Ft. Laramie

   My Mom came up for a short visit. So we took her for a little tour of our area. We went to Torrington for breakfast/lunch. Not much was open because of the Memorial Day weekend. We had some tasty Mexican food.
   Then we rambled over to Ft. Laramie. It was a great day for touring the fort. Not a lot of visitors yet. It has to be one of the best national parks I have been to. I highly recommend checking it out if you are ever in the area. So here's some pictures of the fort. Here's whats left on the hospital.

This shot is of the hospital from the backside.

The barracks.

Inside the barracks. I thought this was really cool. It really showed how these soldiers lived.

There wasn't alot of comfort for these guys. There are two writing desk's and a checkerboard, and a wood stove.

If you broke any rules you spent time in the guard house. It held 40 or more prisoners with no heat or light or furniture.

The Magazine where they kept the guns and big cannons. I have always liked the Gatling  gun.

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The oldest building in Wyoming was built in 1849. "Old Bedlam" it housed the single officers.

This my short tour of Ft. Laramie hope you enjoyed it. There was a lot more to see. It was a great way to spend the day.
   On a side note, the parks like this one that are trying to preserve the history of this great country are under funded. Some of them don't know if they will be able to stay open. But the Government can send billions and trillions of dollars over sea's to country's that never will repay us and aren't our friends. We need to help ourselves before we help other people. Until next time take care.

Sunday stills - Weeds and grasses

The first shot was taken in Montana last spring. The other two was take in my yard this week. Thanks for looking. Until next time take care.

Chinks are finished!!!

   Well I got my chinks finished the night be for a branding. I got the pattern from Cow Camp Saddlery. I got the DVD from them. It's really a great DVD. You got to watch the out takes. So with out further ado here they are.

Here a picture of them just finished.

Ken Cureton did the silver buckles for me. Great work!! I'm very happy with them.

I have a bunch of other project's to work on. Until next time take care.

Wordless Wednesday

Branding

   The ol' alarm clock went off at 4am this morning, I didn't roll these old creaking bones out of bed till 4:30am. I was at my bosses at 5:30am we caught and saddled our horses loaded them in the trailer on the road to the main HQ. We went and gathered the cows, sorted the calves off the cows. They use calf tables over there. We had three tables going. Branding, giving shots and casterating.
   I started out just giving shots but my boss showed me how to run the knife to casterate. Then I branded the rest of the day. I learned alot!! It was a really good day.
   My wife got home safe and sound. Really happy about that!! She went to California for her sister's graduation. Her sister just got her masters. Sharon was gone for 5 days so it was just me and the dogs. I missed my wife when she was gone! I'm really glad she got to go though. It was good for her to see family.
  Well thats whats been happening here. Until next time take care

Leather tools

  I just got my first Barry King tools!!! I got a 28oz maul, swivel knife and a #2 edger. Boy, are they nice! So much better than the Tandy tools I have. Nothing against Tandy tools, they work well for the price. They got me started and now its time to start upgrading tools. Its gonna be a slow upgrade though. Haha..

I got working on my room today and got a bunch of the cludder cleaned up. Im no carpenter but I built a little shelve and hung a peg board so now I'm a little more organized. It is nice not tripping over stuff.

I got it set up pretty nice I think. So it was time to get busy and start cutting more fringe on my chinks.

Well thats all I've got for today. Until next time take care.

Sunday stills- In the sky

  I went out the other evening to get a picture of the sunset and this is what I saw out the front door.

This picture was taken ove the roof of the old barn.

The loading chute.

That it for now. Take care until next time.

Chinks part 3

 My chinks one step closer to being finished! Check out the really cool silver buckles.

 

I guess the buckles don't show up to good here.

   The next step for me is to start cutting the fringe. I got one leg of fringe cut last night but I'm not gonna show that. Well OK I will next time.

Well thats about it. Till next time take cake.

Sunday stills - Looking high looking low

     This week on the Sunday Stills challenge is Looking High Looking Low. I just did looking high.  Here are my pictures.

  

       These pictures are taken with a point and shoot camera that has a broken screen. I can only see a 1/8 to a 1/4 of the screen. So they are strait out of the camera.

These are a couple windmills on the ranch. Until next time take care

Fencing 4-wheeler

    This is what happens when you get two guys rained in a shop. This is something we were talking about doing but the the two days of being rained in gave us the push we needed, and time needed. We have a lot of fencing to do and this creation should really help. This is the rack that was on the 4-wheeler. Sorry I don't have a picture of it on the wheeler.

 

   So we started out building this rack. We think it turned out pretty good. It is gonna be nice for hauling mineral and salt out to the cows.

 

     Then we got thinking and a little more planning and designing. This is the off-spring of that. We are getting the ultimate fencing rig put together.

 

     This little creation we built can carry 15-20 steel posts. We built it slanted so that gravity would help hold the posts in. It also narrows it up so there isn't as much hanging out.

      We did have the wire roll on the front off the wheeler and it made it hard to see around and the balance was all off. That much weight hanging on the front corner made it hard to steer as well. If we needed to unroll wire we had to drive backwards. Pain in the neck! So we came up with this gem to unroll wire. It just slides right in. Everything we built comes off really easy to, only thing that doesn't is the main frame that is solid built to the wheeler.

    This is the front box, a can of staples, a can of fence clips, two wire stretchers, bolt cutters and fence plyers.
   I took it out on its maiden voyage yesterday. It works great!! This machine can go places that you can't take a pick-up. Until next time take care.

Wordless Wednesday

Shopping trip

   Sharon and I went to the big town yesterday of Cheyenne. We went and did our monthly shopping. Cheyenne is about 2hrs away but it's a pretty easy drive. It was a really nice day, we took our time and just enjoyed being with each other. We stopped at an antique store on the down and wandered through it.  There was some cool stuff there but nothing that really made us go we need that. I did like a couple of the old wood stoves they had there. Wish we had a place to have one.
   We made it to probably 10 store's.......No kidding for real. Ok I'll start listing them. The first store was the AT&T store. Then Target, the Dollar store, 2 or 3 craftstores when your married to a quilter these are places you go. Murdock's for dogfood, Tandy leather, a used book store and Walmart. I went to Big 5 and Sports Authority looking for long johns. Then Sam's club for the grocery's. Then we had a super nice dinner at the Olive Garden. For a chain restaurant it is awesome. We have eaten there twice and had great service, really good food. It was a great way to end a really nice day. Then the drive home, it always seems to take longer.
  I would like to wish all the Moms out there a HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!

Until next time take care
 

Todays doing's

  This is how I have been starting my morning's the last couple weeks. Saddle a horse and ride out and check the calving heifers. Here Fancy the mare getting her breakfast before work.

Here's the cows coming to water. The building is an old house on the ranch. Probably an old homestead.

 I tried getting a picture of the steam rising off Fancy's back.  This is how a working horse should look sweaty but still ready to go. This little horse has got a lot of heart. She also has ground eating trot!

I would post more pictures but it takes forever and a day to upload them. So until next time take care.

Prairie landscapes

Here's some pictures of the prairie where I live. This is just some of the stuff I see everyday but I wanted to share.

The last picture is for fun. She's an old granny cow always first to the hay truck. Her facial expression  tells it all! Until next time take care.