wow – the seminar is here – starting tonight….

The weather has finally turned to Summer… things are dry and chapped lips here I come…! Everybody’s here, gathered with their rigs and their horses for the two weeks of the clinic duration. Most people started to pull in by Friday afternoon with the last one’s showing up today…. We have about 40 horses on the place right now and about 25 people, of which 20 ride…. most people have been here at one time or another so it’s always a big “Hello and good to see you again” – tonight is info night where we “meet and greet” and introduce everyone… then tomorrow we’ll start class at 9am. Can’t wait. We worked the cow horses again today and Scooter is right on the money – we should hit the first show the last weekend of the clinic… Ceena and Misty are doing great and even Stacy’s colts are bubbling right along… great friends, wonderful horses, beautiful weather and doing what I love doing the most…. what more do I want?! – My husband here would be the greatest and then life would be perfect…. Well, maybe one day he gets to come along and meet everyone out here…

I try to check in as often as I can… I don’t know how often that will be, as my days are rather full from this point on… but I’ll give my best…

It’s bear-ass cold, but Summer might be in sight…..

Well, yesterday morning I woke up to FROST! – and that in late June! Yuck. No wonder I was cold. I went to bed with wet hair and when I woke up in the middle of the night, cause I was so cold I thought my head was frozen to the pillow LOL. But thank goodness it didn’t last long and it actually started to warm up for the first time since I’ve been here and we had temps in the upper 70’s! So today we should actually have temps in the low 80’s and by the weekend it should be a scorching 90’s …. let’s hope!

 

 

 

 

 

We worked the cutting horses on the flag only as the cows were ready to be exchanged…. Then it was off to the pasture, fixing and checking fences and fixing water troughs etc

by the afternoon, Mt Baldy and Mt Edith were almost w/o snow again…. can you believe it, we once took a trailride up those mountains? That was fun, thought I am not all that eager to do it again. The deer flies were definitely taking the most fun out of it….

 

Skittles of course is where ever I go, so she was helping big time with our projects out in the cow pasture…

Also Lizzy, our first Boarder Collie we’ve had and Jean, Pat and Doreen’s new puppy is joining us and enjoying the drive up the hill….

in afternoon we started with our round pen project – the watering system. So we (the minion’s) don’t have to drag the big sprinkler and the big hose into the round pen and move it to water down the whole thing. So we try to ‘string’ black PVC hose along side it and set some sprinklers on the outside to cover the whole pen. Sofar we dug the trench around it and underneath the gates to lay the black pvc pipe… now we have to hook everything together and put in the sprinkler heads and hopefully we get to use it soon! However watering the round pen is not our concern right now – we are still hoping it will dry up enough to actually ride in it!

Happy New Week to y’all

Well, it’s still raining… I don’t think the locals have seen such a wet June in a LOOOONG time – neither have I. Well, that’s not quite true, we’ve had it wet in June in Florida, but I definitely haven’t seen it that cold. Tonight when I went up to ride after dinner, it was 47 out – YUCK! We have fresh snow on the Elkorn Mountains… In June for crying out loud! So today after riding the cow horses we gathered up the garbage etc and made a trip to Townsend. Pat and I had lunch at the local Bar (one of them) – the Mint and then took the garbage to the dump and went to get some commercial weed killers (part of my job description is weed killing) – then off to “Hahn’s”, the local “have-it-all” store … like a fence and feed store I guess…. so there we bought what we need to have for our round pen watering system… tomorrow I guess we’ll start digging drenches… mud or no mud. Pat’s on a mission… then after Hahn’s… it was going to the Barber for Pat and after a stop at the Grocery store I had a drink at the Mint (right next to the barber) to wait for Pat…. the afternoon passed way too quickly running around town, so we came home just in time for chores. Dodging the rain (AGAIN) we took care of the ponies (some got turned out, some got brought into the barn to get saddled and the others got fed and their runs got picked) – after dinner we met again at the barn yard to ride some more…. and now it’s already bedtime again… I can’t believe it’s been a week already since Patrick and I pulled in here – WOW! Time sure is flying when you’re having fun… so I wonder how fast it’ll go when the weather is nice and I am really enjoying myself??????

FINALLY!!! Pictures – hoooorrray!

remember the foggy day we’ve had ? Well, here it is, the blanket of fog…. doesn’t it look like snow?

we’re getting closer… here’s leaving Billings, MT – our last leg of our trip. Billings to Townsend

see… rainbow means RAIN! Isn’t that beautiful though?!

… this is home now for two months…. I’m staying in the trailer (using it as my bedroom) and use the bunkhouse as living area…. it’s a great little house actually. Separate bedroom, kitchen/living room and full bathroom…

so much for a fresh pair of jeans, huh!

 

 

 

talk about MUD! But strangely enough, it doesn’t seem to bother the horses much!

Scooter already done with his workout and enjoying his nice cooler – Misty is under saddle … see the ears???

Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful Dad’s out there!!!

Well, hopefully the rain period is dwindling down some…. it sure is muddy out there… but the sun is out and things seem lots brighter already… Scooter tried hard to hold the tough cows in the morning – he’s tried his little heart out, but they just ran him over… THAT didn’t sit well with him, so he tried to bite them… baaaaad Scooter ….. Misty worked great as a turnback horse and worked the flag really nice. So since it’s Sunday today, we won’t have too many little projects going (even though we should take advantage of a NICE day for a change), so we’ll ride a few more horses this afternoon….. Maybe a little pasture ride on one of the colts… we’ll see…. Tonight we’ll go up the canyon to see Karen and John and have a movie night with them… We’ll just wait to hear from Karen if the road isn’t too slick to get in and out!

TGIF – wow… already?

Can you tell that I can’t keep up? I actually was ready to try to post some pictures… but lo and behold, I had company from Tonya (Pat’s daughter-in-law, who lives with her husband Kevin, Pat’s son on the Ranch) and two of her wonderful kids. Sadie and Daniel came to show me one of the Border Collie puppies. As soon as they hit the porch of the bunkhouse, it started to pour down again – so much for the nice dry day we’ve had. Here I thought it finally could dry up again… but let me back up a bit…. yesterday we worked our cow horses in the morning and rode some 2 and 3 year olds…. can you see the trend? In the morning we ride, ride, ride – all morning long. Then the afternoon is busy with ranch stuff…. so sure enough we fixed fences in the cow pens, mowed with the bush hog, moved panels etc…. then we saddled up again to check fences out in the pasture…. Misty went on her first big mountain trail ride and did wonderful – and Skittles got to come along too – she’s not much into socializing with Lizzy and the new puppy “Jean”. She’d rather stay with us instead of venturing out too far….we saw lots of deer, but that was pretty much it. No bears though …. Then we came home, did chores and it was dinner time. Doreen invited me up for Prime Rib dinner – WOW. It was GREAT! Yummy. I really am missing Patrick’s cooking! So a warm meal was wonderful and then steak to top it off was heavenly. I think I have finished up all the ‘food’ I can eat w/o doing anything to, so now I have to get inventive or go shop. The drive into town is something I always put off, as I always got better stuff to do LOL – After dinner we were going to watch a movie, but got company from neighbors instead, so we ended up visiting with them.  The nights are still cold, but at least the days are warm, unless it rains….But according to the weather man, that should improve greatly by next Tuesday, when things are starting to get more summerly around here too…. one only can hope! Well, maybe I get to post pics one of these days…. as I started to say… I was getting ready to work on it and then got company… then I had a few phone calls and sure enough, when I was ready and by myself, it was pouring again…once it quit, Doreen picked me up to finish watching the video we have started the other day… yup, and now I sit here, getting ready to go to bed and call it a day…. I can’t believe that I’m in MT almost a week already! Unreal…. I hope the time’s flying by for Patrick just as quickly as it is for me… sure would be nice if we could do that together. I know how much he’d like to venture out and hike around here…. too bad the weather didn’t cooperate for him to do so this year…..

we made it!!!

Wow… see… as soon as we are here, my entries are getting sketchy again – well we arrived well early afternoon a couple of days ago.. actually I think it was Sunday afternoon. It was raining off and on and the runs where we put the horses up, were pretty muddy and slick. However that didn’t bother the horses and shortly after they looked plastered from head to hoof. Oh well… at least they seem to not care as much about it as we do – after taking care of the horses, we put away all the riding stuff in the barn and then went down to the campground to settle in in my summer home. The rain didn’t make it very easy, as it was slipping and sliding on the mud and soon my trailer/bedroom looked like the barn yard….Corey was laughing at our weak attempts to scrape the mud off or our boots and Skittles didn’t quite understand why she couldn’t sit on the leather seats in the truck, but had to stay on her doggie bed….Monday morning Patrick and I went for breakfast after doing chores… or the little chores we could do other than feeding the horses… I don’t think I’ve ever seen it quite that wet/muddy at this time of the year…. it’s cold, brisk and rainy – the sun’s trying to peek through the clouds, and as soon as that happens, it gets warm right away… so after a great breakfast at the “pony tracks” (it’s actually called the horse shoe cafe) we went to Helena to do laundry and buy groceries … we came back early afternoon and Patrick worked on the computer while I tried to help Pat with the sand that got delivered for the round pen and the arenas…. well as soon as he was done spreading the load in the round pen it started to thunder and lightening and heavy raindrops started to fall… Pat said not to worry, we weren’t in Florida, that the rains stops here again after a few minutes….. well half the night later…. ha, ha, ha- that is the heaviest downpour I’ve ever seen in Montana… it was cracking and lightening, pouring cats and dogs and like that wouldn’t be enough, started to hail – if it wouldn’t have been so cold and nasty it would have felt like a Florida Summer Rain! – so of course the afternoon/evening was pretty shod then…. so after a quick shower and a change of clothes we went to the Wyse’s for turkey dinner – wow… the BEST stuffing I have EVER had (sorry Mom) – that was really yummy. The whole dinner was great, but the stuffing topped everything. Anyhow, late that night, Stacy and her husband David pulled in with two colts I will be riding… Patrick and I didn’t even wake up – I guess we slept well. The next morning we woke them early, so they could help us slide around in the mud and take care of the horses LOL… after the chores, we went to town again to get some breakfast and went to the local feed store to say HI and buy some bags of horse feed for the horses. Then we saddled up, starting with the colts and then went on to work the cutting horses… the cows were pretty used up, so it was rather frustrating that fun, but I guess we still got some stuff done! The day passed too quickly and it was time again to get a shower and get ready for White Sulphur Springs to soak in the hot springs and then head for a juicy steak dinner at the local bar/steak house.  Yeah.. and this morning I already had to bring Patrick to the airport and he’s already called me, that he’s arrived home safely and all was well. He said to enjoy the cooler temps, as it was sticky hot in FL right now… I guess I haven’t had that for a while – I kinda miss it! Especially since I sit here, the board heaters on full blast and sweat pants and turtleneck, sipping coffee…. I shall try to check in on a regular basis… still wanting to upload the pics, but the camera is in the truck and … IT’s RAINING… so I won’t bother running out….

our last leg of the trip

Hello again… Patrick and I are on our last leg of the trip. We just left Billings and are heading west to Townsend our final destination. We had a wonderful stay overnight. The horse motel is the best… deep straw bedding for the horses in spacious stalls, Cory and Skittles happily shared the trailer and Patrick and I went in a close by motel. After putting the horses up we went to get a motel and then headed to town, shopping at the Big R was on the list and then a nice warm dinner! After having our tummies filled, Mr Sandman came and we just wanted to hit the pillows…. so we went back to check on the horses again, feeding more hay, taking care of Skittles and Corey and then it was bedtime for us. I don’t think we even made it half way through the movie before we snoozed. The time change (as little as it is) was effecting me and I was already wide away before 5am. After a decent breakfast in the motel, we loaded up on caffeine for the road and went to get the horses …. they too looked well rested and off we went to tackle our last day’s trip. It’s overcast and has been drizzling a bit here and there, but even though it’s only 64 out, it doesn’t feel uncomfortably cold. The mountains still got lots of snow on them, so the scenery is just beautiful (of course I miss some of it, cause I”m busy updating y’all!) Well, once I am settled I’m trying to load up some pictures… hopefully that’ll work …

leaving Mitchell, SD … Billings, MT tonight

Well, the Stanley Cup is over – the underdog (can there be an underdog in a final???) has won – we had a good night’s sleep and left the Motel at 4am to go and pick up Skittles, Cory and the horses. Everyone seemed to have rested fine and we decided to leave the blankets on the horses, as it was just barely reaching 50… even though the rain has stopped and it looks promising for a nice day ahead of us…. nice doesn’t mean WARM though, right? Anyhow, even if it gets warm – we’re driving, so I’m sure they are ok with a little windbreaker. The weather is clear and crisp and just beautiful. It’s 7.00am now and all the heavy fog we drove through has lifted. The cows are grazing, the calfs are playing with each other and the pheasants are flying low over the fields. Skittles is sleeping on the back seat and Cory is having a ‘healthy’ bird breakfast – Apples and Peanuts…. mmmmh. Well, not much change of scenery here – just the high plains – it’s pretty green, thanks to all the snow and the unusual amount of rain they’ve had, so it’s just like driving through a western movie set….

on the road again …

Hello everyone – we left Columbia, MO early this morning (around 4am) – and are now shortly before Kansas City. The horses travel well – they are still loading w/o problems and are looking forward to their loaded haybags in the trailer. The last nights overnight stay was a bit of a disappointment. We’ve been staying there for years and have seen the place gradually degenerating…. well it finally hit the point, where we won’t go back anymore…. oh well. I’m sure we’ll find another place to put our horses up in this area. The night before we stayed with friends in Georgetown, IN. Their hospitality is beyond words. The horses had nice clean stalls, with thick bedding, we had the whole lower floor of their house to ourselves, after we enjoyed a wonderful dinner amongst their huge family. They have a wedding planned for this weekend and still welcomed us to stay with them. How great is that?! Anyhow, we wish the couple to get married all the best for their future! Now we just entered Kansas City – it’s 6.30am – we should make it to Mitchell, South Dakota if all goes as planned. I’m sure I’ll be checking in again – maybe with some pictures, as tonight is the Stanley Cup finals and am sure Patrick will be glued to the TV ….