July 15, 2011

July has been packed with activities of all sorts!!  Well it actually started mid June when Kim landed in the emergency room, followed by 3 days in ICU following a horse shoeing accident that broke three ribs and gave him a serious puncture wound along with it.  He’s recovering remarkably well, with hardly a trace of discomfort. 

Wednesday we had our first measurable precipitation, ½ inch, since last September or October.  It’s not much to many people’s standards but we are so grateful.  Even if it doesn’t start the grass growing, just washing the dust off the grass, trees, houses, etc., makes everything seem so fresh this morning!  The birds sound better, the ants are out in force scavenging, the cows even don’t seem so desperate for the feed pickup to come by!

We started the month with some great guests arriving:  Mandy from New Zealand, Markus from Switzerland and Shannon and Delilah from Oregon.  Thankfully they were very content to ride easy and very helpful with the handling of the saddles, giving Kim’s ribs more time to heal.  With Kim banged up, Haley stepped in to fill his shoes on the ranch rodeo team when they competed in Colorado Springs on Saturday, the 2^nd.  We loaded up our camping gear, Markus and Mandy, and headed to the springs to watch the rodeo.  Our team wasn’t a very big threat but we had a good time.  Haley had a great time taking Kim’s place and Kim did pretty well being an observer!   We said good-bye to Markus there and headed back to the ranch.  Mandy was with us another week when we got some calves branded, she was right in there flanking!  Had another good week with her then drug her along with us to the first night of our church’s Mountain Family Fellowship campout before taking her to the airport on Saturday. 

Home to Patricia’s band members waiting on her to get a marathon practice in Sunday night and all day Monday in preparation for the Weed Bluegrass Festival, that we will be off to this afternoon for the weekend, where Kim is also the master of ceremonies!