Ranch ropin

   We roped last night in an arena. It was nice in there, a little dusty but not bad. Be we were out of the wind! My boss brought over some steers for us to rope. There was 10 of us roping. It was really nice to met some new people. Getting to watch and learn. Got some good practice in. One of the guy's that was there is a horse trainer and does them mustang make overs. Him and his wife, both super horse handy and ropey. We cut a calf out and did some cutting work. Really cool to watch how smooth and fast a good cutting horse is. I tried cutting with Roller he did pretty good. It was the 5 or 6th time Ive riden him. So Im still really learning how he works and thinks.
   The trainer rode his horse with his arm's folded acrossed his chest for a couple minutes. I've heard about it and seen pictures but never live. It was really cool!! I learned alot just watching how he moved his body to guide the horse. Then we got to roping. We just had fun doing what we all love doing. Roller did pretty good roping. He has a few things that we need to work on. I'm really happy with him. Heres a picture of my new bit and rein chains my In-laws got for my Birthday. The reins are the one's I got on our honeymoon over two years ago at Capriola's in Elko. This is the first time they have ever been used, they have been wall hangers till I got a nice bit for them.

   I worked with Roller today. I used him on Friday to mover some cows around. I loaded him in the trailer Friday morning. The trailer had snow and some ice on the floor and he wasn't thrilled to load after saddling at HQ but he did. When we were done working I went to load and he really balked but did load. When I got him home I unloaded him then tried to reload him. Wasn't gonna happen. I cleaned out the trailer Saturday and threw some dirt in to give footing. I had to bribe him with grain to get in to go to the roping. After the roping he would'nt load. So we jumped another horse in then he hopped right in. I worked with him this afternoon to load him. I had to pull him in with a rope through the trailer. He put up a fight be I worked him through it. Got him in the trailer and out 6 times. I'll work on the trailering issue for awhile to make sure he's over it.
   I took him for a ride this afternoon and I worked on trying to ride with my body. Using leg and body cue's to turn and stop and go. It was the first time I've ever been connected with a horse like that. It felt really great. I need a lot of work on it. Roller seems to be understanding of me. We got walked and went slow. We went about 1 1/2 miles. It was cold and starting to spit snow. My fingers were numb when we got home. But dang it felt good to put what I learned last night to use. Here we are after the ride.

Clickin the pics makes em bigger
Until next time take care

Today's my Birthday

     Woke up to wind and blowing snow. It was pretty trashy this morning. Went and fed the cows. There were times when I couldn't see more than maybe 100 yards. Came home for lunch and got my work pickup stuck in a snow drift in the front yard. Spent almost an hour digging it out. Tried pulling it with my pickup but it wouldn't budge. Sharon texted me wanting to know what I was gonna do for lunch. So I went in the town and had a quick bite with her. Then came home and cleaned the sparkplugs on my work pickup. Then I worked on my trailers electric lights, My work truck has a 6 prong plug my trailer has a 7 prong so I needed adapt the wiring. Now my truck and trailer are working together. I now have brake and turn lights. So that was my day.

  I have been saving money for awhile for a nice horse bit. So I finely got one it got here on Tuesday. I'm pretty happy with it. So it's kinda a birthday present to myself. The great thing about buying good horse gear is that I will be able to pass it on to some deserving person when I'm to old and crippled to use it. The bit has Santa Barbara cheek piece and a modified frog mouth piece.

  I see how Roller likes it tomorrow. We will doing some cow work. WooHoo!! Then on Saturday we are gonna get together with some neighbors and friends and rope!!! Just practice and oh boy do I need that. Until next time take care

Great weekend

    We went to Sidney NE for a mini-vacation and go to Cabala's last weekend. We had a good time just relaxing and spending some time together.
  When we left it was kinda foggy when we left here and got worse as we got into Nebraska. So the drive there sucked but it cleared up. It turned into a nice day by the time we got to Sidney. Our hotel check in was at 3, we got there about noonish. So we went down town Sidney and looked around. The people there are really nice we went into a bunch of shops and just chatted. I bought a couple books at  the 'Book/Coffee Corner' nice little book shop.  We went to 'Grandma Jo's Cafe' for lunch. We recommended it nice service and good food. Gotta love small time America! If you go to Sidney support the down town area. It's kinda fell on hard times. There is tons of history there.
  We checked into the motel and I fell asleep while Sharon watched some TV. We went over to Cabala's and did our shopping. We had got some gift card for Christmas. We love the stuffed animals they have there.

Pretty cool Huh?

   After our shopping at Cabala's. We walked over to the 'Buffalo Point Steak house' had diner and a few adult beverages. hehe. The spa and heated pool put us over the top. Ready for bed!!!! Nice clear drive home. We stopped at 'Chimney Rock' and walked through the museum. We love seeing the history of this great country!

  We got home safe and relaxed. We were thinking we should try to do something like this a couple times a year. The dogs behaved themselves for the most part. It would be great to find a baby sitter for them but.....
Until next time take care

Sunday Stills - Textures

  This weeks subject is Textures. This subject just opens tons of doors. So here we go I got lots of pictures for this one.
Here's loose salt and mineral we put out of the cows.

My old dogs neck when he was napping.

The burn barrel grate.

A cinch I have been working on for almost 2 years, and a set of Romal reins that I got on our honeymoon that have never been used. Still waiting for a good bit to hang them on.

Well this was my idea of texture. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Remember clicking on them make em bigger.
  Until next time take care

Mini-Vacation

    Sharon and I and the "kids" are going to Sidney NE this weekend. We are going to Cabela's. We got gift cards there this Christmas and have some exchange's. We are leaving early Saturday morning its about a 3 hour drive. We decided to spend a little extra money on a motel that has a spa and pool. Its a pain in the rear find a place that takes "pets". Our dogs are better behaved than alot of kids.
   We were packing and getting ready to move back to Wyoming this time last year. So we didn't do anything for Valentines day or my Birthday. Im not worried about my B-day it just another day in the year. So we are wrapping both of them into this trip. We figure if we don't go before we start calving it wouldn't happen 'cause then it will be haying season.
  We are both looking forward to relaxing and taking it easy. There is a quilt shop in Sidney, Guess who was looking at that??? Not me, Hehe. I'm hoping there is a saddle shop there.

Sharon and I, In Mildred MT. A cool old ghost town.
Until next time take care

Hump day

  Well make it to the middle of this week. Here's the project we have been working on in the afternoons after feeding.

It's an old pivot for watering hay fields. We are taking it apart. The small rods under the big pipe is gonna be made into continuous fence panels. We will use the panels on the weining/catch trap. The big pipe will be used as gate/fence posts. We will find a use for most of the other scrap steel.
  Here's a girl enjoying breakfast. I love her coloring.

Clickin on pics makes em bigger.
Until next time take care

Monday the 13th

  Not to much happened here today. Feed cow's and broke ice this morning, you know the usual. This afternoon it warmed up and was nice to work outside. I finished the feed bunk we started a couple day's ago. I like to weld and I'm learning to fabricate aka build things.
   I took off my old sweatshirt and was wearing my fleece under it and should have taken the fleece off. I have welding splatter burns all over it. Oh well... kinda sucks. But the saying is don't wear something to work you cant afford to ruin.  Here's the finished feed bunk. Thats the saddle barn on the right and an old calving shed on the left.

This is gonna be nice because now we have 2 pens to keep horse's in and can feed them.

Until next time take care

Breaking Ice and Feeding

 Here's the sunrise this morning. Its kinda a fuzzy shot but the colors were just amazing. Better in real life.

Rolling out hay for the lady's.

I really like this gal she has the face of a character. She is also one of the few red cows in this pasture.

Now time to break ice, here's a rubber tire tank. They are great! They dont rust, and are pretty much indestructible.

Ice broke and the tool that does the dirty work, The axe. I didn't get the pitchfork that scoops the out out in the shot.

Hope you enjoyed the photo show. By the way today was cold. I don't think we got over 15 degrees. Clicking on the pics makes em bigger
Until next time take care

Sunday Stills- Liquids

   Liquids- I got some shots of water at our cow water tanks. It was about all I could find or think of.

Clicking on the pic's makes em bigger.
Until next time take care

Dad's Visit

   When we went to Dubois for Christmas I bought a horse. I  borrowed my Dads trailer to get Roller home. So he came down this weekend to pick up his trailer and spent some time visiting. Ol' Pops went with me to work today. It was a beautiful spring like day. It was nice to get to show him the ranch and part of what I do. We just fed cows today and checked water. Oh yeah it sure was nice to have someone get gates :)

  When we got home tonight we worked on putting a new trailer plug in the bed of my truck.

  I BBQ'd steak's and made baked tators and sauted some onions and mushrooms. Sharon made the salad. Very tasty dinner I must say.
 Until next time take care

Reading

    Im reading "Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer". Its about him climbing Mtn Everest. Its really good. I like story's like this one. It just crazy to climb that high and risk everything, but I understand also. I love true life adventure books. If you haven't read it I recomend it.

Until next time take care