Shocking

B-  WOW!  Juanita, we got all of the electronics unplugged just in time!  That lightning bolt hit the power pole RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET!  Power went out to the lodge for 10 seconds, but came back up.  I'm going to check on the horses.

B-  Ranger!  Jesse!  Washoe!  It's me walking around here with the flashlight.  Where are you guys?

B-  Hey!  All three of you charged up the hill from the stream.  Down there is a good place to hide from the lightning.  How are y'all doing tonight?  Did you see the lightning that hit right next to you?

B-  Jeeze, Washoe. You are shaking like a leaf.  And you, Jesse.  I'm not sure I've ever seen your eyes so big.  And you, Ranger...

R-  BEEL!  IT... THEY... AND THEN...  BOOM!!!

B-  Hang on Ranger, it's okay.  Just take a breath...

R-  NO BEEL IT IT NOT OKAY IT...THEY...IF IT...BRIGHT...BOOM

B-  Go back to bed, buddy.  Down the hill is a fine place to wait out the storm.

R-  SNORT....SNORT

B-  Goodnight Ranger.  See you in the morning.


R-  IT BOOM  BEEL!!!

Feats of Bravery

B-  How's my horse today?

R-  I feel good Beel.

B-  So Ranger, I see Anton the farrier made it by today and gave you an equine pedicure this morning.  How do your feet feel now?

R-  I feel good Beel.  You do not listen so good.  Ant-on is an ear-a-tating people.

B-  I'm sure you were very annoyed with him, but I just thought your feet might feel better now.  They had gotten pretty long on that soft winter pasture we had you guys on.

R-  I like the cold time place.  It has foods growing out of the ground.

B- I'm sure you do like it.  But you get fat and long of hoof there.

R-  Fat is good Beel.  It makes you safe.

B-  I'm not sure it made you feel safe the other day when the two moose showed up, while you were eating out in front of the lodge.

R-  Moose monsters are very bad and scary.

B-  Is that why you hid behind me when the two of them started crossing the road to visit with you?

R-  I have heared you tell other peoples to stand behind something so the moose monsters can not see them.

B-  Trust me, you can still be seen when you are hiding behind me.  Jerk.  I think they just thought you were a moose, too.  Til they got close enough to see you were actually just a chicken.  Bwaaak buckbuckbuck...

R-  I am a horse Beel.

B-  Buckbuck bwaaak...

R-  And you are an ear-a-tater.

First Trail Ride of '16

B-  Ranger!  My man... er.... horse!  How about you and your squad go for a ride with Juanita and me!

R-  Okay Beel.

B-  Allrighty then.  Lets get you brushed and saddled.

R-  Okay Beel.

B-  Juanita is riding Washoe today, and we will take turns towing Jesse.  It's beautiful out today!  Almost 70 degrees and the sun is shining.  I'm loving it!

R-  Okay Beel.

B-  You are sure behaving like a good horse today.  What's wrong?  Yesterday when I gave you your anti-worm medication, you were rearing and snorting and being a complete jerk.  Now you are doing everything I ask.  Even trotting up the hill!

R-  Today is a good day Beel.  No cold white falling from the sky.  The sun is warm.  No leg hurts.  No worm poison. Only good.

B-  Glad you are feeling well, buddy.  Looks like a tree came down next to the trail over the winter.  You know, it's been about 6 months since we have been up here on these trails.

B-  RANGER!  WHAT ARE YOU DOING  YOU IDIOT  ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?  HO!  HO!  I SAID WHOA!!!

B-   So WHAT brought that jumping fit on?

R-  Monsters Beel.  The monster was grabbing me from behind.

B-  It was a branch from the fallen tree, you nitwit!  It touched your tail!

R-  It was not there to grab me last time I was here.

B-  That was SIX MONTHS ago you twit!  Things can change over the winter!

R-  They should not.  New is not good.  Change is very not good.

B-  Deal with it.

B-  Look Ranger, all that snow on the mountain ahead of us.

R-  Let us not go to the cold white place.

B-  You got it, Buddy.  It would take us the better part of today to get up there, and we have guests tonight.

B-  It does look like we will have to cross a little snow left over from that last storm, though.

B-  What a nice ride today.  Thanks, Ranger.  I only wish you would stop freaking out when you see something that has changed.

R-  Beel?

B-  Yeah Buddy?

R-  Deal with it.

April Showers (In the Rocky Mountains)

Last Thursday the temps were in the 70's and the sun was bright and the horses were napping and the birds were singing and all was well with my little world.

On Friday, we had a full lodge of "scrapbookers" show up for the weekend.

On Friday, it started to snow...

and it kept snowing...

and on Saturday, it was still snowing.

By Sunday, it slowed down.

We had two feet of accumulated snow on the back deck, so we may have had a total of 3 feet fall and melt/pack down.

       (This is why buildings should have outer doors that open inwardly in the mountains.)

The lumps are SUV's.

More SUV lumps.

Sunday is the day that all of the gal's had to check out and go back to their lives down the mountain.   Digging out took some time.  Juanita and I were so glad we had a granddaughter up here working so we could help our guests man the shovels.

By the way, have any of you shoveled out your driveway and then watched the snowplow drive by and block it again with a wall of snow?  We had just cleared a path for the dozen or so vehicles in our parking lot when I saw the snowplow start coming down our road.  He turned off at the street before us.

I want to write him into my will.

By noon, the guests had managed to escape

.
This morning the thaw has begun, and the piles are shrinking a little.  But the icicles are growing.
The back porch looks dangerous to our dog.  She RAN to get to the yard, and waited for me to open the door before she came back.

Can't say as I blame her.

Stay warm.

Bill

Spring Again

Spring is beginning to show up here in the mountains of Colorado.  We are still getting some snow, but a couple days ago, it was mixed with some hail and some rain.  A good indication that we will soon be able to ride out mountain trails.

We have started to try to remove the extra layer of hair from our mustangs.  They are losing more hair than a middle age men's bowling league.  Wads of the stuff come off of them with the slightest touch.  Daily currying (is that how you spell the brush or the spice?) is causing mounds of fluff to drift around their corral.   The nesting birds will be ECSTATIC when they start construction.  Next year I'm going to save the stuff and start a side business selling horse-hair mattresses. 

And, just in case you have ever wondered which side of a horse has the most hair, I can tell you...

It's the outside.

Bill

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from---

Washoe

Jesse

And... umm... Ranger

Nope.

 


 (And from Bill and The Bionic Cowgirl)

A Hard Good-Bye

We had to say a hard good-bye to a very old friend/worker this morning.  We lost Phoenix, our white dove, during the night.  It was not totally unexpected; she had not been feeling well the last few days, but would perk up if I petted her or talked to her.  You could tell she was being stoic about it, as all wild animals are.  She was an 'elderly' bird, having given us lots of joy over the last 16 1/2 years.

We 'adopted' her, of sorts, in August of 1999, when some butterfly researchers in RMNP brought her into town, saying she would not have lasted the night in the forest, as she was obviously a domestic dove.  We always assumed she had been released for a wedding ceremony taking place there or some such thing, and had ignored the handler when they tried to pick up the released doves.  She came to us highly trained, but we opted to let her go with her preferred behavior and stay in her palace as we called her large cage.

Phoenix' Palace

Phoenix would entertain anyone who took the time to chat with her, cooing non-stop early morning and evenings.  It was a pleasant sound that echoed through the lower level of the lodge.  She even tried to mimic sounds, like the squeaky printer I used to have, or a combination of laughs when guests would get excited about something,

She gave mightily to the business, never shirking her duty as door greeter, and she will be dearly missed.  Rest in peace, our beloved Phoenix.  You certainly earned your keep!

Bionic Cowgirl

Happy Birthday Bionic Cowgirl!

Yep, we've had another trip around the sun and for two (or is it three) years running there hasn't been any more bionification of the Bionic Cowgirl!





Love you,
The Indians :)

Horse Kids Come Home 3/13/16

B-  Hey Ranger!  How's the old horse today?

R-  Good Beel.  Do you have treats?

B-  Yup.  And while you're eating... here's a halter!

R-  Beel that is not how we do it.  You tricked me.  I'm supposed to run away for some many times.

B-  Nope.  You're caught.  Let's get to the trailer.

R-  Beel.  The rolling shed do not smell like me any more.  It smells like others.

B-  Right again.  Juanita will write a blog about that.  I'll read it to you later.

                 **************************

We were called into action this weekend to transport GunDiva's and Jay’s horses to the Rocky Mt. Horse Expo.  They had entered a couple of the Mustang Days competitions, but their horses saw fit to not want to load into a very small trailer in the dark in the wee hours of the morning.  After 1 ½ hrs. of try, the kids opted to leave the horses home and head for the Expo, where they had volunteered to work the US Wild Horse & Burro booth each day.

 We had planned on being there also, so we said we would go get the horses.  We hitched up our trailer – considerably bigger than theirs – and headed to get the horses.  Of course, the horses had time to think things over, knew our trailer, and gave in.  I walked into the corral with two halters and Skeeter walked right up to me, stuck her head in the halter, then followed me to Copper, who also just stuck his head in.  I left both of them standing there while I checked on the repairs Bill was making to the hitch.  Neither had moved when I got back.  They very smartly stepped into the trailer and we were on our way.

We spent the next three days having a great time at the Expo (a different blog) and decided that when we took the horses back, we would just pick ours up on the way home, being as we were already off the mountain.  We left Denver shortly after noon, dropped Skeeter and Copper off at their home and headed for our winter pasture outside Lyons.

We pulled off Hwy 66 at 3:03 p.m., drove the ½ mile to the pasture and pulled into the field.  We saw Washoe in the middle of the 40-acre field and by the time Bill had turned the rig around and I had closed the fence opening, he had trotted most of the way to us. Bill opened the back of the trailer while I collected halters from the truck.  When I turned around I saw Washoe peeking at me from the open doorway; he was ready to load himself!

Now we had not pre-planned on picking up the horses, so had not taken our halters with us.  There was one extra rope halter in the trailer tack area, and my mecate was at GunDiva's house.  She had also said we could use any halter we found there, so Bill had picked up one.  We figured we could make do since both of my horses load on voice command and neither gets tied in the trailer.

When Washoe met us at the trailer, he got the rope halter so I could lead him back across the field to find the other two horses.  They like to stay around behind the neighbor’s house and socialize with the pig; we also suspect they get treats from people in the house. 

When we had crossed to nearly the last area, Jesse finally noticed us and came wandering over – which is about the best she can do right now (read Weight blog).  I put the mecate bit on her, but she felt insulted so I took it off and just looped the lead rein around her neck.  Ranger finally decided to follow along.  Now, Bill had sort of hidden his halter inside his jacket (cheater) and showed Ranger the treat bag.  When Bill put his arm around his neck for a hug, carrying the lead along too, Ranger was caught.  Fastest time ever!  We walked the three back to the trailer and loaded up.  We were back on Hwy 66 at 3:31 p.m.  Less than ½ hour total.

When we got back to the lodge, I went inside and retrieved Jesse’s halter.  She had loaded and ridden with nothing on.  When we opened the door, she stepped out and stood by me while I put her halter on and she gave me lots of horsey hugs while we waited for the others to unload.  

When they got in their corral, Washoe rolled, Jesse checked out the salt block and Ranger headed for the creek.  Zero excitement.  Now we are getting snowed on so everything is normal.  We ALWAYS get snow when we bring them back – even though it was 64* and sunny when we picked them up!

Bionic Cowgirl

                **************************************

B-  So, Ranger, that's why the trailer smelled like other horses.

R-  Beel on this day it is doing the white falling thing.

B-  Sorry buddy.  We're much higher up here, and we got 4 inches of snow today.

R-  I was more happy with the pigs.

Weight a Minute

B-  Ranger!  Jesse!  Washoe!   TREATS!

B-  Hey Washoe.  Here, Juanita will give you some dried pancakes.  Boy, your gut makes you look pregnant.

B-  Jesse!  You can have some.  Wow.  You're looking preggers, too.  At least you are a mare...

B-  Jeeze.  Ranger is still way out there.

B-   Ranger!  Drag your portly, pot belly over here and I'll give you some treats!

R-  I am going to where you are Beel.  Be more calm.

B-  Howdy Ranger.  How's my horse doing?  You guys are all putting on the pounds here on winter pasture.  This hay field is starting to green up.  We need to move you off it and take you all back home.

R-  This is a good place to be Beel.  It has foods. It has waters. It has no head ropes.  It has no back chairs.

B-  You're getting soft with your time off, old man.  Next week we'll get you three back up the mountain and start riding.  

R-  I like being at this place Beel.  It has nice neighbors.

B-  Those are pigs, Ranger.  You are sharing your water trough with pigs.

R-  They are nice.  They do not say we are being fat. 

B-  Pigs are expected to be fat.  Horses, not so much.  You need to go on a diet.

R-  Where do I go to get on that?  

B-  No no.  A diet is when you eat less food and lose some weight.

R-  Oh.  A die eat.  I do not want go climb on that.  It is called starving.  It is bad.

B-  Now, there is no way we would let you starve...

R-  Good.  I will stay here.  With the nice pigs. 

B-  No sir, next week you all are heading home to limited rations.

R- It is okay if I am fat.  You sit on me.  I almost never sit on you.  
 
R- You should go home and die eat.