Getting things done…

I went in to the doc the other day about shoulder pain, she did blood work and x rays.. all my stuff is good as far as blood work, I was pretty sure i still had some running thru’ me, but you know Doctors, won’t take my word for anything! Nothing in the X-ray, so i guess they are going to hook me up with a Physical Therapist… Chance and i ran down to the Stockshow today and watched the bucking horse sale, pretty good one, they all bucked, seen one real good one that brought 15,000.. sure didn’t see any I wanted to take home and make into a saddle horse,. tho’ some didn’t buck any harder than some Chance used to break to ride…we were talking about going to Hill City tomorrow night for the open mic, but sounds like everyone is weening out on me. I may just have to go by myself! If at all.. Tate and Chance started laying the foam blocks for the house yesterday… Tate got more done today… quite the deal, stack them like leggo’s and they are hollow, you put rebar in and then fill them with cement.. it’s starting to look more like a house.. snapped a picture or two with my phone but haven’t even looked to see if they worked… nice today and supposed to stay in the 40’s to 50’s the next few days, I’ll take it!

Okay, I did make them work!

Got the cement poured for the footings of the house today..Wyatt came and helped.. sure glad he did! Man, that boy is a worker! Well, I guess really.……. he ain’t a boy, a young man! 😀

Got another saddle tree in today, so I guess I better get serious.. heading in to the Doc in the morning, see if my shoulder pain is rotator cuff or not.. did some research and sounds like you can heal them if they are not too bad, without surgery… but sounds like it has to rest.. a lot! That really doesn’t fit into my plans for the future real we’ll… 😉

Coldish but warming up.. supposed to get into the 30’s.. little snow from the other day… we didn’t get what they got in the Black Hills.. went out and used the team for the first time in a few days, Grand daughter went along for the first bale and then froze out so went to the house.. pup got accidentally stepped on by the team so she said to heck with it and went and pouted on the steps… felt good to get out in it again.. been sickly, got over it and had to drive the misses to town for her work yesterday morning… I went on to Rapid and killed time at the Stockshow.. not much worth looking at or buying… dang, I must be getting old…

Got a bug of some sort.. some say flu, but didn’t seem, the same.. just a bad ache in the stomach and a bit of constipation and then scours… took me out of most things for a couple days.. better yesterday and a bit more today… probably running at 90 % . Colder today, we lost our spring like temps. Chance of snow tonight.. makes sense, Tate finally got the ice and snow out and ready to pour the foundation! Stockshow in Rapid started this last couple days.. I don’t know what or when I will go.. the idiots dropped the bronc match… may have to just go to the bronc and bull sale.. speaking of, I am thinking of heading to Waverly this spring for their big sale, lots of draft horses and everything top do with them.. I’ve always wanted to, might just have to do it, the boys can handle calving, especially if it’s held in March. We are not supposed to get any until about the first part of April, even in the boughten ones, they claim, tho’ I think they picked up a few March calvers… if you see me at the stockshow, holler at me..remember, I’m deaf! And I dang sure don’t want to weary my hearing aid around that deal!

Seeing as our 36 Anniversary is coming up real soon, I suggested to Cindy that after Mass last night, we’d head over to Hill City ( about a 100 miles) and go to the bimonthly jam session there.. she thought that sounded good, so we did.. made a flying trip as we left here at almost 6 pm and it started at 7…I called ahead and got them too sign me up towards the middle… we got there and didn’t miss too many, watched and listened to some real good talent and then headed to Sturgis where we got a room as Cindy had to be at work by 6 am… of course, I couldn’t go to sleep in that hard ol’ motel mattress, so I sat up and read a book on my kindle.. Smiling Country by Elmer Kelton. One of the best books i have ever read of a real kind of cowboy life.. if you like that stuff, get it. it’s a good one!

She got me up about 5:45 after a couple hours of restless sleep, to take her to work, so I imagine I will sleep real good tonight! I ran on down to Rapid, ate breakfast and then went to an auction and looked around, and just generally putted around until about noon. Headed back to Sturgis, ate a bite then did some shopping and then went and waited at Cindy’s workplace, (reading part of another book with a short little snooze in the car(… she came out at 2 and we went to the bowling alley for Sam’s 7th birthday party. I even bowled and won the first game but then I couldn’t throw anything worth a darn.. we ate some cake and then headed home so I could get to Men’s Fellowship.. that is always worth the effort… now, I kinder think I will go sleep. Warm and windy and supposed to be up over 50 tomorrow.. sounds like we got nice weather until at least Saturday anyway and even then, doesn’t look to0 bad, from what I can see, but you never want to trust a lying weatherman! 😀

Molly was real glad to see us when we got home!

Laramie came today and sharpshod the team on the fronts and  took off Brody’s old shoes and reshod him, sharp.. well, with Aztez or what ever these guys use now.,.. that pretty much took up the whole day.. I did get a little work in on the wagon.. I ran into town yesterday and got a fresh bottle of oxygen and some iron to rebuild the eccentric that got bent and popped welds.. it had been bad for years, so i just decided to redo it right, for this wagon… now, if I can get it all back together I can go back to using the team… this is getting expensive!

Woke up about 4:30 and never got my nap in.. it’s about 8 pm as I type this and think it might just be bed time…

Fed cows with the tractor this morning, wind was howling and I was headed to town to watch Gabe and Lige wrestle…

They pinned and got pinned,. guess they ended out of the placings, but what I watched they really went for it and worked hard..

Almost turned around and came home because when i left and got down the road aways, I started to see an aura out of my left eye, last time that happened I had a real bad headache.. wind was whistling on my door and driving me crazy, so I just reached up and stuck my finger in my ear to plug off the noise… did that ’til my arm got tired and then pulled it out and my starting head ache went away.. weird…

While waiting on the wrestlers i ran out to Campbell Supply and got me a battery operated drill set, like Chances, that I have been using on my bale wagon. Not cheap! But I hated to use his and then he’d need it and I’d need one.. at least they are tuff and long lasting and now we can use each others battery’s… tried to get pellets for the stove but they were out and said everyone in town was and they were backordered, so i called the place in Spearfish and they said they had them, so I ran up there and got a load. came back and only missed one of Gabes matches. Guess he pinned him real fast. I swerar I am a jinx to those boys as the next match Gabe got pinned. Real tuff match and the kid goes to state every year. one guy said that he did real good, lasting as long as he did.. beauty of it was, Gabe learned a good lesson and used the same moved the kid used on him, in his next match and pinned him in about a minute… I left and don’t know for sure what happened after words.. Gun show in Rapid tomorrow so i may ride in with the boys just for the giggles, don’t really need another one and can’t really afford it but it’s fun to look… but I do plan on feeding with the team if it isn’t too icy, just like always , about the time i really get to going with the team, it gets icy and I need to get them sharp shod… Laramieeeeee  ( that’s my shoers name!)

It worked good. When I was done feeding, I backed it into the shed and cut off a bit of the points and resharpened them… dream worked will with the shanked bits and curb straps.. I went out this afternoon and took the tractor and pushed a bunch of cowpies out of the way so it won’t be quite so ruff out there now… been working on getting checks entered for tax time coming up… every year I swear I am going to do them every month, and I never do, so I am not going to say I will do it this year and maybe I will! 😀

I went out to feed with the new bale wagon this morning.. already had a bale on it.. I added 6 bags of salt to the front so it kept the front end from coming up, fine… but the bale unroller didn’t squeeze quite as tight, on the bale, as I’d like, but I went ahead and unrolled it or at least attempted to.. got about half ways unrolled and it fell off the points.. that’s not gonn’a work, so I went home, unhooked the team and pulled the tractor out of the shade and backed the bale wagon in… I had too do some cutting and welding a couple times to get it to squeeze down as tight as I wanted.. by then it was dinner time.. went back out after dinner and finished up.. tightened the ash pole that I am using for a tongue, as I noticed it kind of wobbled around.. still ain’t great but works.. Tate is supposed to cut me out a nice straight one, if he can get his mill to running, …..something not working and he is grumbling and cussing and calling the company.. he and Chance took the boys on the school ski trip today, sure was a nice day, got up in the 40’s I suppose and there is lots of water standing and snow squishing down… anyway, I went out and grabbed another bale and now the points don’t open quite as far as I need..,.. it works, but not very handy, so I am going to shorten and repoint the parts that go into the bale, a smidge… wish they were made of smaller, harder material.. oh well, it’s working.. I unrolled part of a bale to the hospital bunch and will feed the rest and another bale tomorrow.. I hooked up to my little flat bed and hauled some bean up west… swapped bits and got some light chain and made some chin straps, which i normally don’t use.. these are bits I made years ago and you can hook at the bit or down  further to get some leverage.. copying back, we got to where the cows were hanging out and there are lots of still frozen cow pies and it is rough, the kids wanted to go too hard, so I just stopped them, switched the lines to the lower part so I had some leverage and they acted lots nicer.. better for them to learn to quit pulling on my arms… now, I am tired, but it’s a good tired… keep these kinds of days up and I may start getting in shape!