Cooking is a Blast

This morning I whipped a couple eggs in a bowl and "power-scrambled"  them  in the microwave.

I pulled them out, and set them on the counter.  As I turned around, I heard a loud "POP" and felt an impact and a burning sensation on the back of my neck.
 
I looked behind me and saw that the cooked eggs had exploded and blown cooked egg fragments all over that end of the kitchen.  On the counter top, on the cabinets, on the walls, on the window, and on the ceiling.  And of course on the back of my neck.

I think maybe I'll call workman's comp. and tell them I was injured in a kitchen eggs-plosion.

Or not.

Bill

Bloody Murder

Wow!

That was one of those once in a lifetime moments.

It had just stopped snowing for a minute, so I ran outside to take some trash out.  (No, that was not the once in a lifetime part, smart @$$).

As I was walking back into the lodge, I heard a crow screaming LOUDLY!  I looked across the street just in time to see what I thought was 2 crows mating, locked in an amorous embrace, drop from the sky and hit the ground about 30 feet from me.  As the crow continued screaming, I caught a flash of lighter colored feathers and realized one of the crows was a hawk.

Then I heard some more crows cawing. and 10 or 20 crows flew down out of the sky and began attacking the hawk, while screaming themselves.

I ran to the door and yelled for Juanita to come FAST, without taking my eyes off of the ongoing rescue operation.

By the time Juanita got to the door there were over 100 crows screaming bloody murder and darting out of the sky taking turns attacking the hawk.  The hawk seemed to decide dinner was off and fled the scene.   All of the crows swarmed him in pursuit, still screaming bloody murder (Except for dinner, who got up, limped around for 30 seconds or so, and then flew off in the other direction.)

The raucous cacophony of crow calling gradually faded as the black cloud of birds pursued their intended quarry with a single minded purpose, off into the distance. 

I stood, heart pounding, and realized 2 things about myself.

1)  I will stop and turn my car around to keep from running over one of these birds lest his whole family decides to take me out.

and

2)  I really have no idea how crows mate.

Bill

Stick It.

Yesterday was looking like a pretty good day for my grand daughter and me to take the younger horses out for a ride.  It was cool (30-32 degrees) and the wind was blowing (10-15 mph), but still a good day.

Except that when it's cool, the horses start "feeling their oats" and get kind of bouncy.  And when the wind is blowing, the horses get kind of twitchy.  And then there was a bulldozer cutting a new driveway up the mountain side just a hundred yards or so from the horses corral, that was clanking and grinding and roaring, and the horses were concerned about that, too.

Okay, it was a day it would be stupid to take a green horse out on.  But stupid won't stop ME from doing something I want to do.

After catching Washoe and Alloy, Ranger ran up to me and asked to be caught, too.  Ranger is a lazy turd and NEVER asks to go.  But he seemed to want OUT of the pen.  He pushed his head into me as I tightened Alloys halter.  He REALLY wanted to go. I laughed at him, and we still made him stay, so he went down the hill to the stream and sulked.


The grand kid and I got the horses ready to ride.  Washoe got a bareback pad and reins hooked to his halter.  Alloy got a full saddle and bit.  After saddling, but while he was still tied to the truck, Alloy started a "standing" bucking fit.  Just stood there and bucked in place.  It scared Washoe enough that he broke his lead rope, looked rather pleased with himself, and started walking back to the corral to hang out with Ranger.  He got caught and Alloy settled down, so we climbed on to go for a ride.

The good news is I landed on my feet.  Great 2 point landing and I STUCK it.

I mounted in the dirt parking lot in front of the lodge. Alloy took a couple steps with me on his back one way, then we turned and took a couple steps the other way.  Then he got to the middle of the paved road out front and BLEW UP.  I may have made 2 jumps with him, and then I broke free and sailed off the side and landed on my feet.

ON. MY.  FEET.

Alloy kept on bucking beside me and I hung on to the reins.  No way I was going to let him loose and get away with that.  No way.  So I clamped my grip down on those leather ropes and HELD ON!  He kept right on bucking and gritting his teeth as he slung his head back and forth...

I feel I must interrupt this narrative to remind my dear readers that even as a small horse, this animal weighs more than five times what I weigh.

He spun me around at the end of the reins and when I finally let go I cartwheeled @$$ hole over tea cup while he continued kicking and stomping every thing in the area.

I was still in the area.

He ran down the hill bucking and stepping on his reins, and finally stopped down the hill.  As I limped down the hill to finally catch him in front of the neighbors house I thought...

  "That's okay.  I LANDED ON MY FEET!"

Washoe, the grand daughter and Juanita watched.  I think they had popcorn.

We then went for a very short ride around the parking lot, and I got off and hobbled with him around the block.

As I turned Alloy loose in the corral after the "ride", Ranger looked over at me and said...

"I telled  you that you should take me."

Yup buddy.  Of the two of us, you're the smart one.

Bill

Harnessing 101 (long video)

Farm Days in La Junta, CO.  Friends of ours have been asking us to join them there for several years now.  If you want to see big teams – as in draft horses – work, it’s the place to be in the Spring.  I had an ulterior motive this year; I want to teach Jesse to drive and there would be a well-known harness maker and trainer there.  In fact, it’s at his farm site.  The idea of the weekend is to get his fields plowed and ready for planting – using horses instead of tractors.  He owns four well-trained gray drafts and there were going to be several other teams; everyone there to pull a plow or disc or whatever was needed.  I was promised huge information on all things to do with harnesses, driving, horses, and a great time.  I must say, the information part turned out to be overwhelming.

When we arrived on Friday, the teams were just coming in from the day’s work in the field.   We stood around in awe of the giant animals moving around us; some of every different breed; even a couple teams of mules; some matched; some mismatched; very large ones and a Halflinger team; one that appeared to be Mustangs.

Dinner was served cowboy style; outdoors on planks set up on props; a cook fire going outside as well as inside the bunkhouse.  We all pitched in somehow, whether helping to setup, cook, clean up afterwards.  The kids got put to work; nobody was left out.  And of course, afterwards, the music started with first one guitar/singer, then another adding in, and another.  You could just sit and listen to the wonderful old cowboy ballads or join in the singing.  Talk about days gone by!

My big objective was to learn all I could about fitting and harnessing horses, before I actually bought tack for Jesse.  On Saturday the plan was to spend as much time as possible ‘shadowing’ the ones with the info.  Del is a local legend in the industry and was willing to take me under his wing.  It was like drinking from a firehose, following him around.  He had brought his horses in and tied them off on a trailer.  I was pointed to curry and told to get busy.  Lots of white hair flying and are these guys BIG?!  We took a break for breakfast and then the real work started.

Del was great about explaining how and why for all parts of the harness.  I watched him harness three of the horses, then was told, “Your turn.”  What?  OK, I got this.  Want to take a guess what all those straps weigh?  When you get the collar and the rest of the harness, you can have anywhere from 75 to 100 lbs., depending on how fancy you want to get.

The fun starts when you get to sit on the collar and bounce up and down to ‘round it back out’, since when you hang it up, it is wet and tends to elongate downward as it dries.  You have to get it back to a rounder shape to put over the horse’s head.  Some of this stuff is done differently than for the show horses.  Remember, these are work horses headed out into the fields, and they and their gear come back mighty sweaty and dusty.  Now you get to lift this (maybe 20 lb.) collar onto the horse by pushing it over their face – nose, eyes, ears – and settling it down just above the withers.  Not bad when you have a great horse who helps by sticking her nose in and pushing to get the ears through.

Next, get the rest of the harness settled on your arm and lift off the hook.  Much easier said than done, and then you get to settle this mass on your hip and kind of hitch yourself over to the horse.  Feels like it weighs about what my 50lb. saddle does, and most of the time I can get it slung over my horse.  But this is a totally different configuration, lots of straps hanging down to the ground, and by the way, the horse is 16 or 17+ hands (at least 8 inches taller than my mare in the real world).

I give it a good toss – and it goes nowhere near where it should.  Del says to squat down to the ground and give a big heave.  Right!  I try again and sort of get most of the straps up and part way over; Del comes to the rescue and helps me shove it the rest of the way.   Obviously, there is a practiced technique to this.   He shows me how to set the hames in the groove on the collar and bind them into place.  He isn’t any bigger than me so I have to laugh when he literally swings all his weight on the buckle to get it tight enough.  Then the buckling up starts, walking around the horse connecting straps as you go, pulling the breeching over the rump and getting the tail settled over the strap, and making sure everything is absolutely straight, so you don’t cause any sores. 

Time for the bridle.  That head is a long way up there and these guys don’t figure it necessary to teach your horse to lower its head and be accommodating.  However, this mare was great about lowering her head when I asked, taking the bit like a lady and being patient because I had never handled blinders before, which are permanently attached to the bridle.

Now for the reins, all 25 ft. of them.  Sling them over the back and out onto the ground behind, then thread them through the proper spots and attach to the bit on the left side of the horse to be on the left.  Repeat on the right side of the horse to be on the right.  Now, to hook them together in the middle and learn how the reins work, so you as a driver only have two reins in your hands to signal two horses to do the same thing.

Then I got to watch Del move the team to the plow and get it hitched up, again getting instructions on the proper order of attaching the harness to the tongue of the plow.  By this time, I was beginning to feel like I had info overload, so I just watched the plowing for the rest of the morning!

Repairs Can Be...Difficult

Stuff breaks down here at the lodge.  I fix it.  I enjoy fixing stuff.  It didn't work, and now it does.  That makes me very happy.

This morning I replaced the dishwasher.  After about 15 years of service, it was time.  I pulled the old one out, put in its replacement and ran a couple loads through it.  It worked fine.  So I hauled the old one out to the garage/hay barn to store it until the next trip to the landfill.

As I was getting ready to open the door and put the leaky old dishwasher into the garage, I heard a sound next to me.  I glanced over my shoulder to see TWO HUGE FRICKING MOOSE coming around the corner about 2 feet from me.  Yeah, yeah.  I know.  They were "long yearlings", just babies really.  But they are still bigger than my horse (not that that takes much).

We all left the area in a HellOfAHurry.  I went back into the lodge and told Juanita about the TWO HUGE FRICKING MOOSE and we went up on the roof to take pictures.  They had already gotten over their fright and the "THREE" of them were eating our trees.

The mother was just out of camera sight, behind some trees.

Some of you may wonder why I tend to flee when I see a moose.  It's because they are the North American equivalent of a rhinoceros.  Poor vision and cranky.  I'd rather face a bear.  At least our little black bears.  I'm just glad we don't have grizz.

As for the dishwasher, it's still outside tonight.

Maybe next spring I'll put it away...



Bill

If It Ain't Broke, It Ain't Mine

It's been a while since I've posted here, because I really try to keep things kind of "upbeat".  No one wants to hear about my problems, except for my friend Bucky.  He says it makes him feel so much better about HIS life.

The month of November started off amazingly well.  Temps were in the mid to upper 30's for the lows for the first week and a half.  Then things went straight to Hades.  Except it's supposed to be warm there.  We went from 42 degrees (f) at 7am on the 10th, to 2 degrees (f) at 7am on the 11th.  For you English majors, that's 40 degree difference in one day.  And the temperatures went down from there.  Driving back from a meeting in Estes Park, we watched the thermometer go down to -24 degrees.  I walked into the lodge muttering "I'm glad I'm not a brass monkey".  It stayed below zero for DAYS.

During the very unseasonably cold stretch, an outside sewer pipe froze solid, and several water pipes in our "Sunroom" froze and ruptured, spraying water all over inside the walls.  Both of the shut-off valves for the hot water line chose the same night to fail, so I had to shut off the hot water to the entire lodge to stop the spraying water, and then scramble to find fittings to replace the broken joints before guests arrived the following night.  In case you ever need to know, PVC and CPVC fittings and pipes are not the same.  At all.

Each time I would fix one break, the next one would thaw out and spray.

I hate plumbing.

Also during this period, the wind picked up in earnest.  It has been blowing between 20mph and 80mph nonstop for the last two weeks.  We quit riding our horses, and even feeding them turned into a life threatening ordeal.  I finished the plumbing.  At least it was indoors.

We then took the horses down the mountain to stay with the "other herd"  that they stay with in the winter.  They kept crashing through the hot wire so they could bug the cows in the field next to them. After a couple trips back down the mountain to fix the hot wire, they finally decided to stay put.  Bless their pointy little heads.

All of the extra driving at sub zero temperatures made the "odd-little-grinding-noise" in the front end of the minivan turn into a "horrific-helicopter-crashing-killing-all-on-board" sound.  No way in heel was I going to work on that in the cold.  We took it to the dealer.  They tore it apart, but couldn't get the parts (both front wheel bearing/hub assemblies) until the next day.  We had to borrow my mother-in-law's Pontiac-Buick to drive home in.  I could feel myself shrinking until I could only see between  the steering wheel and the dash.  I left the blinker on.  We got the van back the next day.  Fixed, but not free.  Something about it being a quarter million miles out of warranty or something.  Crooks.

Now, last summer during our busiest, I broke a molar.  I finally got an appointment made to get it looked at during the first part of this month. At that point, they scheduled me for a root canal on the 25th (only one more shopping month til Christmas!).  Joy.  I got that done and got a temporary crown.

I think I enjoyed it more than plumbing.


On the 26th, we made the decision to put our dog to sleep.  She had been fighting seizures for a year, and was losing the battle. It was time.  Sophie the lodge dog, you will be missed.  Damn.  I'm crying again.   I'd rather have another root canal than go through that again.

Yesterday, on Thanksgiving, all the kids showed up with all of their kids and spouses.  We had two turkeys and enough sides that there was barely room for peoples plates on the table.  We even fed the folks in the two rooms we had staying with us that night.  The food was great, the conversations were great and the people were wonderful.  World problems were solved and history was rewritten.  The laughter was loud and continuous.  After the meal was over, the evening continued in much the same vein.  After all was said and done, and the leftovers were divvied up and everyone had driven back to their homes safely, I realized something.

It was a good month after all.

v

Bill

Yo! Ga!

 Today, when Juanita and I got up, there was 4 inches of new snow on the ground and it was 22* out.

Yup.  It's spring.

This time of year, when we still don't have the horses up here, our activity levels have been down for too long.  So our fitness levels have dropped accordingly.

Juanita got an over-sized yoga mat from her mom for her birthday earlier in the month.  She has been using it much to the entertainment of the cats and dog.  This morning she shamed me into trying some "poses".

In what I consider an amazingly short period of time, I mastered the "sitting duck", the "shrieking infant" and the "road kill squirrel".

I think my follow up exercise program will consist of 12 ounce curls tonight.

Bill

In the Dark

This afternoon, the power went out for a while.  But the phone still worked.  We got a call from the Ranchers' Daughter.

"Juanita?  Bill?  Can you guys do me a favor?  I have a friend with a couple cattle at the rodeo grounds in Estes, and they only have one days' worth of hay left.  I told them they could put them with my cattle near the town of Ward.  Only I can't get to Ward to check on my cattle.  I haven't seen them in weeks.  Can you guys see if you can find them?"

"Sure!  Beats sitting around here in the dark!"

So, Off we went in search of "Eleven or twelve of them."


Past the National Guard roadblock.

(We gave them cookies this morning)

And off to the mountain side the cattle were supposed to be on.

We parked by the catch pen, and climbed through the fence.


We hiked back into the area for nearly an hour.  Up and down the rocky terrain, through heavily forested areas looking for likely pastures.  A little bouldering to the high spots mixed with wading through bogs in low lying areas and fording new, small streams.  It got dark enough we couldn't see 20 feet away.  We gave it up and hiked back out.

It was jet black by the time I hit the barbed wire fence.  And yes, I hit it.

Damn.

As I was untangling myself from the barbs,

*SNORT*

Um, what was that?

*SNORT*

That was not a horse.
I don't know if it was a cow.
What kind of sound does a p!ssed off moose make?

*SNORT*

Juanita suggested we at least get the fence between us and "it".  Sounded like a plan to me.  We climbed through the fence and into the minivan and snapped on the headlights.

Eyes.

The damm cows had gone into the open back gate of the catch pen, and were waiting for us.

Right where we had started.

Sometimes, I feel I understand horses, at least a little.

But I just don't "get" cows.

Bill

On Foot

Bill had an old school friend come to visit for a few days, so we decided to go hiking - at Hall Ranch, an old favorite riding place of ours.  It was cold and windy up here so it seemed 'proper' that we pick a lower location, and it was indeed warmer and less windy.  We were able to hike in shirt sleeves; the temp was 47*.

We chose a different trail than we had ever been on, since we weren't on horses, anyway.  Lots of fun new scenery and the footing was great.  Of course, I kept thinking, "If only my horses were here!"  We chanced on deer several times, in groups of three to six.

L. really wanted to see if the Black Tailed Groundhogs were still in the higher meadow, so that was our goal.  We found the Groundhogs, but all signs about their type have been removed and they don't look true to the species any more.  We think some locals probably moved in and it's now a 'mixed race'.  They were fat, plentiful and happy looking, but only had a small black tip on the end of their tail, instead of a completely black tail.

We came across a couple more groups of deer and on our way back we found rabbits...

... but the 'piece de resistance' was this ...

... a Bobcat.  Actually, there was a pair of them; young, big, and fat.  They were beautiful!!!
Another hiker ahead of us was signaling to us; thinking he was seeing mountain lions.  We explained they were Bobcats, but he was still pretty excited...and so were we.
Bionic Cowgirl

With Friends Like Me ...

It has been brought to my attention recently, by our own daughter, GunDiva, that upon occasion we can treat friends a little 'mean'.  In October, a good blogger friend was kind enough to bring her husband and young son to the lodge for a visit.  We also had a group staying at the lodge, so GunDiva planned the recreational activities - mostly.  I decided that she, Rachel and myself needed a 'girl's ride', and that since we knew Rachel rode bareback at home a lot, it would be OK to hop on sans saddles and hit the hills.  Now three years ago, said girl had come to Colorado for our first High Country Rendezvous and got drug all over trails much more 'difficult' than those to which she was accustomed, which she attested to later by referring to herself as 'the greenest rider there'. (Very hard to believe, by the way!) 

Does this girl look that upset?

 So without even giving it a thought, we haul her out there again, this time bareback on that wild mustang, Ranger.  And how does she repay me?  After hearing of the plight of my camera on our trip (buried in the mud at the bottom of a creek), they present me with a super waterproof camera so I can continue photographic documentation for our blog.  What great people!

And just to prove to Rachel that she is not the only one I have picked on, today we just returned from visiting a friend out on the plains of Colorado, with the horses.  I met this friend eight years ago at a Mark Rashid clinic; she was the same age then that I am now.  We hit it off right from the start, maybe because we were the two oldest ones there - by quite a ways!  At the time, I remember marveling how wonderful it was to see someone that gung ho about striving to better her horsemanship - and I thought she was much closer to my age!  Now that I am that age, I don't marvel at it anymore; I just consider it normal activity. 

Six years ago, we invited C. to come ride with us when we brought the horses home from winter pasture.  She met us at the lodge to spend the night, arriving shortly before we did.  She was surprised to see all three horses 'stuffed' into a two horse trailer.  We unloaded them into their corral, then had a fun evening together.  We awoke to a blustery, windy day determined to ride.  To make matters worse, I put her on Washoe, a four year old at the time - still sort of green, but she was an experienced rider.  Right?  I found out later, I was the one determined to ride, as she does NOT like to ride in wind.  She went along so as not to disappoint me.  To make matters worse, we find out she is afraid of heights.  Duh!  We have just made her ride up a cliff face ... and back down it!  She blanched when she found out how old Washoe was, er, wasn't.

Today, I had to marvel at her again.  She has a young-er horse that she desperately wants to ride.  She purchased him four years ago, at the age of four.  He had only had four rides on him at that time (a lot of fours here) and she saw lots of holes in his ground work, so she started working on that.  Since then, she has had a lot of personal misfortunes - and with her other horses - and has not been able to ride.  Now she is determined to get back to riding, so we hauled our horses down to see if we could be of any help.  Bill did get on her horse bareback, to make sure he wasn't going to buck or bolt.  She's done a great job with him and he took it in stride. 

Bill also threw her saddle on him a few times, which he also took in stride.  Then she climbed aboard Washoe, bareback, to 'get the feel of it again'.  It's been closer to 20 years since she has ridden bareback, but it would be so much easier for her to ride that way, than throwing a 40# saddle on a tall horse.  She now knows what steps to work on with the horse, and what conditioning she needs to make it enjoyable.  That's a lot of first steps for them today - and they did a great job.

Oh, and Rachel, we got some great pictures and movies with the new camera, plus we found out C. is sending us some waterproof camera covers.  Bill will never live down losing my camera in the creek!

Thanks so much,
Bionic Cowgirl

Eisenhower State Park-KS

I think Bill left us having just arrived at our friend's place in Cape Girardeau, MO.  My initial goal had been to ride the horses on/near the Mississippi River.  Well, we made it that far and L & B graciously took us in, pretty disheveled from spending three hours sleeping in a rest area about 1 1/2 hrs from their house, having driven over 10 hours to make our 'escape'.  The plan had been to advance to Eisenhower State Park to get nearer to our goal, camp there a night and continue to our friend's home for dinner the following night.  Upon arrival at Eisenhower, it was foggy and rainy; we had NO desire to try to set up camp in the rain and Bill felt rested so we made the decision to continue on and pull over in a rest area just shy of the MO border.  Did you know that you are not allowed to unload livestock at any rest areas in Kansas?  So we crossed over into Missouri, headed for a rest area just on the other side, shown on our trusty 2012 atlas.  Rest area?  No?  Our friends later explained that due to lack of resources, many of Missouri's rest areas have been closed down.  We kept driving to the first one we came to - that close to their place - but it was 2:30 a.m., so we pulled into the only spot left between some mighty big semi trucks, crawled into the bunk in the trailer and crashed for three hours.

Our horses are such great travelers; a little hay, some water and a few short stops to rest their legs and they stay in great humor.  We have a camera installed in the trailer, so I can turn on a monitor in the cab of the truck from time to time and check on them.  Imagine our surprise when we pulled into L & B's place, opened the trailer and found - a brown butt standing at the door!  Ranger loads first, so he is at the front of our three horse slant load trailer, then Jesse, and finally Washoe, with stationary panels locked into place between all of them.  I had checked on them 20 minutes before arriving and they had been in place, standing quietly.  How did Ranger get to the back of the trailer?  All four of us stood with gaping mouths and all three horses stood calmly in the trailer, but NOT where they belonged!  Finally getting our wits about us, Bill unloaded Ranger on voice command, we lifted out the panel that was now on the floor leaning between him and Jesse, then Washoe backed out on command, and finally Jesse backed out, leaving the last panel still on the floor leaning against the wall.  It could have been such a wreck had any one of them panicked; tangling their legs in the panels or just getting tangled up themselves, but they stayed calm and just waited for the unload commands.  I can't say enough about the great training methods we have been taught and the trust these guys have in us... and us in them!

All we can figure is that Jesse (who lifts wooden corral fences with her neck) lifted the panels off their hinges and let them slip to the floor.  The gravel road had been really bumpy and may have jostled one loose and she just 'fixed' them.  She does those things.  Anyway, they weren't the least concerned and had a good roll in the round pen that was set up for them.

It was drizzly Saturday, L is a cross country coach and his team had a meet that morning, so we just hung out and napped until he got home.  We had planned to be on the road this day anyway, so it seemed like a great way to relax.  Sunday we went to church with them, then headed out on a sight-seeing tour.  We drove down to the Mississippi River and walked the flood retaining wall.  They have painted the town side of it with murals of local history, making a cement wall really attractive.  This was my favorite of the paintings. Doesn't look like cement, does it?

We continued on the drive to Point Cape Girardeau, where we could get a good look at the local foliage, but look how low the river is!  All that sand should be under water.  In some places there are islands in the middle, causing a lot of difficulty for the barges delivering goods.

We decided riding the river was not a good idea and headed back to L & B's.  L offered to let the horses loose in one of their pastures so they could just run, eat and enjoy.  We agreed and headed out leading the horses, when I looked back and saw Bill.  This is the only 'ride' that occurred in Missouri!

See the cute little dog following Bill?  That's Dingo - who looks so much like Sophie that we often had to look twice.  They ran around the place together until they wore each other out; Dingo is a couple years older than Sophie, who's eleven.  While the horses were out we hiked all over the place; it was such a beautiful afternoon and their property is breath-taking.

Bill says he could live in MO, 'cause it has lots of play toys.  He got to play with a Missouri Black Snake, about an eight pound snapping turtle, a big box turtle, and a garter snake.  The six year old in him was delighted!!!  B & I picked pecans off the trees next to their pond, so I got to bring home fresh pecans, which are now drying on our counter - with snow outside the window.

This is some of the pasture on the back side of the barn; Sophie and I were walking out to meet the horses.  The trees were so pretty!  They had four different pastures like this; this one, the one above it and one to each side;the horses were in one off to the left of us, but they met us at the gate when I called them. It's a good thing L loves to mow, because in MO this could get ahead of you in just a few days from all the growth we saw.  It looked like spring here, except for the fall colors.

The next day we headed back across the state and into Kansas, for Eisenhower State Park.  This scene was along the way.

It took us about eight and a half hours to get back to the state park, but still after hours for the visitor center, so we found a camp site - still daylight this time, and sunny - put the horses in a pipe corral with our number on it and cooked ourselves a feast for dinner.  Since this was actually our anniversary, we treated ourselves to a movie, "Back to the Future".  Bill remembered that in the movie, this was the future date on the 'time machine' car.  It was funny watching what they had considered it would be like right now.  I think the only major difference being kids nowadays don't ride hover boards - but wouldn't that be fun?  We thoroughly enjoyed putting a disc in a laptop and kicking back in our camp chairs and having the whole park to ourselves.

The next morning we unhooked the trailer and drove back to the pay station, got officially checked in and was told we should stay through Sat. so we could do their benefit ride that day.  Bill and I just looked at each other and laughed, then explained to the rangers we were on a mission to avoid people for the week.  They gave us the heads up on the best trails, which had just been groomed in preparation for the ride, and asked for our feedback on anything they might have missed.  We only found one little snafu - signs pointing in the wrong direction from one trail to the next at an intersecting campground.  We spent some time hunting and back tracking until we located the trail.

We opted to do the trail backwards, as it wound around the edge of Melvern Lake, which is made up of lots of 'fingers', so you were weaving in and out along the woods at the edge and then ending with three miles of meadow riding. This picture is for Ranger's 'ear' album.

There were a couple of places that you could actually ride down to the lake's edge.  I was riding Washoe this day, so we left Jesse tied to a nearby tree, not knowing how the horses would take the waves with the wind.  Washoe preferred staying near the bigger rocks, as his feet would sink up over his fetlocks in the smaller rocks when the water came in.

Neither horse seemed bothered by being walked right up to the water, though.  I think they are now officially deep-water certified.

On the second time down to the lake, Bill ponied Jesse along with him and she marched right down and stuck her nose in the water, until a wave splashed her face.  The wind was blowing really strong, creating a lake's version of whitecaps.  Ranger was trying to figure out what they were.

There were intersecting trails and we thought we could take one of the short cuts back if the horses got too hot or we got tired, but we did the whole 10 mile planned ride, plus 1.5 miles each way to our particular campsite, in just under four hours again. The horses did great and came back as energized as they had left.  The new sights and sounds seemed to revive their interests.  I really liked that they had marked these trails with mileage markers, every half mile, so you had a good idea of where you were on the map (markers on map, too) and how far you had gone.  We are very impressed with the condition of the equestrian trails in the Kansas State Parks.

This was just another glimpse of the lake, over our shoulder as we rode cross country back to our camp, located on another arm of the lake.  We hit the showers, watched another movie and got ready to head back home the next day.  We couldn't have had two better ride days.  The 50% chance of thunderstorms that day never materialized, as you can see from the blue sky.

After putting over two thousand miles under our tires, we were excited to get home, as blogger friends from Washington state were meeting us the next night, to stay at the lodge for the weekend.  As you already know, Rachel and Mr. Daddy and IttyBit got to visit.  Wow!  A great way to end a great trip.

Bionic Cowgirl and Beel

Kanopolis State Park: The Ride

Disclaimer: This post is quite long and photo intensive. Allow yourself some down time.

We mount up, check the time – 11:00 a.m. – and head across the road to the trailhead (how handy is that?). It starts out winding around a big meadow, soon coming to some low lying bushes in bright hues of red and orange. What a great time to be riding! Bill is ponying Washoe with Ranger and I am leading out on Jesse, the fearless, when I glance down to my right and notice a small White Tail buck lying at the edge of the bushes, less than 15 ft. from us.

I quietly point it out to Bill, stop Jesse, and we both reach for our cameras. As we are taking pictures, we notice a doe lying deeper in the bushes another six ft. ahead. They posed so beautifully for us – for about four pictures, then they were done. They both hopped up and skittered away. And yes, the fearless and her two buddies did a super jump to their left, not quite dislodging either of us, and stood staring at the empty spot. I guess they were all so excited about being OUT of the trailer and on a trail, they sort of ‘forgot’ about wild life. You can bet they were very attentive on the rest of the ride!

 A short time later, Bill whopped Ranger up along side his neck, saying, “Why didn’t you see that rattlesnake coiled by the trail?” Rattlesnake?! Jesse likes snakes, so she wouldn’t have cared, but for Ranger to walk right by a buzzing snake – do you think his hearing is starting to go? I’ve wondered about it before. He told Beel it was a ‘hay jumper’ he heard. About that time the batteries were dying in my camera so it would only stay on for a short time, so Bill and I traded cameras as I had the job of photographer.

We started following the ‘orange’ trail, which circles around the circumference of the park. 

 “Description: Two sections of the trail system, referred to as the Horsethief Canyon trails, connect the Rockin' K Trails to the Prairie Trails. The orange Horsethief Canyon Trail is one of the more difficult trails in the trail system. It has three relatively easy water crossings, but the trail is narrow in spots and goes in and out of rocky canyons. The blue Horsethief Canyon Trail is short and easy but has three water crossings that can present a challenge. These crossings can be very deep.”

Because of the above description, posted on their website, we thought we would switch to the ‘blue’ trail where they intersected, not wanting to do all 31 miles of trail.

We soon left the brush part and started upward toward the rocky canyons. These weren’t as bad as anticipated (not quite like ‘our’ rocky parts) and the horses maneuvered them well, still showing no signs of foot soreness, however Washoe had to ‘play’ at making them more difficult.

We topped out at some interesting rock formations. We don’t know what Jesse saw down the canyon, but her expression caught the others’ attention.

They were beginning to sweat a bit, though, due to the warmer temps and they were delighted to see the first of the shallow crossings that had water in it. The first two were dry due to the recent drought conditions the whole county seemed to experience.

After a good drink, they marched onward and upward to some interesting beaver ponds.

The colors were remarkable. I had no idea Kansas was this pretty in the fall; we were in total awe of all the flaming red bushes and orange trees. Soon we got to where the two trails joined for a bit, then we left on the blue trail when it veered off – and then another water crossing.

This was one of the ‘deep’ ones listed in the description. It’s a drought; how deep can it really be? Ranger sensed the difference and hesitated at the edge. Just to be on the safe side, Bill handed Washoe off to me and since Jesse likes water and Washoe has lost his fear of water, the two grays stepped smartly past Ranger and kept going, even though the water was very quickly more than knee deep. Jesse started pawing the water and thinking she was about to do a roll to cool down, I urged her forward and the water level was soon up to MY knees (well over the top of my boots). We were approaching the far bank and just as I was thinking of pulling my feet up to my saddle horn, the water suddenly receded and we stepped out onto dry bank.

Yeah, my horses passed the test of deep water!!!! I turned in my saddle, expecting to see Bill and Ranger emerging from the water. No Bill, no Ranger. The last I had seen of them was just a glimpse of Bill with his hand in the air, holding my camera, and looking like he was going to leap off Ranger at an odd slant. That was when Jesse started pawing and my attention returned to her. Soon Bill’s hat appears out of the water, followed by Ranger’s head. When Bill stood on the creek bottom the water was about 3.5 feet deep with sand and muck. When the water level had reached Ranger’s chest, he had started lunging (porpoise-ing, as Bill calls it), which caused a bigger wake that he thought was chasing him. When his feet came down in the muck, he slipped and sort of ‘jumped’ toward Bill – and they both went under! They both managed to wade out, thanks to the use of some ‘words of power’ and a true look of embarrassment on Ranger’s face. After the shock, all I could do was laugh, until Bill said my camera was buried in the muck and he was NOT going after it. Imagine: saving his cell phone instead of my camera! The best he could say was that he’d had a really great picture of me and the grays in the deepest part, showing the wake and everything.

Notice the water mark on Washoe's back side - and Bill's water stained hat.

After wringing himself out and getting back on Ranger (very difficult when his clothes and chaps probably weighed more than he did), he realized his hat was now permanently water damaged. I just think it looks ‘broken in’. It was good that it was a warm day, but there was a brisk breeze so Bill opted to continue the ride, thinking he would dry out pretty quickly. Personally, I think he just didn’t want to try re-crossing the stream just yet.

We climbed out of that canyon and ended up at a fence to the Prairie Trails, that had a really odd gate to maneuver. I handed Washoe back to Bill and had Jesse do her gate opening thing. It was a six foot gate on good hinges with a long, thin bar at a slant that ‘latched’ into a slot on the fence post. The top was bent and just the right height for someone on horseback to pull up on and let the gate swing open. That part was easy. It was a bit more challenging once you were on the other side to get the gate in the right position to push the latch back into its slot. After a couple of tries, Jesse seemed to know what was needed and leaned into the gate to hold it in place so I could lean over it and push down on the rod. Done.

We were now truly on the prairie and the breeze had picked up. After a couple of miles, Bill was getting chilled and we had somehow lost our map along the way (in the water?), so we turned back and Bill got to try his hand at the gate. He got it first try, but he only had to lean over and pull the rod up from the ‘wrong’ side, although he did it with Washoe in tow, so they did well.

As we topped the ridge we got a nice view of the end of Kanopolis Lake.

All of you thinking we are headed back towards the water? Right. I can guaranty you it was in the back of our minds as we approached the same water crossing. At least we now know how deep it is and how warm the water is; nothing like our lakes and rivers at home that log in at around 40*.

This time Bill wanted to take Washoe with him, thinking it would give Ranger confidence to tow another horse that liked the water. It seemed to work; I rode ahead so Ranger could see Jesse.

When Jesse started pawing as the water hit her knees, I let her be to see what she would do. She was just testing the depth of the water, because when she found a ‘shelf’ she stepped up on it and the water level stayed below my boot. I should know by now to trust my horse.

In this picture you see how much deeper the water is on Washoe, who is taller than Ranger by a whole hand. Last time we crossed, that is where Jesse and I were. Ranger and Bill were a little farther over and Ranger must have caught that small slope and it caused him to slip.

This time Ranger kept moving that direction and stayed in shallower water; Washoe chose to hit the deep stuff.

This was a very successful crossing and you can see the trust Ranger has in Bill to just step right back into the water without a fuss. Happy horse and rider!

It wasn’t much farther to the next water crossing and by this time Washoe had decided water was play time, immediately getting his feet tangled in his lead rope.

Bill turned loose of the lead and Washoe spent a couple minutes untangling himself, then splashing around like a kid.

He finally came to my side when I called him and was rewarded with grass, even if it meant I had to dismount to grab his soggy rope.

 Now Ranger has to cross alone and ends up in a deep spot. Is that a death grip Bill has on the reins and horn?

Veering to the left helped Ranger before, so he tries it again.

 He starts hurrying and oops – there’s that wake again.

He doesn’t panic though, and Bill gets him to shallower ground.

 Congratulations Big Guy. You have truly been initiated to deep water and succeeded!

The rest of the ride can only be described as anticlimactic, even though we saw many more beautiful sights … and some strange ones, like the arrows they used in a few places to show direction. This one says “2 miles to Rockin’ K, and has a blue ribbon, so we figured we weren’t lost yet. When we came out on open flats again, Jesse wanted to get moving, setting a brisk running walk pace. The others kept pace, proving what more oxygen to breathe can do for you.

Almost back and …

....one wet but happy cowboy.

  Ah! Home Sweet Home

Twelve miles and four hours later equals: wet horses.

Ranger

Washoe

Jesse

Juanita