the reproduction saddle that is. It is setting in the yard, letting oil soak in. we used some stain on it to try and make it look older. It does, from a distance, but not so much, up close. Wish I had thought and bought some antique stain for it when I was in town the other day… oh well, I am sure it will be fine.
Kelvin and I have been riding every day, looking for sick calves, yearlings or cows or bulls. We doctored a yearling the other day for a sore foot and a bull. the bull needs it again. We go to help a neighbor vaccinate calves tomorrow.Then get ready for the Artist Ride on Wednesday, the last minute details. Weather has been warm but not too hot…
Further adventures…
Kelvin and I had to make a trip south to pick up some stirrups to fix for a man I sold them to some time back. the cleat in the bottom had come out on one. He sent them with a neighbor to the south so we ran down and picked them up, then came back and fixed them. Ran over to Delbert’s to borrow his long range vaccine gun, then took the fixed stirrups to Punkin’ Center and dropped them off, left the car to get the brakes worked on while we ate lunch, then back home and doctored a bull then saddled up and rode south and doctored a yearling and looked around for grass and problems. Now we will eat supper and then back to leatherwork. Got warmer, but breezy. Cold is still here. Anyone want it?
Me and Kelvin…
Saddled up this morning after working in the leather shop for awhile and we went for a nice ride.Let the cows into fresh pasture, tho’ not all that much extra feed there…. found a bull who needs more vaccine for fot rot…and just had a pretty nice ride. Neighbor called and we start fall works on calves next Tuesday…Kelvin will enjoy that as it’s a pretty big rough pasture to gather. I worked on the reproduction saddle and Kelvin helped me. Cold is hanging in there….but no hives for several days. Got a new little Heritage Arms Birds head grip pistol in town the other day so Cindy and Kelvin and I shot targets last night. Pretty nice little gun. Real nice day, not too hot and just a nice breeze. Supposed to warm back up now.
Posting may slow down
As I picked up Kelvin, my Danish friend from the airport last night. Y cold kicked back in yesterday evening as I went5 a bit short of sleep night before last. Was up until midnight watching and responding to a small grass fire with Delbert and the Truck from Red Owl. They had it out by the time we got there, but we stayed as they mopped up, kept up a drizzle and we got wet and came home. When I went to bed I was cold and couldn’t sleep, so moved into the other room so as not to disturb Cindy. Felt good yesterday morning for awhile and then got real sleepy so took a nap. Awoke rested and refreshed and felt better than I have for a long time. Good drugs! But by last night, I was running down. Did a lot of running in Rapid getting things we will need to take with us to the upcoming Artist Ride. Coughed a lot in the night and will need a nap at some point today. Laramie is supposed to come and shoe up the front feet on some horses this afternoon. Windy and cooler today. Now off to other project. But because of Kelvin being here and the Artist Ride, I may not post quite as often….
Must be the rosin weed….
Or Curlycup Gumweed if you prefer. Nasty little weed that even the grasshoppers won’t eat. Not sure what it’s good for, but it must be what is causing my allergies to kick in. Up last night and the night before, itching and scratching. Took some anti itching pills and eventually went back to sleep for awhile. This morning I got an appointment with a nice lady doctor in Sturgis and I think she is going to make it bearable. Got several different pills I will be (and am) taking and basically just more of them than I normally would.
This afternoon, Delbert dropped off his dart gun and some med for a foot sore bull. Fr Tyler and Cindy went with me to see me use it. Worked well. guess i will have to invest in one, tho’ I am sure Delbert would be willing to rent his for a reasonable fee.
Got a new tree in the other day and skeleton rigged it and been riding it on Charlie. It is full Quarter horse bars which means they are a bit wider and flatter at the front so as to fit them no to low withered horses. Charlie is going well, didn’t even try to buck the last couple ride. And got him to walk home after the horses which is quite a feat as gassy as he is.
I go pick up Kelvin, my Danish friend, tomorrow at the airport. Then we will be busy! Got Laramie coming to shoe horse on Wednesday and I am, sure we will be ahorseback every day after Kelvin gets here. He came early so as to get in on the Artist Ride. I think I will ride some colts while I have him here to go along for my colts to follow a broke horse. This new saddle, I worked on the cantle quite a bit and it really feels good. Talked to a tree maker about how the cantle on a bronc saddle is made and tried to mimic that and think I’ve got it pretty close. I’ve always been pretty happy with my ground seats, but wasn’t aware I could do this and make them feel so secure….cool! Supposed to get wind and cooler on Wednesday.Got an email with the picture that is supposed to go on the cover of the new Cd and man! It is way cool! Brenda has so much talent it’s scary!
Hmmmmm……
Guess I haven’t had much to blog about. Tate came out the other day and stayed a few days, working on the kitchen counters and stuff. Got the new top made for the bar, looks great. He rode with me up to Faith on Wednesday night and we watched the saddle bronc match. We got there early enough that he could buy some stuff at the lumber yard he was needing to do the work here. He left Thursday night, but not before he passed his cold onto me evidently. I had a gig that night and ended up getting home real late, or real early, depending on how you looked at it and I have been trying to recover ever since. Clouds, wind and lightning with a little rain came thru’ yesterday afternoon and evening. I listened to the fire radio and watched for fires. Had one just a bit south and west of here. By the time I got even little close, the rain had put it out and my battery in the radio had quit working. I tried to direct some people on the radio as to how to get to it, but don’t think they heard me. So I ran home and got the other battery. Correction, I called Cindy, she met me part way and brought the other battery and I watched some more and then came back to eat a bite. Kept listening and seemed like all the fires were covered and had plenty of help, but it was touch and go on a couple until they got some water tenders to them. Damp and cool here this morning. Supposed to be a good chance of rain. Sure hope we get some….still working on the reproduction saddle and got another tree yesterday with full QH bars. Too it out last night and checked it on Beav and it seems to fit better, but he is just too flat at the moment over the withers for much of any stye bars to fit real good, but I do think this is an improvement and looks like it would work pretty slick on some of these flatter backed colts..
Dang….
Last night I had some welts coming on in different area’s of my body, so I took some anti itch pills I had gotten from a Doctor. I am also taking Allegra once a day. The bumps were still there this morning, some reaction I can’t pin down I have been fighting on and off for about a month now, so I took my Allegra and a couple of them little anti itch pills. Wow! Not a good plan… couldn’t keep my eyes open. I took a nap until someone called and finally drug myself out and saddled up Charlie and ran the other horses in with the idea of going down around the yearlings before it got too hot. Bad plan, By the time I had unsaddled Charlie and saddled Beav, I was shot. so I unsaddled Beav and just laid around and tried to sleep and hopefully wake up. Got some phone calls as I was dozing… Finally went to work on the saddle and this evening felt awake enough to go re saddle Beav and went and found a yearling with a big bump on his brisket. Caught him and lanced it and gave him a big shot of
antibiotic. Now I have a fire built and some steaks thawed, waiting for Cindy and supper….
Boys went home
Hauled them down to Custer yesterday and then back to Rapid and went to the recording studio. chance and Hope came down and Chance came in and picked along on a couple of the songs. Got 10 done and I think we will go ahead and quit and build the CD’s… We went to Olive Garden afterwards and of course, i ate too much, but it was mostly salad so i am sure it wasn’t fattening! 😉
Lots cooler yesterday. Up in the 70’s. Warmer today, but not too bad. Kieth and Diane came out and had a guy and his wife here to look at his yearlings. They may make a deal to sell them to these folks. They live back in Iowa close to where Kieth used to live. They were going on to look at more cattle in Montana and Kieth and Diane went back to their ranch on the banks of the Big Muddy.
Help for the stranded
I worked on a saddle today. Then this afternoon just after Cindy got home, Chance called and they were stranded in Spearfish.
They had taken their pickup in to get the brakes on it fixed. Hope had lost all brakes and bumped into the gate awhile back and they finally were able to get it to town. Hope had to talk to a lady about a cake so she drove their Land Rover and Chance took the pickup, dropped it off at the brake fixing place and then a radiator hose or some other thing broke on the Rover. So they got it to the place that fixes that, but needed a ride home. Fr Tyler couldn’t get them as he had a meeting, Chances boss was nowhere close so I ran the car in and picked them up and took them out to their house. Got a good shower going out and when we got to their 3 miles of gumbo road, Chance said it would be alright. So I gassed it and slipped a bit but made it in. Dropped them off, visited for a minute and headed out. Slipped and slid back out to the black top and noticed there was a lot of gumbo packed into the rear wheel wells. Couldn’t find anything to clean it with, so took off, but saw smoke coming from a rear wheel. There were just enough rocks on the packed gumbo that it was cutting a groove into the rear passenger tire. So I jacked it up for room and used my blade knife and a part of a brake pad I found in the trunk. Cut my knuckles up, but finally got it clean. Got in and drove a little ways and noticed smoke coming for the other rear tire. So pulled over on an approach, seeing as I was on a main artery to the oil fields with all the oil field trash driving by at 75, jacked up the car, cleaned that wheel well off and then headed out. Just got home a minute ago. Got a lot of lightning off to the south east. Just got a shower here.
It is the start of the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. We are always told to watch out for bikes as they are hard to see, so I do, but I’ll tell you what, the way most of them idiots drive they ought to have a bounty on them!
I went to cross a 4 lane highway and here came a motorcycle from the opposite side. I was just going to turn into my lane, as your supposed to, and this idiot decided he didn’t need to obey traffic laws and just went across his lane and into mine. I swerved into the middle turning lane, to avoid him and he gave ME a dirty look. Should have took him out and there would have been one less asshole to deal with in this life! What kind of brains does it take to realize you are driving a much smaller vehicle and to watch out someone don’t run over your butt? And then they whine when someone runs into or over them. Idiots!
Me and the boys
Moved the squeeze chute back into the corral and then dug all the oily gravel out of the shed and replaced it with clean new gravel. There was extra left so we dumped it into the holes in the yard so now we can have new holes! Sure wish I could flatten them out better, but for some reason a crooked loader and my crooked eyes never do a very good job. And I don’t notice it until after we are all done.
While the boys took a nap after lunch I worked on making one of these foam trees from a Homestead fork to a slick fork, like a 3B or an old Vasilia. Then we went and the boys rode the little horses while I instructed them. Then Gabe rode Beaver and I rode Mijo and we went south and doctored a sick yearling. Cindy and Lige had baked potato’s and meatloaf about done. Now I am way too full, but still think I shall have some chocolate ice cream…. Cooler today but still plenty warm. Windy so it helped.
Dennisranch 