Ranch Notes

Frosty Fall Morning

frosty leavesA frosty fall morning as autumn prepares to yield to winter. The weekend brought the first snow down to the lower reaches of the high southern desert. Watching sunset through the crystal clear air it becomes apparent there is a connection to the high desert that those who have not been a part of it never fully grasp. There are two ways of looking at the mountains of the basin and range. Some look and see barren bland mountains. Those with the place in their blood see a unique beauty.

Playing sick

National Public Radio had a story yesterday on people calling in sick when they really aren't. They asked and the expert gave some of the most egregious instances of people who didn't need sick time but called in anyway. One of those was someone who called in because they were searching for their horse who had gotten out. While it may or may not strictly qualify for sick time it seems that the expert engaged has never been a horse owner or never come to realize that things like that happen. In the last half-decade I've used about 4 sick days. Two of them came after spending all night up with horses and being exhausted.

It is always amazing how much perspective colors what is viewed as reasonable or unreasonable.

Intelligence

We humans like to see ourselves as the king of all the beasts. On this Sunday afternoon as I head off to the office, having spent the morning working at home, I look around and not that there are two cats and two dogs resting quite comfortably. I wonder who the smart ones really are?

Family business

We took a trip to the Utah Shakespeare Festival this weekend. On this Labor Day weekend I was struck by the labor going on. At the hotel and again at a restaurant today I was greeted by the spectacle of young people working. Eight and ten year-old children pushing laundry carts or handing out menus. It struck me as unseemly. It was interesting as soon as I began to compare these children with my own beliefs about children working in agriculture on the family interest from a young age. These young people were all dutifully engaged in their respective family undertakings. How should that be any different?

Monday

Survived the first Monday of the fall term. Barely.

Air conditioner died weeks ago, in the hottest part of the summer. Makes little difference because we use the swamp cooler. Saturday we set about rebuilding the ailing swamp cooler. Its motor had given up. New motor and things are well. However, the new motor is so powerful it blows more water droplets than cool air.

While we're outside we notice the water system does not come on as it should. Looks to be a bad timer. As in the 9-5 job never a dearth of things to do.

Encore

The good ones are never here long enough. This morning Encore passed quietly into the pasture everlasting. Though her name on her papers was Charry-Dat she became known to us as Encore. The name had meaning on several levels from the degree of involvement we had in music growing up to the similarity of her markings to those of one of my father's past horses.

It was a cool December day when I first met the horse that would become my first horse. We were celebrating Christmas in San Diego and had seen a couple of horses listed on the board at the feed store. We ended up with a trio of thoroughbreds from a stable outside Del Mar. Two-year-old Encore came with her chestnut half brother Tarn, who passed a couple of years ago, and the dark bay three-year-old Tenaya.

With the VW Bus packed and a new engine freshly installed we set out for home on New Year's Eve. About sixty miles later, while pulling a grade, the new engine quit and we were forced to be towed back to the grandparent's house. The next day after a trip to the rental car agency we packed what we could into the Chevy Astro Van and set out for home again. The horses arrived a few days later and were boarded at a neighbors while the corral panels we'd purchased were delivered.

When they first arrived my heart was set on the young stud-colt. I knew I wanted him to be my horse. It quickly became apparent that he was too much horse and too green for my first horse. The horses spent the next few weeks at the neighbors and we would go each afternoon we were home to work them in the round pen. Within a few weeks the corrals were setup and the horses moved to our place.

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