couple of salt blocks with mineral to the horses and unloaded the salt and dog food. I got a short nap, then did a little tooling, pitched up some hay for the horses in the corral and hauled the trash out. Going to cruise the interwebs and then back to the leather shop, need to get this saddle done! It’s too nice to be in the house working on leather!
And Cindy said we have a new Pope. From South America, which I am sure is a first. God bless him and make him a great Pope and do wonderful things for all of us in this world…
Still windy and pretty cool this morning. I used the tractor as i wanted to feed one of the new bales and several had ripped the net wrap and I knew I’d lose some with the team. I took Addy Bear with me. Most of the cows were up west, so hauled one up there and unrolled it somewhat out of the wind and they nosed it a little and looked at me like they were saying, “Your kidding us, right?”
So I decided to make them eat it and drove the long way around to try and trick them into staying up there. Only problem was Jack, Chances dog was running along and he decided that they all needed to follow the tractor! I don’t know as he was moving them much but he was sure at the back end of them working. Soooo…. I hurried home but didn’t fool them any, here they come on the run, following the tractor!
When we got back, I dropped Addy Bear off at her house and went an got another one and fed them out here in the lane. The heck with them! They will eat it or go hungry! Dang tuff old eastern SD hay! I suppose I will have to grind it or leave it for really cold nasty day’s or maybe carry it over until next year and see if it softens up any over the next 8 months or so and then grind it with something else if i have to. I hate when you pay what I did and they won’t eat it….
I got my cantle binding on the saddle today and got a good start on the back billets…seems like I don’t go too fast… oh well, it will get done when it get’s done…
Seems like it really has to blow… I guess it is March, but I don’t think that matters around here… supposedly we only have no wind 5% of the time and they consider a wind anything over 5 mph….must be why there used to be so many windmills on wells in this country. If we had a wind charger we could be making enough electricity to run a fair sized town, I’d think, just today!
Got a load of hay in this afternoon, so seeing as I had to start the tractor anyway I fed with it and Cindy rode along. they don’t make tractor seats the right size for a Grampa and a Gramma to share! At least not in this tractor, so we snuggled! 🙂
Hay I got in has some net wrap on it so it was in good shape tho’ a couple got ripped.. and the wind didn’t help the trucker either, said he hit it at Pierre. Imagine that, come to west river SD and the wind blows! Hope it don’t blow the bales away, it cost to much!
Been working in the saddle shop off and on all day when I wasn’t doing something else. Hope to get to working some of these young horses now that it is warming up for a spell but I’d sure take a foot or two of heavy wet snow, tho’ rain would be nicer….guess while I am wishing I will wish for a warm rain and then a whole bunch more! Be fun to listen to everyone cuss the mud again!
Like they had predicted, but I did get some company on Saturday!
Kelly is a nice young lady who I met last fall and she is missing riding horses so I told her to come ride. So she did! We had a great time, she went along with me to feed cows with the team and she was bundled up enough so we saddled up a couple horses and went for a ride up west. then we stopped and she got to meet Chance and hope and all the kids then back to the house while she visited the baby kittens while I cooked up some lunch. Afterwords we sat around and swapped some music and showed each other some cool stuff on Youtube. Cindy got home from work and visited and then Kelly had to go, and we went to Mass. She claims she had a great time and even bragged on my cooking and contacted me this morning to get the recipes.
I puttered about this morning, working on songs and then when Cindy got home we took a drive up west and north and let the cows into Harry’s. Quite a little old brown grass and they just might not be so fussy now, so might eat it!
This mornin’…yesterday I caught up Wren and kept her in so after I fed (Sam rode along with me) I left Ron and Roz harnessed and caught Wren and put her between them in the stall, harnessed her and hooked her with Ron and drove her until she was doing good. Then I drove them back in thew barn, hooked Wren to Roz so she was on the other side and drove them around until she was doing good at it. I drove them back in, unharnessed and turned them all loose. Hopefully I can keep that up and then have Chance help me when he is home and we will hook to a wagon and take a trip. It’s handy top have someone along to unhook wrecks and messes and open and close gates or hold the lines while I do the other. It’s warming up so they made me sweat walking and trotting along behind them! Now, off to the saddle and try and get it finished up!
