Catching Up

Oh my golly, it's been so long since I posted to this blog, there is so much to catch up on. I guess I did close the gate, but now I'm opening it again. First, I'll give a brief review of everything that has gone on in the past two years while I've been neglecting my writing bent.

Firstly, I almost starved out here on the ranch. When I last wrote much, I had gone back to work part-time in the oil pipeline business, traveling from the ranch to work at locations from 60 to 170 miles far flung from the ranch. The money worked out ok, but there were times when I had to be away from the ranch four or five days at a time, causing me much stress.

I again rented space for a horse or two in Cheyenne when I was there and would have them in-tow when I had to be there for work. There is a little stable in the heart of Cheyenne with round pens, indoor and outdoor arenas where I have been welcomed by the owner, Doug Terlizzi, for many years. He and I have become great friends and I know I can count on him to always be helpful and he knows he can count on me to pay my bill on time. I made many good friends at Singletree. I always thought I could write a sit-com about that place. Horse people are very peculiar, including myself, I suppose.

However, the miles were racking up on my vehicles and I wasn't making enough from this enterprise to make payments on a new one, so something had to give. The pipeline work slowed to a crawl in December of 2010, and I had time to get serious about looking for local employment. I applied to be a law-enforcement dispatcher and made the final cut for interviews, but ultimately was passed over for a newcomer to the county who had 20 years of military communications experience. When I got my rejection letter, the manager mentioned there were positions open in detention at the county jail, however. I swallowed my pride and asked to be interviewed for one of those. I was hired after proving to them I would likely be able to pass the physical standards.

Turns out, it is a much better job and a better fit for my personality. I am now a sworn deputy for the County Sheriff's Department. My supervisor told me I was a "born natural" at the job after only a couple weeks of training.

Calamity soon followed, however. On my first day in early January, before I was ever in the building, I slipped on ice in the gutter and fell while stepping up on the curb and my right knee hit the edge of the curb. I looked around to see if anyone was watching, although it was still dark, dusted the snow off and went on. A month or so later, my knee became quite inflamed. After several months of dealing with doctors and physical therapists, surgery became an option.

Because I had not been on the force for the six months required to receive sick pay, I told my supervisor I would take the time off without pay to get my knee fixed. She just nodded and smiled and told me to get it done. About a week later she came back to tell me my sick leave would be donated by my co-workers. I was a bit overwhelmed, to say the least, still am. It was so totally unexpected and serendipitous, I am still blown away.

On the horse front, I am down to ten now. I finally got two sold the end of 2010. Chexy is pretty much broke, but not by me, as I had hoped. I just haven't had the time. I did most of the ground work with her and then found a bullrider from LCCC who was wanting to pick up some extra cash riding horses at the stable in Cheyenne. He put a fantastic handle on her in only 30 days of training.

Sugar is also broke and ready for me to ride. I also did much ground work with her last fall and put the first few rides on her. I could tell she was not going to be a problem, but my knee problem kept me from going on with her this spring. I found a young cowboy who works on a 35,000 acre ranch that also wanted to supplement his income by riding colts for other folks. He did a super job with Sugar, as pictured in this post.

Horse Sale Hell

The weekend of the horse sale neared accompanied by rain, rain and more rain. I took Jana to Cheyenne with me two weeks ahead of the sale so that I could maybe get in some riding in an indoor arena or in Fort Collins where it had not rained as much. My neice and I participated in a team sorting clinic east of Wellington on a very cold and windy Saturday morning. Although we got cold to the bone, we had a lot of fun. Then we rode together at Singletree Stables in Cheyenne the following week. It was cold and rainy that day, also, but we were able to ride indoors until the sun came out, then we did some riding in the outdoor arena.
My niece bought a young gelding from me last fall and he is coming along splendidly in his training, which she has done herself, and she is so rightly proud of him. He is a beautiful horse. She loves to ride and I asked her to do me the favor of riding Jana through the sale ring on sale day.
The horse sale didn't go so well, however. It was raining the day before the sale, but I loaded Jana and took her to work with me, then on to Torrington, where the sale was to be the next day. I wanted to get her settled in and used to the place so she wouldn't exhibit spookiness the next day due to unfamiliar surroundings when potential buyers began to look her over. They were having a wedding in the sale pavillion that evening, though, so I wasn't able to get her in there. I camped out at the fairgrounds that night, just keeping an eye on her, wishing for morning and praying for a good price the next day.
I was the first one in the arena when it opened about 8:30 that morning. Jana was just a little snorty, being in new surroundings, but she took everything in stride like she always does. I rode her around the arena until she was used to things, but I don't like to do my own riding through the sale ring. I get so nervous, I can't even keep track of where the bid is. I would sit in the stands to yell "No sale," if need be. Need was. What a disaster. I procrastinated about getting my paperwork in for the sale, because I had been at the head of the sale last year, with poor results, so I wanted to be a little later on, but I wound up about tenth from the end--87th of about 97 horses. Apparently everyone who wanted a horse already bought one. So Jana got to come back home with me.
So it's back to trying to sell her on the internet, and taking her around to horse events where someone might see her and want her. She's a very nice horse and would make a good kid's horse right now if the kid knows anything about riding. She just wants to do whatever you ask her to do. Jana has a nice, fast little walk and should be a fast runner, although I haven't had her at full speed yet, as I've only ridden her about 50 times. There are some speedy horses on her pedigree, such as Easy Jet, Royal Charger,Three Bars and Pa Jones. She also has a favorable attitude toward working cattle, which is also in her background with Doc O'Lena and King P234 breeding. Due to her size, 15 hands, some kid or light rider would be very lucky to get her. She is the kind that stays broke. I didn't ride her from about Thanksgiving last year until I got back on her in late February this year, and she was right where I left her--no cold back, no buck. Not the kind you have to lunge for 15 minutes before you get on, just hop on and go.

Week Without Water and Another Blizzard

I think we're having another '49er. It is snowing again. Snow on top of snowdrifts. I might need a snowcat to get out of here soon. The last time I blogged, a blizzard was setting in and my water pump had quit. I called the man who installed the pump about thirteen years ago when I bought the place. He agreed it was probably the pump that had gone out, because when I opened the well house and stuck my ear down there, it sounded like the pump was trying to cycle. He's my neighbor about 20 miles away and a friend, but he has since gone out of the water well repair business. He did recommend the young man who bought his truck and equipment.
I called that guy, but we both knew he would be unable to come until after the weather cleared. I had a small amount of drinking water stored for just such an emergency, but to flush the toilet, I had to carry five-gallon buckets of water from the barn where I had a stock tank filled with a heater in it. I built up the muscles in my arms carrying water around the snowdrifts for the remainder of the week. On Sunday, I had to return to the city for my job for the week. I was actually glad to be going, for once. Running hot and cold water is truly a blessing to be cherished.
My work week was cut short, however, so I could be home on Friday to meet the well-service technician. I returned to the ranch to find snow drifts still pretty much as I had left them. They had receeded some, but not much. The weather report said there was another front coming Friday about noon. I called the well guy to confirm he was coming on Friday. He said he would and asked what time he should be here. I told him to plan it for morning because of the weather. He said he'd be here about 9 a.m.
When I got up on Friday, the sky was cloudy and ominous. I watched the clock and prayed for the storm to hold off. About 8 a.m., it began raining and as rain turned to big wet flakes of snow, the well guy got here. He was looking for a way to back his well-pulling rig up to my well, which is right beside the house, but there were snowdrifts blocking every avenue.
He climbed down into the well house and began doing some electrical checks. Within minutes, he asked his wife to get him some pliers and emerged from the well with a paper cartridge fuse in pieces and so corroded, he couldn't read the amperage. He changed the fuse, the control box, which was also very corroded, and put on a new pressure gauge so he could see what his results were, then asked me to turn on a hydrant. Sweet SUCCESS! Praise God. I wanted to kiss the man and his wife, too.
I didn't think to check the fuse because of the humming sound coming from the vicinity of the pump. I thought the pump was trying to cycle. After the fix was in, I remembered my friend telling me to lay in a stock of those fuses, which I remember doing, but now I don't have a clue where they went, following two moves and a few years of renters in the house.
However, I think there will be some preventive maintenance done on the well pump this summer sometime. You don't miss something until you don't have it.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the snow has come down steadily for two days now. I was floundering through drifts up to my thighs this morning (April 5) getting out to feed horses. I was rewarded by their appreciation for being fed, though. They were very grateful.

Easter Blizzard (a little early)

This was the view from my kitchen window almost all day Monday and Tuesday this week, as a big storm system blanketed the state. Wyoming nearly always has a bad spring blizzard around Easter time, and it hit a little early this year. Or, at least I hope this is it and we don't have another. Sunday was calm and the temperature was about 70 degrees when I got home from church, but all the weather reports said we had a bad storm coming. So I hurried up to ride the horse I am getting ready to sell in the early afternoon, and then I split up enough wood to last a few days. By the time I got all that done, the sky in the southwest was becoming darker and it looked and smelled like rain coming.
Before I went to bed, I could hear the rain on the windows. I slept well, knowing I was ready this time, and grateful to God for the moisture, which I knew would make the grass start to pop. The rain turned to sleet in the night and it awakened me to hear it pinging against the window above my head. I could hear the wind beginning to whine around the house. Sleet turned to snow about 7 a.m. After chores I settled in the house to work on laundry and other domestics for the day. The washer filled once as I built a fire in the stove. I went to fill the stovetop teakettle to put some moisture into the air. As I did so, the water flowing from the tap just slowed down and stopped!
So here I am, snowed in and not much water to do those domestic chores. I did have some drinking water stored up in various forms and the hot water heater is full. It's times like these that make me glad I live alone. I can get by. A country girl can survive. House cleaning can wait.
The blizzard only got worse as the day wore on. The wind came up to a steady 40 mph or so and the snow just kept coming sideways with drifts forming off the corners of the garage, house and any other sheltered place on the southeast sides of things. I worried about the mare herd that had not come in from the upper pasture, but I was not about to try to check on them. I went out to check on the youngsters in the corral and feed my old guy and I could hardly see. It was a white-out. When I went out again just before dark, the mares had come in to find shelter and were hoping for food, also. I gave them some and shut them in to keep them safe.
The wind died down at times throughout the night, but the snow kept falling until we had drifts of up to four feet deep. Here is a picture of my flat-bed trailer with one remaining big round bale of hay on it. The snow is level with the deck of the trailer. I checked the internet as soon as I got up and it showed the storm was almost to blow by, so I waited to go out to do chores, knowing all the horses were ok. Soon the sun was trying to peek through and the wind was settling down. The first time I went out, it was very cold, however, and the wind was still whipping snow in my face. The temperature had been hovering around +20 deg. since the storm got here. By nine thirty a.m., it had risen to nearly +30.
My water pump seems to be shelled out, so I guess I will be going to the creek for water, or melting snow! There is a large snowdrift blocking the driveway. I am certainly glad I was not scheduled to work until Friday when it is supposed to be sunny and mild again. I heard on the Casper radio the storm was accompanied by nearly an inch of moisture, praise God. We needed it. Maybe I should go buy some haying equipment, then I can quit my day job. Better get the well fixed first!

Furnace Follies

I've been having fun with furnaces and tractors. I think God played a trick on me. I always wanted to be like the boys and do whatever I saw them doing. Well now I have to. My furnace started acting up in December, right before the kids were due to come home for Christmas.
I have two 500 gallon propane tanks tied together for increased storage, so I can take advantage of seasonally low prices on heating fuel. I had them filled in August when the price per gallon was $2.00. Not a very seasonal low, I must say. At any rate, the first tank was getting low after an extreme cold snap the first part of December, so I switched into the second tank. My furnace immediately became a fire-breathing dragon in the basement. It would huff so hard upon ignition sometimes it would blow out the standing pilot light. I thought at first it was the wind blowing out the pilot, so I climbed up on the roof and put a five-gallon bucket over the furnace vent. That didn't seem to help. I would come home from being at my male-dominated workplace (yes, another trick God played on me) and the furnace would be out; not a good situation with outside temperatures hovering around -20 degrees F.
So I started through my troubleshooting list. Thinking because the problem began when I switched tanks, it must be the high pressure regulator on the tank itself, I change that regulator. Problem continues. I order a new control valve for the furnace and change that, problem continues. After some Internet research, I deduct the burners might be dirty, so I pull the whole furnace apart and clean said burners and the firebox on the furnace. Problem continues, so I call the propane man to come fill the other tank from which I was pulling before the problem began. He made me put the old regulator back on the tank and told me it "had" to be a problem with the low pressure regulator on the outside of the house. I change that. Problem continues. I am at my wit's end.
I finally call my brother-in-law who owns a heating and cooling business 100 miles away. After describing the problem to him, his first reaction is that the furnace has a cracked firebox. Since I had examined the firebox pretty closely while cleaning it, I go on telling him the symptoms. He and I together deduct that I had a bad control valve and I got a bad control valve. He orders me another one.
In the meantime, I am home mostly just monitoring the fire-breathing dragon in the basement, as it is getting worse and worse, and keeping the wood stove and electric heaters I had placed around the house going. Sometimes the furnace would huff so hard upon ignition, it would shoot flames out of the furnace and kind of shake the house!
The new control valve finally gets here two days before I am due to return to my job away from the ranch. I drive round-trip 120 miles to get it and I get it installed about 24 hours before I have to leave. What a relief, though, to have the furnace functioning normally again. I could hardly believe, when I got home after being away at work for a few days, the pilot was still aflame. The beast in the basement is tamed. At first, I had to check to make sure it was still working because it was operating so much more quietly.
About the tractor next time...still a work in progress or regress, whichever.

Warrior Dolly and Warrior JD

Sorry I've been gone from the blogosphere for so long. It's just that my new part-time job is taking up a lot of my time. I am working every other week away from the ranch, so it seems I spend most of the weeks in between getting stuff done so I will be ready to go back to work the next week. It's a vicious circle, as the work-a-day world just is.
But, I like my new job. It's pretty much the same old job I did for 23 years, only for a new company. The new guys are all great to work with, and even some of the old ones I worked with before seem glad that I am back, so it's pretty pleasant so far. The only things I worry about are my horses and if everything is ok back at the ranch. I fill up the feeders and waterers before I leave, and leave Nacho, the dog, with my sister. Everything has been fine, so far.
But Jana and Chexy's breaking in is on the back-burner for now, at least through the holidays. I might get in a ride or two while my son is here visiting. I retrieved his mount from some dear friends of mine from Cheyenne Cowboy Church, who had boarded her in return for being able to use her for about four years. They took great care of her. Here's Dolly as a foal. She's a nine year-old registered Quarter Horse whose registered name is Warrior Dolly. Her lineage traces through Hot Warrior back to Seneca Warrior and Hot Foot Bar on her top side with Zan Parr Bar and Hancock Twist on her bottom.
She's a sweet mare and a joy to ride. Anyone can ride her. She loves to work cattle. I told my friend when I left her with him she didn't know much. He had some neighbors who asked him to come help gather and work off calves for weaning, and he told them he would, but that the horse didn't know much. He said he rode her out amongst them, and she just put her head down and went to work, almost doing it all herself. He said the neighbor's mouths fell open and they said, "Thought you said that horse didn't know much!"
So I'm looking forward to a reunion of a soldier with his horse. My son has been in the US Army for a little over eight years. He has just separated from the service this fall, as a Staff Sargeant wearing a Green Beret. Dolly was only a year old when he inducted, and my son owned a half-brother to her that was killed a few months after he left for basic training, so I gave him Dolly to replace the gelding that he loved. Dolly has many of the same characteristics that Shy had, so I know he's going to love her, too, he already does.
Merry Christmas.

Hi Ho, It's Back to Work I Go

Old pipe liners never die; they just keep monkeying with their wrenches! My Thoreauian experiment living in the wilderness lasted about as long as Henry's. I loved being retired, living and working on my little ranch with the horses. I knew the money was going to be tight when I moved home, but I hadn't counted on prices for propane, electricity, insurance, gasoline and groceries all increasing at a phenomenal pace. I also hadn't anticipated the stock market crash and losing over 100K from my little retirement fund. When a former colleague called offering me a part-time job back on the pipelines, I jumped at it.
I had been looking for work here in the smallest county in the USA almost since I moved home, but opportunities are few and jumped on by many. The great thing about my new job is that they offered to pay mileage from the ranch, so I can base here, and per-diem when I have to stay elsewhere, so that made it workable. I thought I had erased all that data from my memory bank, but it all started coming back. I guess after 23 years, it's kind of etched in the old hard drive. All the old crew seemed happy to have me back, and the new guys were all friendly and helpful. I guess they are happy not to have to spend a lot of time training someone.
I will be working ten days a month, so that means I will still have twenty days a month at the ranch.
The weather has been fantastic this fall. I rode Jana again today, and I am so pleased with the way she is progressing. She stands still for saddling and mounting. She now knows what "whoa" means, backs when asked, and is starting to neck rein a little. Today I started working on side passing some. She doesn't like that, but I can reach out, open a gate while on her back, and ride through it. She's going to make some lucky kid a wonderful riding friend.
The fillies are growing like crazy. They are all getting gentler every day as I feed them and brush and mess around with them.