Sunday already

Well this has been a exciting week, for me anyway, I've decided to stay on here at the Silverado, the weather is far much better than Fl., also less bugs and most of all no mosquitos, Belle is excited too. I spotted a old camper from the fifties in the back of a trucking co. in Douglas and it turned out to be 4 sale, a steal at $300, well its mine now, all I have to do is get it moved here, its a little to big to move it with my Isuzu, 30' long, tomorrow I'm going to see If I can get someone to bring it here. Its very solid but needs work, the fun kind tho, new floor covering and lots of painting on the inside, it should be a fun project, the kind I like, must keep busy you know.

                         I know this kind of living isn't for everyone but it fits me to a tee, I love this old stuff, always have, my daughter Roxanne has given me some great ideas on how to do the interior, the stove is going and a countertop one will replace it also a breakfast bar with stools is going on the blank wall across from the kitchen counter, great idea Rox, thanks. I know it doesn't look like much now but wait till its done, OH BOY I can't wait.

               Well the sun just went down and I guess it ends another day here on the ranch, tomorrow a new one starts all over again, nite all.

What used to be

Boy in its day this was a place was jumpin, this is a poster Belle gave to me on how it was here 20 years ago, as you can see there was alot going on, I would have liked to have seen it then, but sad to say all good things must end, their just memorys now, too bad, but its still a great place and I love it here.

Ole blue eye's

Have you ever seen a horse with blue eye's,  I never did but we have one here and what a beauty he is, his name is Shoe Fly pie, not the name I'd pick out for him but I guess its OK, now if I was ever to own a horse, this would be the one. He's one of the only three stallions that Belle has, he's the quiet one the other two are friendly but very rammie, if you know what I mean, Shoe Fly Pie is laid back, the other two are always running and chasing the ladies, especally Yehtahay, that's Indian for good morning, You have to keep him with a mare all the time, cause if you don't he'll jump or bust thru any fence to get to one, whata guy!!Also he has have a new one every month or so cause he tires of the same one all the time, what can I say, typical man and here he is below with his new girl friend, he's the one with the white spot on his back.

                I must do something with Belle's stagecoach, its very nice but hasn't been used in years, I have to get it under cover somehow, the only problem is its so high, it won't fit in any of the out buildings, thank God its very dry here or it would have gone to hell a long time ago!!              

Arizona sunset

Very windy today, feeding the horse's was no fun, hay kept blowing away, had to feed them again this afternoon, most of the hay I put out this morning ended up in Utah. Tomorrow is going to be musical horse day, to hard to get them to follow me today with the wind and all, I've been making new corrals for them so they can't get out so easily, hopefully the wind will die down tonight. The sunset was great this evening, God I never knew horse's were so inquisitive, I'm trying to get a photo of the sunset and they had to check out my camera, any time I'm working around them they have to watch my every move and then check out what I've done. Night all.

Feeding the animals, what fun

Belle wanted to snap some pictures of me feeding the amimals, so here's the old ranch hand from the Rio Grand, I was going to play musical horse's today but its Sunday and I told Belle I want to go to Serria Vista to the homedepot, besides its my day of rest, as you all know I love Sunday's, time to just enjoy the day, happy Sunday all.

Belle was out with me today

Sorry about my last post, there's a photo at the end of God only knows of what, the inside of the camper but I didn't take it and how it got there I have know idea, anyway I tried to get rid of it but it won't go away, so I guess we're stuck with it, photo's I found out are hard to delete after they are posted.  Any how I never did find out how the horse's got out last night, its still a mystery, fence looks good all around and from now on I'm going to make sure the pretzels are not going to fall off the shelf, I don't need another episode like that, my heart can't take to many of those. Belle was out with me today she wants to move some of the horse's around and the donkeys too, this should be fun, she says's they get boared if they stay in one place to long and get antsy and try and break out, OK tomorrow should be a fun day playing musical horse's, gee I can't wait.

The brake in

Lots went on last night, first of all I just finished cooking supper and sat down at the edge of my bed, I have a little fold up table I use sometimes, to eat on then something caught my eye out the window to my left, its 5 horse's at the gator,oh no, not again so soon, shit, their eating some hay that is left over from feeding,when I got done feeding the crew this morning I decided to close the gate to the hay so if any horse's got out they couldn't get to it, I found out that if they eat enough its harder to get them to follow you with hay if their full already, now I'm glad I did, I'm not going to let my supper get cold and their all right outside my door so I go ahead and eat. After I eat I went out and they all just look at me, I didn't want to scare them away by starting the gator so I walked up to the hay, got a flake, a flake is part of a bale, when you cut the 3 strings that hold it together the bale pops open like a accordian, then you can take small sections off, which I do and I go back down to my camper, by the way its getting dark now its 6:00, no daylight saving in Arizona, its the only state that does not change the time, it stays the same all year round, I like this! The horse's see me with the hay and come rite to me, I leed them over to the fence, its only 20 feet from my camper and through the hay over, open the gate and in they go, this is getting easyier all the time. Tomorrow I must find out where the are getting out.

              I hope the rest of the night goes off without a hitch, WRONG, no TV here so I read in the evenings till around 8 or so and then its sleep time. I have a little snack of pretzels and sweet tea read a little more than I put the pretzels up, drink the rest of my tea, turn off the light and prepair to go to sleep, I lay on my side facing the front window so I can just lay there and look out awhile, the stars are usually out but tonight the moon is out so its fairly light out, I look around a bit and then close my eye's, but I here a noise, its loud, fear sets in, did I dream it? NO there it goes again, a scraping sound, I reach over and put my hand on my trusty 12 GA shotgun, I keep it right there on the edge of my bed, loaded and ready, all I have to do is pull the hammer back and fire away. now comes the really scarey part, CRASH BANG really loud someone or something just kicked the door to my camper in, my back is to the door and I'm still laying on my side, so I spin around with my shotgun and I'm ready to blow what ever it is away!!   Nothings there, no door kicked in, no one standing over me with a huge knife ready to hack me into little pieces, no monster ready to rip me limb from limb, nothing? I pull the curtin up to the left of me, half expecting to see something, there's the gator, nothing around it,everything looks ok on that side, so I scoot over to the right window at that foot of my bed, lift the curtin, there's the horse's on the otherside of the fence, no problem there, so I put my foot down to get up and it hits guess what, PRETZELS, yes the damm bag of pretzels fell off the shelf, hit the counter and then the floor, the first sound I herd was them leaning over just starting to go,that was the scrapping sound, I'm gunna tell you right now when them pretzels hit the counter and floor it sure sounded like the door being kicked in to me, ROLD GOLD just about gave me heart failure.

It happened again today

The days are getting colder, let me rephrase that, there getting chillier, got down to 50 last night and only hit 65 today, but it is the middle of October so I guess we can expect it to get cooler, anyway I got up at 6:30 and sat at my table with my coffee and turned the old PC on, was waiting for it to warm up and all of a sudden a horse walked by my window, UT OH that ain't right, so outside I go and OMG there are horse's everywhere, at least 4 up at the hay stack and 5 more just roaming around, holy shit, this is a lot worse then the other day. Plus big boy is out too, that's the Clydesdale's name, the others I'm not to afraid of but big boy is a different story, he's huge, I mean really big, his hooves are as big as dinner plates and he stands a alot taller than me, a whole lot, well I got to do something, so out I go, first thing is to get the gator and some hay and see if they will follow me, the ones up at the hay pile follow me back to their corral and in they go, so far so good, go back and get more hay, big boy is still up there eating so I leave him alone and stack some more hay in the back of the gator and head off to round up the other 5, it takes awhile but I get them all to follow me to their corral, had a little problem getting them all in but finally they got in, so now all that's left is big boy, I never got close to him before and he was having a good'ol time eating away, well here goes caution to the wind again and I amble up to him with some hay in my hand, he just keeps right on eating, now I see this is going to be a problem because there is plenty of hay right in front of him, so why take what I'm holding, I think about getting a rope and trying to get it around his head like I did with the other one the other day but God this is a totally different story, well I got to do something besides standing there looking at him so I turn around and start to walk over to the shed for my rope, and guess what, he is walking right behind me, I still have some hay in my hand and he's trying to take it, no problem I say its yours and hold it out to him, very gently he takes it, so now what,we have about 100 YDS to his corral and I have no more hey right there, so I start walking towards it anyway and he follows, as soon as we get close he See's the others in there eating and breaks into a gallop, I thought he was going to crash thru the fence to get in but he stopped just before and I opened the gate and in he went just as nice as you please, guess what, I'm not afraid of him anymore, he's just big that's all.

The old cow hand

Where did the week go, not too much to talk about, the nights and days are getting cooler so I guess its fall here too, no turning of the leaves tho. Yesterday I had my first real adventure with a horse, one of the biggest ones excluding the Clydesdale, he's definitely the king of the hill, no one mess's with him, not even me and you all know how tough I am. Well I came back from town and was going to feed everyone, so I headed up where we keep the hay and to my surprise there was this huge black and gray horse up there eating away, holy shit how did he get out and up there, the hay sits on a large flat bed trailer, he had broken one of the bales open and was going to town eating it, now what am I supposed to do? I know nothing about horses, well very little anyhow, they don't eat meat so I guess I'm safe there, I wonder if he's friendly, I through caution to the wind and approach him, I get about 3 feet away and he moves away, I keep walking towards him but he keeps that 3 foot between us, but he won't leave the hay, so now we're playing ring around the rosie, the rosie being the trailer with the hay, now what? I go find a piece of rope and amble over to him again, same thing, he moves away, this I see could go on all day. I clime up on the trailer so now he can't walk away, cause if he does he has to leave the hay, something he's not about to do, I make a noose in the rope, grab a hand full of hay and hold it out to him, he finely comes over and just as nice as you please lets me put the noose over his head, WOW now I'm not only a cow hand I'm a house trainer to boot, whoopee.

                                           I walk him back to the coral open the gate and led him in, but this is not the end of the story, while I'm taking the rope off one of the other horse's bolts thru the open gate, oh shit again, now there's another one on the loose, I run over and shut the gate, something I should have done in the first place, the other one makes a bee line to the hay pile, now all the other horse's and donkeys are winning and caring on something awful, they want to get out and to the hay pile too, now I have to feed them or they are going to stampede or whatever they do. Well the hell with the one that's out at least I know he's not going to leave the hay any time soon, so I get the Gator backed up to the hay and start loading it on, I finish loading up a pile and start to go down to the coral so I can feed these turkeys and guess who's following right behind me, its mister I want to be free, low and behold there is truly a God in heaven, I get to the coral, tose in some of the hay, open the gate and she strolls right in, oh thank you lord. How the first one got out is still a mystery, cause I checked the fence line and didn't see any openings, OH well its all in a day's work

Happy Sunday everyone

Well we had a small storm blow thru, it only lasted about a hour, nothing to speak of really but it did show me where to go looking for the gold, wasn't a big rainbow but big enough, I have a good idea where it ended so today I'm going to look for that elusive pot of gold, wish me luck everyone, If I find it I promise to share.
       PS, In my last post my daughter didn't know what scratch was, so to all you city slickers, a bag of scratch is bag of chicken food.

Friday already and the month is half shot

You see why ya gotta love this place, here come my two buddies out to play with me and the donkeys, the parrot and the goose are the best of friends and go everywhere together, sassy the parrot can fly when she wants to but prefers to walk with the goose and she talks up a storm, as soon as she sees you she says ( do you want to play ) what a hoot she is, not afraid of anything, walks on the ground with the donkeys, absolutly no fear. she will eat out of your hand, but try and pet her and she bite's and hard too, I found that out the first day, the donkeys repect her, as she will latch onto a ear and doesn't let go, its so funny, donkeys mindful of a parrot.

                   Talking of donkeys, they are so smart and learn fast, yesterday I came home with some things from the store, milk, bread and the like, also bought some scratch for the geese, chickins, peacock, pegions and what ever else there is around, too numerous to mention I might add, I always feed them too much so I chip in on buying the scratch, well I took the scratch out of the car and placed it in the back of the gator and then brought the rest of the stuff into my camper to put away, I just got in the door when I herd a noise outside, one of the donkeys pulled the bag of scratch off the gator ( witch weighs 40 LBs I might add ) and thru it on the ground, they are very courious animals, so out I went and picked up the bag and put it back in the gator, as fast as lighting that donkey grabbed the bag and through it back on the ground, now I'm mad and yelled and shoe her away, pickup the bag and back in the gator it goes, I stand there a minute to see if she is going back for the scratch, but she seams not to be the least bit interested in it, not even looking in my direction, so I head back towards the camper, as soon as I'm inside bang there goes the bag on the ground again, then it dawns on me she's having fun and I'm not, so I left the bag there untill I got things put away and then went out and picked up the bag, put it in the gator and took off, HAHA donkey, OH the life of a ranch hand, I love it.                  

Trip to Tuscan

Yesterday was Sunday, my favorite day of the week, time to relax, so I decided to take a trip to Tuscan, its ninety miles from here and takes about 2 Hrs, Sunday is the best day to go as traffic should be lighter and I don't have to deal with all the impatient people who leave late for work every morning and then have rush to get there on time.

                         The first town I go thru is Bisbee and its only 11 miles west of Belle's but I haven't had a chance to check it out yet as it is smaller than Douglas, which is 11 miles east of Belle's but Douglas is where the Walmart is, sad isn't it, how Walmart has taken over what town we go shopping at. Bisbee does have a food store and Burger King but for any real shopping I have to go to Douglas, anyway Bisbee is very quaint, clean town, lots of restaurants, antique and craft shops, founded in the late 1800's it is built on a hill side, the streets are narrow and the hill side is so steep that when you first look at the town from a distance it looks like the house's are built on top of each other. Its an old mining town and the mine sits right next to town.

                          The next town is the one I really wanted to see and that's Tombstone you know, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and the OK corral thing, what a disappointment, nothing special there to see, too touristy for me. So it was on to Tuscan and Harbour Freight to pick up some tools, all of which I have at home in Fl by the way but I need to do some remodeling for Belle and need them to do the work, thank God the store is on the east side of Tuscan and close to I 10', I hate big towns even on Sunday, I get my tools and start to head back to Belle's, on the way I have to go thru Benson, which is a pretty good size town at the junction of I 10 and Rt 80, it has a Walmart ( here we go with the Walmart thing again) and since I'm there I thought I'll get a few needed things and it will save me a trip to Douglas in the morning, so in I go and pick up about 10 items and head to the express lane, there's only two open and the line is long in both, so I pick one and wait my turn, of course I pick the slowest one, there's a young pregnant girl in front of me and finally it gets to her, she only has 8 things so this should go fast, WRONG, she has food stamps or some kind of vouchers, one voucher for each item, which by the way she has to fill in and sign for each item, now I've been in line for a good 15 minutes and me and everyone behind me are doing a slow burn, finally she get done and the gets rung up but the vouchers won't go thru, now the lady at the register has to call for a manager to see what's wrong, so we wait some more, now I'm on the verge of killing someone, I say to the lady how much longer is it going to be and she says you'll just have to wait it seems the manager is busy elsewhere, that's it I'm atta here and left my items laying on the belt and started walking away, she says, what I'm I supposed to do with your stuff and I said I'm sure you'll find a place for them, I believe I herd some laughter as I went out the door!!but it certainly wasn't from me, tomorrow is another day.