Month: September 2018

Looks like Sonny is telling Ed the way things were “when”. And it’s best we all listen because he has been there and done more than we can ever dream of doing.

When we’ve been riding apart a while and meet some where in the pasture he says one of two things. It’s either a brusque, “What did you see?” or the more genial, “Don’t think I’ve seen you around here before. You ride for the NXX, too?”

Then we make up stories about the rough string we’re riding and the miles we’ve put on and the outfits we’ve ridden for. I always know he’s feeling pretty good about things when he asks who I ride for. He’s always better at the BS stories than I am, but I’m getting better. Bullshitter in training – that’s me!

We’re so lucky to get to do our hard work in these beautiful surroundings! Good grass, fall colors, cooler weather and fat calves this year…doesn’t get much better than this!

Gate man @Jake Lockwood, with Ed, Shawn, @Jess Lockwood and @Cooper Davis running the alley, chute, vaccinating and whatever else was needed, while the Head Honcho and I kept the tub full. Great day!

Looks like Sonny is ready, and I can hardly wait to get started on all the riding we do in the fall. We sort and move, gather and sort, then move and sort. Then move. Then sort.

And if all goes well at this next horse sale, I’ll have a new mount before we start this fall’s riding. Not that I don’t love my Windsor, but she deserves a break once in a while. And Sonny, he’s thinking the same thing about Gringo. Our other mounts are getting some age on them and besides, they are so fat!!! OK, so they may be thinking that about us, too…

I should never have stopped on our trip to Thermopolis. If he’d never gotten a good look at the country we were traveling through, we might have been able to stay away more than one night.

Sonny was a happy traveler until he got out and saw the Ten Sleep canyon bottom, with the road’s S-curves snaking down. He didn’t like looking into the canyon, across the canyon, at the tree tops, at the rocks…or at the winding road.

But after we arrived safely at Ten Sleep, I still thought he should see the Wind River Canyon. Even though we were near the bottom so heights weren’t a problem, it didn’t take more than a few miles of all those rock walls (that might fall on us) before he said, “I’ve seen all of this I need to. Let’s get the hell out of here!”

We left Thermopolis before the horse sale was over, and he might have been content to leave before it started! He does say he’s glad we went, but more emphatically he says he won’t be going back.

The next morning he couldn’t wait to get horseback on his own piece of Powder River County, and he really was happy then. Sometimes the greatest enjoyment in a trip is getting home, and there is sure nothing wrong in that.

Sonny occasionally talks about going south for the winter. Based on this trip, if we did go south for the winter, it would be the shortest winter on record – maybe 3 days…

It’s our favorite season of the year – well, no it isn’t. Well, it is, but after calving, branding, haying, sorting cattle, shipping. OK – it isn’t our favorite season, but it’s in the top 20. It’s the season for horse sales and we love ’em. We only go to one or two each year, but we pore over the catalogs and each pick favorites – that we never see, let alone bid on. But we dream, and that’s important, too.

The Head Honcho kept eyeing the 2nd cutting alfalfa he’d left for seed. The seed just wasn’t setting on, then we got a couple rains and the alfalfa perked right up…and so did he. The machinery came back out and we have another little batch of hay. It wasn’t great, it may not really make a difference to getting through the winter, but Sonny is all smiles – and that’s mighty important.