1-16-07

I have to go to Spearfish tomorrow to do a radio program for Jim Thompson and then do the Heritage of the American West show tomorrow night at the High Plains Heritage center. The theme is about Deadwood, so they asked if I had any poems or songs. I didn’t! LOL

So I wrote one and didn’t like it and threw it away. Then I wrote another, but it was pretty bland. For some reason, this morning, I had an inspiration so this is what I came up with. It has a little different meter to it, but I kind of like it. Seems to roll off my tongue fairly well. If you read it, try reading it out loud. If the rhyme and meter is good, it should just roll along and move smoothly for anyone who is reading it. Hope you enjoy it and are having a good day.

Deadwood no. 2
Deadwood was born in a gold rush
a town that was wicked and wild
it was sinful and dirty and dusty as hell
not a place for the meek or the mild

it was named for the fire charred relics
that clung to the banks of a stream
they were reminders of natures past furies
to be careless was living a dream

but the people who came to this valley
cut trees and tore sod from the ground
they built and they dug and they dug and they built
till the valley was all scarred and brown

and the people were scarred also
by the work and the words and the play
there were shenanigans, shootings and stabbing’s
the strong and the rough ruled the day

Wild Bill and Potato Creek Johnny
Charlie Utter and Martha Jane too
Bullock and Starr and Jack McCall
were members of this motley crew

but lawless only lasts for a time
then the piper must be paid his price
through fire and flood and famine
and winters as cold as ice

because nature was seeking revenge
or at least maintaining her course
trying to reclaim the valley that was lost
she fought back without any remorse

and time has a way of changing
the patterns and wants of men
the bloodshed and killings grew tiresome
so law must prevail again

those citizens of a long ago time
who lived and loved by that stream
they ripped and they roared, slept and they snored
but their memory is only a dream
Robert Dennis 1-07

1/14/07

Well, another birthday passed by yesterday. I ain’t officially old yet, but I think it’s the miles, not the years.

Tate, Kass and Gabe came out and spent the day with me and Cindy, after she got off from work. We took my, new to me, ice skates and went skating on the pond. I used to just love to skate, but old age ain’t helped my ability to skate! I never fell down, but I sure used some muscles I hadn’t used for awhile. 🙂

We got a lite dusting of snow and it’s gotten cold. Down below 0 several nights. Highs in the teens during the days. Of course, I had a tank or two want to freeze up and run over, so there is lots of ice in the corrals. I bet it’ll all be gone by the 4th of July! LOL

I even fed the cattle some hay. I’ve got to be careful, or I’ll spoil them. Nice hay that a neighbor traded me for a saddle. I just wish it was a bigger pile. 🙂 Beggars can’t be choosers, tho’.

Tyler drove out tonight to spend the evening and tomorrow, as it’s his day off. I’ve got a gig in Spearfish on Wednesday and Chadron on Friday and Saturday. Should be fun.

Hope you had a good day.

1/10/07

It is the supposedly ,last nice day we are going to get for awhile. Temps have been in the 30’s and 40’s. For the next 5 days or so, we are supposed to get some snow and temps in the single digits.

I can remember years when I would have been really grateful to have the temps warm up into the single digits, at this time of the year. So I guess I won’t complain when we get “seasonal” weather. It all balances out. We get some extra hot days in the summer so we are bound to get some extra cold days in the winter.

Moisture wise also. We had some real wet years and lately we have gone thru’ some real dry ones. It will change and we’ll be back to “normal”! 🙂

Cindy and I had to run into town the other day so we took the trailer along and got a load of bales. When we got home, we unloaded them. So yesterday I could barely walk! I have got to get in shape and shed a few years! Man, gettin’ old ain’t for sissies.

I’m going down and get me a new cowdog pup this morning, from a young feller who’s female had a batch, awhile ago. He’d asked me to take one and I had agree’d, but then it looked like I would be working for Dusty a lot and I didn’t think it was fair to Cindy or the pup to have him around and no time for him. But it looks like now I maybe won’t be helping Dusty that much, so I decided to get him and see how it goes. ‘Sides, Cindy just looooovvvveeees puppy’s! 😉

It will be fun to have a pup around again. Until he starts chewing things up! Oh well, it will all average out. Just like the weather.

Hope your having a great day!

1/6/07

The weather has changed a bit around here. Cooled off and we got a little rain and snow yesterday and a touch of snow today.

Had a good/bad day the other day. Awhile back, when I was going to ship some cows, I left the ones I was going to ship in the corral over night. The little corral that leads into the loading chute was full of ice. I was afraid one would get hurt, when I tried to move them thru’ that corral to load them. So, I scattered some hay on top of the ice so that they could carefully walk in and eat the hay and mess up the ice, so that there would be better footing the next morning. Seemed like a good plan at the time.

Next morning when I went out to load them, there was an old cow who had slipped on the ice and had her hind feet out behind her and couldn’t get back up. She must have lain there most of the night. I cussed myself for a fool and went to trying to get her off from the ice. After the help of Cindy and Woody, I got her drug onto dry ground in the other corral.

I’ve been working with her ever since trying to get her back on her feet. This was a coming 17 year old longhorn cow. She would eat and drink, but I never could get her to get to her feet. So the other day I decided that I’d done as much as I could for her and wasn’t really doing her any favors by trying any more, so I shot her and drug her to the dead pile. Man, I just hate to shoot a cow! But I reconciled myself that she wasn’t suffering and she had had a long and good life. But I still feel stupid for not thinking about this happening. Lesson learned.

Then I caught my two draft horses and worked with them. Fine, the filly, worked real well. It was the second time I had put a harness on her and I went ahead and drove her, single. She did real good and I think she will just keep on getting better, when I can find the time to keep working with her. Now, if I can just dig a hole to lead her brother into, so I can throw the harness on him! Man! If I’d have known how big he was going to get, I don’t know if I would have got him. Good thing that he seems to be a gentle giant. Sure wish they were broke to drive and I was younger!

Hope you had a good day.

12/31/06

It’s hard to believe that another year has rolled around so fast! So many things that I should have done, and maybe a few I shouldn’t have!

I went up to Baker, MT the other day to perform for the Baker Livestock Auction’s Christmas party. Dan Murphy had lined it up quite a while ago and I didn’t think the weather was going to cooperate, but it did, after a false start! Had a nice crowd and saw a few friends and made a few new ones. Got to go to the ranch of a woman and her husband who I’ve gotten to know on the internet. Nice cattle, nice horses and nice people.

It was kind of late or early, depending on how you look at it, when I got home, but I sold enough books to pay for some gas and Dan sent a bunch of books home for me to read, so it was well worth the trip.

Weather has been pretty nice, tho’ it’s gotten a little chilly in the evenings, but for this time of the year, it’s really been great.

I’ve got 3 gigs coming up in January and a possible. I’ll be in Spearfish, Iowa and Nebraska. Hope any of you who read this show up. Email me if you want more info.

I got a nice Christmas card and also a nice new year email from one of the fellers who was here this fall, from Denmark. This old world has really gotten smaller, hasn’t it?

I hope you all have a wonderful and prosperous new year.

12/23/06

Merry Christmas!

Hope all reading this either have or had a wonderful Christmas.

We will have all the children home and hope for Dusty, Tristan and Lan to be here also.

We are very much enjoying a brown Christmas. This is sure a great time for a drought and a heat wave. It can start sending moisture about the first of April. That’s what I want for Christmas. 🙂

I sold a few cows the other day and got 10 head of nice 3 year old cows bought for Chance and Hope. So now they have more cows than I do! Oh well, I’ve still got more land and horses than they do. 🙂 And less debt on my cows! LOL

Hope you all had a wonderful day.

12/15/06

I’m tired!

I ran the trackhoe for about 10 hours today and dug around a mile of cable up. The boss is whining as he thinks I should work tomorrow. I never have liked working on Sundays, unless it’s real necessary. ‘Course, I’ve never liked to work at all, but always seems like someone thinks I should. Wife, banker, father, mother, kids, etc…… LOL

Chance got a loan to buy a few cows, so I’ll need to go find some for him , that will work here and still be something he can afford. Dang kids, always making me work!

Hope you all had a good day today and that the wind didn’t blow as hard as it did here, today.

12/12

Another nice day, tho’ the wind blew a little.

Worked with another yearling filly this morning and then a yearling stud and my draft mare this afternoon. Also unloaded and stacked a trailer load of bales. Even got Cindy to drag most of them to the end of the trailer for me!

My draft filly was real good. I hobbled her front legs and threw an old harness on her and then led her around with the tugs dragging and it sure didn’t bother her much. I guess the next step is to drive her and her brother together without pulling anything and then when they have that figured out, hook them up to a sled or something and go for a spin! Should be lots of fun. Anyone want to go along for the first drive? LOL

I sent some more pictures of horse to Donna to put on the website. She’s done a lot on it and updated some stuff, so if any of you haven’t looked at it in awhile, go check all the different pages out. http://www.dennisranch.com

Hope you had a good day too.

12/11/06

Tyler came home with Cindy last night, as they planned to go back in today and shop. They talked me into going, so we took my pickup and trailer and dropped the trailer at Dusty’s so when we came back thru’ Sturgis, we could go get a load of small square hay bales.

We ate dinner at Red Lobster and then they hit the stores! I bought a book and waited and read!

We got out of Rapid and back to Sturgis, dropping Tyler off and went out and hooked up to the trailer and drove about a mile to a feller who is selling hay. He had some from last year. Cost $2.50 a bale and they probably average about 65 pounds per bale. I had bought some earlier from him, of this years hay. Pretty good stuff, but cost $3.25 a bale. Figures out to about $115 a ton. See what it cost to have horses around? LOL

Now if I can just get Cindy to help with the unloading tomorrow……….

Hope you had a good day.

12/09/06

Man! What a beautiful day! Must have gotten up to 55 or so. Little to no wind. Just wonderful!

I worked with a couple of pretty young ladies today. One was my yearling draft horse filly and the other was my favorite Quarter Horse, yearling filly. LOL

Both were real nice. I saddled my QH filly and she is really something special. I call her Sweety and she sure fits the description. She is one we raised, out of my favorite mare. She did so good that I saddled her up, but talked myself out of riding her. She is still pretty young and not real big, so I’ll wait for Chance or some other younger, lighter and probably better hand at starting colts, to put the first few rides on her. She is just so lite and sensitive. Sure am glad I bought her mother and raised her. She ought to be real fun to ride and raise me some nice saddle horses, down the road.

I’ve been running back and forth to Gillette since I last wrote. Hopefully, Dustin can find a smaller bucket for his trackhoe and bring it out here and I will run it, digging cable for awhile. Then maybe he’ll find some work, a little closer to home.

One of these days I am going to have to go to building saddles and stuff. The orders and repair work are starting to pile up and I just got a new saddle tree in, so maybe pretty soon I can go back to being a saddle maker instead of a dirt worker!

I’ve only missed one night of watching the National Finals, in Vegas. For those who don’t know, it’s the World Series of the rodeo world. We have 6 guys from SD in the saddle bronc riding (the only event I really care much about and enjoy watching). We also had the horse who was voted to be the best saddle bronc of the year, from Korkows who headquarter out of Blunt, SD. We sure are proud of our bronc riders. And it looks like we will have one crowned as the world champion, from our state. Yeehawwww!

Also a good young bronc rider from close to here has ridden all but one of his horses. And there have been some real tuff’ ones, too! Quite an achievement. So he, JJ Elshere, will probably win the average, which is the person who rode the most and won the most money or points, at this rodeo. Tom Miller, a neighbor, did it 3 years in a row, back when he was going down the road. Only one other guy has ever done that. Rod Warren, of Canada.

The last performance is on ESPN tonight at 7 pm. So I am going to quit writing and get all set to watch it.

Hope you had a great day!