Monthly Archive

You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December 2006.

12/31/06

December 31, 2006 in adventures, poetry | 1 comment

It’s hard to believe that another year has rolled around so fast! So many things that I should have done, and maybe a few I shouldn’t have!

I went up to Baker, MT the other day to perform for the Baker Livestock Auction’s Christmas party. Dan Murphy had lined it up quite a while ago and I didn’t think the weather was going to cooperate, but it did, after a false start! Had a nice crowd and saw a few friends and made a few new ones. Got to go to the ranch of a woman and her husband who I’ve gotten to know on the internet. Nice cattle, nice horses and nice people.

It was kind of late or early, depending on how you look at it, when I got home, but I sold enough books to pay for some gas and Dan sent a bunch of books home for me to read, so it was well worth the trip.

Weather has been pretty nice, tho’ it’s gotten a little chilly in the evenings, but for this time of the year, it’s really been great.

I’ve got 3 gigs coming up in January and a possible. I’ll be in Spearfish, Iowa and Nebraska. Hope any of you who read this show up. Email me if you want more info.

I got a nice Christmas card and also a nice new year email from one of the fellers who was here this fall, from Denmark. This old world has really gotten smaller, hasn’t it?

I hope you all have a wonderful and prosperous new year.

12/23/06

December 23, 2006 in Cattle, Family | 1 comment

Merry Christmas!

Hope all reading this either have or had a wonderful Christmas.

We will have all the children home and hope for Dusty, Tristan and Lan to be here also.

We are very much enjoying a brown Christmas. This is sure a great time for a drought and a heat wave. It can start sending moisture about the first of April. That’s what I want for Christmas. 🙂

I sold a few cows the other day and got 10 head of nice 3 year old cows bought for Chance and Hope. So now they have more cows than I do! Oh well, I’ve still got more land and horses than they do. 🙂 And less debt on my cows! LOL

Hope you all had a wonderful day.

12/15/06

December 17, 2006 in adventures, dayworkin', Family | 1 comment

I’m tired!

I ran the trackhoe for about 10 hours today and dug around a mile of cable up. The boss is whining as he thinks I should work tomorrow. I never have liked working on Sundays, unless it’s real necessary. ‘Course, I’ve never liked to work at all, but always seems like someone thinks I should. Wife, banker, father, mother, kids, etc…… LOL

Chance got a loan to buy a few cows, so I’ll need to go find some for him , that will work here and still be something he can afford. Dang kids, always making me work!

Hope you all had a good day today and that the wind didn’t blow as hard as it did here, today.

12/12

December 12, 2006 in Horses | 3 comments

Another nice day, tho’ the wind blew a little.

Worked with another yearling filly this morning and then a yearling stud and my draft mare this afternoon. Also unloaded and stacked a trailer load of bales. Even got Cindy to drag most of them to the end of the trailer for me!

My draft filly was real good. I hobbled her front legs and threw an old harness on her and then led her around with the tugs dragging and it sure didn’t bother her much. I guess the next step is to drive her and her brother together without pulling anything and then when they have that figured out, hook them up to a sled or something and go for a spin! Should be lots of fun. Anyone want to go along for the first drive? LOL

I sent some more pictures of horse to Donna to put on the website. She’s done a lot on it and updated some stuff, so if any of you haven’t looked at it in awhile, go check all the different pages out. http://www.dennisranch.com

Hope you had a good day too.

12/11/06

December 11, 2006 in adventures, Family | Leave a comment

Tyler came home with Cindy last night, as they planned to go back in today and shop. They talked me into going, so we took my pickup and trailer and dropped the trailer at Dusty’s so when we came back thru’ Sturgis, we could go get a load of small square hay bales.

We ate dinner at Red Lobster and then they hit the stores! I bought a book and waited and read!

We got out of Rapid and back to Sturgis, dropping Tyler off and went out and hooked up to the trailer and drove about a mile to a feller who is selling hay. He had some from last year. Cost $2.50 a bale and they probably average about 65 pounds per bale. I had bought some earlier from him, of this years hay. Pretty good stuff, but cost $3.25 a bale. Figures out to about $115 a ton. See what it cost to have horses around? LOL

Now if I can just get Cindy to help with the unloading tomorrow……….

Hope you had a good day.

12/09/06

December 9, 2006 in cowboyin', Horses | 1 comment

Man! What a beautiful day! Must have gotten up to 55 or so. Little to no wind. Just wonderful!

I worked with a couple of pretty young ladies today. One was my yearling draft horse filly and the other was my favorite Quarter Horse, yearling filly. LOL

Both were real nice. I saddled my QH filly and she is really something special. I call her Sweety and she sure fits the description. She is one we raised, out of my favorite mare. She did so good that I saddled her up, but talked myself out of riding her. She is still pretty young and not real big, so I’ll wait for Chance or some other younger, lighter and probably better hand at starting colts, to put the first few rides on her. She is just so lite and sensitive. Sure am glad I bought her mother and raised her. She ought to be real fun to ride and raise me some nice saddle horses, down the road.

I’ve been running back and forth to Gillette since I last wrote. Hopefully, Dustin can find a smaller bucket for his trackhoe and bring it out here and I will run it, digging cable for awhile. Then maybe he’ll find some work, a little closer to home.

One of these days I am going to have to go to building saddles and stuff. The orders and repair work are starting to pile up and I just got a new saddle tree in, so maybe pretty soon I can go back to being a saddle maker instead of a dirt worker!

I’ve only missed one night of watching the National Finals, in Vegas. For those who don’t know, it’s the World Series of the rodeo world. We have 6 guys from SD in the saddle bronc riding (the only event I really care much about and enjoy watching). We also had the horse who was voted to be the best saddle bronc of the year, from Korkows who headquarter out of Blunt, SD. We sure are proud of our bronc riders. And it looks like we will have one crowned as the world champion, from our state. Yeehawwww!

Also a good young bronc rider from close to here has ridden all but one of his horses. And there have been some real tuff’ ones, too! Quite an achievement. So he, JJ Elshere, will probably win the average, which is the person who rode the most and won the most money or points, at this rodeo. Tom Miller, a neighbor, did it 3 years in a row, back when he was going down the road. Only one other guy has ever done that. Rod Warren, of Canada.

The last performance is on ESPN tonight at 7 pm. So I am going to quit writing and get all set to watch it.

Hope you had a great day!