There is railing all around on the porch and deck now, since this photo was taken

Photos of the upstair library will be and loft where the master bedroom is..

Cindy and I spent our first night in the new house last night. We got the waterbed in and filled yesterday and a toilet installed in the upper bathroom. I say we put too much water in the new waterbed mattress, but Cindy said it’s the first morning she hasn’t waken with a back ache, so we will see how that goes! Chance and Hope got flooring down in the mudroom yesterday, Tate and Chance and I got the refig installed, tho’ we couldn’t hook up the water for the ice maker yet.. missing a fitting, seems like there is a lot of that going around.. we still need to get more lights hooked up. I wanted to put flooring in the  mail level bathroom, but the boys want to get sheetrock in it first.. they did get the basement bathroom, sheet rocked..still lots of things to do, chinking (I had to chink in the bedroom yesterday so that wall would be done where the bed sets and we wouldn’t have to drain and move it) trim and this and that.. it was a very quiet night and strange to be sleeping pointing a different direction.. had to get up and walk down to the old house to make me some breakfast.. Tate has been installing kitchen cabinets and working on building counter top…Tate and Kass have a wedding to attend today, so we need to get some cows moved while he isn’t here to crack the whip on us! Might get a few more things done on the house, but seems to me we will be working on this house for a long time to come…

Tonight at Philip. Monday afternoon Cindy and I hauled a load of dries down to Philip for the Tuesday Sale. Chance and I hauled a few more down Monday morning then waited for them to sell.. not real shiny, but better than Chance expected on his. Got a nice rainMonday evening, somewhere from a half inch to one and a half inch, depending on who you talked to.. sure helped wash the dust off the grass. Cindy and I ran into town yesterday and went to Francis Hanzliks funeral. She was a real nice lady. We went to the chiro afterwards and both of us got worked on. Helped me feel better. I rode over and got a cow off from Del’s on Red Owl creek this morning. Ol’ fool ought to know better than to go over there! 😀 She wasn’t much of a chore for me and Pilgrim. Tate helped me change out the headlights on Teddy this morning.. ought to be able to see better at night now.

Church was full for Mass this morning.. after dinner I took a nap then Arabelle, Lige and Gabe came up and we moved some pairs back up into Harrry’s.. been so hot we hadn’t finished it up.. the deer flies are a pest, but we had a good breeze, so it wasn’t terrible. Gabe rode Crackerjack and got along fine, this was Ari’s second trip outside on Beaver.. thought I was gonna have to kill her, telling her how to ride and leave the facer alone and yet be shortened up so he didn’t go too fast.. I don’t know who got the patience in the family, but it wasn’t me! Supposed to sort off some dries tomorrow…

Went up north and branded some calves today, smaller but real good crew.. the owner is 89 and his wife younger, she helped gather and he watched the gate and grumbled about us “kids”! 😀 Went smooth and we got them done before it got real hot, got him about 4 and it was 100 and a south east wind blowing about 30 mph.. supposed to cool down a bit tomorrow, from the last report i read.. got some clouds off to the west and a chance of rain later in the week, sure hope we get some, it’s green but we could use a drink.. Chance and I had Lige and Gabe and Gus, there were a few first calf heifer calves at the end in a different bunch so us older guys took a kid and helped them wrassle and taught them the way we wanted them to hold calves.. they’d all done it before, but mostly set on the back so we showed them how to use their weight and leverage to hold down the front and how to help the crew who were dehorning, giving shots and stuff… it’s good for these kids to learn this stuff and learn it so Grampa don’t cuss them! 😀

Got a big bunch of our calves worked yesterday, good crew. we worked the cows too… everything went smooth. Dusty brought Crackerjack home and drug some calves on him. Raymond Wattenhofer was here and said he got over 2000  pictures.. hopefully some will make great paintings for him. Gus and I rode out this morning and moved some pairs out of the old hay filed, north of the house. At noon, I went and voted ( not that there was much to vote for) there Gabe and Lige came up and I hauled them up to a roping clinic, we got home about 5 ate a bite then rode out and moved some pairs north that were out east, next to the road.. I rode Crackerjack and got a long fine.. supposed to go help Dustin brand tomorrow.. Chance went in to the chiro as he has a bum knee and hip where I collapsed part of a bank on him the other day, working on waterlines.. he is supposed to go along, we will see..

Mike and Kim tar rant were passing thru; from a visit back east so i had him ride along over to the TC outfit and we helped head and heel calves to work them.. windy, but still a great day.. today I moved cows up north into Harry’s.. hopefully tomorrow we can get them east6 so they will be handy to gather to brand on Monday.. Kids have nuns out teaching them this weekend and there is a small gathering this evening at Tate and Kass’s and also the nut fry and Caden Smiley playing at Nellies… windy today also and supposed to keep it up.. got the new well hooked up and Tate has been busy making it happen.. everyone has more water pressure and we all like that..

Checking cows, tagging calves, moving pairs, fixing fence, building fence, getting ready to brand here after while.. Lige helped me this morning and we pushed a pipe corner in the ground. Got it all fixed up and wires strung, took a hose and put it on the new planted trees, fixed a gate… supposed to rain this afternoon, we’ll take it! Supposed to go get a backhoe tomorrow and do some water works..

I was at Jones branding on Friday and asked Eric what he was doing the next day. He said he and Chas were headed to Miles City to the Bucking Horse Sale.. I told him I’d thought of going to Sheridan for the Leather  doings, and had always wanted to go to Miles City for that event, so he said to come along.. Cindy couldn’t go but grudgingly said I could. They picked me up about 1 in the afternoon and we headed out. Nice trip and good visit, got there about 6 and went to the arena and hung out. Hooked up with their friends and relatives who we were going to spend the night with, went up town where they had Main street blocked off with 3 bands playing. We went up into an old hotel and ate prime rib, pretty late, then hung out and finally quit about 1.. found the house went in and crashed and started up again about 7:30 the next morning.. all kinds of people were staying at the house, Eric slept on a couch upstairs, Chas slept on one downstairs and I unrolled my bedroll on the floor and tossed and turned until time to get up.. went to a casino and had a Bloody Mary to start the day right after breakfast then  back to the fairgrounds for the bronc match and racing.. it was a blast.. never saw anyone unhappy or on the fight, everyone was having a great time.. when it was all done, we went to a Mexican restaurant and ate supper and left about 7:30 and got home about 12:30… I drove.. I like to drive… if you ain’t been there, you owe it to yourself to go, at least once.. I’d like to take Cindy up next year as they have lots of horse races in between the broncs and she loves horse racing.. first I’d ever seen other than on TV and it is quite a rush… I’d like to buy the last horse across the line and make a saddle horse out of one of them big TB, big smooth cats!

When we checked cow this evening we found a calf who was lost from his mother, so brought him home..Cindy fed him half a bottle of milk while Chance and I went back to finish checking.. we found his Mom, and weren’t sure if she’d kicked him off or what so took the calf back out and the dart gun and give her something to make her sleepy, laid the calf down and here she come and wanted him, so we untied him and he jumped up and went to sucking while she just stood there with a dreamy look on her face.. we opened some gates and let some pairs cross the road to go north.. came home and trying to catch up with what I missed while we were gone..

Me and Pilgrim went out to move some pairs around this morning, hardly got out of tyne yard and he picked up a hole at a fast trot… he skidded his face for quite a ways on the ground before he went down..slammed me pretty hard and rolled up on my leg.. I sure seen stars.. weird as he is real watch about holes in thew ground, heck, maybe he just stubbed a toe.. I managed to hold him with the get down in my belt… poor ol’ feller was plumb ashamed of himself.. he’d gotten a bunch of grass under his bosalita, he slid on his face so far… I finally quit seeing stars but was really hurting in my left shoulder.. I finally got back on, moved the cows thru’ the gate. reset gates and decided i better go get it checked out… came in and took a shower and Gramma hauled me to the clinic, bent but not broken.. I am eating pain pills, over the counter, they are helping.. got a branding tomorrow and I am sure me and Pilgrim will both be sore.. Cindy and a couple of grandkids went with me this evening and we tagged some calves, big stout buggers and they are barely licked off…