Missouri Mists... Chicken Mansions...Rolling Onans... and more South Dakota

Been staying fairly busy. Lots of little projects along with some bigger ones... while letting the future sort itself out a bit.

That's the toughest part, being patient enough to let the noise of confusion settle down sufficient to let a busted buster make some sense of any of it. Well, that's happened to the degree that I'm pulling out Sunday morning for a lightning run, bobtail, to South Dakota to do the deal of turning my residency to pure South Dakota... Just to confuse the issue as much as I can...

I should try and get a piece of dirt for a "summer camp" up in Montana... so that... Arizona, South Dakota... or... Montana... I can Keep the dang govie bureaucrats guessing...

The Lakota's plate expires in June... and Colorado, being the stepchild of California wants right around $900 to live in it for another year. On a lark I called my SD contact to ask what it would cost and how difficult it would be to swap the title/plates on an "encumbered" rig to SD.

$184 and two bits of information. ... uhhhhh... wait... what?

That's right just $184 as opposed to Colorado's greed. Considering that doesn't even count in the lack of a state income tax... another couple hundred bucks anyway... and it becomes a no brainer. Which is good considering the damage I've done to what I was issued leaves me just about in that position. Guess I'll find out what I can do with an extra grand in my pocket each year.

A couple weeks back Arlo got modified...

Those cones are awkward in a house... in a horse trailer, they are a pure unadulterated nuisance. A week of that...

Had him just gazing out the window at sunrise... wanting to be back outside letting the other dogs try and catch him...

...which they can't do so he just runs inches in front of their noses tormenting them...

Hoping that the loss of some essential bits will slow down his metabolism a mite, and make him a little bit more tolerable a road dog!


The sunrise around here is my favorite time. It's quiet and the day is still unblemished. Lets a guys hope simmer along some more...

The coop we started a few weeks ago is coming along. It's taking shape in the Missouri mists... got obstructed here and there by weather and other distractions...

Folks seem all wired up about it's architecture... Some variation of; "Why'd you build it so tall?" seems to be the dominant wonderment...

Uhhhhh... because we Wanted To?!

*The chicken coop is nearing completion*

The second most common comment is some variety of; "It looks like a church."

Now, that, is actually the most accurate thing folks have said. See, it's all about doing what you want to in life. Doing what toots your OWN whistle. Finding fulfillment and what makes YOU happy... NOT... doing what anyone else or all the judgemental control freaks try to bludgeon you into.

This here project, this lil' chicken coop is about my daughter working to build the world around her that she wants to live in... and all the comments of "Why? It's just for some fool chickens" makes me kinda sad for the grey brained people who think that narrow and unimaginatively.

Another project I've been tinkering with is my generator. The temporary mounting needed replacement... so I got to work on fabricating that...

I didn't have access to a welder so I thought I'd just rivet things together...

That was working pretty well... though the rivets wouldn't pull things quite tight enough to please completely.

... so I've had to add some bolts here and there to give me a lil' more confidence.

 It's also near to complete. Just a couple more lil' bits, some prep and a spray paint job and I'll get Josh to help me grunt the gennie onto the "cart" and bolt it down...

... and then drag it up a ramp back onto the truck...

The end result will be able to be unloaded if I want... and if I have a ramp, 'cause that Onan beast is heavy!

Jasper had a "Zoo day" with his pre-school the other day, so I tagged along.

Springfield's zoo isn't terrible big but as lush and green as it is around here it is a pretty place... if you can tune out the cacophony of seventeen jillion kids! It was EVERYONE'S Zoo day...

I have some trouble taking photos in a lot of zoos... trying to make a picture of an animal without the ever present wire and cages in sight is difficult. There lies my ambivalence with zoos. I like seeing animals I'd most likely never ever see otherwise... but I'm not sure my want to see them trumps their right of creation to be out there, free in the world... kind of a bit of a paradox to ponder I guess...

Keriann and I had us our own private guide...

Jasper had his zoo map out and kept us from getting lost...

The little ones are fun to see excited about all the different critters... but... when some 15 year old runt is chasing pea cocks around stomping and tormenting them it pushes buttons in old hermit drifters that are best left un pushed.

His "Teacher" finally stepped in and placed minimal control on the delinquent... juuuuuuust as my feet started taking the rest of me in his direction with the intent of doing a lil' stomping and tormenting of my own...

Whew! close call... bet that woulda made the news huh? ;)

So, Sunday morning I'll fire up the old dodge and roll for South Dakota to do my requisite overnight... Then back here for another week or two to finish up some projects... then I'm bound back into the west where I belong...

Brian

It's Been a Tough Ten Days and a Couple Hard Hauls...

Where to start... Been such a trying ten days I'm not tee total sure... Let's see...

So...I took off for Gettysburg, SD getting there with little difficulty. Settled on the colt I was going to load; It was really a choice between a gelding and a sister of his... the gelding won...

*Cody Jack*

Had a bit of trouble for a couple minutes but he finally climbed in the trailer and I headed for Glendive, Montana to wait.

They hadn't got the requisite blood test for transportation.

Nigh on to half way back there... I'd just rolled through Faith, South Dakota when my eyes strolling across the dash noticed... "AW HELL COWBOY! ... You ain't got any voltage!"

Now, since fuel pumps and such require some electrical juice or your backside is sitting in a quiet truck on the side of the road with two unbroke broncs in the back... I swapped ends and headed back to Faith.

*Sitting in a truck shop... again...*

Took three hours and near to $300 to get her back on the road... third alternator in as many years...ugh...

Pulled into the county fairgrounds in Glendive after dark. Managed to get CJ into a pen without any damage and went to bed for the night. Had to sit there that night and two more waiting but got loaded early on haul day. Had a sleepless night fretting about getting those unbroke colts into the trailer. So, just to show me my faults, they both just walked right in! We made a long hard haul for those colts to Fort Collins.

*Showed before... but... Pretty Poco Fox... "Cora"... that I was waiting for*

And then the Real fun began.

You see, these colts are green as grass. They been living in a herd their whole lives. He's 4 1/2 and she's 3 1/2... and they didn't want to get caught in the pen I'd arranged. Like a greenhorn I'd chosen to leave their leads off... pitiful.

Well, with them walking a circle around me in that pen she chose to dodge between CJ and the 2X12 Farm corral fence I'd tied my road pen panels to... and found the ONLY spike head protruding from that old fence... that I'd missed...

It stuck out about 3/8 of an inch... but enough to catch her right above the eye... Aw Hell...

*Nearly catastrophic laceration*

 This being late on a Saturday afternoon... not a vet could be found... except of course for the Colorado State University Vet Hospital... where we spent a few hours and ohhh... $700?

The real concern here was, that eye wasn't blinking any more. The laceration was deep and in a bad place. Danger of broken orbital bones, nerve damage... direct damage to the eye itself...

If that eye doesn't blink it dries out and eventually, she'd lose it. :'(

My guts were churning. I was, pure honest, feeling as low as I could get... It's been an awful couple of months in my world to begin with... This happening three days after I loaded the horse in my trailer was NOT needed.

Well, we sat there in Fort Collins for a couple of days, treating the eye to keep it from drying out and causing ulcers... and begging the Boss to heal her up.

When the swelling reduced enough and that eye started blinking again, even if slow, my blood pressure dropped some 600 points.

A storm was threatening on the Front Range so I loaded late in the afternoon figuring on a long difficult haul to get to winter camp... and some $1000 poorer on an already too tight budget... My spirits were low.

But, we made the haul ok. Several hour/2 hour stops to let the ponies rest, eat and drink and we pulled into winter camp.

*Nearly Home*

... got the pen set up quick and let them out into the quiet of the Arizona sunshine.

Scrambled for a couple of days to get settled. First day was getting a few more panels to stretch the road pen into something that'd work for a longer time... since the damage done to the budget erased the ability to set up the BIG working pen I'd planned on. (that would double as a good big corral). And also, getting the water access lined out.

Next morning... I go out just after sunrise to feed. The Buckskin filly, whose name is Pretty Poco Fox... but who I've gone to calling Cora... is Queen of the roost. She was top dog in her herd and figures to still be.

Well... I fiddled too long moving bales around and she went to chousing CJ a bit... causing him to take a good big jump over the water tub and chest one of my Light weight ROAD PEN panels...

Bought 3 ten foot panels the day before... lost 1 eight foot panel the next day... can you spell snake bit?

I swear... somebody tells me their luck is all bad and I just laugh... They haven't a clue about bad luck and the steep slope some busters have to climb ever' day of their whole life... all of it against the wind.

But there's no choice but to swing a leg and ride... till the day's light is gone.

Finally hauled my first load of water the next day. Which was a good thing, because I'd given the last gallon on the rig to the ponies that morning.

Of course that was a di doe too... standing there beside the truck talking to the well guy as the tank filled... "OH CRAP!" I jumped...

Some bozo with his mind running nine oh in twelve different directions had failed to "crack" the lid on top to vent the tank. That well pressure had it swelling up like a balloon! Damn near blew the sucker up!

Sheesh... now... I've had a couple days of just talking to my horses... flagging out where I'll put my road into this lil five acre patch... and just breathing.

The days are slowing down and some of that cacophony of useless noise so-sigh-uh-tee gets shoved into our brains is fading away.

It's that racing around trying to keep ahead of the beast that trips us... trips ME. Once I get that put aside... and live in MY world... I do ok... it's trying to live in that "other" world where I don't and Never fit... that gets me into difficulty. My brain gets so fogged and spinning I'm lucky to be able to accomplish any damn thing.

I live in the Shadow of the Chiricahua Mountains now...

*My Ponies at sunset... starting to work their magic*

Working out a routine these days. Some outside work on the place. Some time with the ponies... and soon... getting back to some writing... but mostly... stopping to breathe... and see if the cacophony in my head will lay down and go quiet on this Arizona desert.

Brian

Crazy Horse, Theodore Roosevelt and Sydney on the Horizon

Spent two nights near the Crazy Horse Mountain Carving...

...before making a daylong roll to the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park... and then Moved this morning up to the North Unit.

We'll bump on over to Sydney on Sunday, to get all the paperwork buttoned up and start working in the Lab Monday evening.

But first a little more from our stay around Rushmore and Crazy horse.

While we were set near Crazy Horse, made a small circle that took us past Rushmore...

 Where, since I've not piled any beets yet so the bank is pretty empty I opted to NOT pay $11 to park... and just Poached pics from various wide spots and pull outs. :)

On toward evening, after being advised by a reader that Military Vets are gifted free entrance to the Crazy Horse site... we went on over there to walk through the Museum and see what's what. We did that and then left for a short while to fuel up for the next days run before returning for the nights Laser Show on the Mountain.

*The light changes as the day nears Sunset ;) *

*Crazy Horse mountain sculpture lit up before the laser show*

I think it awful amazing that the man who started this monument, Korczak Ziolkowski, which dwarfs Rushmore, worked from 1947 until 1982 when he died... and never saw any more than a lot of blasted rock. His family has continued the work, totally on private funds since then.

The Face of Crazy Horse wasn't carved out of the stone until many years later. It wasn't finished until 1998 I think they said. When he died in 1982 only rough blocking had been achieved. Talk about dedication.

Inside they've art, artifacts, a gift shop and a couple of examples what the completed work is to look like.

I hadn't been aware that the site, which receives zero Federal or State funding, and has actually refused such, has much greater ambitions than just the massive sculpture. They've begun work and have plans to continue development of a Medical School for Indians as well as an American Indian Museum.

*Not a bit of national history for us to brag about*

I'd have to say that between the two monuments... Personally... I think Crazy Horse is moving out ahead of Rushmore...

So... next morning we got up and made that run to Theodore Roosevelt National Park... but this post is already purty long... so I'll save that catchin' up for the next one.

But now I'm for bed shortly... have to do paperwork and other "employment" hassles in the morning.

Brian