Pure and Simple... El Nino is a Punk

The last three days... have sucked...and the next... I don't know how many... are predicted to be as lousy.

For those who wait all summer to revel in the winter wasteland... I suggest you seek professional care... and move to Finland, or maybe Norway. The folks there are equally twisted in their perceptions of the value and wonder of winter...

Just to say it plain and clear; Don't want any mis-understandings... I. HATE. Winter. I hate its guts and liver.

*The calm before the storm*

The weatherman said a "possibility", like 50% or so... of... RAIN showers...

*The Ponies are as grumpy as me...*

The sun tries to break out... and then another crystallized "Rain" shower curses the ground... grrrrrrrr....

Won't be no deck stone work today... or the next few I believe... Kinda gets in the way of working colts too... and those colts NEED to be worked as bad as I NEED to be workin' 'em.

This grumpy old buster is NOT a happy "camper"...

And then... the NOAA publishes their doctored up figures claiming that 2015 was the warmest on record thanks to an especially warm December... I read where they specifically named that "Warmer than usual" happening in the southwest...

Uh... really?

This warmest on record BS is blowing my energy budget all to hell... trying to stay warm...

Just Freezing on the desert from Global Warming...
-Brian

Hoof Beats and Disconnected Mental Meanderings

The life of a Cowboy is often a lonesome thing and being plain honest... it's purty much self inflicted. His sense of honor and just what he can tolerate, well, it's pretty impossible for him to negotiate such things. He's not perfect but he is what he is and he just ain't about to change that for anybody.

He figures if you want him to change who he is you don't care 'bout him anyway so... Adios!

Even amongst other folks he's got a way of holding himself apart and alone... or those other folks hold him away... because his way of seeing the world is so foreign to there own it makes them nervous. They just can't accept his unyielding ways and unwillingness to compromise.

He sees compromise as a phony deal with the devil where a lie is used as collateral to wheedle him out of what's right... by some slick talkin' townie.

Cowboys aren't what you might think of as "gentle" souls. They're more closely related to warriors than preachers. A lot of that comes from the rough and tumble world they grew up in. Fighting 1800# bulls or angry horned hereford mommas when all you're tryin' to do is doctor her baby isn't how you incubate sensitivity in a man.

But, they are still a bit of a paradox. That buster you think is a hard nosed prick will stun you with how gentle and tender he is with a calf or a colt; He'll risk hell and frostbite to save 'em and protect em...

Then he'll turn right around and grab the man by the collar who stepped the tiniest bit out of line when it comes to honor or respect... and whup on his hide till his own momma can't recognize him...

The only honesty they see comes from a cow or a horse... their experience with humanity is not something that's nurtured a lot of trust in their minds. 

They say cowboys are a dyin' breed. Might be so... but they been dyin' for a long damn time. My whole life and beyond... but as long as there's one sorry old cow... or one good colt to test his abilities... cowboys will survive. They'll be out there cussin' the wind and the dust. gripin' and grousin'... and softly caressing a fresh colt and trying to coax it to stand up and suck ...

Now understand this... that's not the fellas you see on espn... those are sure enough athletes... and they might wear big hats, and silver buckles...  but that fancy stitchin' on their back pockets... kinda gives 'em away.

A few of those boys might could cowboy...they're sure enough tough... but most are only good for eight seconds. They just don't hold up when the days with out a day off run into the triple digits... the dollars in the bank are... well... dollars in the bank???  and the only reward is to see that calf grow fat on summer grass.

You get the picture.

Most cowboys aren't so wordy as... ahem... some others. So getting to know them and how they see the world around 'em is sometimes a difficult thing to achieve. And even if you do... the onliest one you've learnt is THAT one... cuz each and ever' one of 'em, though they carry the same heritage... they're all so individual that you just can't catch 'em up in a single loop.

Some have even gone and hidden amongst the townies for a while. They put on shirts with lil' alligators on the chest... and I saw a few in plaid shorts one time... but... deep inside... in those places they hold apart and alone... They are cowboy and they curse the day they let themselves be talked away from the only life that ever soothed their souls.

It's been said before by others and said by me, but it still is the gospel truth... there's nothing finer than riding a fine horse into new country.

The only thing that soothes that battered soul of a cowboy barely hangin' on... is the spirit that lives within' horsehide.

*Range cows in the dust at sunset*

*My Ponies with sunset over the Dragoons*

*The look that fills a Cowboy's Soul*

The purest spirit can be seen... in the Eyes of a Horse...

When your heart is sore and you think it'll break... you're chokin' on life... if you walk out to your pens and just quietly gaze into the eyes of your horses... the pain starts to fade. You wrap your arms around a neck and the tears wash the dust away.

- Brian

From Sunrise to Sunset... Fill the Day

Monte Walsh on the stereo, coffee in the cup... Mr. Heater is warming me...and another flashy sunrise is cracking over the Chiricahuas...

Chiricahua Sunrise

Now that Mr. Heater. Has its pluses and its hassles. The lil thing can be moved to where ever you want heat so that's a plus. The only real hassle is fueling it. Let's face it, $5.67 for a pair of lil' bottles that only last maybe five hours each on low gets pricey quick.

There is a solution for that. You get the lil adapter gizmo to refill the throw-away bottles. That way you're burning the $1.60 propane from the Co-op,

 Only problem there is, and this is the only real hassle...

Refilling actually only partially refills those bottles. They just won't get as much gas as they had when store bought.

So they're only good for maybe two hours. But that's two hours of a lot cheaper gas... I just need to buy some more of the pricey ones, so I have more "refilled".

Two hours in the evening on one bottle and two in the morning on the other just ain't sufficient.


Was walking back to the Lakota after feeding last night. Looked up into the fading pale blue eastern sky... it was just before sunset...There it was hanging over the Chiricahuas.

You know, the camera only wanted to capture a bright white flash... Buuuuut... if you bump those settings to underexpose it a ways... it kills all that glare and you can capture a pretty cool image...  you'd think it was the dark of night with that exposure dropped. Actually the sky was a very soft, almost purple by that time... It lets you catch the detail pretty fine though.

Them ponies are doing me pretty good. Three days now I finally got to work them like I'd planned to be doing back in the early part of November. The tribulations of equipment, horses and finances shot that plan to ribbons. It took till just those few days ago to complete the pen I required to work these horses proper.

Now, with that pen up and the sun mostly smilin' on me... we've had three solid workouts the past three days and three days of solid, seeable gains.

 That feeling, I wish I could shape it into words. When loneliness is weighing heavy on a solo cowboy... and the day seems dark and grey...

It lifts his spirit in ways he can't speak... when his horses come straight to the fence to whicker a hello ever' time he comes around.

They say that Horses don't have, can't have the same emotions as the two legged varmints that plague the earth.

And I hope that's true. This old chunk of rock hasn't benefited that I can see from that infection...

Now, how-some-ever... There is nothing more beautiful and pure... than the spirit of a horse.

Nothing more glorious than a herd of horses racing across the high desert.

Whatever those emotions are that Cora and CJ are giving me, I'll take 'em... and count myself fortunate to have had the lil' bit of wisdom left that it took to bring them back into my world.

I've come close to getting started on some leather books. Working out some "ideas" on things I've never done before. I'm needful of not only bringing the Horses "Home" but... some other things that got left back as well. The horses re-awakened that want too.

It's not about making money... though that is sure needed... It's about... what Gus was talkin' about when he told Call; "You just don't get it! It ain't dyin' I'm talkin' about__It's LIVIN'!"

With whatever time is left... I need to be doing those things that FIRST, grant an inner satisfaction...

Think of the scene in Lonesome Dove where Gus was sitting with a jug, alone on the porch; He looked around and saw Call working with the Hell Bitch. Some of the boys were digging a well... another shoeing a horse. The sun was setting. Gus looked around at it all and with a smile on his face nodded to himself... A bit of that inner satisfaction. He felt like he was where he belonged and it was good.

...and only then, after your soul has been fed, when that inner hunger is satisfied... think about how or if that "thing" you work at can maybe help pay the Mordida that a modern cancerous soh-sigh-uh-tee demands for permission to live.

 ... The changing light of a sunset...

 The sunsets around here... there's a real danger of the repetition of such things becoming "Oh... just another sunset..." I have to deliberately remember Gus's words all the time... "you have to learn to take pleasure in All the little things..."

Like that last one...

Playing with some things... makes it look like a chalk drawing don't it? :)

Find the little things to fill a day with creativity... When you've fed that need...THEN think about making bread...

- Brian

Same Old Same Old...

Hard to finish a project that requires bought materials... when you open your wallet an' the onliest thing that falls out is dust...

Only two things you can do 'bout then...

One is shave expenses... stay close to home and burn less fuel. The other is... eat less.

... at 'bout 30 cents a cup, you can Crocodile Dundee it! Yup. "You can live on it... but it tastes like shit!"

The other is just keep huntin' up and haulin' rock from the desert round about. 'course, once you find it you still have to set it.

Turns out, though there's plenty of stone around, most of it is more rounded and lumpy. The flat sort of a suitable thickness for what I'm trying to do with it makes it a lil bit more of a search.

So it starts goin' a lil' bit slow as you clean out that what's closer to home.

I started mortaring in the stones I've placed.

I'm doin' the lazy man's mortar method. Just dust in dry mortar mix 'tween the stones and then mist it all a few times and let it set up.

I'm not trying to build the Taj Mahal... just set a place that cuts the dust some.

It's a lil bit of a curiosity. Those stones aren't really as far apart as they might seem in places.

The stones ain't got square edges. As I fill the gaps with mortar it widens out a lil' bit where the stones curve away.

All's good. Works for me.

Worked on another project I picked up a bit ago as well.

The headlights on the truck have been slowly fading. Part of the issue I think, is the bulbs themselves. The other was the lenses. I still have to replace the bulbs but I tried something I saw a test video on and damn if it didn't work out pretty sharp.

Pretty easy to see how fuzzy and hazy the lenses have gotten in the last 240,000 miles... These pics are after I washed 'em.

But do you think Like I do?




When you hear a salesman make his big claims your first thought is..."What a scam"?

When you hear him say "Our whizbang kit will restore your "Insert product name here" To Just like new condition!"

The thought in your mind is; "Yeahhhh... riiiiight."

Welllllll...

I used the 3M Headlight Restoration kit... the manual variety.

What can I say? From Hazy and cloudy lenses to crystal clear, and a whole lot cheaper at like $15 than replacing the clouded lenses!

I spent most of an hour... maybe... if you include all the dawdlin' and muckin' around. Three step process you can do pretty darn quick.

'course... now I have to clean off the drippin's from wet sanding...

The latest views from here on the high desert...

*The Dragoons - North End*

*That lil' bump on the left is called Mexican Hat*

* A neighbor... several hundred yards off to the west*

*Dos Cabezas Mtns*

Just goin' day by day... slow and cold sometimes. This high desert has been gettin' pretty cool lately at night. Supposed to be down to 19 or maybe 17 tonight and the next couple...ugh... my puny batteries aren't up to that task... and my gennie don't like firin' up when the cold dawns are that cool...

... might could be I'll be warmin' under a blanket with a cup of propane made coffee in the very near future... waiting for daylight.

- Brian

Storm clouds, Thieving Cattle and Rat Wars

Been making progress... sort of. Three steps forward, two sometimes four back.

*Arizona - Storm brewing over the Chiricahuas at sunset*

 All a guy like me can do is curse... kick a rock, threaten the Devil... and after a bit, go back to work.

The round pen is progressing Slowly. Too slowly. I Really want to get to work IN it not ON it!

I have but seven more posts to set, as soon as some dinero shows up. Five line posts and the two gate posts. I've been scheming how to finish the "infill" of the sides. Was hoping to do that with barky poles cut on national forest. Their timber guy lead me to believe I'd be able, but then, that was last week and I've not heard a peep. Likely I'll just use some horse fence and call it good.

The Deck/Patio is taking shape. Takes a lot longer when you've got to go haul rock from two hundred yards away and more in a mexican dump truck! ... after you use that Mexican Dump truck to haul in the fill from gopher/rat mounds that lay in the opposite direction.

But, I set some big rocks to be the step down from the patio area to the path that leads out to the fire pit...

Then I started laying natural stone behind that. That'll be what will surface the patio. A lot cheaper than store bought pavers, and it'll look nice I believe. It's just gonna take some little while to gather enough up... hoping to do all that out to and around the fire pit as well.

Making some progress. I just knock 'em in with a rubber mallet to where they're as level as natural stone could be...

*Natural Stone winter camp Patio*

Another thing I've been working on is... The Rat Wars... and till today I've been in a bit of a stand off. Bait blocks, rat bombs... flooding... The rats, or whatever ya'll wanna call 'em persevered.

But then I seen a gizmo in the hardware store. It's a rubber deal that clamps onto your vee-hickle's exhaust pipe and you gas the buggers for a bit. Only problem was it was too small to fit the truck. And then, I had an epiphany!

I been spending too many dollars running the generator to keep the piddly pair of batteries the maker put on this rig juiced up for the cold nights we've been having. I tried a Mr. Heater "Buddy" to supplement - But it blew up... Kinda literally - which is fairly exciting when you're sitting maybe three feet away working on the laptop! ...so I'm working on that problem still.

But, with a few minutes in the plumbing aisle I invented my own connection that clamps onto the GENERATORS pipe!

 Since I have to run that a few hours a day and they say twenty or thirty minutes should turn the trick...

I spent a lil' gas today and played evil cowboy on several rat tunnels!

Soooo... as I juice the batteries I'll reduce the snake bait around here... and the damage the diggin' little chewers do to other things!

Then... I've been battling with the cows round abouts... Arizona is a "Free Range" state so you have to "fence out" what you don't want coming in... and I'm OK with that... I just don't have the dinero to get to that fencing... even just a couple strands of electric... so I built a little "hay yard" to protect my hay and get it out of the trailer - so  I can work back there (If I ever solve the early morning/night heating difficulty)

Well... Arlo has been finding use running the buggers off... I was hoping (but not really expecting) them to learn to just stay away... last night, 'bout ten O'clock I heard something, put the flashlight out the door and three or four of the wannabe Burger Kings were ripping down my hay yard... Pulled the T posts right out of the ground! grrrrrrrrr...

Left me with no choice but to hustle around in the moonless dark and shove what I'd spread out in the back of the Lakota LQ so I could work back into the front stall. Then pile that hay back in the trailer so I could sleep not worryin' 'bout if the hay I can't afford to replace would still be there come dawn... arrrrrggggghhhhh.

Seems like sunset and sunrise is when the light shows this place off the best... Here's some more of those Arizona sunset times...

And a couple views of the Chiricahaus off to the east a little ways...

Like I said, here at 4400 feet or so it's been getting cold at night, down into the mid to high twenties, the last week or so. Supposed to do that for at least another week.

The simple truth is, like what they put in most "RVs" the batteries in this Horse Trailer rig aren't up to the task... considering the furnace they put in is barely up to the task... so... I'll be working on a more efficient, non electric heat source to stretch those batteries... until such time as I can put in the solar power and battery bank I am wishful of... but that'll wait on a few other priorities... and I'll just pile up more blankets at night.

Time to go work a pony...

- Brian

Ponies, Rats, Rocks and Root Hog or Die!

Progress on winter camp proceeds very very slowly. Materials requiring Dinero, like fence posts, fence wire etc. are difficult to accomplish when the Dinero is all in somone else's pockets.

Started re-seasoning that long unused dutch oven... makes kind of a pleasant sight sippin' my brew as the evening cools down fast at sunset... once I start bakin' up my biscuits___um um um__ good Eating!

I have also started the rat wars. There's a variety of 'em around. It's not that I truly despise the dirty lil' beggars... but where you find a lot of those vermin... you find more snakes.

Now, the sort that just slither around and eat rats, no problem. Kings, Gopher snakes, etc... but... in this part of the world, a good population of mickey's cousins generally means a healthy population of the sort of serpent that buzzes when you come around... and THOSE I don't permit to live close by.

SO... the bait's have been goin' into tunnels... as soon as I find some, gopher bombs will smoke 'em... fewer rats... fewer snakes... but for right now, it's pretty much a standoff.

Gonna start on the round pen this week I believe, dinero or not. A few posts and go as far as I can till more dinero shows up. Gonna fall back and do it pretty much an old time cowboy pen.

Can't afford a welder, so... treated wood posts and girts (to deter the termites for a little while)... and then, I found a saw mill clear over into New Mexico. (hope to find one closer... but the greenies shut down all the mills I knew of in arizona years ago...  resulting in that Half a million acre Blaze a few years back from badly overgrown forests)

The mill is needed as I'll be hanging "slabwood" slats vertical on the girts. Approximately 6" to 8" wide by 7 or 8 feet tall raw slab wood "planks" will wall the Round Pen. That'll give me a tall and secure pen.

That round pen is an issue because... well... I don't much like doin' Quigleys... You know what that is don't you?

*Imitating Mathew Quigley is tough on shirts!*

That's when your 160 pound butt is dangling on the end of a 30' rope as you get drug across the desert by a thousand pound pony!

Yeah... the filly is easy and far more co-operative. She longed sweet and easy.

The colt, uhhhh... he's a mite greener. Something goosed him after 3 or 4 turns. He was coming around to the left and sudden like cut back to the outside...

Jerked me off balance 'fore I could react. I ran 3 or 4 steps maybe trying to catch up so I could set and pop him back around... buuuut... surprise, he outran me!

The last 10' of that longe line sizzled through my paws till I hit the big knot and rubber disc on the end and then guess who got popped?

Yup... A genuine Quigley... dragging through 75' or so of Arizona desert with my nose in the dirt before I managed to stop him and get a handle on the situation. Or... like he prolly thinks; "Before -I- stopped!"

Like I said to some others before; I love Arizona, but it TASTES like shit! One of those "root hog or die" sort of moments... as we weren't in a pen... if I come loose... and HE got loose... aw... it'd be a tough while tryin' to gather him back up.

I must admit it was a bit of a left handed ego boost; The old buster has enough Cowboy left to hang on! That colt learned one thing. He can run, but he can't knock me off the end of that line! ;)

So... his training is kinda suspended till I get that pen up...

In the meantime I'll dig post holes... and haul rock to work on the other lil' projects I've got in mind... hit on one yesterday; rather than buy gravel or whatever for the path to and around the fire pit, there's so much rock around, it'll take a while but I'll just collect up enough flat ones to lay down a native stone surface.

Might even do that on the whole deck area... though that'll mean a Whole Lot of Rock!! but I got time and sweat... and that makes up for a distinct lack of riches.

annnnd I'll keep on working the filly. Since she's been saddled before, I should be able to be astride her in not so long a time with little risk.... and THAT will be a huge lift to my spirits.

- Brian