Mothersday, 2007

As I set here this morning, I think of mothers and my mother, especially.

Mom was born in 1914 and lost her father when she was 7 years old. She had two little sisters and a little brother and 7 older siblings. She was the last survivor of 11 children. She hated that. She always said, “I can’t believe I am the last one to go.”
I used to tease her that she didn’t have a choice.

Her family meant so much to her, but then, they had gone thru’ so much. They helped each other out, whenever one needed help. When her father died, her older brothers moved back home and cared for their mother and siblings.

Mom died when she was a few weeks short of her 90th birthday. We’d had a big party planned for her. I’m sure she had one when she was rejoined with her brothers and sisters.

It’s to bad that most of us won’t realize just what our mothers went thru’ for most of us, until we are much older and either have a wife who is a mother, or become a mother ourselves.

Happy Mothers day to all the mothers out there.

Thanks mom.

Tuesday 5/8/07

Howdy!

Been kind’a busy, what with branding’s and stuff. The big news is……..(drumroll)…………..WE GOT RAIN!

Yup, you heard me, rain. Around 2 inches. This ol’ country looks brand new. Green and the grass is really going to start growing now.

That makes it around 5 inches for the year, so far. We will need some more, but this is a hell of a good start.

Been going to branding’s. Cindy got new carpet in the living room yesterday and she and Tyler (when he’s been out to visit) have been painting. Tate brought out a lawn mower and he mowed the grass around the house. Damn! I hate when they do that, as now, Cindy is going to want to keep it that way!

My system of grazing the grass with cows or horses was much more efficient and did not add to global warming!

Took some pictures while we were out looking around last night.
This little heifer showed up the other day. Ain’t she cute?

Here’s one of Mijo, out stallion. He has to wait until the middle of June to get to go back to run with his girls. We won’t run him with the young fillies this year. Just the older mares he was with last year.

If any of you reading this have any time to talk to your Senator or Representative, please urge them not to pass the bill they are trying to pass, about the horse slaughter plant ban. This bill, if passed, is going to cause more suffering and grief and starving horses, than letting the slaughter horse plants stay open for business. There have been reports of people turning horses loose, because there is no market for them and they can’t afford to have them euthanized and they can’t afford to feed them, so they just take them to a park or out in the mountains and turn them loose.

There are starving horses showing up in Kentucky and California, because of this.

I don’t like having horses slaughtered, but I can afford to put my old horses or my crippled horses down and leave them or bury them on our ranch. Those who live in suburban areas can not do this. And when they turn these horses loose to fend for themselves, they are not doing them any favors. It is like turning dogs and cats loose in the city. Survival of the fittest and it’s not very pretty!

The bill they are trying to pass, would outlaw the sale or transportation of any horse destined to go to a slaughter plant here in the US or outside of the US to Canada or Mexico or anywhere else there is a slaughter plant.

It is not a good bill and would cause much more suffering than what we have now.

Horse slaughter plants end the horses lives humanely. They do not suffer. If there is any suffering, it would be while the horses are thrown together before and during transport to the slaughter plant site. This will happen when the horses are turned loose to fend for themselves, also. Only worse, because there will be no humans to watch over and protect the old, sick and young.

I hate to get on a soapbox, but I love horses and hate to see them suffer, like they will if this law is passed.

We passed a similar law years ago that said we couldn’t slaughter “wild” horses or “mustangs” as they are referred to. Now we have too many, running on too little land, and we are paying to capture, ship and feed these feral horses in feedlots, until they die of old age. It would be more humane to put them down with a quick, and painless bullet than to subject them to the small confinement that they are putting them in now. They fight to establish dominance and unlike in the wide open, can’t defend themselves as well or run away from another stronger horse, as they do in the wild or a large pasture situation.

When people who don’t understand animals and how they live and interact, pass and try to pass laws like this, it is a disservice to the very animal they are trying to “help”.

Leave it to those who deal with them on a day to day basis and they will be much better off.

Sorry to get on my soapbox, but this is a bad law and will cause so much suffering. Similar to taking your child to a school where there are no adults to watch over and protect those who are smaller and younger, from the bigger and meaner children.

9 pm. I have had several comments on this posting by an anonymous posters. Just so you all know, I will not publish them if you will not leave a name or email address. I refuse to debate with cowards who send emails, but won’t leave a way to respond to them.

If you have a problem with horse slaughter, that is fine. I think it is still better than what will happen to all of the poor horses who will be turned out to fend for themselves, or made to starve, because their owners can not afford to feed them. Right now we have 100,000 horses a year that need to be put down or slaughtered. After they are dead they don’t care what happens to them. They feel no pain. If you remove a way for those who need to to make enough money so as to put them to a merciful end, you do the horses no service.

No one loves horses more than me, but I have lived around them all my life and there are some horses who are a danger to themselves and all other horses and people around them. Those who have watched too many Disney movies, need to wake up to the facts of real life. Horses are large animals and can hurt and kill people and will do so if they are cornered or trapped and you take away their means of survival, flight.

Don’t lecture me about horses until you have lived thru’ the same experiences I have.

And if you want to end horse slaughter, do it right and come up with a way to put the horses destined for slaughter to good use or find them care and feed for the rest of their natural born lives. Like I do. They are not cats or dogs.

It’s pretty easy to stand back and condemn those who have to sell horses for slaughter. If you don’t like it, buy those horses and take care of them.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like that we have slaughter plants for horses either, but I am a realist and don’t believe I have the right to tell someone else what they can or can’t do with their property. And when you places horses in a category other than property or a tool, you do them and all of us a disservice.

The bible said that God gave dominion over all to man. We are to use our resources wisely, humanely and efficiently.

If anyone thinks there are cases of abuse in the slaughter of horses, work on getting that fixed. Don’t just ban a way to mercifully end a poor worn out horses life and send him out to starve a slow and horrible death.

I’ve seen horses who were starved. It is intolerable.

I worked at a salebarn where they had monthly horse sales. I know that there can be abuse, but as long as we stand mute and do nothing about it, it will continue.

In the same token, I’ve seen what one horse can do to another, running free. It’s not pretty.

I’ve had a stallion try to attack me and my saddle horse. It wasn’t fun.

I have lived around and cared for horses all my life. Have you? Do you really know anything about horses or are you just spouting off from some video you have seen?

Get real.

If you wish to debate, put a valid email address or name to your replies. Quit hiding in the shadows and taking shots at those who deal with these matters on a day to day basis.

Saturday 4/21/07

Kids came out yesterday afternoon.

There is a baby shower for them here in a little while at the hall. We are going to church and then to the shower. Chance fixed some fence today while I worked on a saddle. Didn’t get a lot done. But it rained and it’s a little muddy out there, so no big deal. Things will start getting a lot busier in another week. BRANDING SEASON! WOO HOO. Can’t hardly wait.

I decided that Gus was big enough to go for his first ride. So I took some pictures.

Sunday 4/15/07

We had another nice day.

Chance ran the horses in and Tate and Gabe came out, so me and Gabe took the tractor and fed the cows while Tate and Chan rode. Gabe HELPED drive. Man, that kid can grab levers! LOL

I worked with my stud too. Got him better about working with his feet.

Tate and Chan dug a shallow ditch and buried some cable, coming in from the road, for the satellite dish. Now I will be able to let the horses in the yard to “mow” the grass. 🙂

After dinner we harnessed up the draft horses. Dandy is scared to death of the stone boat that he had the run with last time. We drove him and drove him and finally got him to where he would walk over by it and almost relax. Then as we drove him off, he got his harness hooked on a gate hook. Tore his harness up and now I’ll have to fix on that. I left them in the corral and fed them hay off from the stone boat. He will either decide that the stone boat isn’t so scary or he will go hungry. His sister was eating off it as I left.

Fine drove real good.

Then Chance and Hope and Gus left and Tate and Gabe are still here.

I’m TIRED!

Bein’ old and fat ain’t for sissies!

4/14/07

Been pretty “horsey” around here the last couple of days. Brad, a young man from this area who is working in California with a trainer out there, came home for his folks’ 30th anniversary party this past week, so we had a small clinic yesterday. Chance and Hope and Gus got here yesterday morning to spend the weekend, so Chance and I and several neighbors worked with our horse under Brad’s excellent tutelage. We had lots of fun and learned or re-learned some good stuff.

Then today Chance and I worked with the 4 yearlings and I worked a two year old a little and Chance put a ride on a 4 year old that was going pretty good last year, but has been turned out for most of the past year. “Dean” did well and pretty much rode off like a broke horse. Chance rode out and checked the cows while I finished up with my 2 year old.

I bought Dean as a yearling. Snippy’s Cowboy bred horse. He’s always looked rough and is always skinny. I’ve wormed and fed him extra, but I guess he’s just a hard keeper. I even fed him some medicine for ulcers last year, but it didn’t seem to help.

Trimming and training on colts is hard on this old fat man!

Sorry, forgot to take the camera, but Brad’s wife took some pictures yesterday, so eventually I might have some pictures to share.

Now I’m going to relax and maybe go work on the saddle I’m building.

If I wasn’t fighting a bad cold, this maybe wouldn’t have been so hard on me!

Hope your day went well. 🙂

4/4/07

We got some more moisture the last couple of days. Some rain and then it turned to snow during the night. Maybe a quarter to half an inch.

I’m sure back east, that wouldn’t seem like much, but for this country, it’s a good start. We may be up to 2 inches for the year, by now. It’s all good! 🙂

4/1/07

I won the lottery! Wow! I never thought I would ever hit the big one. I am just so excited……..

April fools! Heh, heh, heh.”)

Aww, if only it were true. Think of all the good I could do if I won.

Oh well, it’s a pretty cheap way to get to dream.

On a truer note, we got over an inch of moisture out of the last little deal that came thru. The sun came out the next day and the 3 inches of wet snow we got during the night, melted right off. It’s all good. I love mud! 🙂

Chance and Hope and Gus brought Cindy home last night, as she left her car at the body shop to fix the damage that a deer had done a couple weeks ago. So she drove the little purple 4 wheeler in to work this morning. Hopefully they will have her car fixed soon enough that she won’t have to drive it too long, or worse yet, my Dodge Ram. She doesn’t like to drive Teddy, (I named him Teddy as he’s sure a rough ridin’ S.O.B.) as it doesn’t do that good on fuel. Funny…I bought it so I could have an all around vehicle to pull the trailer and still get fuel economy, but I guess somebody forgot to tell Teddy that, everyone else was getting 20 mpg with their dodge pickups with Cummin’s diesel’s. Oh well, at least it pulls the trailer good and so far (knock on wood) I haven’t had much for problems with it. And in just another 5 to 10 years, it will be paid off! 😉

Cool!

If any of you get any extra moisture, just send it on over to us.;)

Here’s a picture of Gus from last weekend. Ain’t he cute?

3/29/07

Wet and windy out there today! Wonderful!

Sounds like Wyoming is really getting a blizzard. We’ve just had rain so far. Chance just called and said they have snow in the Hills. Cindy decided to stay in town as she was afraid it would be real icy at 5 in the morning when she would have to leave to go to work.

Whatever kind of moisture comes and however much, we’ll take it!

I built a stone boat and hooked up Dandy to it yesterday. Man! He can run real fast inside of a round pen! Had me worried there for about 10 minutes, but then he slowed down. When we turned and went the other way, it was the same song, second verse! I never did get Fine hooked up. Oh well, all things in time.

Did I mention we were getting rain? 🙂

3/26/07

Just came in from driving the draft colts. Dandy, the coming 3 year old gelding, drove off like an old broke horse. Fine, the coming 2 year old filly, a full sister to Dandy, drove a little snorty at first, but calmed down real fast. Both seem to be doing great, tho’ they are kind of wild acting when you go to catch them. That will change with time. I didn’t work with them very long. Only until I saw improvement. Hopefully next time they will enjoy it more and look forward to it. I fed them each a couple of bites of oats after I unharnessed them.

I went and found some single trees and a double tree to hook them to and then they can drag them around. I need to go get some spikes and make myself a stoneboat. A stoneboat is a crude sled that they used to haul stones off from the field with. Usually just a couple of planks for the runners and boards or planks nailed on top for the weight bearing surface. You don’t use a tongue on it, but just drag it with a single horse or a team or even four or six horses if you wanted to. It gives them a slight pull which they need to get used to and also it gives the driver somewhere to stand while he is driving. At my age and physical shape, that is a very important point! 😉