For the horses.. I took Cindy in this morning and dropped her off and then drove on to Rapid and met a young couple who are moving to Montana from New york, I’d met Luke on the Ranching Country board and we’d done some trading… nice young folks with a real cute little blond haired daughter…we had breakfast and then they took off and I went in to Rapid and did some business. Headed back to Sturgis and did some more business and then ate a bite and drove to Cindy’s job and parked, read on a book for a bit and then took a nap. She woke me up when she got off work. When we got home I took the tractor, some bean and a bale up and fed the cows and then went on up to Harry’s and did some dirt work where a gate on a hill is getting blowed out… Had a bunch of curious cattle watch me haul dirt in to the washout… came home and here it is evening. I think a day off for Wren might be a good thing. Yesterday I took the tractor up and worked on a creek crossing…moisture in the ground, but not sure how deep. Looks like we got some chances for a little rain coming in, in the next week. Cowboy Culture has out first show at the Dahl in Rapid City on Saturday evening. Hope to see some of you there…

This afternoon.

Hooked her and Ron to the bobsled and Cindy rode along, so they had a bit more weight to pull. Both were kind of ancy, not sure if it was the wind or what… I used a different bit on Ron today and got a bit more respect from him, towards my hands. I got them both pretty sweated up…finally came back, dropped Cindy off and circled the lot a few times until they walked, then unhooked from the sled, and hooked on to the chariot and went some more… I think that helped..I think I could use her to feed with, if I just didn’t have to open any gates…. may set gates ahead of time and try tomorrow or the next day…

Some more on Wren, the filly.

Gramma and Sam and Addy Bear rode along with me to feed this morning. I left the team harnessed and after dinner I went out and worked on the bobsled, getting it back in shape as good as I could… I am going to have to re-build or get another one someday if I ever intend to do much with one… this one just has spruce runners and they are getting pretty rotted out and the wood for the bolsters was just spruce or some straight grained pine and none ever had any paint on it, so it’s getting kind of bad shape anywhere I haven’t replaced wood in the past…. Anyway, I fixed it up enough to do and drug it up and down the gravel road with the pickup about a mile to shine up the runners. Pulled it out back of the corrals and Cindy went with me to hook Ron and Wren. No problem, so away we went. Wren had never felt much of a pull before so that kind of bothered her a bit, but we just kept going and when I got to where she was pretty good, we stopped a bit and rested and went again. Finally took them over a dirt creek crossing -like a small dam- and she handled that well. Followed the creek around and again stopped to rest several times. Finally came back and Cindy had shut the gate to the corral so I parked the sled where I’d started from. Wren was real sweated up and even Ron had a pretty good sweat going. He was wet anywhere harness was touching. It was a shorter session than yesterday, but more of a work out. The sled pulls pretty easy on grass, but it is a steady pull. I’d say another few days of this and she will be a Christian! 😉

It was the weather this year. March came in like a lamb and went out like a lamb…sure fooled us!

I went out this afternoon and hooked Wren and Ron to the chariot and off we went… made about a 4 to 5 miles circle up around the north end of the place…About 2 miles into it Wren started to calm down a bit… she still jumped a little when Buck came running up from her blind spot, but she was much better by the time we got back. I ever get her as solid as Ron, man am I going to have a team! I think the next trip they need to pull the little disc with a 5 foot section of rigid harrow on the back… that disc is cool as it has a seat and you can either leave the disc blades straight so it pulls pretty easy, or start angling them to get more of a bite and some drag… Lord knows there are plenty of cow chips around that can be harrowed! And you can see them for a long ways as there ain’t much grass to hide them! Next thing I will have to do is get the other filly going and hook 4 abreast on the 10 foot tandem disc! 🙂

Also, while I got nice weather- really nice today a little cooler, but not much for a breeze- I need to get to riding some of these horses and get them going to where a grand kid can ride them…. sure wish they’d grow up and take over that chore! 😀

He has risen, Alleluia!

We had Mass at 10 this morning and now it will stay at 10 on Sunday mornings for the next 3 months. Full house. Father Jim had a great homily, even tho’ he got lost coming a different direction and was a half an hour late…didn’t matter, we all had a good visit, pre mass!

I harnessed and fed afterwards when I got home. Tate and Kass and entourage came about 1:30, then Dusty showed up and then Chance, Hope and the kids and lastly Cindy and Fr Tyler as they both had to work this morning! 🙂

Tate made prime rib and it was awesome! We were told you’ll always screw up your first one, but much like the first rhubarb crunch he made, I don’t know how you’d make it any better…

There was horse viewing a little leather work, some saddle swapping out and even some practice at the “shooting range”. Golf balls make excellent targets!

It’s a quarter to nine as I write this and only Gramma, Fr Tyler and myself left. All comfortably stuffed and with a yearly renewal of our faith and belief… He is Risen! Alleluia!

Becca stopped in today so I got her to use my camera and had her snap a few shots. Thanks Beck!

Shirt sleeve weather!

Yeah, yeah,m it will cool off, but I am enjoying this while I got it!

Left the team harnessed after feeding this morning, (Sam went along for the first trip with hay, but didn’t on the second trip with bean)

So after dinner I went out and hooked Wren in between Roz and Ron, hooked Ron and Wren to the chariot with Roz along side of Wren for company and made a lap around the big corral and then headed out for a trip up west. Wren jumped and spooked and shied at several things, but like always, the farther we went the better she got. we went up the longest steepest way on quite a few hills, while still coming down on a lesser grade. Man, ol’ Ron is a traveling sucker! If he’d just walk slow it would be easier on the hands but all he wants to do is go, go, go… I think if you hooked him to a plow or something hard to work him he’d go until he dropped!

Now I need to shower and shave and get cleaned up for Thursday evening Mass. Remember, this Season ain’t really about the bunny…

A tad chilly, but not bad for March, in the morning when I went to feed. There was a light twinkling of frost on every piece of grass and rock and even cow pies on the ground. No wind.

Hope and Chance had left my car in town the other day so Hope gave me a ride in to town in her new vehicle, a Nissan SUV about the size of Cindy’s, but black instead of red. I drove it and it drives and rides nice. I got thew car and dropped the laptop off to see why it wouldn’t work. It was the hard drive and missed the warranty by 7 days, but they went ahead and honored it. And THAT is why I do all my business with the local Apple Computer store.

I had to run over to Sturgis and record some commercials for upcoming Cowboy Poetry week for play on the local radio station. I will be part of a workshop on Cowboy Poetry at deadwood along with Pat Frolander and Henry Real Bird. Then in the evening Paul Larson and I will do a show at the Days of 76 Museum. Ought to be fun.

Coming home I stopped at CBH and had a tire fixed that had a slow leak. All that pretty much shot the day. I am waiting for it to get a bit warmer before I go to feed so Sam can ride along. Supposed to be warm now thru’ the weekend.

So far, I haven’t seen any cows bagging up, but a few of the younger ones are springing, so i suppose we could get some calves about any time. Not sure when they will start as we AI’d the heifers and everyone tells us that will make them calve earlier than normal and used Char bulls on the old cows and everyone tells us that that will make them calve a bit later. all i know is if it gets stormy I will just have to watch them closer, just in case…

Warmed up real nice this afternoon and hardly a breeze.

Fed this morning and left the team harnessed but loose to drink and eat. Went out this afternoon and worked the filly.
Again, put her in the middle and hooked them up to the chariot after a bit of ground driving. This time I tied her back with a halter rope on either side of her, to the older broke horses hames and then hooked the jockey straps between the bits. Had to readjust my lines a bit and really should have made them a bit different, in that my far left hand horse was quite a ways over, so by having the lines hooked correctly for my two on the tongue, it was a bit off, tho’ it worked. The far left horse just wanted to be lazy and hang back a bit, but then that was a good deal for when the young one in the middle wanted to jump ahead a bit. Biggest problem is getting Ron, the older gelding, to just walk. He wants to get right out and jog or trot and when I try to slow him up a bit he just leans on your hands. Voice is about all that will slow him down on a light rig like that. On my wagon I will take a dally on the uprights when he gets to going to hard and make him pull it with the lines and he is good to back off then. I do not want to go to a harsher bit. Face it, he’s just got a lot of energy and go and when I get his mate broke with him, they will be pulling son of a guns! From what I’ve read they would make a good lead team on 6 up as the weight of the lines would help to hold them back and they would get out and make the rest of the horses hustle to keep up. Anyway, by tying back to each horse with the halter ropes and the straps between from bit to bit, instead of from hame to bit, it is a little better, you’ve got a little more feel and there really was no jerking on each others mouths as I thought it might. Not sure the first trip a man would want to do it this way, but this filly is far enough a long that it worked nicely.

Chinks almost done. Pictures when I do…if I can get Gramma to pose or take photo’s…