New Years Eve

  Well we made it another year.  Remember when you were a kid and New Years was big deal? I remember sharing a few New Years Eve's with my grandparents. Grandma would make us hot cocoa and put real marshmellows in it. Gramp's would have a big fire in the fireplace. My brother and I would play games. We would watch the TV waiting for the big moment that would change the calendar. If I was a betting man back then I should have placed bets on how late my Grandpa would make it. I don't think he ever made it to midnight. Those were good times in a simpler time. I guess it was only simpler cause I was a kid.
  So what are your plans tonight? Sharon might have to work it depends on the roads and weather.  I'm for staying in and grabbing my girl and staying on the couch. Make of some drinks throw a movie on and spend the last hours of  2010 with the love of my life. Don't know if I won't pull my Gramp's trick and fall asleep before the striking of the bell.
  I really do have a blessed life in the last post I was kinda down. Sorry about that. I have a great place to learn ranching,  cows,  farming and mechanics. 
   Here's hoping everyone a safe and Happy New Year!!!!!!!

Life pt 3

   Here we go again. I was talking about this place being a 4-wheeler outfit. It seams like lots of outfits are going that way it. It just doesn't seam right to use a big powerful machine to move and sort animals. Use animals to work animals. It just sounds really stupid to hear some one say they were cowboying on a 4wheeler. Anybody can jump a on a wheeler, not everybody can get on a horse and do the job.
  I have been lucky when it comes to cowboying, I have had some really good people help me and be there to answer my question's. I have got to go to brandings and rope at them and seen how nice and easy good hands make the job. I have got to ride the forest permits with a couple guys also. Everytime I'm around or on a horse I learn something new. Being on a horse outfit would set my learning curve threw the roof. I just want to learn!! It's hard trying to teach myself all the stuff I feel I need to know. Reading books, watching movies and using the Internet is a big help but it would be so nice to have someone show me. Or someone I could just watch and get to use these skills everyday. I know I put alot of pressure on myself, But it is the passion I have for this life. I chose it or it chose me I 'm not sure. There is so much I don't know and am trying to learn. Cowboying isn't a job like some people think, It's a lifestyle. You live the job.
  Gosh, my mind is a whirl right now trying to get the all thoughts straight in my head to put to paper errrrrr um computer. I think I'm done for now. Maybe. Until next time take care

Life pt 2

   So where were we? Oh yea me rambling about my life and how I got where I am. Gettin the job in Dubois change the whole course of my life. I was realizing that there was a whole different life I could lead. The cowboy way of life was not dead. After spending 6-7 days a week horse back all summer I knew there was nothing else I wanted to do. I met some really good people that cowboy and they helped me so much. They helped get me on the right path. Thank you to them! They showed me tons of things.
  At the end of the summer I needed a job and got one on another dude outfit in AZ. Before I went to AZ I went back to CA to visit family and friends for 2weeks. Took Sharon out to dinner the second night I was back and knew I wanted to be with her. I asked her if she would want to visit me in AZ and see what happened. She moved with me to WY later. But thats a story for later.
  That job in AZ was a great job. I got to work on my roping there. We shoed all the horse's on the ranch ourselves, I could trim but never learned to shoe. So I learned to shoe. Even though my Dad is a shoer. So rode we ton there way more that the other ranch. It was cool to see how different places are run.
  After wintering in AZ Sharon moved with me to WY for the summer. That is when I really stared to learn more about cowboying. I day worked alittle for some ranches and got to pick their minds. The friends we made there were horse and ranch people. We stayed in Dubois for 2 winters and got married there. Then I got a ranch job in MT. The outfit I'm on now is a good place, good owner and people around. Its a 4wheeler outfit though. We use horse's very little here. It just tears me up to use a 4wheeler to chase cows around and move them. 4wheelers have a place but......they work great for fencing, running out real quick to check water.  I love the peace and quiet, the creak of a saddle, the soft foot falls in the sod, hearing the horse breath, him getting a drink. Not an engine, ripping up the ground leaving tracks everywhere. Well its that time I get to work again. Until next time take care

Life

  Life is an amazing journey. Take mine for exsample ,When i was a child all I wanted to be was a cowboy. Like most kids I suspect. My Dad was a mechanic on the MEE ranch out of King City I remember the mexican cowboys riding in to the ranch and them playing with their ropes. I was in awe of these men. Then we moved to McDermitt NV when my Pops got a job as a High school AG teacher. We lived in or around that area 4 years. So that was first to fourth grade for me. We a had a neighbor who buckaroo'd his whole life, Wish I could remember his name. He would catch us playing and tell us story's about cowboying as he rolled a smoke with one hand and talked with the other.  We thought that was a cool trick! Then my Pops students were all raised on ranches or around it so they would tell us story's. I remember going on to a camp in the Black Rock desert, that my Dads students were work on. Seeing the horses and cow's.  I thought this is what I'm gonna do. Then we moved back to California and there wasn't anybody around us that cowboyed mostly ran cows and farmed. Then being closer to towns and people and everything else. I lost the path I had chosen. As I got older I thought I wanted to live in the bright lights and busy city. I was trying to fill a hole in myself and didn't know it. I worked as a sandblaster/ painter for way to long. One of my neighbor's was a hunting guide and I went out with him hunting hog's. That slowly worked into a part time job guiding w/ him. I was slowly awaking to the fact I needed to be outside. I felt more comfertable on a ridge in the early morning light looking for pigs than anywhere else. Thank you Eldon for taking me in and teaching me outdoor skills. It was with Eldon that I learn to hunt and track. I shot my first deer with him. I was still living in town and working out of town on the road. I tried ridin bucking horses a preacher had a string of buckin horses all you had to do was listen to him preach and then ride as many as you wanted till dark. I got a couple covered, it was fun but I was in no way gonna be a bronc rider.  Jump ahead acouple years now. I was with a gal and it didn't work out after a couple years and I knew I needed to to some thing with my life. I was just running around in circles after we broke up. I decided I was gonna take the summer and get away from everything and everybody and think.
   So I made a list of dude ranches that I wanted to work at and started calling. I wanted to be in Wyoming or Montana. I got to the 3rd ranch on the list and got a job as a wrangler in Dubois Wyo.
  Well it time for me to go to work here. I'll finish this saga soon. So until next time take care
 

Foggy Day

   This was taken on Christmas Eve, just wanting to show how foggy it was. This was when the fog "lifted". Just feeding the girls here.   If you can see them in the 2nd Picture. All my pictures are taken with a broken camera, It's a Pentax Optio really spendy camera waterproof, dust proof and shock resistant. Then it met me..... So I try to take care of my gear and only buy the best I can afford. I cracked lcd in the camera so all I can see is half a screen. I had it in my pocket and we were working on the Steiger tractor. We are taking the engine out to replace a bearing. I'm not a mechanic or want to be but I want to learn how things work. So I'm leaning over the radiator and feel something in my pocket and think to myself "oh crap hope I didn't break it". Yep I did it still works just cant change the settings on it. So.....It still take good pictures. I was just rambling here. I'm not much of a writer so hang with me and hopefully it will get better. Until next time take care

The Dogs

    Here's the run down on the dogs or the "kids" as we call them.  Festus is the ol red dog I got him when he was 5 weeks old. Some gal was try to sell a couple pups in front of Farm Supply in Paso Robles Ca. She was askin $50 for a pup. I wasn't gonna pay for a dog.  I said I would take a pup and give him a good home and she said well ...... Then a friend who works there stop and vouched that I would take good care of him so she let me have to dog. He is a Redheeler with some bordercollie. When we were driving home I looked down at him and said well Festus what should we call you.  Festus stuck.
  Lotte is the Blueheeler Kelpie cross. She is Sharons first dog or my dog as of now. We got Lottte out of Worland Wyoming. Sharon wanted a dog so we went to look at some purebred Blue heelers and they just didn't have what we were looking for. Then the guy says I got these half breeds want to look at them? Sharon picked up Lotte and it was love at first sight. She put Lotte down and played with the other puppys, But Lotte kept climbing on her and trying to sleep. So that is how we ended up with Lotte who is now my dog. I took her acouple times to work with me now she's my dog. She like to  work and works well.

  Then there is Cord........... Where to start with him. Since I was taking Lotte to work with me and she wasn't listening to Sharon like she should. Sharon said she wanted a dog that I wouldn't steal?????Whatever. Haha So some friends raised Corgi's and were getting out of the Corgi business and Sharon really loves their dogs. So we got the last pup they raised. Sharon wanted a female but all they had was male so we took him. He is ...... I don't really know how to desiscribe him. Other than the funnest, bossy little guy around. Here's a picture of them on the cake truck.

Christmas Day

   Well its Christmas morning and all through the house. Not a creature is stirring except me and my coffee as my fingers fly across the keyboard. Well fly might be stretching it....Hunt and peck doesn't have the same ring.  I guess I should tell you some thing about myself so here goes...
    We live on cow/calf ranch in S.E. Montana. We are pretty remote here on the prairie, Its a 30 min drive to Baker in good weather. Over half of the road is gravel. It's 80 + miles to Miles City when we want to go do our monthly grocery shopping. Our closest neighbor is 2 1/2 mile away. The ranch sits in Fallon county and Carter county.
   When we talk to friends in California, they almost always ask are you bored living that far from everything? We just reply back, What is everything? We have books and movies. We get netflix and we have the internet. What more do we need? We get the paper and news off the computer so we stay sum what informed on what is going on in the world. Most of the time the news is so ..........Well you get the idea. We talk to each other and have really good conversations. We have solved the worlds problems many times over. We enjoy the little things that most people are to busy to notice. The sunrise, the way the colors play across the snow or grass as the sun cracks over the horizon. How many people in towns notice the trees starting to bud or the loss of their leaves? We try notice the little details all around us that make the whole picture.
    I'm gonna try to post here at least a couple times a week. I'll post more pictures of the area and my life.  So until next time take care.

Morning of Christmas Eve

  Well I got this thing started last night with ALOT of help from my wife. Thank you Sharon!! I'm still learning to use computers and are sloooooow with them.
  Well is a dark and foggy morning here. Gonna go start feeding the cows and calves soon. Means getting all bundled up in a ton of clothes.
 We are having a quiet Christmas here. It will just be the two of us and the dogs, Ok it never that quiet with them. We were gonna cook a turkey today but not knowing how long it gonna take to feed, we switched to T-bone's and baked potatoes with a salad. Something easy. Until next time take care.

Welcome to my Blog!

 This is gonna be just what the title say's it is........My ramblings about most everything. I get alot of time to think about life, nature, human relations, animals or just what ever pops in to my head. I hope to be entertaining at the very least maybe even thought provoking......Or maybe just a day log.

  So the run down on today was feeding cows and calves. A little swearing was thrown in for color, which I am trying to stop the swearing that is. Just not a fan of net wrap on the hay bales,  it freezes to the hay and is a really pain to pull off.  Here's a picture from last spring feeding cows.

  Well I'm getting tired looking at this screen and trying to figure this out how to work the blog deal. So until next time. Take care.