April 30, 2005 : No Guests

Saturday, April 30, 2005

Another week of beehive activity around here.

Brian from New Hampshire came in over the weekend to help Nate ride horses. The weather was less than perfect when he arrived, rain and snow all weekend and on into a bit of Monday. Didn’t amount to any accumulation but did make it raw and miserable.

Lesha came back to work over the weekend also, getting the cookhouse clean and making me a big plate of red enchiladas.

She helped Lyndsey oil saddles a couple days as well as trying her hand at a paintbrush.

I was all week with a hammer in my hand, this porch repair has become a full time job.

On Wednesday at dinner Lyndsey told the story of Brian feeding the miracle cow who we now call “Stand Up” instead of Mrs. Grape. She can get around well enough that we wanted to move her down to the lower lots of the shipping corrals where the stream flows through and the grass is good. Not knowing she was headed to a better place she didn’t want to go anywhere. All week Lyndsey and Nate have been telling how the cow doesn’t like them and is all snorty when they go to feed her. She never has acted that way with Maggie and I, just walks up and takes hay from our hand.

Well she didn’t like Brian much either and liked him hollering at her even less. She started chasing him around and Lyndsey said it was like a clown at a rodeo. Brian running with his hand on the cows forehead as she chased after him trying to jump in his back pocket. She chased him all the way through two large corrals into the third. He had been telling us how he had taken up running over the winter and I guess it was a good thing he was in shape. Oh how I wish I could have seen it first hand. The story was funny enough to make me choke on my dinner.

Brain and Nate have been riding four horses a day each for a couple hours each horse. Just trying to get their backs in shape and toughen up the cinch area. These horses have been out living the good life as wild horses for six months. Of 28 horses there was not a hump or buck in a single one. They rode off as if they had worked just the day before. As I say often, we sure have some great horses.

A couple of the mares are so close to foaling they seem ready to split their skin. I believe as soon as this big moon passes they will start. Last year we had them all born within 8 days of each other. I hope it goes that way this year.

Don from Florida came in on Thursday night to help with some last minute things. Over the weekend he and Brain hauled pine mulch from a dump the forest service made in the woods a few miles from here. They spread it on all our worn dirt paths and it sure looks great.

Friday it spat rain and snow off and on all day then just about chore time it came, white out blast of snow quickly plastering everything with a wet thick inch coating. Then the sun came out and it was gone by morning.

Now here on Sunday afternoon we are all done and waiting for our first crew to roll in. The camp looks good, horses are ready and so are we for another fun season to start.