A ditch made memories come flooding back.

Sunday, the week after Brad's wild ride on a completely naked Foxsun, I decided he was worth keeping an eye on. I had my camera ready for some great blog footage in case he did something crazy again. They always say you have to watch out for the quiet ones.

I asked him (or as he put's it 'barking out orders') to help me lift some rotten old pallets I was always tripping over near the corrals.

Pretty soon thing's got interesting.


Snake!


I said. "Hold on. I'll get a bucket and the shovel to pick him up with". When I turned back around our little dare devil had nabbed him.


It was just a young Bull Snake. They are non venomous. But Brad picks up Rattle Snakes like this as well.


He dropped him in a mineral tub. I shouted out, "Can he jump out of that tub"? To which Brad replied, "Snakes don't jump", like I'm stupid or something. So I said, "You know what I mean, IS HE GOING TO BUGGER OFF out of there"! Brad never replied because he was probably thinking what a twit I was. We continued to pick up the pallets. Well he did anyway, I had three horses to irritate as they tried to eat.

A little while later I heard Brad saying, as he looked in the tub, "Snakes gone". "He must have jumped out then" I replied. Well little Snaky, as he become known, kept showing up under stuff Brad was picking up and Brad kept putting him back in the tub he couldn't jump out of.

Pretty soon Bobby got wind that something was up and put her nose into the tub to sniff the snake. Bull Snakes have this thing they do when they are threatened, they pretend to be a Rattle Snake by making a rattle sound and shaking their tail. I said to Brad, "Only an idiot could be fooled by that" as Bobby leaped back. Bobby has been bitten by a Rattle Snake and remembered it hurt like hell. I took the tub and put the little fellow somewhere were he could find a place to hid and didn't have to spend the rest of his life jumping out of tubs.

Next we drove along the levee because Brad had to close some valves in the main line.

This is the freshly burned off main irrigation ditch.


When there's lots of water in the creek we irrigate from this ditch. Brad's grandfather dug miles of irrigation ditches by hand in the 1890's. Back then he could only flood irrigate. We flood irrigated the draw and part of the flat all the way up until the 1990's. I am fully trained in the ancient art of flood irrigating and irrigated many acres this way the summer of 1988 while pregnant. It was refreshing to sit in the outlets and cool off on those hot days. You see lots of little animals as the lands fill. Snakes get flushed out along with all kinds of rodents. I had a family of baby gophers floating along in my straw hat like little sailors. It was a fun job and I always seemed to have an adventure waiting for the lands to fill.

I remember one cold morning I needed to take some boards out of the main ditch and my belly was too big to stand on the dam and hook the boards up with the shovel, so I slid down the bank and into the water. The cold water came up to my chin and William went nuts kicking. I was responsible for running the farm that year. Brad had to travel a lot and would sometimes be gone all week. Even the boy Keegan had gone to England for the summer.

I flood irrigated, primed pumps, replaced risers which was very hard to do because I would get stuck in the mud up to my knees. I drove tractor to do thing's like baling hay or burning ditches. I had to climb all the ten towers on the circle (center pivot irrigation system) many times to work in the tower control boxes testing the micro switches and even doing some fancy by-passing fuse operations. I even rode on the local fire truck squirting out fires. Two weeks before William was born I went out with my shovel to help the local volunteer firemen put out a wildfire that had spread to our place. They were mad at me but I told them it was just a beer belly (like most of them had). For goodness sakes after what William had been through all summer, me swinging a shovel about wasn't about to shake him loose.

It's seems like I was a different person then and lived in different place and time but the funny thing is even though it was so long ago and so much has changed the one thing that's the same is dear Foxsun was there with us, standing near his little horse house watching all the goings on. Keegan is married with his own family. (He's still in Iraq). William is in his second year at university. (Next year he's going to study for a year in England)! And I feel like I put in a full days work if I feed the horses and gather the eggs. Yet there's Foxsun still standing by his little house as if time has stood still. (Until he goes back out with the cows).

Back to keeping an eye on Brad. I was ready with my camera in case he fell in the ditch but no such luck.


There used to be a 6" main line going across the creek and you'd have to walk across it to get to the pasture on the other side. It was fun to throw rocks right into the water next to the person trying to get across. The first time I came to the farm Brad gave me the grand tour and a can of beer. I don't drink so a little beer goes a long way for me if I do have some. I decided I could walk across the main line better without shoes using my monkey like feet to grip the pipe. Half way across here come the rocks and I would have stood a better chance if it wasn't for the fact I was tipsy and gripping on to that can of beer like my life depended on it. What kind of person thinks it's funny to see their brand new girlfriend fall in the creek. And you wonder why I'm hoping to get a picture of him falling in the ditch!

No such luck. The man's a pro at walking the plank. Notice the red thing on his hand? That's vet wrap he uses to bandage his badly cut hand he acquired bailing off Foxsun last week. I wish I could have got a photo of that!





Here he is by the creek.


The willows are getting all leafy.

I took a walk on the Wild Side.

It's been years since I've taken this walk. Bobby was just a pup the last time we did this. Drugged up to the eye balls on anti-inflammatory meds and pain killers, I got my back pack and hiking poles and feeling a bit like Scott of the Antarctic, I headed out. It was already 6pm but I always do thing's on a whim.

After awhile I realized I felt awesome and it had nothing to do with the meds, they can only take the edge off. But I was telling all the wild flowers and the sagebrush "Yeah that's right, I'm back" so maybe it was the meds.

Here are the photos from the 'Friday Expedition to the Wild Side'.

Looking down at the farm and the Mustangs in their corrals. I called them and their heads shot up.



This is not a mountain top outhouse but a radio shack. In the olden days before cell phones were invented my husbands family kept in touch with radios and they had an antenna and other radio stuff up here.



On a clear day you can see the Cascade Mountains from here.



Serviceberry.

Squaw Currant.


The first of the beautiful Balsamroot (and my foot). More pictures of this beautiful plant to come.



Golden Currant with Chokecherry behind it.



This is called Foxsun's staircase. 20 years ago when I was 35 and Fox was three, we found a short cut down off a ridge. I cleared away the loose rocks and called it 'Foxsun's Staircase'.



It looked used and I wondered if he ever remembered it and used it sometimes.

Yep, he does because he left his calling card.



It made me feel kinda wistful and so I set out to see if I could spot him.

I saw something white far off towards town to the West and the outskirts of Odessa. It was a cow all by herself and I thought 'trouble'. Then I saw a black shape near her move. FOXSUN and Dandylyons!



Zoomed in as best I could. Fox is the dark spot to the left of her. The Odd Couple.



Here is a perspective on how far from the corrals they are. This is looking East. The arrow marks the spot where the imprisoned mustangs are.



I want to see the Mustangs up here. I want to take a walk and come across them doing their mustang thing. I want to be able to walk up to them and give them a carrot or apple and then leave them with the wind in their manes and wildflowers around their hooves. Oh and maybe some ribbons in their long flowing manes and some glitter too. No not really. I just want them out of those corrals and living like Foxsun does.

Spotted a job for Brad. We went up and fixed it Sunday. The cows and Foxsun knocked the fence over and were taking a short cut home.



With the sun on our backs we headed home. Well, Bobby runs in circles keeping the area around me totally wildlife free.



She couldn't keep the Meadow Larks from singing and so they filled the air with their lovely song.







Ferns in the rocks. Beautiful!



In the dappled light under the sagebrush, Shooting Stars.





Prairie Star Flower.



Dagger-pod.



Badger hole! Keep moving, they bite you if you linger about.



First of the lovely Phlox that grows in Sage Brush country.



What is this?



Soon the Yellow Bells, Larkspur, Lupine, Balsamroot and Bitterroot will be in full bloom. I love to find the shyer flowers like the Mariposa Lily. Here's what Bitterroot looks like before it has it's lovely flower.





The Bitterroot is the State flower of Montana. Indians used to boil and eat the roots. It grows in very shallow soil in and around basalt rock. On our place I find it growing almost straight of the rocks in windy exposed and very dry places. It has a beautiful and strange flower.

Larkspur and Lupine are toxic to cattle. I've also found Death Camas and even Loco weed growing up here, which by the way, Wildairo claims Echo's mother ate when she was pregnant.

After two hours of wild fun I saw Brad was hiking up to meet me and we went in for some good vittles.

Worry worry worry.

Foxsun has lost weight again and I don't know why. He's eating good. When he lost weight last fall the vet (not his regular vet) floated his teeth and said his teeth were not too bad at all and were not the reason for him to be so thin. He's been wormed so he should be worm free. He looks awful and I'm worried about him. He's been eating hay and is on pasture. The cows he's with are all fat and normally this time of year Foxsun would be round and glossy. He looks like a horse who's not getting enough to eat and is wormy. His muscles are sparse and his barrel is huge yet you can see his ribs. He's only 23 and looked very good up until a year ago.

I spent most of the afternoon with him, curry combing him, fly spraying him, giving him treats and back rubs. I filled him up on some really good hay in Echo's corral and let him take a nap with the cows while Brad fixed up the electric fence around the horse pasture. Then I led him over to the horse pasture and turned him loose. He immediately started begging me not to leave him but the grass his better there and he won't have to walk as far to find it. He called for his wife and it was really sad. Wildairo was calling back to him in his little filly voice.

Echo thought it was really neat to have company.

These photos are not very good quality because they were taken with my cell phone.

Fox is on the right. He's 14.3 hh so it looks like Echo is about 14.1 hh.



Echo finds Foxsun's itchy spot in an attempt to win his friendship.



While Fox was taking a nap this calf was playing with his tail.



I was sitting on Dandylyons's back as she sat down. I was right in the middle of sleeping cows and calves and nobody cared I was there. It was so peaceful.

The farrier can't come out till the forth. In England I remember seeing horses twitched to be clipped or shod if they were acting up. I'm going to talk about twitching Wildairo with our farrier. Has anyone twitched their mustang?

I'll keep Fox in the horse pasture, feed him a little grain, get his feet trimmed and if he doesn't improve in about a week, I'll take to the vet in Ritzville to try to find out what's going on with him. Dr Johnstone has been his vet for 21 years and is a great equine vet.

I have a feeling that Foxsun has an internal infection from the pigeon fever he had last year and it walled it's self off or something. I can feel no signs of the pigeon fever under the skin.

Wildairo teaches himself a lesson, maybe.

After Sundays excitement I wanted to have a stress free Monday but that wasn't to be because Wildairo gave us a real scare.

I thought I'd put Wildairo's halter on and brush him and maybe try to lift his long feet to get him ready for the farrier which I have been putting off because of his absolute fear of strangers.

I put his halter on and was brushing him and something bothered him and he decided to leave rather quickly, forgetting he was attached to a lead rope. I get mad at horses with bad manners and he knows it! I let him get to the end of the rope and I jerked him back around telling him "No"! He came back all sheepish and stood really nice. If he tries to walk into me or swings his head about too much, I tell him "No" and he really responds well and behaves for me. But that's only for me.

I asked Brad to hold his head so I could brush his back part. He likes Brad to scratch his neck but doesn't respect him like he does me. I loosened up the lad's halter to fit it better, he decided to leave and when Brad told him' no' he was like 'your not the boss of me' and took off and the underneath part of the halter went into his mouth and then all hell broke loose.

I'm pretty good about safety and being careful with equipment so I've never had anything like this happen before. Bloody hell! We had one very scared mustang racing around the corral determined to run away from the pain and perceived danger he was in. I think he considered going over the rock wall but decided it wasn't wise so he careened around the corral bucking and stepping on the rope and causing himself more pain. We were helpless. Luckily our good friend Foxsun came to help (again) he stood calmly by the gate and it helped Wildairo realize it wasn't a stampede event. Every time Wildairo stepped on that rope he hurt his mouth more. He knew the rope was the cause of his pain and looked at it like it was a snake when he went to stand with Fox (the other side of the gate) for comfort.

After another quick outburst somehow the halter came back out of his mouth and he stood still for Brad to go and retrieve him and walk him over to me. I was looking for signs of lameness. I was sure his long hooves had caused some tendon damage with all the acrobatics he did. He's still sound but how in the hell did those feet not chip on the rocks? Wow, he's got hooves made of granite!

His gum was a bit sore on one side, nothing too bad at all, just a tiny bit of blood. I was sure when I looked in his mouth I'd find horrible damage. He was pretty shook up and wanted me to comfort him, which I did. Brad reminded me he was a young mustang after all and said maybe he learned a lesson from it.

Wildairo needs to respect people other than me. He needs to learn to be tethered. (We bought a blocker tie ring to train him and will attach it to a sturdy post). I know he's not learning anything about being a domesticated horse when he's just behaving with me because he happens to like me. If I was a vet and a farrier maybe then I could be just his only trusted friend, but he's going to have to learn respect for all humans. He's a good horse and he tries hard to adapt to this new life of his.

That was Monday. Yesterday I played it safe and just took the horses carrots. Foxsun was hanging around the corrals and enjoyed the treat. Echo is all kissy face again and Wildairo wanted to whole bag of carrots.

The cow and twins are doing well. The tiny calf seems to be able to get to the milk bar but I think her huge brother might be drinking most of the milk. I will bottle feed her if she starts to look hungry. Her mother lets me pick her up and cuddle her.

Wildairo's title certificate application form arrived Monday. If approved, he won't be owned by the US government anymore and will be an official member of our family.

I have to get someone to certify he's been taken care off. It says the person can be a vet, extension agent, local humane official or a BLM approved individual. Does anyone know who else can sign it? He's never seen a vet and I don't know any of the other people mentioned above.

Foxsun saves the day.

Sunday Brad spent several hours fixing fence so we could turn the cows out up by the circle. That would give Foxsun and the cows a total of 160 acres of pasture. We move them around to different pastures throughout the year. Once he was done we drove the pick-up to open the gate. That was when we stumbled across our adventure for the day.

We saw a heifer sitting down in the sagebrush surrounded by about 5 calves. She didn't look like she was baby sitting, so we walked over to see what was up.

Here's the sight that greeted us. The red thing is her tail. Look carefully at the foreground of the picture.



Twins! They hadn't gotten up yet either. Brad went to see if the mother could get up and she sprung to her feet. Sometimes cows can't get up after giving birth and you have to help them on to their feet. We decided to leave them alone for awhile and let the cows and Foxsun out.

We walked them out quietly so the new mother wouldn't get all excited and try to follow.

Brad and Foxsun lead them.



More cows join the parade.



Foxsun takes over after awhile and leads them through the gate.



On the way home we notice the new mother has walked off with the tiny red calf leaving the big white one, who hadn't gotten up yet, behind. I thought, 'not this again'. Brad went after the pair and managed to get the tiny calf to follow him away from her mother and back to her twin brother. Mother followed.

We had to get them in and worked out a plan; Brad would put the big bull calf in the back of the pick up and I would drive him back to the corrals and he'd get the tiny heifer calf to follow him to lure the cow in.

The plan fell apart a bit. As I was driving the bull calf decided it was his moment to do or die and he start to get up. I tapped the brakes to try to keep him off balance but to no avail. It was his moment of glory and he wasn't going to miss it. I stopped the pick up, raced around (hobbled) to the back and stood on the back bumper trying to keep him from falling over the side of the pick up. He was a tall calf. He was strong and a bit slippery. I couldn't get in the back with him because the position I was in meant pivoting on my replaced ankle. I yelled my head off for Brad but he was too far away. The calf kept wanting to go backwards and his back end was going over the side. I lunged in and grabbed his far back foot twisted it up throwing him down on a tarp in the bed. Once I had my hands free I could untwist my fake ankle and leap (fall) on top of the calf to hold him down.

Meanwhile Brad had the tiny red calf following him but the mother had vanished. Also my shouts had the mustangs going crazy. Well lets say Wildairo trotted about high headed for a moment and Echo seized the opportunity to have another melt down. He was racing around and letting out huge loud snorts that echoed down the draw.

We got the calves into a pen and I fed the mustangs some really good alfalfa, pea and oat hay to distract them. Wildairo was cool with it but Echo was beyond being distracted.

This is where it turns weird.

Brad thought the new mother had gone after the herd into the bigger pasture and decided to go look for her. I was left behind to wrangle the twins who had become very energetic. Here they are sucking my knee caps.



The heifer calf had already had some colostrum from her mother so she lay down and fell asleep after awhile, but the bull calf wouldn't give up. This is when I noticed Echo has a very strange look on his face.



I know his moods pretty well and this wasn't one I'd seen before. He wouldn't get his eyes off the bull calf who was sucking my pants very loudly and butting to try to get my knee caps to let down milk. Suddenly Echo attacked.



He was trying to get the calf through the fence. I was taking pictures with my cell phone but stopped here for awhile because I had to get the calf out of there. I took him around the corner but Echo raced around to the other fence and charged again. Because it was the corner with the truck panels I know the calf was safe, so I studied what Echo was doing. He was shaking all over. His head was shaking and he was angry! He kept trying to get the calf through the fence yet he wasn't striking out at him. Echo has always loved Bobby and the cats that come to visit him. I waited till he went to look at his hay and I shut him in the corral.

Brad called me and said he was going to try to bring the whole herd back because he couldn't find the new mother. I thought in that case I would move the calves to a tiny little grassy pen for their own safety. The bull calf followed me down the alley, he weighs about a 100 pounds. Echo didn't attack again and we went right along his fence. The heifer calf didn't want to get up from her nap so I carried her. I kept thinking about what my ankle surgeon told me, "You can only do light house work, try not to walk on uneven ground and never lift any thing heavy".

I called Brad to get an update and he said he was chasing the cows on Foxsun and couldn't speak. I was puzzled because Foxsun has no tack out there in the pasture.

Later Brad called and said he had to bail off Foxsun (what?) but they got the cows headed for home. I opened the corral gates and threw piles of hay about as cow bait.

Here come the herd looking very upset and tired. Dandylyons showed up last panting and very hot. They came right into the corral as if looking for me to save them. Brad called again and said he was on his way in with Foxsun.



This is what happened. The cows headed for the bluff when Brad tried to bring them home. So Brad jumped on Foxsun to race to turn them. He said Foxsun was doing that bumpy thing (trotting) and then started to run (canter) which was a lot smoother (lol). Brad used his cow chasing stick to steer his head (OMG)! Everything was fine till Fox realized he's misplaced his old cow wife. (She high tails it when he's being ridden). So Foxsun took off to look for her and Brad, who at that point was just along for the ride (so to speak), was hanging on to his mane as Foxsun raced through the sagebrush. That's when Brad picked his spot to bail. He land on his shoulder but his hand hit a rock and got cut pretty bad.

Brad found some old baling twin and made a bridle for the ever loyal Foxsun and rode him home.



All the cows were in except for the new mother and someones calf had slipped through the fence. Brad and Foxsun rounded up the stray calf while I kept the crazed cow from charging back through the gate. I felt like I was guarding Kobe Bryant. With everybody in lock down Brad led Fox home with his twine bridle to get some real tack on him. Poor old boy was sweating and looking really beat, Foxsun wasn't doing much better. I noticed Brad's bridle's nose band was really tight. Fox has been ridden with the same curb bit and a curb chain or strap for 20 years and he's never been ridden bare back.

Then Brad and Fox headed out to look for the new mother.



I walked around too looking for her. Just as it got dark Brad found her hiding in some tall sagebrush and they brought her in. We reunited her with her twins and left them sucking in the small pen. I fed Fox some sweet grain and released him with the cows.

This morning finds mother and children doing fine. We're on pain killers.