5/1/12

Hey there everyone!

I have some great pictures and stories for you in this blog post, and it’s going to be quite a long one, so get pumped. 

Spring time is here. I’m so stoked for the weather getting nicer, people in great spirits, animals giving birth to their young, and all the other great things which come along with spring. It is a fun time of the year here on the ranch, lots of things going on, very busy schedules, and lots of people coming and going to and from the ranch. 

A couple of weeks ago, my dad came to visit, which was an absolute blast. It was so great to get him out here, and give him a chance to see what I’m doing. It’s tough to describe some aspects of my experiences to people, and experiencing it yourself is really the only way. 

He got the full experience. One of the days we rode 22 miles, gathering a pasture, taking them to the carpenter corrals and branding 100 calves. It was a big day for me too, as it was the first branding of the year, and my fist branding ever. What an awesome experience to have my pops there, while I’m riding around the corral with Duke, roping calves, and bringing them to the branding pit. Dad even got in there and wrastled some calves to the ground and restrained them while we did our business. He really got into it, and it was so great to see. 

We got a chance to do some fishing, where my dad actually caught some fish! Whoo hoo! Now he cant claim that he has never caught a fish in his life. I witnessed it with my own two eyes. Albert Arthur reeling in multiple fish. 

Jonathan was nice enough to lend us on e of his guns so dad and I could go out and do some shooting/hunting. We had a such a laugh going out into the pasture and getting our shoot on. 

We had some great cook outs, dinner at the Phillips’ place, and many other great meals. We had fun just hanging out with the crew here, everyone is so awesome, and I think they all had a good time chillin with my dad too. 

I’l remember the weekend for the rest of my life, and I’m sure my dad will too. It was so great to have you out here dad, I’m proud to call you my father, and you’re a great role model to me. Not to mention you handled yourself like a true badass out here, not many people can come out here and fit in as well as you did, riding horses, wrastlin calves, shooting weapons, pulling fish, and throwing a mean fast ball. Nicely done pops. 

So its branding season. One of the best times of the year here on the ranch. Tons of work to be done, thousands of calves to be branded, ear notched, vaccinated, and castrated. The brandings are full day events and have a ton of cool aspects to them. Unfortunately, I dont have any pictures of one yet, but we have two this week, and ill be sure to take some sweet ones. After that, I’ll do a post about brandings specifically. 

I’ll also do a post about my new place were building out at the casita house. I’m gonna have my own little apartment space. I’m super stoked about that. I’ll go take some pictures and post them soon. 

Everything is going great here, the lodge design is really coming into its final forms, I’m still loving working on it, and cant wait until construction starts. 

Brutus is still kickin ass and taking names, he is doing awesome as my roping horse. We make a great team out there. Roped 15 or so calves last branding. Atta boy. 

So I have a bunch of pictures for you, I’ll caption them to let you know what’s going on. 

Fish which Connor and I caught this sunday out of head quarters pond. We were bound and determined to have fish tacos that night, and these 11 large mouth bass gave us plenty of meat for them. We were pretty proud of our catch.

Kathleen found a great beer batter recipe, and startes frying up the fish we had filleted. Wow, I've never seen that word in print filleted, what a weird looking word.  

Only about half of the fish we fried up that night. It was soooooooo damn good. 

Add to the fish some chopped cabbage, and carrots, roasted onions garlic and jalapenos, fish taco sauce made from sour cream, mayo, cayenne pepper, diced cilantro and lime juice, all folded between a soft taco shell. Holy moly, literally the best fish taco I've ever had. No joke. Way to go bunkhouse crew. 

It's spring time, and LAMBS ARE HERE! And they're cute as hell. 

Here are the telephone poles we set for the foundation of our new porch were building for the bunkhouse. Should be pretty sweet when we have a little nook to hang out in and watch the storms roll in from the west. 

Wee were all very intrigued by the lighting that this storm produced, so we all went out to see what it was like outside. It ended up producing some spectacular photos. The western sky (behind us) was clear, and the sun was shining, but as you can see, the eastern sky was very dark and ominous. It was eerie, but very neat. 

I like this shot. The bright colors contrasted against the dark sky. 

There was about a 15 mph south-north wind, adding to the effect. 

For anyone who doesn't know, thats the Colorado state flag. 

Look how green it is out here right now! It amazes me every time I see it. 

Well, there it is folks. Hope you enjoyed. 


I'll be doing another post later this week about our brandings. Should be a good one. 


In a while crocodile. 


- E