Common Days on the Ranch

Wednesday night we had dinner with Max and Jenny. It was the first time that Sandy and I had seen their little abode and it is a compact romantic little house, perfect for them. Jenny cooked us some good spaghetti.

After dinner we sang hymns and read God's Word. I really enjoyed seeing Max lead his home. It fills me with joy to see his love for his new wife.


Thursday, Sandy, Sally, and Mom had a tea party with the "littles". Mom left for Alaska on Friday morning.



Friday afternoon, I spent some time on watch on the north hill with my .22. Coyotes had come in close to the chickens 4 times that day.

Sitting there with Ranger and Shiloh, I saw Simon, who had been sitting on the porch of the "dog house" watching with binoculars, get up and run off to the south with his .22. I saw him carefully creep up the hill south of the creek and peeked over the "military crest". I could see a coyote jumping on mice out in the field beyond him to the south. Simon did get a shot off, but missed.

Here is a picture taken from my vantage point. You can see the "dog house" just behind the front of our camp trailer. The hill I'm referring to is the rise that starts at the base of the mountain on the left of the picture and which extends out to the right, ending just above the shop. You can see the creek winding around at is base.



This morning, we saw our cows on the wrong side of the fence. So Simon and I herded them back inside the fence before breakfast and saw that the fence at the northeast corner was completely down. Simon fixed that while I fixed the water (see below). After I was done, I went up the mountain to see how Simon was doing and I came on him breaking up a rock that the tractor had slid down and wrapped itself around. Fortunately, it was very soft granite. I don't know how many thousands of years that rock had been there, but it is now gone.

In the picture below, you can see our north fence at the bottom right, extending to the east up over the hill. Simon and I climbed up around the left side of the hill. Our northeast property corner is beyond the hill.

Of course, in going back through the fence, 4 of the cows followed "bossy" through the hole they had escaped through. For some reason, the bull didn't to do that and ended up jumping the fence further down, breaking the top strand. This just goes to show that if a cow wants to jump a fence it can and will.

If you look carefully in the picture, you can see our 5 cows bunched up on the fence right where the fence from the right middle edge of the picture intersects with the north property line fence.



This morning a visitor backed into a water spigot at the west lawn and broke it. So, it was run to turn off the water, dig out the break, and head to Orange Cove...twice for parts. Isn't that how plumbing works? At least 2 trips to town? I did eventually get it fixed.

Jeremy spent the day cleaning out weeds in the pool area and washing cars.

Today, Simon got one shot off with the 30-30 at a coyote, but missed.

In the picture below, you can see the road winding up the mountain that Simon built for building fence on the south property line. If you look carefully, you can see his fence going up the hill, just in front of the first tree on the right hand side. The fence extends to the left up over the hill, down into the ravine, and then back up the hill again on the left side of the pictures.

His uncle spent some time after the wedding helping us take dominion over a rock that was in the way. I'm glad for Uncle Scott's practical ingenuity.


Scott