Horses and Wild Dogs... Struggling to Compete with Cowboy Psychosis

Back in the spring I'd decided that to get where I belonged required a full circle back to my beginnings and back To Horse.

Made some significant progress fast... locked down a small patch of Arizona dirt for a winter camp location and also added Arlo to my camp. Then along came the Lakota... I had the new home I'd need...

... and then more sadnesses... those never seem to stop coming.

The whole reason, to be true and honest, for the choices I was making was that I decided that I needed Horses and Dogs back in my world to balance out the faults and sadnesses in my head.

For a short while Arlo did service to that hope... and then that sort of fell apart as he's grown and his true self was revealed. For Arlo was picked up believing he was bred an Old Style Australian Shepherd.

The past months have demonstrated the truth beyond any shadow of a doubt. Either the owner of his momma or the owner of the stud dog (the most likely culprit) failed to control the BORDER COLLIE stud dog that was also in the area...

... because I'll bet both my kidneys and half my liver that though his brothers and sisters may have had an aussie dad... Arlo ... is the consequence of a BORDER COLLIE getting to his momma at the same time.

Yep... I believe if I ever pony up the bucks to get genetic testing done it will prove my belief. Arlo has a dad... but his dad is from the most psycho breed on earth... BORDER COLLIES.

... and that just made me mad. 

He looked pure Aussie at nine weeks... the past months though as he has grown, his conformation, ears, structure, personality, behavior, demeanor, every part of him that you can describe screams BORDER COLLIE...

and that made me madder...

Because the trouble with that is... I don't and have never fit personality wise with a border collie. They have been so badly inbred to set and promote their herding abilities that they are the poster canines for obsessive compulsive psychosis and Hyper Active Freaks with a capital H.

Now, you'd think that being half bred would tone down the whack job that those border collies are... didn't happen that way. It's more like in his case it's a Hyrbrid Vigor Frankenstein.

I've never seen a more hyper, more out of control, chewing everything he can get his teeth into, shaking, quivering, yapping, doesn't ever stop unless he's sleeping, psychotic furball with teeth in my life.

Which... on top of the issues already twisting my brain inside out, was definitely NOT what I was hoping for or needing.

The past week has been a bit of a nightmare with his psychosis rising to fever pitch levels.  My inability to deal with it only stoked the heat inside me that I've always fought to contain. And to my shame, because I wasn't shaping up to emotionally deal with his brand of whacko... I isolated him as a consequence of his bad behavior.

Only problem with that is... it only compounds the difficulties. You end up on a treadmill slowly digging itself into a hole... or in his case... spinning like a mudbogger in a sand pit throwing up a dust cloud.

Horses, dogs there's not a terrible difference in training. It's all about observation and understanding.  They are going to react to the world around them in certain predictable ways.

Yeah... pretty much like broken down, emotionally busted cowboys...

If you surrender to emotion when dealing with critters you already lost. Anger and emotion have no place in training animals. They can't change who or what they are. That's assigning human attributes to the animal that they don't possess. They're animals not people. Dogs and horses think as dogs and horses. It dishonors them to try and make them people.

I believe they call that anthropomorphizing or some such...

... luck with pronouncing that... I can't hardly spell it!

That's not to say that dogs and horses don't have souls... I believe they do... they're just different than ours. One of the differences is... Horses and dogs are Honest and Pure of spirit; where people rarely are.

It's that honesty and purity that my own soul cries out for in needing them back in my own life.

And it was my own dishonesty toward this dog that slapped me hard last night. He was aching for something he needed that he believed I had... and my response was emotional anger and impatience...

There's only two words worthy of describing that behavior in a man; Punk Ass.

... yeah... as good as I can be with horses and dogs... as much as I "Get" what they want and how they think... I can also be an asshat when the hurt inside is stirred up and I get to only thinking about poor little me.

So... today we started off on the first day of the rest of our life together. With that anthropomorphizing thrown out... again... and the honesty and purity of an animal's soul calming the confusion and sorrows spinning in my head.

Yeah... the spirit of the animal I was looking for all along... finally broke through...

This is where it gets truly confusing (Considering the idea of anthropomorphizing)... and where a lover of Horses and Dogs... simply accepts them with the Faith that though it can't be... it is.

"They" say dogs and horses don't... they can't... Love... I say "They" are blind in their own hearts.

A person who can say such as that has never felt the gentle touch of a horse or a dog calm the panic and sorrow in their own soul... and their spirit is the weaker for it.

"Whoever said a horse was dumb, was dumb."

~ Will Rogers

"When your horse follows you without being asked, when he rubs his head on yours,
and when you look at him and feel a tingle down your spine...you know you are loved."

~ John Lyons

Dogs love without condition... Horses... if they love you... see you as an equal.

- Brian

A New Sidekick... Co-Pilot... Out of a Blue Clear Sky

The sure thing about life is that it never goes how you planned it out. not Ever.  If you think you're in control of it... can I share some of your drugs?

I try to sell the deal that I'm a hard sided, double tough, Cowboy Vet now-without-a-bike billy bad ass biker cowboy... yeah... don't tell nobody you know better ok?

Camp is too quiet... to lonesome... I met up with this lil' guy and that part of me that just breaks out, damn the wind and takes off of a sudden whispered; this is the way to go Cowboy... don't leave him behind...

*Arlo*

So I didn't.

I expected trouble to start. It's some work to start a pup. I mean, a 9 week pup is like a lil' baby... right? Whoever heard of a pup like that being housebroken from the get go?

Well now you have. Tee Total house broke... all on his own from the first minute...

He's a a red tri Australian Shepherd and an ISDR dog; International Stock Dog Registry... which is where you find the Real Aussies... the dogs they were before the AKC turned 'em into all show and no go critters.

Hopefully he'll fix some of what's broke in this busters head... or at least soften it up some... we shall see.

Brian

1979-2013 ... Been a While... Learning to Treasure the Bits and Pieces...

34 years today... and still ticking... kind of like a roller coaster at times... but like the ride... it's a closed circuit... so it just keeps on clickin' along. ;)

Yesterday we went to collect a few jugs of water for camp... and ended up doing something between 5 and 6 miles of high country walking.

As pretty as the eastern Sierras are, that beauty is real often difficult to capture on "film".

Like yesterday, we were walking in what most might call dark timber. The trees were so thick it's hard to get any perspective to capture a decent photograph.

It's times like that you have to focus in on the smaller bits of the whole scene.

Pretty much the same as the Grand Canyon. It's just too much to put into one photograph, so you have to sort out the small bits you Can get your head around.

... and then try to find a way to record that small piece to remember the day with.

Often, that sort of country, like we walked through yesterday... is my preferred landscape. There's a feeling of safety... when shrouded by timber so thick you can't see thirty yards.

Don't get me wrong, open country, far country... stretches your soul. It feeds the hunger to travel to that far horizon... to see what lays beyond it...

But... the trade off is... out in that open country... you're exposed... there's no where to hide, no where to retreat... It's like you're committed with no going back. It can be intimidating. That's a feeling I had alone on a motorcycle on the Alaskan Highway, deep in the Yukon... Committed... No Going Back...

In heavy forest... where you can slip away unseen in seconds... there is an ethereal feeling of safety and seclusion.

It does my soul good to know that even in California... where your first thought is often the MILLIONS and MILLIONS of people crowded together in a huge megalopolis...

... that just a short run away... is deep forest where your soul can catch its breath... Secluded from the hordes and clamor.

So... we were headed back from getting water for camp and decided to check out a couple more of the Free NF campgrounds in the area, to see if they'd been opened up yet...

***now that's a paradox of sorts. The NF service allows most of its sites to be badly over priced... and then has a gob of actually sweet camps in this eastern Sierra area that are FREE! ... it would be a whole lot better if they'd just find a happy medium... like say manage their camps Themselves, like the BLM, charge $8 for ALL of  'em... and send the Mgmt. Corporations packing? :) plus, they'd get a greater return that way to boot!***

Well, back to the Walk... So... We ended up 4 wheeling up Deadman Road... to a point where the road narrowed such that a Polaris Razor might be comfortable on it... but not an 8' broad, wide butted Dodge flatbed; so we got out to make a short walk...

You walk a short ways and say; "Let's see what's around the next turn"

The short walk becomes a mile out... two... and a bit... and ends up a four or five mile circle.

The forest absorbs the turmoil in your head... your breathing slows... a strange feeling of serenity and belonging seeps into that space behind your eyes where thoughts tumble without being put into words.

Should a man be sad that it took him so many decades to find the "place" in this life where he belongs?

Or should he just thank his lucky stars that the life he's had... has taught him to treasure so dearly all the shining bits and pieces?

To not regret the crushing sorrows, and shattering fears? ... but to acknowledge that it was those moments that create the contrast that makes his todays so clear in their treasure.

Like the forest itself...

... parts of it are bent, broken, burned and shattered... but it struggles on...

... and in amongst all that... is new and shining life.

Remember the old saying... "you can't see the forest for the trees?"

We've been moving around great areas here... obsidian domes , pumice mines...

There are great areas here that from ground level look only like huge areas where mining tore things to hell and then the people who did it... left...

I'd wondered how could there be a big enough market for obsidian to justify such a mining effort.

The places look like the ugly scars of mine tailings dumps as you pass by...

*View from ground level*

There must be a half dozen of 'em in the area...

DOH!

Yesterday, while trying to figure out just how far we'd actually walked (left the phone and its tracking app in the truck... doh!)...

Heidi pulled up a google earth pic that revealed the volcanic truth to us!



View Larger Map

We were driving along that lil' dirt track along top edge of what is actually a volcanic crater... and I'm thinking it's an old mining waste dump! ... DOH!

The point is... stop and look around... There's often a lot that you're missing with too casual a glance.

Also found along the way...

A fire pit in a campground...

...built by one of those camping there...

*Buck... at the headwaters of Glass Creek and the Owens River*

Just treasuring the bits and pieces... "a glass of buttermilk, a soft bed"... following the wisdom of my Ol' buddy Gus. ;)

So... today I gotta get rolling... heading off for an Anniversary breakfast and then some ghost town site seeing... and likely an Anniversary lunch too... if I can find a drunk to roll! ;)

Another Day in the Sun
Brian

RV Boondocking Security

A couple weeks back we had a conversation with a couple and their boys on a trail near Dumont Lake. They'd recently bought their lil' trailer and were staying in the campground while they learned the ropes. We talked quite a lil' while. The conversation went from trails and refrigerators competing with the sun warmed wall of the rig to safety in camp.

When we mentioned our preference for full on boondocking camps. She said that she was "afraid" to get too far out into far country.

"Afraid?" I asked. "Well yeah." she replied. "Is it safe out there?"

She implied that they'd be vulnerable to thieves and attack out  that far from the law. It was all I could do to not laugh. I told her, in all the years I/we have wandered far and empty country, the ONLY place we've had Issue One with two legged parasitic scavengers... was IN TOWN.

Is RV Boondocking Safe? You bet. Far safer than the folks in the settlements thinking they are protected by police. I mean, when was the last time a cop knocked on your door because he'd heard that you Were Going to be burglarized and he was there to prevent it? They don't protect Against anything. They come AFTER the fact and do their best to clean up.

Nope, the parasites stay in town. That's where the prey is concentrated... and their treasures. It would cost the grubby leaches too much gas to drive out into the mountains and prowl around trying to find somebody's secluded unguarded camp. It makes no sense.

So... We're back in Fort Collins for a few days to deal with a few tasks that have popped up. Camped at a friends lil' farm hard on the east side of town...

Night before last Heidi "heard" something in the middle of the night and thought; "That's a strange noise for a coon to make!" Turned out to be car/truck doors being opened. When we got up in the morning a pair of sheriffs patrol cars were over at the "Big House." Their car had been broken into... and our truck.

Our friend lost some valuable items, $1500+ out of the car they'd absent mindedly left unlocked.  There was nothing in our old truck to take... but it had been gone through. Near as we can tell from the "Chronology" of what Heidi heard and misinterpreted... they went through his car... then our truck... and a minute or so later she heard the dog growl standing at our open/screened door... the trailer is parked about 40 feet or so from where the truck was parked.

I figure, the thieving fools started approaching the trailer looking for more loot... then heard the dog and realized; "Oh Crap it's not just parked! There's people there!"

Lucky for them. Had they got juuuust a mite closer; close enough to truly light that Aussie up? THAT there would have gotten me up... and then the fireworks of a cranky old, puss gut, cowboy biker vets Bad Attitude and distaste for thieving, two legged scum would have been on full display... NOT a pretty picture. ;)

The Deputies said they had several other break-in calls to respond to nearby... looks like the vermin were running a pre-scouted route... Something you DON'T see up in the High Lonesome.

 And... THAT is the point of this story. If you don't go out into Far Country out of fear of being that far from the "reach" and Protection of the "authorities"... Know this. That is the only place your "Safety" increases! Because the two legged scavengers are far far fewer and farther between. The "Protection" offered by the "authorities" in town is a charade and a fairy tale. They protect nothing and only clean up "Some" of the mess.

Most of all... You are safer in the mountains and out on the deserts than you'll ever be in town. The thieves see little profit in wandering around out there. It's too far and too unknown... and actually I think they're a mite fearful themselves of those camps.

They know that a heavy percentage of those folks are the Self Reliant Type who are equipped, willing, and quite capable of defending their own, while the fairy tale promises of government "guards" remain safely back in town. The odds are against them... so they stay away.

The only place I've heard of theft or other issues is down around Quartzsite in the winter... and an occasional RV PARK!... and THAT is because there is a HEAVY concentration of High Dollar rigs with marketable goodies for the smash and grab vermin to prey on in those places.

Parked by yourself three miles up a forest dirt road, thirty miles out of a little town... behind a copse of Aspen in a quiet mountain meadow? About the only thing you have to worry about there... is when you're going to have to go back to town!

Just Sayin' it Like it Is
Brian

Odds and Ends of Disjointed Ramblings

About nine O'clock last night a big red alert triangle popped up on the smart phone. "WARNING SEVERE ALERT"  - Flash Flood Warning in this area!

Well... we're sitting on a point at maybe nine or ten thousand feet. If the water stacks up this high... I think they'll be writing a new chapter in the Ol' Book! ;)

It did rain though. Whew! Did it rain! Made for a cool morning too. Felt kinda guilty crankin' up the furnace this morning while I had my coffee and muffin' sittin' watchin' the sun climb over the mountains. The way ever'body back east and even down on the front range has been grousin' 'bout the HOT! :) But it was chilly! So yes... on the 25th of July, on a wet, chilly, mountain morning, this old stove up buster cranked up his furnace to warm up his feeble achy old bones. ;)

How many of you travel and hike with dogs? When you're out on the trail suckin' on your camelback... are you remeberin' your dogs? A few years back Heidi got given a lil' gizmo that we thought was just 'bout the dumbest thing we'd ever seen.

I mean... how ya gonna keep water in a folded bowl? :)

*Folding Dog Bowl*

Turned out to be a handy dang lil' thing. Folds flat and fits in a pack pocket and is always handy for dog drinks on the trail. Which is a whole lot better than a sick dog and another vet bill. We've carried this lil' bit of plastic for six or seven years!

Don't have any idea where you can find one. But I know they make folding bowls for back packers and they likely have some variety of folding bowl at Pet Smart or one of the other big box critter places. If you walk much with the dogs out in far country... it's a good investment. ( and don't forget the water bottle in your pack for the dogs water!)

Along that same line... DOG HAIR!!! ARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

There is nothin' worse than Hairy Ice Cream or... sitting on a quiet morning contemplating the universe over a cup of hot coffee... and having to stop and fish DOG HAIR out of your cup! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

So... While there is no guaranteed gizmo that prohibits an invasion of discarded dog hair there is a gadget that helps cut down on it a goodly amount...

*A Dog Rake*

The thing is made by a couple of different outfits. It comes with a pair of blades. The one shown that rakes out the undercoat and loose hair and then a thinning blade that swivels around to take out even more DOG HAIR!!!

It's not a cheap lil' tool... I guess they charge what the market will bear... and when cranky Ol' busters are grousin' 'bout the DOG HAIR in their coffee... apparently they'll "Bear" quite a bit!!! :)

The thing required in the whole deal though is the discipline to get out and scrape the dogs. Sometimes she waits too long and when she does get after 'em it looks like a herd of rabbits was slaughtered! Better that than fishin' hair out of my ice cream though!

... or chasin' four pound Dust Bunnies of DOG HAIR around the rig!!!

Worked into the evening last night as the rain fell... chasing bad spelling, typos and weirded out formatting.

If you'd asked me twenty years back what I'd be doing now... I can say that editing fiction was Not something I expected. :) As soon as I got that done... as much as my eyes can find to fix at this point anyhoo... I set to work building a table of contents and buttoning up the last bits of work on my third Novel!

HEART of a MAN is on track to be uploaded in the next few days. I just need to do the final scanning to try and spot any OOPS! that have slipped through. Otherwise it's sitting in my laptop all set to go.

This one is the second book following on behind A Matter of Honor in what is now OFFICIALLY the Jeb Taylor Series. I guess it takes more than one book to be a series huh? :)

I've been thinking of a way to give this book and the others a "kick". One way, that doesn't change the cost to anybody would be if I could organize the folks who intend to buy a copy as soon as it's released, to wait for one particular day to do their deals. That way... if all those folks did their deals on the same day it could have a bigger "splash" that could have a chance of pushin' it up into the "Lower" sales rank numbers and make them more "Visible" to all the jillions of readers out there who have never heard of a puss gutted old biker cowboy story teller.

So... I'm thinkin' that if I can get it uploaded in the next day or two... Sometime next week would be a "Target Day"... So if you're lookin' for a Western to read on your Kindle... Stay tuned! :)

Having a lil' difficulty finding water around Steamboat. I've kept my eyes peeled the couple of times we've been down off the mountain, but no spigots have appeared. It's one of the "issues" of boondocking... finding water and dumps. Usually little difficulty. There's dumps all over... and generally there's a spigot to rustle water in National Forest Campgrounds (which we frequently pay to use the campgrounds)... but here...

...Routt National Forest is taggin' users $ten$ bucks for a campsite 15 miles up a Bad Road... seems like a lot for a site that they don't maintain (all over grown with brush and deadfall), the roads are washed out, first gear, rock crawlin' axle busters... just lil' trash cans and few dumpsters and NO WATER. It's only proper to pay a reasonable amount for the use of facilities... but it's also only reasonable to maintain what you're charging $300 bucks a month for the use of!... or charge a heck of a lot less for it... Just sayin'

That and consider that the Tonto National Forest down in Arizona gets $6 bucks... and they've put in paved roads, solar shower buildings, and spacious, comfortable campsites with Ramada covers and GASP! Water!!!... seems like maybe a few other National Forests need to send their supervisors to Arizona to learn how to do the job right? It would appear that it CAN be done! ;)

I mean... the only thing that the two FS campgrounds near us have is a grubby outhouse... and battered pic nic tables. The brush is so thick that it's really just a skeeter farm. It's really time to start running a brush hog through most of these FS campgrounds. Let "natural" prevail out in the forest... but inside the campgrounds, clear 'em out and make 'em comfortable and usable! Just a lil' effort could make a huge increase in enjoyment and "Use" by folks. Improving both the Forest Service bottom line (with increased use and fee revenue) and the worlds of the people using the campsites...

... since I don't expect any great changes in bureaucracies... I'll just keep on boondocking and avoiding the sites that aren't taken care of...

... anyhoo.. I'll keep my eyes peeled once again when we make a bill payin' run to Steamboat today... There's only one dump in town at a private park... maybe I can buy three jugs full of fresh, clear, water! ;)

Un-Flash flooded and "Rambled out" on the Mountain
Brian