Ms. Daisy Finally Shines

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Yes, ditzy Daisy came into her own on Saturday for Mark. And pleased he was. With Slim about to move cattle down into our canyon, they have been working hard to repair fences to keep his cattle from mixing with the somewhat wild stock next door.
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Daisy and Brou alerted us to this stray and I caught her with the new camera's zoom; red-handed with a mouthful of our pasture grass. It was Daisy who chased the stray back down the road at 15mph ahead of Mark in the Ram, a mile and a half back to the fence line. Mark was pleased and surprised at her willingness to help out. She would return to him at intervals and go out to search again at his suggestion. The wily cow had given them the slip at the last moment, doubling back and descending a steep arroyo bank leading to the creek which neither of us would tackle on a good day. These creatures are amazingly agile despite their bulky appearance.

Tired but still not willing to hitch a ride back in the truck, she ran all the way back behind the truck. Brou was quietly waiting on the front porch for them. We had been warned that his nearly fatal bout with parvo-virus would leave him without his original stamina and perhaps he wisely realized that. Normally Mark would put him in the back of the truck but had taken off without him this time. Brou was noticeably bummed out about this oversight, too.

Daisy seemed to fully understand and enjoy what new heights of esteem she had just achieved on her own and was unusually chipper and responsive for the rest of the day. Maybe this will be her Renaissance!

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This is another heads up in case I disappear for a while. It would appear that we are entering into another techno cluster-bung zone. We had not just one but BOTH generators fail on us in the last 24 hours. I am typing on borrowed, limping generator time at the moment. Tomorrow will be taken up with carb, fuel line and filter maintenance. Gee, I can hardly wait. The components are very efficiently squeezed into a space roughly the size of large Coleman coolers and we are a couple of big people with equally big fingers and hands ... and with little patience and finesse left. Wish us luck, please. If it works, I'll be back in no time flat! If I'm not, don't panic yet.
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A Great Ice Breaker! Part 2

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As promised, you are now headed into Part 2 of making the morning rounds of the range with Mark. It's still chilly out there but Mark's been working up some body warmth with his ax and shovel and the truck heater is being backed off incrementally as the morning progresses.
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This is work place scenery that both of us find easy to live with.
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This is stop number 5, the second to last. Another set of Slim's ladies anxiously mill around as Mark pokes a hole through the ice for them in an old stock tank. His cows really are lovely and well-mannered. Some out here on the range are not.
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Final stop! Unlock the gate and wander up the road into Slim's cow camp. I tried to get a photo of Slim's four horses with my ailing camera options. I had a great shot framed of all four and then the camera shut itself off. With the prospect of their breakfast at hand, you have to be quick with shutter. By the time I had reached into the truck for the other camera, all four had closed in on me tightly and the most congenial of them was snorting sweet nothings into my ear; giving me goosebumps and raising the hair on the back of my neck. At that point, all I could have photographed was a very large and friendly horse eyeball so I gave up.

They were not interested in Mark's ice breaking at all but fell in behind him like kids chasing the Good Humor man when he headed to the trailer. The hay is kept behind an inner gate in the trailer. After his first day on the feed and water run, he learned to swing the outer trailer gate shut behind him. By not having done so on the first run, he turned around with the hay bale and ran into a solid wall of exuberant horse flesh which had followed right in behind him.
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Above and below are more views from up top as he went from one location to another.
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He'll trade these work day views any day for one of smoggy skyscrapers in the distance.
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Heads up: I might be somewhat sporadic in my postings over the next little while. I don't feel so good right now and the writing does not come easy. If I attempt to do forced production writing, it will lack that element of joy that this place holds for us. Part of that joy is in not feeling pressured to please anyone outside the canyon and, you, my blog buds, have been so good about understanding that pressure. I will certainly write updates when the good days are front and center - I just can't count on them - so please understand that I might disappear for longer than what has been normal up until now .

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A Great Ice Breaker! Part 1

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Mark has recently found one of the few jobs in the world where everyone is elated to see you show up. Although jobs have found both of us since we arrived, his actually has not inspired stress-related gall bladder attacks early every morning on the days he has to show up. His new venture all started during one of our delightful evenings with Slim. Rather than pay someone full time to keep the water supply open for his cattle, Slim was hoping that us semi-retired old farts might just be able to do the rounds when he was up north tending to the rest of his cattle business. What the heck, we're willing to try anything once as long as it isn't a net negative experience. Some endeavors aren't worth any amount of money in this life but you don't know until you try.

Slim took Mark around on one of his infamous 'drive-arounds' and showed him the route for six water sources which had to be cleared of ice every morning for the cattle to drink. With our high desert temperatures in the winter, there WILL be ice every morning which needs to be broken up and removed.

It was a week or two later that I decided to go along for the ride. It was a great excuse to go 'up top' and look around at parts of our ranch which we would rarely see otherwise. Digital camera problems reared to the fore early on as usual. The new camera with the intentionally small memory card filled up quickly. It wasn't long thereafter that my original battery-eating camera began pouting for lack of power and shutting itself off. These devices are NOT helping my transition into this new age of convenience at all.
. From this, our first stop, you can see part of our ranch in the background. As you can see, Slim's ladies were already rushing to join Mark with the prospect of water to drink.

* Explanation of the asterisk in these two photos: Try as I might, Mark was determined to be as camera-elusive as I. When he saw the few photo views I had been allowed, I was severely censored by the head of the Rat Politburo. "No butt shots!!!" he proclaimed as he slammed his shoe down upon the podium. "But ... but you purposely turned your back to the camera!" I retorted to deaf and determined ears. Hmmppphhh! Ve haf vays! Hey, I'm the cook so he can't stay mad for TOO long although I am definitely not asking him to proofread this entry.
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The ladies had already gathered by the time he took the first few swings with the ax. He found it disconcerting to swing the ax full heft, full arc when there were so many soft noses diving in towards him and he found it nearly impossible to dissuade them. They barely waited for him to scoop out the 3 to 4 inch thick blocks of ice before taking over.
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Shloooooooooooosh!
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I really enjoyed watching them take their first drink of the new day. As you can see, some nearly submersed their muzzles to above the nostrils, each making a long shlooooshing noise like a rowdy kid consuming soup as they sucked up the soothing water.

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Here is one minor view from up top. There is something immensely invigorating about standing there alone in this complete silence and not being able to see another house in the distance. I told you there were reasons for our determination to stay!

I will finish my tour of his rounds on the post coming up next!
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