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Wagonteamster

9-30-18, Auburn, NE

After an incredibly long time, I finally sat down and wrote a new blog.  In May, I returned from work in Mississippi to enjoy a wonderful spring and summer in the high desert and forest of Oregon.  Most of my days were filled with working cattle on horseback or building my latest home project - a four-season greenhouse. Last week, I started on new job at the Cooper Nuclear Power plant in Auburn, Nebraska.  I should be here until the first part of November.  Following are a few pictures from the spring and summer.

In March, I turned all three of the draft horses out on the range at my friend Geren’s ranch, located 11 miles down the road.  In this picture, it’s still early spring and the horses have to contend with last year’s grass or a little bit of spring greenery that’s poking through.  Most of the summer these were lush green meadows. Both of the Belgians are now retired. Bill is 21 years old and has a touch of arthritis in his hips (but I say little evidence of this when he was on the range.)  Bob is now 20 and is enjoying retired life.  At 18, I still use Doc as a pack horse and some for riding.  He is just as willing as ever and like the other guys, comes whenever I call him.

Several times a week, we head into the mountains to picnic and run the dogs.

One of the highlights of springtime are attending brandings at the local ranches.  This is shot of my neighbors Emma and her daughter Ella getting ready to team rope a calf.  Ella is only 12 years old but is already a good roper.  However, after roping a calf, she’s so light, she almost gets pulled out of the saddle before she can dally her rope around the saddle horn.  (Who said an apple grows far from the tree?)

Gathering cows up in the mountains on my mare Brandy.  There’s nothing this mare likes more than running off into the trees and brush in pursuit of a stray cow.  She loves the challenge of a good hard run and really hates to lose.  This spring I came off her back for the first time. She was leaping across a small mountain stream.  I though she would be jumping to the right, but instead she took a path to the left, under a juniper tree with some lower hanging branches.  I caught a branch and landed on my feet, but she was really upset that she ‘lost’ her rider.

Gathering cows after a summer of grazing on mountain grass.  You can see that the spring calves are nice and fat.  Mountain grass is so high in protein and carbs, a cow will produce as much milk as the calves desire.  A 3 to 5 pound per day weight gain on the calves is normal.

Doc had his first experience as a packhorse on a three day trip to a trout lake, high in the Gerhart Mountain Wilderness area.  With the pannier bags on the pack saddle, he was 6 feet wide.  It took him about 3 minutes to figure out how to walk wide enough around the trees so he wouldn’t bump the pannier bags on the trees.  (In seven years, my horse Bob never figured this out).  The fishing was so good in this seldom fished lake, I could catch my daily limit of 5 trout (all 12 to 18 inches long) in about 30 to 45 minutes.

I’ve always believed that one of the most relaxing things a person can do is to put your feet in a mountain stream on a hot summer day.  Hershey and I think alike

My big summertime project was building a 12 x 14 feet, 4-season greenhouse.  It’s well insulated and uses stored daytime heat to keep it warm at night.  It includes a large planter, a water fixture with a waterfall and plenty of room for drinking cocktails in the tropics in the middle of winter.

To retain enough heat to keep the inside temperature above freezing on cold winter nights, I use black plastic barrels, the concrete, rock and water of the water feature, and hot air, blown into a rock bed below the planter.

Everything is insulated to R19 and the corrugated plastic on the south side is sealed and has a double layer.

Be safe everyone.  I’m off to work.