Giving Up the Blog Ghost

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Yes, I am thinking about hanging up the blog rake in the barn, at least for the summer. But first an update on the news at Rat Town.
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Slim's orphan calf, Bully Boy, is starting to look like a healthy calf of his age. Above is a photo taken a week ago. Not quite spunky but his eyes were starting to fill out again as he slowly rehydrated and recovered from malnutrition.

Just last night, Slim asked if he was going to have a heck of a time getting that calf away from me. I said "Well, Slim, I've got him halter broke, saddle broke and even starting dressage but, you know what?" "I can't imagine ... what?" "Well, it's obvious now that Bully Boy just isn't going to make it as my champion saddle bull. Sigh." "Now why you saying that?" "Slim, he's just not sprouting handlebars, know what I mean?" "I sure am sorry to hear that, yeah, it happens. I'll come take him home him then." "I knew you'd understand."
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Here is Bully Boy this morning after his morning bottle feeding which has become a ritual for the entire population of Rat Town. The cats now recognize this as their big outing of the day as soon as they see me fill the milk bottle and put on my long-sleeved shirt and rubber boots. They are already waiting impatiently at the rear door. The dogs are waiting just outside the door, knowing that there is a slight chance for a slurp from this super-sized baby bottle plus a chance to cavort legally with the calf. Somewhere in the middle of all this celebration, someone WILL step on one of my in-grown toenails and this seems to be an expected part of the troupe's merriment. And this was the first morning that the calf kicked up his heels and responded to the dog play. It told me that we had succeeded in bringing him back fully, such an incredibly warm feeling of accomplishment.
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Other news in brief: Mark is looking a bit better after that round of 'whatever that was' although still dreadfully fatigued. Slim is leaving the canyon this weekend with the last of his cattle and won't be back until early winter (serious bummer). The gas company which will be instrumental in our moving Rat Town up top was all 'hurry up and wait' which means that the monsoons may hit before their construction time schedule and the move may have to wait until next year. Which means that I will not have my creative life back until then (this aspect of treading water is getting REAL old). Sooo, all things considered, I am feeling a little uninspired at the moment. Which brings about my decision to stop making new blog entries for a while. Here are the other reasons:

With the exception of a very few family members and some kindly and encouraging souls I have met along the way, it doesn't appear that anyone has that much interest in reading about this particular subject, at least as I am capable of presenting it. That is despite an article in WSJ which talked about the looming energy crisis spawning a trend to go rural and self-sufficient. In other words, shit ... I couldn't make lemonade even after a tornado hit a lemon grove. Maybe I sound a little discouraged? You bet, especially after hearing friends talk about their million hits a month. According to my mother, I still wasn't talking much by age four. The kindly doctor told her that I was fine but just didn't have anything I felt was worth saying. I think I am going to head back to that philosophy for a while rather than talk largely to myself. I have a lot of planning and design work that I have been putting off in shameless and delinquent ways so it will feel great to get some of it done now.

With the doubling of fuel costs, the practical side of me says that I don't need to be burning daytime generator in order to keep up with both the blog AND my e-mails. It's starting to cost some serious money and wear on the generator to keep that pleasure up so it's time to reconsider the brutal economics of it.

Since a lot of my favorite blog friends have decided to put their own blogs on hold for the summer, it is as good a time as any for me to give it a try, too. I'm not saying that this is going to work any better than trying to ignore those big, gorgeous chocolate bars in the pantry but I am going to try any way. In the meantime, you are invited to read through the archives. Just start at the beginning since this IS a journal of our challenges and joys to date. If you have any questions, just ask. It was always my primary intent to encourage others (at least genuinely NICE others) to follow their dreams of settling into the countryside. It's a great life if you don't bring any city rudeness with you.
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The Parting Shot (humorous images sent in by Ken)
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Don't ever give up on pursuing the greener grass on the other side of the fence even though it can present some unexpected technical problems.
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Yep, this is what we experienced as we finally escaped a 15 year exile in Northern Ill-annoys to our new greener pasture. I like to think of this as God's way of saying "Never look back on that place and such people with any regret" and it has surely worked. If you are not one of the "What have you done for ME, ME, ME in the last five minutes" sort of folks, I hope you find your own greener pasture soon.
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Don't have a Cow, Dude

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Sunday's plan was for Mark and Colin (me cuz from England) to take a tour of the rest of the ranch and the proposed Rat Town site, maybe wander as far as Slim's camp. But plans never remain solid out here for long.

Before they even left home, Slim had called and asked if they would roundup a small orphan calf which a gas field worker had noticed in Slim's far northern range. If he hadn't noticed this little stray, it would have died in a few days so big brownie points go to Chevron this week for having some conscientious employees out there.

The cows and their calves had been shipped home to Colorado from that range two weeks ago and this little fella had somehow become separated from his mother and left behind. He managed to evade predators on his own and survive without cow milk at remarkable odds. He was born so late in the season that he was even missed in the Spring round-up and branding.

Mark and Colin restricted their tour to sights on the mission route and headed straight home once they picked up this emaciated calf. They unloaded him into our corral from the back of the pick up truck. .
.With a stop at Slim's for milk replacer and a very large baby bottle plus Slim's instructions, Mark did his first surrogate mother job and the calf obliged like he was in the care of Dr. Doolittle. You can see curious Brou in the foreground and Daisy's brown nose sniffing frantically at the calf's rear ankles. They had both chased cows before but this was their first chance to meet such a small version.
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Both became comfortable with the whole arrangement and settled down to relax and enjoy, everyone except Brou who was now far more interested in having a turn at that milk bottle.
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Photo of a young sitting bull

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After the first bottle-feeding was managed, Colin devised a sun shade/shelter from a scrounged wall panel and a metal frame and the young bull calf found it immediately and gratefully followed its moving shade until the sun set.
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. The calf was less interested in the later feedings and Colin, who has long experience with dairy cattle, showed Mark the above method for forcing the issue and it worked very well. The little bull calf has a lot of weight and strength to recover and can't be missing feedings now just because he feels like it.

He will probably be going home to Slim's camp in a day or two and I will miss not having him around. Since Slim is dead set against us having anything to do with horses, I am very tempted to have him leave the calf here as my future 'saddle bull'. That'll teach him to put me off having saddle horses. Hmphhh!
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For the next week or two, I won't be able to answer comments as often as I have done in the past so I am disabling the comment option until I can catch up later with visiting and commenting over at your blogs as well; in other words, enjoy your mini comment vacation!!! We'll be back before you know it!
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