More shipping

Beautiful morning. Big ol’ moon throw’d off a lot of light, better than the pictures show. But it was still dark enough when we got to the back side we couldn’t see a cow in the dark. We sat until we could see and then started gathering. got them penned sorted the calves off, sexed them sorted a few replacement heifer calves off, loaded them and shipped them. We are going with ours tomorrow. This afternoon Chance and I rode out and pushed ours into a smaller pasture easier to gather and closer to the corrals. Wish us luck! Another good day!

Well….

We lost an old friend around here. Squirt, a little half horse. Chance found him dead in the corral this morning….

He wasn’t real pretty, or of great conformation, but he sure made a lot of little cowboys and cowgirls happy over the years….

He was born on this ranch, out of a little Shetland mare. His sire was a half Quarter horse, half Belgian, we had raised and had not gelded as quick as we should have. He and Topsy, the little mare, had a fling and 11 months later, here was this tiny little horse walking around with this little squirt of a horse following her.

Dusty, my nephew, started him when Squirt was 2 and Dusty was about 13. I lead Squirt afoot while Dusty rode him, after a blizzard, and we went thru’ and over quite a few snow drifts to get him comfortable with a rider on his back. Not much longer after that, if Dusty pointed him at a telephone pole Squirt would try to climb it, so to speak. Once Dusty came in soaking wet as he had decided to cross the water in a creek where he didn’t think it was too deep. It was…..

Another time, I jumped on Squirt bareback to run the horses in the corral from a small trap. For some reason he decided to buck and when his butt went up, my head went forward and the his head came up… our heads collided in mid air. Some say I am hard headed… but not as hard as Squirt was! I fell off like Artie Johnson used to when he was riding his trike on Laugh In, years ago.

Squirt taught my 3 sons to ride and then moved on to the neighbors kids and then on to Dusty’s son and then on to another set of kids. He came back here a few years ago to train on my grandkids and was doing a good job.

He was never bad about bucking, but would kick up, especially in his later years when he was asked to move at more than a trot. All in all, he was a good feller…

He will be missed.

Brrrr….

Thick frost on the windows this morning. Had ice out there this morning.

Well, the big news is… Chance and Hope are moving home. They are getting a trailer and going to set it up close to where my Grandfather had his house, north of our house. Hope andf the kids will be living with Cindy and I until they get it all set u and ready to go. Chance will be here also, when he isn’t working. He has a couple of different ways to go to for work and hasn’t made a decision yet, near as I can tell. so we have grandkids in the house. Wild times around here! I had a first this evening as I washed the hair on my grand daughter! Not sure if I have ever washed a females hair before, other than maybe a female dog at some time/Dang sure never a grand daughter! They are kind of like grandson’s, but different! this one was my best buddy when her Mom and Dad weren’t here, but now I have been thrown back to the reject pile unless we are playing or eating ice cream together! I got a feeling I am going to have lots of fun with her and her brothers in the future… I know from all the others who have been here since we’ve become grandparents that it’s, as Waddie Mitchel told me once, “A real cool gig!” Amen Waddie, it is at that!

Rain!

Woke up to a wet world this morning. Wonderful stuff. got a few flakes also today and some drizzle. Just what the doctor ordered. It is cool but it is supposed to warm back up in a few days. This will sure help the coughing livestock! Thanks God!

Here are a few shots Raymond and Mick got this weekend. I talked to a nice lady in Iowa the other day who told me she reads this blog often and really enjoys the photo’s so I will try a little harder to post more of them, more often. As always, clicking on the photo’s should make them larger…

Good times

My artist friends got here Saturday morning and we had a great time. Ran the horses in and they took photo’s while i worked with some horses. We went in to eat about noon and Chance and family showed up about then, so after dinner and a battery charge for Mick’s camera, we saddled up and went up north and moved some cows around thru’ the rocks on the rocky hill and then rode over to the main bunch and worked with them some while they took pictures. We sat around after Mass and had a great visit and then again Sunday morning. Ray had to get back to Minnesota and Mick had things to do also. They left a bit before noon and then Chance and Hope stuck around until after Cindy got home from work.

Real nice weather this weekend. Got almost hot on Saturday and no real wind and then cooler on Sunday. Cool and cloudy today. Cindy and I ran down to Punkin Center and got some lumber and ate at the cafe. I worked on a saddle a bit this morning and started work on a set of buck bed for he grandkids to go in the guest room this afternoon.

Fun

I worked on leather yesterday until Cindy got home and then we ran up to spearfish, got a load of pellets for the stove and then had supper with Paul Larson. Afterwords we went over to the Heritage Center and took in the monthly show. Daron Little and Trinity Seely. Great show! Both did an excellent job. After the show we and some others we knew all went to Perkins for pie and coffee and other refreshments. Had a great time. If you get a chance to see Daron or Trinity, don’t pass it up!

This morning I hooked on to the trailer and ran up to hope and Chances and picked up the horses and Chances saddle and gear. Seems like the day kind of got away from me. Still tired from the late night and I don’t know how Cindy did it today. Said she only got a couple hours of sleep and when she got home she had to sort all the stuff people ordered at her Party Lite party which was setting on the steps.

Got a couple artist friends coming out tomorrow to spend the weekend and try and get some pictures and visit. Should be fun!

Wind finally died down and was real nice today. Supposed to be nice this weekend and a chance of rain/snow first part of next week.

WIN….DYYYY!

Man, the wind blew today. Ain’t supposed to go down until tomorrow evening. Maybe it was from all the hot air getting blown around during the debates last night!

Worked on leather this morning and then ran down to Punkin center, paid a fuel bill and got a couple tires for the pickup. Picked up some wormer for Jake and Pip and ate then got a haircut.

Worked on leather this afternoon and got a set of tap’s done..I guess my feet will stay warm when I have to ride in the cold! 🙂

Warm

Got up over 70 today. Neighbor lady, Tonya, brought over some small cheap saddlebags she had bought that had got torn apart and we got them all sewed back together. Then this afternoon Cindy helped me and we wormed all the older and thinner horses. I kept Pip and Jake in and will worm them every day with this wormer and then give them a different kind on Friday. Both of them are thin and can’t seem to get or keep weight on. Also trimmed Tank’s crooked hoof. Looks a lot better now. Then I worked him a bit. I should saddle his snorty little butt up and go to riding him. Wish I had a young person who wanted to learn to train horses. I’d hire them for a month and we’d work horses all month. Be a good deal for them and me…

I made a new page and put all the stories behind the songs on there, so if you missed any or are just getting a CD and want to know about the stories behind the songs, check it out. It’s at the top of the page and titled “Songs”.

I am always amazed when I find someone new who reads this blog, but does not comment. You’d think they were worried I’d bit them or something! 🙂

I have gotten several checks and letters in the mail from people who want one of the new CD’s and just send me a letter with a note inside. Thanks folks. I hope you enjoy them!

Songs/stories Wet Sortin’

Well, here we are to the last one.

This is all totally true….. 🙂 ‘Cept for the parts Ken made up to add some punch. Ken Cook got cheated on the credits of this one, as I overlooked adding him to the credits when we printed off the packaging. Sorry Ken! I had written it as a poem and took it to his place and we worked on it. He comes up with such descriptive things, like, “Sure hope my socks can swim!”

Now, we all know socks can’t swim ( must have never learned when they was little fellers!) but it does paint a great picture.

We kept going thru’ it with Ken adding suggestions. I almost left it as a poem, but decided to add a quick tune and some tell me it is the best song on the CD…

We had trailed some pairs for a neighbor this spring and we had to travel one of the main highways to the oilfields in North Dakota, so by the time we got off the highway we sure were happy. And just as I say in the song, when we got them all thru’ the gate, man oh man did it go to blowin’, rainin’ and some small hail! When it finally eased up a bit we headed them up to a knob to pair them out and then the lightning got a lot closer, the wind picked back up and our horses wouldn’t face into it, so we sat on the downstream side of the herd, horses butt’s facing the herd and allowed pairs to go between us, side passing to get out of their way or stop one that wasn’t right. Every once in awhile a cow would grab a calf and head out, but they weren’t a pair so someone would jump out in the deepening mud and bring them back. One neighbor, Lyle, mentioned that the big boss had almost got hit by lightning twice before, but hadn’t gotten hit so he wondered if we should stay away from him or ride real close! Wildest deal I’ve ever been involved in. But… it had been dry so when we headed back to the trailers we were all grinning at the moisture.

I have never gotten so wet so fast other than jumping into a big waterhole. Water ran down my legs and filled my boots to over flowing in just a matter of minutes. Some of us were shivering by the time we got back to the outfit and we still had to go get another so as to haul everyone. Recently I posted pictures of shipping some red calves. Same bunch of cattle as in the song. We sure didn’t have to worry about getting wet when we shipped them, worse the luck!

So this concludes the songs and the stories behind them. Hope you’ve enjoyed it!