So Much to do, So Little Time

 For those of you who live in the country and have owned cattle, you know that there are not many things that will meet the sereneness of watching your cattle in a lush green pasture. Well, we discovered something even more serene. Watching someone else's cattle in your pasture!

No expense, no stress of watering, vaccinating or caring for them at all. Just sit back and enjoy the view.  This was our view this week as the gate was opened allowing the cattle on our property. Well, half the cattle, about 20 cow/calf pairs.

Excitement/activities this week included packing and preparing the truck for our Great Alaskan Adventure. Many of you have probably heard of the fires in Canada. We have a little smoke here, reportedly from Canada, but the fire we are watching is in Fort Nelson British Columbia. We have friends who were in that area earlier this week and were forced to hunker down for a few days due to road closures. Then they had to turn around, take an 8-hour detour taking a different route when Fort Nelson was evacuated all together. As of today (Saturday 5/18) they say the roads could be closed for a couple weeks more!

We got out on an ATV ride on Sunday during a rainstorm filled with hail and lightening. Why would we do that? 

Picture if you will, Barb and I sitting on the couch listening to the pitter patter of rain on the roof while watching TV on a lazy Mother's Day afternoon. What a peaceful scene. That is until the phone rings, and it is the neighbor lady. That's weird, she never calls me. She probably wants to complain about her husband, and to be honest I do not blame her. I debate answering, nothing good can become of me answering... But I do anyways to find out it is not the neighbor lady, but the neighbor lady's husband. "Are you home?" he says. At least that is what I think I heard through the thunder and large cracks of lightening on his end. 

Again, debating answering truthfully, I say "Yes". "We are on an ATV ride and got a flat tire out in the National Forest, can you go to our house and grab our spare and bring it to us?". "No problem" I say. A few minutes later we received the texts below showing us exactly where they were. 

Each of these gray and orange lines are ATV trails. The stranded pair in peril are the blue dot. After donning our rain jackets, we set out to find the stranded couple. 

So off we went on a search and rescue mission! Wouldn't you know it, as soon as we hit the trails, the rain, wind and hail started to pound us. We both had to hold onto our hats as we got pounded. The worst of the rain was short-lived, but the resulting puddles were not. Since we were out, and already soaked, why not have fun? We hit those puddles with speed creating showers all around us. Some were a little deeper than expected, but none caused us any trouble. 

Barb mapped out our route "Turn right here", "Turn right here". As a matter of fact, I think every turn was a right. 

We eventually found them sitting alongside the trail. 5 minutes later, they were back on the road and headed back home. 

Later that afternoon we were back at their house for happy hour, or happy 3 hours where Neighbor Jim practiced his bartending skills with Moscow Mules and Manhattans. I practiced my culinary skills by preparing 4 ducks from last fall. 

Speaking of getting stuck. I got the John Deere stuck in the back 40 this week. In a precarious spot on a rocky hill in the forest. Day 1 found me getting it only more stuck, so I let it sit there overnight. Barb and I went back out the next morning and I finagled the Jeep back there between the trees and used it to pull it out. I was on the tractor, Barb in the Jeep with a strap between us. Even that was a little dicey as the jeep started to slip downhill while she tried to pull me out. After repositioning a few times, we finally got it out. I was so pissed off at the time, I did not take pictures. Now, days later, I wished I had. No more tractors on hillsides in the woods. 

Another unexpected low point on the week was when I somewhere, somehow came in contact with poison ivy or the like. Whatever it was, caused a nasty rash on my hand which proceeded to spread. I won't gore you with the pictures, but it looks about as fun as it sounds. I tried something that I had never done before, when I used VirtualMD through our healthcare provider. I went online, answered a series of questions and uploaded some pictures. An hour or so later, I had a diagnosis and a prescription into the local pharmacy. It cost $89 (which might be covered) and saved me a trip into town and I am sure a few dollars. 

Since I am confessing things gone wrong, I have to admit that I broke the top of one of Barb's vintage blue mason jars last week as well. I did not think it was really newsworthy until I received a package in the mail with a replacement lid from none other than Granny Sue! For those of you who do not know her, she is a fellow blogger from out West Virginia way. We have been following each other's blogs for a year or better. She is an antique dealer with a couple of booths where she sells her wares. She had blogged about restocking her booth and I mentioned being in hot water with Barb (again) for breaking the lid. What should come in the mail later in the week? A replacement lid! Bloggers are the greatest!

In addition to her booths, she has an on-line store you could check out here.

From lid-less                                                         to happy once again!

Another unexpected purchase this week was some slabs of wood from an on-line auction. We went down to Hot Springs to look at some 6"x8"x20' beams that Kevin might have been able to use on one of his jobs. They did not pan out, but when Barb saw some of the slab wood they were auctioning off, she just had to have some! She bid on probably 10 items, winning 5. A couple of redwood slabs, a couple of sugar pine slabs and a cedar slab. Each are about 8' long and 1 1/2"-2" thick. She has no idea what she is going to do with them, but at $1-$2 a board foot they were too good to pass up. 

They looked good when we picked them up, but when we hit a rainstorm on the way home, it really brought the color out!

We had one last hurrah with the gang when we all got together for burgers and beverages at our place. 

Oh, what a good time we had. Cheryl and Kevin gifted us an LED sign for the gazebo. An awesome addition!

After supper we played our dice games; Shake a Day and Sh#tbox. Barb was first up on Shake a Day and won when she rolled 6 of a kind taking home $9.25 for her troubles. On the Sh#tbox front we added a twist to the game. The winner, in addition to taking home the pot, got to choose a shot that the person with the highest score had to take. Barb, Bonnie, Vicki and I were all winners at one point and Barb, Kevin Vicki and I were all losers at one point. I wish I could have gotten a picture of Kevn's face as he took down that shot of whiskey. Priceless! We must have been a little loud as the neighbor to the east (1/4 mile away) texted the next day wondering why they were not invited over. 

It was one of the first nice nights we have had so far, making for the perfect setting. We finished the evening watching the Oilers and Canuks play game 5 of their series while I texted with my Canadian friends, Steve and Dave who are on the opposite sides of that battle. 

If you look closely, at the picture below you can see Dakota using the new raised patio bed for the first time. 

Friday night found us heading into Custer to attend a graduation party for the son (Sam) of a friend of ours. We have known Sam since he was 11 and it has been a pleasure watching him grow up into the fine young man he is today. We did not take any pictures at the party itself, but I did see his ugly mug on a banner in town. Gotta love towns where the graduating class is so small that each graduate gets their own banner on Main Street!

Saturday was the grand finale of our socialization for the week when our niece Alana and Ryan came to visit. Of course, they brought little Sophie and ever wild Loki. We spent the afternoon out in the gazebo watching golf, watching the dogs and catching up.

Dakota has become comfortable with her bed. Loki still has a cast after several surgeries to save her back leg. They are hoping this one will be the final fix. 

Zoey and Sophie played and played and played. It was not until a couple hours later that they finally settled down enough for pictures. 

And of course, a few libations were served!

I also captured a little more of nature when I was out and about. These first two are flowers, a bluebell (I think) and an I do not know what. It is pretty small, about the size of a quarter. These are the only two flowers blooming so far. 

Messing around taking pictures at the birdfeeder, I got this beautiful goldfinch and a pretty cool shot of a blackbird about to land. 

Last, but not least, this is for you Harry. How could you not love two pups playing?

That wraps up a busy week here on the homestead, let the Great Alaskan Adventure begin!