April 14 - 30, 2006: No Guests

4/14/06 Friday

Gambler and I went out into the South trap to gather the few little pairs we had left behind the other day. One pair I need to bring in to feed, the mom is kinda run down and the other six I will trailer out to the middle of 7HL pasture.

I could only find three pair, I rode and rode but never found the rest.

After I got them in I went into the North trap where a bunch of our horses were and had been all winter. I cut the mares off from the rest to bring home for foaling next month. It was an easy thing to do, they are always ready to come home.

I went back out and cut out the 15 we are going to use the first few weeks and brought them in. After that I pushed all the extras out into 7HL. Now that was a tough job. They didn’t want to go out into the big pasture, they didn’t want 12,000 acres of fresh grass, they wanted to come to the corrals and eat year old hay and sweet feed. It took a bit of western riding and three tries to get them to go down the two track and out through the T Gates. Each time I had them within a bend or two of the gates when one would break and head back towards the H.Q.

Nate came in late in the day headed to town to get some supplies and he told me he had pushed the pairs I spent the morning looking for out into 7HL the other day. Well at least they are accounted for. Just have to go find the run down pair again.

It was really windy out there all day but it was a warm wind.

First night with no ice last night.

Charlie went to town today, get some clothes cleaned and get a town fix. Blue also went in later in the day.

4/15/06 Saturday

Blue, Charlie and I worked on corrals around the main barn. Got all the broken areas cleaned up and new panels closing it back into useable shape. It took all day but at least looks like some one cares now.

The calf we pulled isn’t doing well. It never got up to nurse its mom. The mother was so wild we couldn’t walk it over to her, and he was too weak to stand and follow her. We kept them in a small corral for two nights but they never bonded. I went down and gave the calf a bit of milk hoping to gets its strentgh up and make it hungry to it would get with its mom. so finally yesterday we had to bring the calf up to the barn and start it on a bottle.

4/16/06 Sunday

Charlie and Blue have been feeding the 18 working horses we have at the guest corral. They both have had a horse or two around over the years but I think they are pretty humbled when they are feeding a herd of them. These horses get pretty wild when the grain is being put out. I had been harping on them when I got them started feeding to keep you eyes open, stay on your toes. They kinda blah blahed me but it wasn’t long before the need for it was made clear. They haven’t been hurt but they have seen just how high and fast a horse can kick out at another. The savagery when one lunges after another with neck out flat and teeth bared.

It’s the more submissive horses that are the most dangerous at this time. They are following you close, as you fill one bucket and then another. The buckets are at least 20 feet apart so you have to move along fast and watch behind you as the subs then fight it out to see who is next higher on the order. One gets the bucket and scatters the rest away. Those fleeing that horse are more scared of him than they are of you. They will run over you to avoid a bite or a kick.

The calf is doing better now that it is getting some feed.

Today I did some mechanical work on the tractor and then fired it up. I laid out and dug the post holes for the new fence in front of my house. Late in the day Maggie stopped her work for the day and came out and helped me get the posts set in concrete.

A nice day for being out. hi 60 not much wind. Over night 22

Blue and Charlie went out to visit Nate at camp. They carried along all kinds of guns and spent the day shooting it up out there.

The more noise the better.

The wolves have been hanging about two miles south of the house and the main calving areas. They are hunting up another den in the same area they have been in the last two years.

4/17/06 Monday

Blue, Charlie and I spent the day getting the fence up. First we pulled small square woven wire across the posts and then did a three rail board on top of that. It looks ok.

That took all day to do just a 100 foot run.

It was a sweet day with a hi of 60 after a low of 19. A bit of wind late in the day.

4/23/06

The last week or so has been a busy one doing things around the H.Q. getting ready for our first guests. A lot of it was the usual yearly things, replacing boards in the boardwalk, getting the plumbing lines hooked back up and cleaning. There were a few extra things to do as well. The pump in the shower house needed replacing as did the canopy over the tables outside. Charlie was the driving force behind getting these things done. When he first got here I walked around with him and gave him a To Do list that if he’d gotten half of it finished I’d a been happy. He is one motivated man. Before he left here Thursday last he had cleared his list. It included all the above as well as things from fence mending to backhoe repair. Thanks to Charlie the place looks great and I had the least stressful start up in history.

Blue spent a lot of time peeling fence rails. He loves doing it. He takes his truck into the woodlot, turns on the radio and when he returns late in the day he has a nice load. The rails have been used to do some major repairs in the corrals.

Last weekend Charlie and I went to Albq. We picked up Brian from N.H. who’s come in to help ride horses for a week. We did the first of the season shopping, got a new water pump, got a backhoe part repaired.

The horse shoers came for two days and got all the workers shod. Brian, Nate and Nates dad Jessie have been riding three or four sets of horses a day since getting them ready for spring gather.

Rusty, Quentin and Coral have come back from the trainers in Az. The fella I have used the last couple years, Hollis, has quit riding green horses and now has his son in law do it who is the son of one of my neighbors here. The horses are handing well and riding well but each have a few physical issues I wasn’t happy with, cinch itch, hobble burns and the worst was a cut on Rustys hock the kid told me was a kick but it was clear as day it was a wire cut.

It is now Sunday and the first of our guests arrives today. We are ready, everything works and is in great shape, we have a load of work to do, and I’m excited for the new season.