Whirl wind weekend

   I posted that my Dad passed away last week. So we make a quick trip to Dubois. My cousin from Denver came up for my Uncle and Aunt's 44th anniversary. We had family around to help go through my Dad's stuff looking for important papers and to clean the house up. It was a rough time. Lots of hugs and some tears.
  My Dad liked to stay at home and really didn't get out much. Or so we thought. It seemed that every store we went to people said they will miss him dropping in and chatting for a couple minute or seeing him at the post office. A friend of ours from Dubois said one time that Dubois "Is the island of misfit toys". Kinda funny if you dont fit in anywhere else you probaly will fit in Dubois. I am so happy my Dad got to spend the last couple years of his life here in Wyoming. From his front window you looked out on the Wind River Mountains. He had a spotting scope he liked to look at the deer and elk on the mountain. Out his back door he looked out on the badlands. That was were he would take his walks and ride his horse.
  My Dad and I had a rough go for a bunch of years. I don't think of those years. They were wasted but  to me the sad part is the future. I will miss sharing and growing tighter with him. I think of all the things I wanted to do and share with him. Thats what make me sad. I wanted him to come help at one of our branding's and see more of what I love to do. I know he would have loved that. I really am very happy that we did get as close as we did. I will always cherish when he came out and helped me feed cows this year. I think I'm starting to get some much needed sleep now. I have been having a hard time sleeping.
  On our way home we hit wind out of Shoshoni 45mph breezes and it just went up from there. The Hwy 25 going to Wheatland was closed because winds were over 75mph. Now thats getting windy. When we got home we called my Uncle letting them know we were home safe. Find out that my cousin's house was being threated by the fires in Denver. They had a friend go over and get the computer and pictures and some other stuff. It looks like they will be safe but dang thats not what we needed to hear and think about.
  I'm glad to be back at work. It really helps keep the mind busy.
Sharon has been great though this whole deal. So I think I'll go give her a big hug and start grilling us some dinner now.
  Until next time take care
 

Bad Day

    My wife called me today when I was at work. She never has called me at work. She wasn't feeling well this morning so I thought maybe I needed to take her to the Doctor. When I answered the phone she was crying. She then told me that my Dad had passed away this morning. My Dad and my Uncle were working unloading some tools for my Dads shop. My Uncle looked over at my Dad and he just fell over. We think he had a heart attack.At least he went fast and no pain.
   My Dad just got back last night from visiting my brother and his family in California. He gave me a call to let me know he was home and had a good trip. We talked for 45 minute's about the trip and horses. He wanted to know how Roller was doing. I told him we were gonna go into the 2 rein soon then the spade bit. I explained how that was gonna work. He told me about his horse and the issue he was having with him. His horse is older and got a growth on the corner of his mouth. So his horse was not liking the bit he use's. I told him to get a hackamore, he said just started riding him in a mechanical hackamore. He said alot of his problems he had went away.
    I'm gonna miss him. We weren't always very close but the last few years we have really bonded. I think I needed to grow up alittle and he needed to back off and let me learn on my own. Im very thankful that we grew closer together. I would call him every Sunday night to check up on him. He came out here last spring and rotortilled the garden for us. I was gonna call him tonight or tomorrow and see if he would come down and do it again. Hoping to make it yearly deal. I am so glad he came down over my Birthday. I got to show him my life. What I really do, what the ranch looks like. The shop were we spend alot of time fixing stuff. How many cows we run. He went with me feeding. It was a great time to share with him. Lots of laughs. Here's a picture of the old man getting a gate for me.

I'm gonna hold tight to the good time's and memory's we shared. My Dad on the right and my Uncle.

We went up and changed the flag at the Burris cemetery. It's were my Grandparents on my Dad's side are buried, and now where he will now rest.

Rest in Peace Pop's. You will be missed.

Pulling a well

  Thursday we pulled a windmill. The leathers at the bottom of the well had gone bad so we pulled  160 feet of pipe out of the ground. Replaced the the bottom part of the well, It had rubbed and wore it's self out. Needed more than leathers. It was the first well I have ever pulled. We used the winch on the service truck and a couple pulley's. It really worked slick. I climbed to the top and set chains and the pulley there. I kept the pipes strait coming up. I didn't get any really good pictures of the action. Now the ol' girls got fresh water and more pasture.

 The bumper on the service truck is almost done this is what I have been working on. It needs a couple bars under the headlights and a few over the winch.

  We had Ranch Roping practice Friday night. I think things are starting to come together for me and my horse. Some of them steers were feeling pretty dadgum froggy! Lots of spring and bounce in them. I went over to a horse trainer yesterday, that ropes with us. He helped me so much with my horse! We went slow and worked on flexing and getting me to control his feet. I'm starting to feel every move the horse make's. I told Sharon last night its like riding in a boat on the ocean. Your feeling the waves thinking is this the movement I'm looking for???? Then a big wave throws you in the air and YOU know that was what you were looking for. I'm  going to catch my horse and go back to day for some more work. Until next time take care

Grilling tonight

    It was a really nice day. It was in the 60's felt just like a spring day. I was thinking it would be a great night to grill up some burgers. Sharon had the same idea just grill something different than burgers. She was wanting Brats so we boiled them in beer then grilled them with some veggie's.

We have red bell peppers with swiss cheese and a sprinkle of blue cheese, Zuccini's with Lawry's season salt, Green peppers and blue cheese. Normally we use Jalapeno's but we were out. The Brat's and fresh pineapple. We have never grilled pineapple before but is sure is darn tasty!!!

Sharon had got a lot of veggie's from the Bountiful Basket deal. I guess it's a co-op deal. She got some BokCho in the basket. I have had BokCho before and didn't like it but I like the way she made this. This was dinner tinight pretty dang easy  and tasty! Might top it off with a bag of popcorn later.

Until next time take care

Sunday

      It's the day of the stupid time change. Wish them would just leave time alone.
I bought a new laptop computer yesterday so I'm doing this blog on it. It wasn't really that spendy. I think it will do what I need. It's a Toshiba, I got it at Best Buy. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistle's but for what I do I think it will be just fine. So Sharon gets her computer back now she dont have to share anymore. :)
   I just kinda relaxed today. I finished reading a CJ Box book. Kinda puttered around the house. Then I took Roller out of a little ride. We worked on flexing his neck. He kinda gits stiff an puts a brace in there when I ask him to give. Working on getting him supple an soft.Im riding him in a hackamore now I had him in a bridle bit but I want a solid horse this then the two rein will be best for him. Then I roped a fence post and worked on sliding rope. He will plant his feet and not want to move. We worked on back strait and sliding rope. Got went slow and easy. I need lots of practice sliding rope I tend to lock my rope down. So this excercise really helps both of us.

Sliding rope, having him pull here.

  But this here is the crowning glory of the day!!!! Sharon made this quilt for me. I think its pretty dang cool errrr umm warm. Hehe. Sharon was in a quilt swap type of deal and all the block are made by other people they sent them to her. Sharon sent them a picture of me and said I was a ranch hand and loved the outdoors. So they were supposed to send a quilt block that related to that theme. Some people were really awesome and did a great job!! Some kinda missed the whole theme thing and did they're own deal. But what the heck It turned out really cool. Some of the blocks where differante sizes so Sharon had to made them fit. Sharon squared them of and made them the same size with bandana type fabric. I think my favorite block is the horse in the upper corner. The center block say's 'Don't fence me in' Pretty cool.

Click on the pics makes em bigger.  Until next time take care    

Casper

We came over to Casper to do our monthly shopping. I'm sitting in a yarn shop after sitting in a fabric-quilt shop. We did find a saddle shop so I guess its pay back. :) I bought a buckle to put on a bridle headstall. Its a beautiful day its. In the 60's. We roped last night. It was another great time with good folks. I'm learning tons! Every one that comes is super helpful if you run into a bind roping or with your horse. Roller has some issues with a few thing but its stuff that we will be able to work through. I really like him. He's got some spunk he's not a deadhead for sure. He's got lots of life, something I like. I like a horse that needs brakes than one that you have to pedal to keep going. I'm posting from my phone so there's no pics today. I don't know how to post them from my phone. Until next time take care

This week

   Been feeding cows in the mornings. In the afternoons been working in the shop building a bumper/grill guard for the service truck. We got a winch from an old truck at HQ. So we had to make it fit. Its coming along really good almost done with it. I'll get a picture of the finished deal. We can use the winch to pull water wells and fix windmills.
  Today we gathered up our replacement heifers and did some sorting of them and shipped some over the HQ, They brought some over here. We did a trade of sorts.
  My boss found a leak in one of the waterlines today. We have been looking for the leak for a couple months. We will be fixing the leak tomorrow. Sure will be nice to get the water pressure back where in needs to be. It will fill the water tanks so much faster.
   We will get to rope tomorrow night. Looking forward to that. Here's a picture of me at the last time we got together and roped. I'm in the black and Bryan is in the tan.

 Good times with good people.
Here's Cord with his favorite piece of snow.....

Until next time take care

Saddle room

   So I worked on the saddle room today and pretty much finished it. There are little things I'll want to tweeck later I'm sure. This is what it looked like yesterday. I loaded all this crap and some of it really was crap. Remember the packrats???? I loaded the pick-up and took it to the dump. I'm sure glad the ranch pick-up had a dump bed on it. :) It was a pretty full load.

 My wife Sharon get a picture of me in the almost finished saddle room.

  Here's the finished room. I put some shelves up and a couple other little things done. There are some hole's I still need to patch and cover up, but I'm pretty darn happy with the way the room turned out. I might build a cabinet to keep DR'ing stuff in. I now have a place to keep my shoeing stuff.  I still need to bring up the 55 gallon drum that is full of oats. Thats gonna be fun to move.

I've still got a lot of stuff in my room in the house to take out there. But that is some thing that I can do whenever. Well thats all I've got today. Until next time take care.  Click on the pic's makes bigger

The old barn

 I worked on the old barn today. I HATE working with electricity but........ I like having lights. So it put a switch in the Saddle room. It wasn't that hard but I needed to wrap my mind around it. That was probably the hardest part. Here's the outside of the saddle/gear room. I dont like the word tack, I have gear not tack. Sorry off on a tangent. The door way is maybe 5ish feet tall, I'm 6 foot. Let me tell you the door frame is SOLID. So the bumps on my head tell me. This is the north side of the barn.

This is the inside, it was worse than the picture shows. I hate pack rats nasty, dirty creatures. I'm wearing a dust cup when I'm in here cleaning. When its done it will be nice to have a place to put grain and other stuff and get it out of the garage.

Here's the south side of the barn.

Looking in the barn from the southside. There is a bunch of posts by the trough that I will pull out it will open that area up.

The main support beam. It's pretty dadgum stout. Love the way way to build stuff.

This part of the barn is kinda the middle. This is where I was thinking of putting the hitching rail. And knocking a doorway in the wall by the indian. Just to the right of the saddle racks. That would go into the saddle/gear room.

So that is the barn and the work that I need to do but I think it will be worth it. Well until next time take care
PS Clickin on pics em makes em bigger

One year!

   I have been working here for one year! Ok today its 366 day's, the leap year kinda messed that up. I started on March 1st. It doesn't seem like we have been here that long. Time is flying by!
   We have a really cool old barn that was here as part of the old homestead. I'm gonna gonna clean it up and use it for my horse's. There is a added on part that some one spray painted 'rope room' on the door. Im thinking that would make a great saddle and gear room. I need to clean it out. The pack rats have been living in there. It's nasty and smells bad. Im gonna get some before and after picture's of the whole deal.

Until next time take care