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Made it out to California and back in one piece. Had great weather for the most part, but then, I like rain! Really only rained one day. Had a great set up, a great group of people running things, in the event and to hang out with. My buddy Mike took good care of me and so did his friends who are now mine. I rode his horse Maddy the first day I was contesting and she was lame the next so Robin Bond gave me her great horse Chappo for the day. Good? No, fantastic! Both of those horses won their respective divisions, so I rode two of the very best there and I’d say they had to be tops in that country for that work. Got to meet lot’s of friends I had made over the internet and new ones. It completely changed my mind about that country from the last trip. Of course, I didn’t have to drive thru’ LA and all them other over stocked highways either!!!!!!
I can not begin to describe how fantastic the whole experience was… I get a lump in my throat when I think of the kindness’s extended to me and how royally all of us out of town’ers were treated. Stupendous! Amazing! These and any other word can not even come close to how it was…. Muchas Gracias, amigo’s….come to my land, I will attempt to extend you the same courtesies and treatment!
Yesterday and warmer and not so windy today. Lot’s of ice turning soft this morning while I fed. Chance and Addy Bear rode along on the wagon. I used the new collars just to see how they would fit. they had them riveted together at the top! I guess some people just push them over the horses heads and if they fit i will also, but these were narrow, so I cut the strap holding the tops together under the buckle and unbuckled and put them on that way. Supposed to stay nice all week and that is good as i will be gone to California for the last part and Chance and the wimmen folk will have to take care of things around here…hope they do as good a job as I do! 😉 LOL
When I came home from Iowa I brought a brand new harness and two collars for Cindy for an Anniversary present….Heck, just the thing for a woman who has two young Halflingers to break to drive…I ain’t never had a new set of harness…well, she wasn’t satisfied with that wonderful gift so i had to take her car shopping yesterday…we came home with a 2011 Bright red Dodge Nitro….I’m calling him Red…and I drove him home and seeing as we’d had 5 inches anyway of good wet snow yesterday morning… and seeing as the blade man had not bladed it yet, we got to test out it’s snow driving capabilities and i got to say, he came thru’ like a charm,. Much better than poor ol’ Blue, her Saturn she traded in… by the way, if anyone is looking for a very nice car that gets great gas mileage… better call us and we will tell you where we traded. I am afraid that Red is going to demand more oats and hay than Blue ever did. Ol’ Blue sure was an easy keeping rascal and other than a penchant for running into deer , I fear he was moon blind as it was always at night, seems like, he was a dirty good booger….he had about 125,000 miles but they were good and easy miles as he just pretty much trotted into Sturgis every morning and trotted home at night. Not a lot of stop and go driving and she always kept him shod up good and had him to the vet for regular checkups….
Hope had called while we were in visiting with our people who are sending yearlings this spring , and said that the horses were all out. She got them corralled down south but didn’t shut any other gates, so when we got home we drove Red out and shut gates. we were plowing around in 2 wheel drive and getting along fine until I stopped on an incline to shut a gate and I had to grab 4 wheel drive to get started again. seeing as I had fresh powder on the road, we tested out his speed from a stop and handling on snowy roads and a circle thru’ the hay field while whipping and spurring… say… that Red booger has some speed and is awful sure footed!
This morning I fed with the tractor as I was going to move some snow and set more bales down for the team… didn’t need to move any snow, the ground has sucked all the moisture out of it and it is powder, sure gonn’a be fun when the wind picks up! While i was out and about i lured the horses back where they belong. we are headed in after bit to finish up the business we didn’t get done yesterday and then go watch the bronc riding tonight. there is one tonight and again tomorrow night and I am going to do my best to get to both of them! There just ain’t enough saddle bronc riding’s to go watch as far as I am concerned…
Jiggity jog….
Bob and I left New Hampton at 10 mountain time and got here at 9 this morning. Originally we had planned to stay over and drive back today but the weather was calling for freezing rain and this is our 34th anniversary, sooo…. we headed out…from the sounds of things it was a good decision. I let Bob drive about an hour while I snoozed a little and then I drove on home from Kadoka….when we got home I took a shower and got about an hour in and Bob slept in the chair.. he woke me at 11 and he headed for his home. We had a great time, got to meet a lovely lady who reads this blog, JJ and her husband and friends.. had a short but interesting visit. Sounds like they may stop in on their way to or coming from the Black hills in the future. Hope so, they seemed to be nice people…we had a great crowds at the shows and way too much fun, tho’ rod Nelson was really mean and nasty about the bargain I got on a new set of harness and collars for the team i got for Cindy for a anniversary present. I think he was just miffed because I got to them before he did. As I understand it his lovely bride would sure like a nice set of harness and collars like these, so, being unmanly, he just could not accept that fact that I got a good deal from a nice Amish man… and kept howling and groaning at what a poor bargain I had struck. Poor looser… in my book. But for all his faults, Rod did do a great job………for a Democrat! 🙂
Of course, Bob was wonderful and the crowds loved them both and tolerated me.. so all in all it was a successful two shows we put on and I heard they raised over $6000 for their Vets Memorial they are building. Sounds like they are already planning for next year!
Happy Anniversary to my lovely bride and best friend….
But supposed to get warmer as we head toward the weekend. Bob Peterman is driving down tomorrow and then on Friday we will head to New Hampton. Looks like the weather will be fine, tho’ a bit chilly, but after all, if is January…
Rapid City Stockshow starts this Friday. I will hook up with friends down there at some point. Can’t find out for sure about the bronc riding. they dropped the cutting this year, one of the events I always enjoyed watching.
Finished up some leather projects and cooked a beef heart. Cindy wouldn’t eat any with me so I ate my fill and cut the rest up and stuck it in some stuff to pickle it.
Well, I better go iron some shirts! 🙂
One of those days… I woke up crabby and it just didn’t get any better.
Cold with a little snowfall, maybe an inch or real fluffy powder…
Fed cows with the tractor so i could set more bales down. Stupid piece on the back broke and fell off somewhere, just as it has done before… Stupid 3 point arms come over and run into it and it breaks… probably I will find it tomorrow tho’ why I would give a damn is beyond me as I am going to have to make new stuff that actually works and doesn’t break!
I worked on entering checks for the past year. Man, we go thru’ a lot of money with not a lot to show for it…. pisses me off that them idiots on TV don’t think farmers and ranchers are consumers. Hell we probably buy as much or more than the average. Mostly food and fuel if you are entering my checks!
Worked on the stoopid fireplace insert. Poorest designed piece of junk ever as far as I can tell. When I got wood pellets the other day i looked at another insert form a different manufacturer for about a 1000 less than what Cindy paid for this piece of junk and it was made to actually be fairly easy to work on… if I had the money I’d go buy it and take this one back to the idiot that sold it to her and shove it someplace he wouldn’t like!
I finally got it working after seemingly tearing it all to pieces and putting it back together. We had been getting pellets lately from a local source and they worked for awhile but they must not be as good as the others as they plug it. So I’d like to take the left over bags and shove them some place into the guy who sold them to me also…..did i mention I hate to wrench? One of the reason’s I prefer teams and saddle horse. they either work, I fix them or shoot them, much simpler….
Then I worked on a cheap made piece of junk saddle a lady dropped off the other day. I understand most people can not afford a custom made saddle, but this piece of crap is so poorly put together about all it is good for is riding around in a circle. Poor leather, cheap synthetic wool and poorly made…I sure hope they don’t let anyone try to rope anything off from it….
But… on a brighter note, 32 years ago today we welcomed Fr Tyler into the world. And no, he wasn’t a Fr at that time, he had to wait a bit fore that….. I sure hope he’s praying for me…grrrrr…….
Oh, and we are about out of propane so we will get to pay that bill also……..
Cindy and I headed into the Hills yesterday and went to watch Gabe and Eli wrestle. They had some hard matches. Eli pinned on and was pointed on a couple. Gabe pinned one and out pointed one and was pointed on one and pinned on one. Make sense? 🙂 We were sure proud of them and how hard they worked at it…
In between matches I ran around and got some pellets for the wood stove and looked at a folding guitar for traveling. Not bad for the price and a real cool way that it works. I would like to see a little better made one, as far as the wood used and tonal qualities… be cool for flying and such.
Fr Tyler came later in the afternoon and visited and watched for awhile. 547 kids there wrestling, not to mention all the others who were there just watching and running around… Afterward’s Cindy and I went to Mass and then she and Fr Tyler and i went out for supper at an Italian restaurant. Food was okay, but heck for what it cost I could have eaten at Mickey D’s or the Kings about 3 or 4 times! I’m kind of a meat and potatoes guy or burrito’s or cold cut sandwich…
We got home about 9:30 and went to bed. I woke about midnight and couldn’t go back to sleep so took an itch pill as they make me drowsy and caught up on internet stuff… went back to bed and finally went to sleep and now I have been groggy all morning…Light snow falling and the wind is picking up. Chance fed cows yesterday and then he put out bean for them today while me and the dogs and team fed hay. supposed to get below zero by tomorrow morning and then slowly warm back up with a chance of some snow…
Just a breeze and up in the 40’s. Bart came and butchered a heifer for Hope and Chance this morning so I had fresh liver and onions for dinner. Just hauled the cows one bale yesterday and today. Looks like it ain’t going to last too long so I will have to feed more to them when it starts cooling off again. Cold is still kicking my butt. I wake up in the morning and feel pretty good and then it just starts to drag me down. I worked on bookwork, entering checks in the Quicken account, off and on today. did some leather work, and finally got the pellet stove to work. The auger was stuck evidently….
Cindy got her own email address and is trying to get hooked up to Facebook… the world shall never be the same! 🙂
The rural grade school kids all got to go skiing today. Chance took a day off work to take Gus. He and Bonnie and Jim Timmons all rode together. they get up there and they won’t let Gus ski with his school mates as he is 5 and has to be 6. But no one told Hope or Chance this when they signed him up. Chance was not pleased. he started out polite enough at first but then kind of had a fit. Some of the other local people there had smaller kids and Gus went along with them and learned and then just went to town skiing it sounds like. Heck, he’s got German, Swiss and Scandahoovian blood in him, ought to just take to it like a duck to water! All the boys did as did I, in my younger days. When Chance called Gus and PJ, Bonnies girl were passed and sleeping. sounds like they had fun!
Blowing across the prairie. Temps above freezing but hang on to your kite! Fed the cows and then Hope and kid’s drove with me up west in the pickup and picked up the mineral barrels. I dropped the clan off, then dropped the barrels off to the cows, came in and ate and read and interneted and did some leatherwork… hmmm, now what to do?
