9/1/11 - 9/5/11

Hey there! 

Its been a while since I last posted, I’ve been busy each night until late, and when I get home late I cant post because I need to hit the sack...

Anyways, its Monday, I have the day off for labor day, and I have plenty of time to give you a recap on the last three days. Ill start with Thursday. 

Thursday was a crappy day for me, but the night at the rodeo was really fun. They day consisted of laying and gluing pipe in the morning and trenching all afternoon. The morning was fine, but then it heated up to 95 when it was time for me to get on the trencher. It was miserable. Not to mention, the trencher over heated four times with in 400 yards which made progress doggedly slow (even slower than normal). Also, my entire lunch of pasta salad spilled in my day pack. I literally smashed the tip of my finger replacing one of the side panels of the trencher, and now its infected like crazy and hurts even worse. The worst thing that happened though, was that the wind blew my cowboy hat off the deck of the trencher (I cant wear it with the ear muffs on), it blew right under the back wheel of the trencher, the saw that actually digs the trench grabbed it, shredded it up, and left it scattered in a pile of dirt next to the trench. I was so pissed. I just bought that hat before I came here. After the trencher ate my hat, I decided that I had had enough. I packed up what was left of my stuff, and headed home. I pulled into the quancet, parked the sawed off, and to top my awesome day off, a bird shit on my shoulder. Thanks life.

After I cleaned myself up from a rough day and got a bite to eat, I was feeling better. I knew it was time for the rodeo. We got all dressed up, and took off at 7. The rodeo started at seven, but we strolled in just in time to catch the fastest roping team take their run. They had to pen one calf, head and calf shot one, bulldog tie one, and get the other one in the trailer. Four cowboys to a team. This is a ranch style rodeo, so the events are more focused on everyday skills a cowboy needs. The first place team did all of this in 1 m 24s. It was truly astonishing how good these guys were at roping and tying cattle. It gave me a whole new respect for horsemanship. We also had a ton of fun. I believe the whole group was me, cooper, stuart, ryan, the dukes, and grace. 

The rodeo finished at 10:30, so we decided to just go on home, as we were waking up at 4. I got to bed at around midnight. A short nap later, I woke for a Friday morning ride with Allen, Rafa, Stuart, and our guest, Henning. Because my ass was still sore from the ride on Wednesday, I decided to take a smoother, smaller horse. Rafa suggested Penelope, a horse which as recently arrived from the MZ (Zapata ranch). She was a guest horse over there, used for taking guests on horseback trail rides. Now, she has come over here to be a workhorse. I was feeling good about the ride. It was beautiful with a nice breeze, a small, but good group, and a new horse. So we trotted out to a pasture called the carpenter, where there were I believe around 400 head called the beefmasters. Beefmaster is a breed of cow which has existed for only 50 years. Its a really nice cow, and the herd basically moved themselves. The move itself went absolutely flawlessly. 

It wasn’t that large of a herd, but the ride out to the carpenter is fairly long, I’d estimate about 6 miles round trip. 

And my horse sucked.

Penelope was a very spoiled guest ranch horse, who walked whenever she liked, in whatever direction she liked. She ate when ever and whatever she liked as well. I honestly don’t believe that the way this horse acted was a result of my riding inexperience. Penelope either had a bad attitude that day, or she is simply just a spoiled little brat. 


I want Brutus back. 

Although penelope was a nightmare, the ride was absolutely beautiful. The carpenter was an awesome pasture, very large and hilly. The sunrise was great, there was a nice calm breeze the entire time we were out until noon. The riding was at a good steady trot the entire time, and the herd was a nice easy round up. 

Here's a good one of the sunrise

We got a long lunch that day, about an hour. It was much needed, thanks cooper. 

After lunch, cooper, ryan, and I laid and glued a palette of pipe. It went well, and that ended out the workday. 

That night the chico was throwing a BBQ for our departing guest, Henning. I never knew we did this, throw a BBQ for guests when they leave. It was really fun, we played a new game called coub, a game stuart brought and taught us how to play. We had great BBQ’d hamburgers after that. Then after dinner, we all sat around a fire pit and listened to Michael, cooper, and rafa play their guitars. It was a very impressive performance, makes me want to learn to play real bad. We wrapped up shop around 10 and went home. It was a very enjoyable night, and the lightning was spectacular.

Saturday, I woke up and trenched from 7 till 12:30. It went well, except for a massive cave in which happened right behind the cutter. I had to dig it out with the front loader on the trencher, it was fun. It was insanely windy that morning however, which was actually pretty fun. I was cool at least. 

I took a short lunch and it was time to hit the art show which we were hosting on the Chico. All of the art was inspired by Zapata Ranch and Chico Basin Ranch. It was great. Most of the artists were present, all of the art was fantastic, and everyone was there, the group of people was really cool. We hung out there for a solid 3 or 4 hours. Michael and dawn were on the mic, they sound really good together. David and Tess were there, it was great to meet Tess and hang out more with David. I also got to see some of the Pictures Duke shot of Julie and Tess riding. 

Rafa and I took off from the art show and headed into town to get some errands done before we could enjoy the next two days off. We went to the guitar center first and picked up and american banjo for Rafa’s friend in germany. We then hit three margaritas for some dinner. It was real good, I ate too much. After that, we went to the grocery store in fountain. I’m spending about $90 a month on food these days. Hungry boy. 

We took off for home, and when we got there around 10:30, rafa played some tunes on his guitar while we drank some PBR and limeade (the Duke jr.). 

Slept in Sunday morning until about Noon. Rafa had made banana pancakes for breakfast which was a pleasant surprise. After we chowed our headaches way, I decided to go to the leather shop and make us a new fly swatter. It turned out alright. It was a tough stitch job, Cooper handled it as well as he could. 

By the time I was done with that, it was about 4, so I walked out to the lake and took some time to just sit and write. Did some stretching and breathing too, it felt great. My body feels like it’s getting stronger already. 

I walked back to the bunkhouse, grabbed some vegetables and headed over to May camp to make dinner with Cooper. Cooper suggested a fish fry, so we grabbed the fly fishing rods, and took off for the lake. It was perfect timing, the sun was just setting when we got there. Rafa arrived just in time to hop in the boat with us and hang while we were fishing. In all, I caught three and kept one. Cooper caught two, and kept one as well. They were nice sized bluegill and croppie. 

We returned home, gutted and scaled our fish, and started frying up dinner. We ended up combining the the fish tacos with some Pollo de separado that cooper cooked up. It was an absolutely killer meal. The fish was so good. 

I grabbed all of Coopers music off of his computer and put it on my external. Im so stoked about this, these guys have awesome music taste. Cooper, rafa, Duke jr, Sara, David, Tess, and I all hung out until about midnight when Rafa and I took off. It was a really relaxing, rewarding night. 

This morning I woke up around 11, had banana pancake leftovers, and got to writing this extremely long blog entry. Cooper and Rafa came storming into the bunkhouse around 11:45, asking If I wanted to come help fix a flat which had developed on the trencher. I said hell yea, let me get into my work gear and lets go. 

We arrived at the trencher, jacked it up, and got the massive rear tire off the rig. We bucked it up into the truck, and took off for the shop. We tried everything to get this thing seated again, but it’s just too big, too heavy duty, and after two hours of trying we finally gave up. Leaving the work for the professionals with the right tools. 

After this, we ate sandwiches and watched the Old Crow Medicine Show live DVD. It was great just lounging around with rafa and cooper, watching great music be played live. They sure do love their music here, and I love it too. 

After lunch, Cooper took off to go skype with Ashley, his girlfriend. Rafa and I decided to wrangle our horses and take them for a bareback ride to a spot rafa knew of out by the schoolhouse. I grabbed Brutae, threw a bridal on him, and we took off for our adventure. Last time I rode brutus bareback didn’t go so well. I got tossed off when I took him into a trot, and he wouldn’t really go swimming. 

This time, we had a great ride. I trotted him out with rafa next to me on sour cream, and we went to an awesome little canyon where we ventured around for a while exploring the nooks and crannies. 

On our ride home, Brutus got ticked off by all the flies covering him, and decided he didn’t want me on his back anymore. He tried to buck me off twice, but I held fast and stayed on his back while he reared up on his hinds. It was intense, but I’m glad I kept my calm, clinched my legs, swung my hips back, and managed to stay on him. I wish you could have seen it. 

After I got Brutus to calm down, we headed for the lake. Today, Brutus apparently felt like Michael Phelps, and took to the water like a 10 time gold medalist. He hopped in, I swung my head up near his, and my legs up on his rear, and we took off into the water. He got into a full swim, and toted me around the lake for a good 5 minutes. It was absolutely a blast. Because you’re bare back, you can feel his muscles and his spine working so hard to paddle in the water. His breathing is fast, he’s trying to keep his nose out of the water. Its really cool to be on such a large animal while it swims. 

Brutus, right after getting out of the water. Good boy, Brutus. 

Sour cream wants some of the scratchin im giving to Brutus. 

A nice full roll executed by Brutus, getting all dried off after a good swim. 

After that, rafa and I headed home and just relaxed, cooked hamburgers, and listened to music. It was a great day off, and I cannot believe tomorrow is Tuesday! Woo hoo! 

Tomorrow, three girls my age come in from Switzerland. :) :) :) YESSS. Finally some girls around the place. They’re staying for a whole week. I cannot wait to make them melt with my smooth cowboy ways... ALSO! We have ANOTHER girl coming in. He will be preforming bird bandings to track the species which are existing on the ranch at this point. She is the one moving into Rafa’s trailer. She moves in right next door to me tomorrow, she’s my age, and I hope she’s a looker ;)

Good things’a comin. This week Is supposed to be cooler too, with tons of thunderstorms. Its lookin like a good one folks, stay tuned. 

For now, goodnight, Ill talk to you tomorrow. Give you the report on the new laaaadies :)