I'll Soon Be Rolln' My "Bedroll" Out in a Fresh Camp...

I'm working on a "change of venue". That's one of those writes euphemisms for; I'm starting up a fresh blog. I came to thinking I needed something that was more fitting to how I'm going these days and what I'm about...

Onliest trouble is__As seldom as I set such things up, getting it done is a piece of work. There's a fancy bit of elektawnic dancing that has to be done... and nobody, especially the ones who created the system have a real working idea of how to go about it.

When you factor in all the eggheads sitting behind the keyboards for the big outfits running this show__(The internet) it gets danged messy. They repeatedly "Improve" things (That is - mostly fix what ain't broke just so they've something to do). The result is, it takes twice as much work and a week of blue smoke, bad names and dirty words to sort through the "Improvement"... and generally the beer brewers sales improve as a consequence... I needed an excuse... Right?

Been trying - and failing - to get a Fresh Blog linked to my RV Website... they've made it so hair pulling convoluted, and I've no hair left to pull... that I'm questioning the value of goin' through their exercise.

The hoops to jump through are way to disjointedly explained, with far too many "mights" and "sometimes" and "Ifs" used in relation to their directions. That gives them an 'Out' when it doesn't work and nobody knows why... (which is from my perusal of the forums where folks are struggling for help with the "new" and "improved" and "Easy" system...

The likelihood is I'll abandon that lil' enterprise and just go a different way with it.

Not a bad thing... it'd fit into the simplification I'm truly trailing just now. Much of the "Internet" has lost a lot of its shine for this old buster.

That said A Fine Horse in New Country will be taking over as my "Main" blog in the very near future... there's little to read there just now... only a paragraph or so and some page headers for pages I have yet to build... all just to give me something to post as an initial test and to lay the foundations for me to tinker with.

Soooo... I'd appreciate it, if you want to keep on trailing along, if you went there and "Followed" me again. The gadget to do that is right there on the right hand side... 'Course as always, you can just bookmark it too.

I've got all sorts of doodles and ideas I want to work on (and write about) in the future so might could be the 'Semi-sabbatical" I've been on for a while is winding down. We shall see.

This blog will remain... I'll write a "Link" post here when I make the final move (and this blog will remain (along with my very first blog) as an "Archive" and a way for people to find where I went!

Many Thanks
Brian

Let's See... Where Was I?

 Oh yeah... I was preparing to leave Missouri...

It's now been something like two weeks... and I'm 1200 miles or so away from where I was... In fact, I'm back at my winter camp quarters in Cochise county.

I left Missouri bound west for Colorado... stopped in a place called Kiowa for a few minutes along the way to put those side compartments I built up to use...

Yeah... you're right... that's not motorcycle fuel...

Been flip floppin' four times a day for weeks... the last lil' bit in Missouri something clicked and the decision got made.

I took Cora back. CJ had got sold much earlier, and for whatever reason she didn't...

Bottom line... I started back to find that trail again and on that trail I will finish.

So, from Kiowa I kept moving west and started climbing back into my beloved mountains... to bust the truck straight away climbing out of Denver... sort of.

I waxed another fuel filter on the climb... Barely made it over the passes... but still managed to limp into Grand Junction once I got down off the passes. A fresh fuel filter the next morning and I was good again and ready to pick up...

Cora...

*Cora came home with me to Cochise*

 I loaded her in the Lakota just west of Grand Junction on a Tuesday morning and lit out for Flagstaff Arizona... where I had additional plans.

We stopped in Flagstaff for a couple nights on the way down to pick up most of the hardware to do a Solar Power install... I'm weary of the grinding of a generator and the hassles of dealing with the buggers...

Then, Thanksgiving day we rolled the six hours from Flag to my winter camp below Turkey Creek down here in Cochise County.

... and set to work!

I wasn't even sure if the thieving nature of a lot of the human race would have left me anything at all since I pulled out last March... but luck was with me. The round pen I needed was still standing and even its Gate remained hangin' on the posts!

I've been scrambling too many miles just about since we got here. Lined up a good bigger cistern and had to go get it. Was planning on a trailer to haul it with but cogitation set me a different way. Assuming I take off on a summer circle, a water trailer is one more piece of something I've got to deal with to prevent it from growing legs...

The cost of delivery of the lil' bit of water we use actually makes better sense than all the expense and hassle of another trailer... so... that's done and I've water for nearly a month sitting in the tank outside.

Then as I was stumbling around doin' all that... I crossed paths with some furniture... to do a remodel that's been percolating in my head for some little while...

*The Couch - Before*

I decided that "writing shed" in the back is just too much awkward and inconvenience... soooooo... on the weekend after Thanksgiving I did a whiz bang change up of the interior of my Lakota LQ Horse trailer.

*Cowboy Writing Desk and Chair - After*

If thy couch offends thee... Pluck it OUT!

... and replace it with a slick used writing desk and a sweet new chair that is WAY more comfortable than the old hide-a-bed couch!

and when I'm not sitting in the chair reading at night... it spins around to sit at the desk working...

Plus... Arlo's bed swaps with the chair...

*Arlo seems to prefer his bed under the desk*

With this setup, I can get up in the oh damn it's early 3 in the a.m. when sleep refuses to co-operate and sit at the desk with a hot chocolate and work...

... while it was just too cold last winter with the desk out back in the horse compartment...

So with that all done, this week I'm working on the inventing I have to do to wiggle a 270 watt Kyocera solar panel setup into the rig.

I'm having to fabricate a protective box for the controller and small breaker panel up under the gooseneck... since there's no compartments on this rig like a "normal" person's rig.

Cora... well... she was at a trainer in July but she's not been rode since mid September... too long for a green colt and a buster whose confidence s bruised. That busted shoulder of mine still has a ways to go to be 'good'...

So, I'm searching around for a good rider here to put a half dozen maybe ten rides on her to get her warmed up and moving again for me. Then I can swing a leg with much stronger confidence that I won't be a non bouncing projectile.

... soooo... I think that's about all that's been happening... juggling so many irons I'm not truly sure at any partic'lar moment where I'm at or what I'm doin...

Still have to rework that heater duct that ran under the couch... complete the install of the solar... and get that rider locked down ASAP to get Miss Cora under saddle strong. (eating a little pride there will go a long ways these days...)

I'll try to keep things a little more up to date... but between the hustlin' and Microsoft/Verizon stuffing my data plan with never ending HUGE updates every time I turn on the Hotspot... They have me spooked a lil' bit... ate 4 gig in fifteen minutes last week while I was just checking my accounts and email! arrrrrrggggghhhhh!

a 16 gig plan evaporates pretty dang fast at that rate! Crooked as politicians!

*The super moon just before I left Missouri*

Time now for me to move the chair to the sittin' an' thinkn' spot and kick back for a bit before I turn in...

Till next time
Brian

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

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

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

Slowly Shedding a Lot of the Stuff of Soh-Sigh-Uh-Tee...

And getting back to where I wanted to be. Each day has its chores. Each day a fresh part of who I was, and what I was pokes up its head.

*My ponies just out the door greet me each morning*

The small things... when your horses whicker to you when you step out at sunrise to toss them a flake of hay...

When you glance up and see your spurs hangin' on the wall when you come in the door from driving posts or moving panels...

or your hat hanging on a hook as you take your coffee in the morning...

The small things... that add a comfortable feeling to each day...

The days fall into a good and proper routine. Feed the horses. Do some work on putting this winter camp together...

Haul the load of water as it's needed...

I have but a small tank now. It'll do.

Hopefully, over the winter I can find a way to arrange a water trailer with a larger tank. That'll free up the truck from holding the water (which gets in the way sometimes when I need to haul feed or some such)

 Met a new neighbor a few days ago... just before a storm come a whuppin' in...

Little guy. not a whole lot bigger than a quarter. If he survives one day he'll be a dinner plate sized desert wanderer. ;)

So far we've got cottontail, Jack rabbits, Hawks and Owls. Quail, White tail deer, Javelina, coyotes and rats and gophers.

I know there are cougar around. and of course... Horses. :)

Yeah... a storm came and went. Not much really. rained a bit. Blew a lot. In some spots it snowed!

Got chilly at night. Down around 28 or so. Nice thing about "here" is... that's 'bout as tough as it gets. ;) and then the storm passes on by and heads for lands east...

Moved the pens to what I believe will be the permanent location and separated the colts... because Cora... the Buckskin, is proving to be a bit of a Hell Bitch... she's good with me, but she's a lil' bossy with CJ.

Bossy to the point she was kicking and threatening to grant me another vet bill, so now, they've got separate pens...

*Horseman's Winter Camp*

Slowly getting to work, working them. It's time to truly get "Back to Horse".

Part of that is working to put down the electronics...and... the drain of "social networks"... which are ANYTHING BUT social. I am working (And it's fearfully difficult) to abandon and ignore the news of declining human soh-sigh-uh-tee. It's a cancer on the soul that has its claws buried deep.

But, each day with Horses in this desert, the muscles to push away the insanity of humanity grows stronger... and its grip grows weaker...

My horses are waiting... and work on cleaning out the back of the trailer to get started on the next book...

- Brian

Slowin' Down? What was I thinkin'?

You might could remember I thought I might be able to start easin' up and slowin' down a bit... 

Since I done that "Slowin' down" in the past few days I've;

Hauled Cora to the vet 50 miles away to get the sutures out (She's 100% OK) which is a good thing.

I've hauled water and hay.

Picked up three fresh corral panels...

And... toted a heck of a collection of rock in a Mexican Dump truck...

Also cut out some sage brush and mesquite to make room, flagged out the road and corral locations...

...and even worked the ponies very lightly... working to get them truly halter broke... which they weren't.

So now... all slowed down and chillaxin'... I'm sore an' achin' and wonderin' if I can survive all this easin' up! You wouldn't think living in a Horse Trailer would be so athletic!

The rock is to make this winter camp of mine a mite more livable. Thought I needed two things; A fire pit and a leveled out spot to put down pavers for a deck next to my Lakota LQ, to make the camp less dusty... or muddy when it rains...

*RV Boondocking with Horses??? :-) *

 The ground slopes away from where I wanted the Lakota parked... so, lacking any dinero to buy block, I opted to invest sweat and collect up more of the rock that is found right on the place to arrange a low "retaining wall" so that I can fill behind it to mostly level the ground to set down pavers for an all weather deck surface.

 The drop is less than a foot, so only a simple, low retaining wall of native stone is needed to let me level it back to the Horse Trailer... once I get that leveled and packed... I can spend a few dollars for concrete pavers to set me a proper RV deck.

*Lakota LQ with fire pit and deck coming along*

The fill came from around a mesquite. The dang gophers had piled up dirt around the base of the tree building their own quarters and it was being choked out. There's still green shoots on it, so I think with a lil' nurturing that tree will come back and thrive...

Sorry gophers... ya'll just got evicted by an un-sympathetic cowboy!

In the pic above I just started diggin' it out. You can see how deep they'd buried it...

All dug out and ready to shine... maybe...

Now shhhhhh... this is a "secret"... but I can't think of a better use for... ahem... "Shower" water... than...

Nurturing a gopher abused Mesquite tree back to good health!

That's one of the plans... an efficient "re-use" of some of my "resources".... but shhhhh... don't tell no one...

Efficient and responsible Re-use of precious resources is something govie frowns on... even here in the desert where water is more scarce with each passing year.

Starting to feel a mite more like a place to call "home". If even it is a part time winter camp or home base...

The mesquite fired biscuits and fire cooked beans is gonna have to wait for the fixin's to be bought on the next supply run... after some more dinero shows up in the bank account... and that supply run is a hundred and fifty mile+ round trip...

*Deck in progress for a Lakota Charger LQ in my Winter Camp*

'Till then I'll keep hauling rock and dirt from gopher mounds that's scattered all over this lil patch of cowboy heaven... I'll tell you what; LQ Horse Trailer Living ain't half bad.

Maybe I'll take a day off and go walkin' around over in the Chiricahua's... it's not like they're a long ways off...

*The Chiricahua Mountains off to the east*

Or__maybe the Dragoons, which lay the other way...

*The Dragoon Mountains off to the west*

At least... when I'm not with my ponies...

*Cody Jack and Cora*

 I feel like I've got a lot done. There's much much more to do... as well as a LOT of writing that needs to be whittled on.

So... I best quit palaverin' and get to it.

Brian