From East to West and back again

Derek and I have just returned from the NM State Championship archery shoot in Farmington, NM.  It's a 400 mi trip there, clear across New Mexico from the far eastern corner where we live to the far western corner.  Fortunately, my mother lives in Santa Fe, a convenient half-way point.  On the way in, we stopped for lunch and finished the drive in the afternoon, but coming back we spent the night and came home Monday morning.

The way the State Championship works is like this: there are 6 shoots during the year- American, Vegas, Indoor, Field, Animal, and Hunter rounds.  You get 10 points for winning, 9 for second, and so on.  You can carry 40 points to the Grand Field.  At the GF, you shoot the Field, Animal, and Hunter rounds again.  The Field and Hunter are 28 targets x 4 arrows each for 112 arrows each round.  The Animal round can score on the 1st arrow and, done right, you'll shoot just 1 arrow for 28.   That's a total of at least 252 arrows, plus any practice shots.  All this is done in the field, up and down hills... quite a bit of walking... in the hot Farmington July sun.  It's a physically tiring round and it's important to pace yourself and stay hydrated.

Over  hill and over dale

Terrain

Derek has good form

Two sets of 20's

Derek won State Champion last year and, since it was the first year for his class, he set State records for every shoot.  He didn't start shooting until the outdoor rounds, but still won the overall.  This year, he shot the Vegas, Indoor, and all the field rounds and won them all.  Me, I won 4/5 with a 2nd place.  This meant that we both carried the full maximum of 40 points to the Grand Field.  In addition, Derek had a new bow this year- a Diamond Razor Edge- which he shot in all the field shoots.  Immediately after the last one, though, he got another new bow- a Hoyt Ignite- which was going to be a bow to grow into.  However, he shot it so well, that we made the last minute decision to use it for the Grand Field.  I was shooting a new-to-me Hoyt Alpha Elite that I used for the last Field round and I had an also new-to-me Hoyt Vector Turbo that I decided to use during the Animal round to give it some field experience.  The stage was set.

There were some exciting moments.  As I mentioned, we shoot 4 arrows at each target during 2 of the rounds.  All year long, I'd not needed any spare arrows and so I was carrying 5 arrows of the same fletch and 3 spares with slightly different fletch.  No surprise then that one of my shooting group nearly did a Robin Hood on my arrow, breaking it.   No problem... I pulled out my spare.  A few targets later, though, I shot a very tight group and one fletch sliced the fletch off another arrow.  No problem... I pulled out my different fletched spares.  On the first shot with it, the arrow cork-screwed and  hit about 6" low giving me a nasty 3 points instead of 5.  Bad shot, I figured.  On the next target, it did it again. Now we had a problem. Close examination showed that one of the fletches was misaligned- this happens rarely, but it does happen.  Fortunately, my other spares were good and I finished the round out in good shape.  And also fortunately, I'd brought my fletching gear, so I spend that evening stripping off my odd-fletch spares and re-fletching them all to match.

On the next-to-last target, Derek shot and his arrow corkscrewed.  On his next shot, the rest didn't drop like it was supposed to.  Turns out his cable clamp was loose.  There are rules for this, though, and I quickly fixed his mechanical problem, he retrieved his arrows, and shot again, scoring an 18/20, saving the day. Good times.

Derek ended up scoring considerably higher (30-50 points higher) this year than last, thus setting all new records.  I shot better than last year, too, although not so dramatically.  We both won State Champion in our respective classes, which was a fun thing to do.  I feel like I worked hard at my shooting this year and even though there wasn't much competition in my class, I was happy.

State Champ!

State Champ 2!

Coming home, we took a side trip thru the Jemez Mountains.  I'd worked here for 2 summers as a biologist 20 years ago and hadn't really been back, and I wanted to show Derek the country.  We were going to cut in from Cuba, NM but I thought that might be too much "mountain" for car-sick-prone Derek, so instead we hooked up from San Ysidiro to La Cueva, and then across to Los Alamos and down to Santa Fe.  It added about an hour and half to the trip, but it was worth it.

In the woods

At the Valles Caldera

The Jemez was, of course, gorgeous.  The caldera has got to be one of the prettiest places on earth.  There's a popular climbing spot just to the west of the caldera and we stopped to watch some climbers work.  Derek noted a couple of cabins across the road and said that would be a neat place to live; fish in the stream, climb on the rock, and elk hunt in your back yard.  Hard to argue with that.

Heading hom: 62 F, 31 mpg, 8 am

It was a long and tiring, but fruitful, trip.  We saw pretty much most of what New Mexico has to offer, from hot desert country to cool green meadows to wide-open plains.  We saw elk, deer, pronghorns, prairie falcons, violet-green swallows, towhees, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, and a goshawk.  It was dry, raining, windy, still, hot, and cool.  We ate green chile, pizza, and steak.

Georgia, unfortunately, had a rougher weekend, coming down with a fever and irritable bowels.  I think she needs a little more rest after her cancer treatment.  And I don't know about Derek, but after driving 800 miles, shooting 300 arrows, and hiking up and down hills in the hot sun, I'm needing a little rest, too!

The Mandolin Story

I've never posted this story in my blog and it needs to be here.

Stage 1- the Elkhorn mandolin:

I went to South Plains College with Robb L. Brophy in 1980-82  and we've crossed paths a few times over the years.  I'd heard that he was building mandolins and heard they  were getting a good reputation but had yet to see one.  At my son David's funeral, my friends John, Coy, and Dave, from OKC, showed up and I asked them to play music at the gravesite.  John pulled out an Elkhorn mandolin- the first one I'd seen- but I didn't get to check it out, being somewhat preoccupied that day.

Stage 2- the 1967 D-28:

Customer sent the guitar in May. He has several other vintage Martins, including a '44 D-28 and he wanted me to scallop the '67 to a "deep scallop".  Said the '67 was "sleepy" and didn't sound very good.  I scalloped, did the popsicle brace, and Waverly tuners, all per his request.  Videoed it for his approval.  He said "it's wide awake now!" so I sent it back.  I told him it would take 6-8 months for the scalloping to fully kick in, be patient.  He got it, said he loved it. Case closed.  I packed for Kaufman Kamp.

Stage 3- The Elkhorn crosses my path:

A year after David's funeral, I'm at Kaufman Kamp 2013. I was walking back to my dorm at night when I saw a friend of mine- Rick- alone in his room. Now, understand... it's dark, Rick has the light on and the light is illuminating the sidewalk.  So, I turned and went in to visit with him.  Hanging on the rack is a familiar looking mandolin.  "What's that?", I asked.  He said "That's an Elkhorn mandolin I just got from John."  It was the mandolin John had played at David's funeral. So I played it and liked it a lot. I asked Rick to let me know if he ever wanted to sell it, knowing full well I probably couldn't afford it.

Stage 4- The D-28 comes back, damaged:

A month later, customer doesn't like the D-28 as much as he thought. He'd looked inside and said I didn't "deep scallop" it.  I reminded him that it's gonna take 6-8 months to open up and I scalloped it as much as I'll ever scallop a guitar.  Another couple of months goes by and he wants to send the guitar back for more scalloping.  I said "fine, go ahead"- I'm going to hang it on the wall for 3 months before I even touch it, ya know?  He wants me to send him a "Return" label from my UPS account.  I do.

Guitar arrives and it has a 6" crack in the treble side of the upper bout in probably the best possible place for a top crack.  We communicate and I comment that the guitar was poorly packed- no padding under the headstock, nowhere near close to enough padding in the too-small box, etc.  Basically, NONE of my shipping instructions followed.  He replied and said "it's the same box we used the first time!" and I said "Yeah, well, just because we survived it once doesn't mean we do it again".  He blames me for his packing job!

So, I ask him "What do you want to do?"  He says "I want full replacement value of the guitar"  For a crack?!?  I check with my insurance company and they will NOT cover it because he owns it and I don't.  And unfortunately there's only $500 insurance on that Return because I thought the insurance company covered "Returns".  Well, a "return" is when I own the guitar, ship it out, buyer doesn't want it, and sends it back; I've owned the guitar the whole time.  Not the case here- he owns the guitar, he should've insured it.  So, I explain all this to him and he keeps insisting on full replacement value because now the guitar has a crack and NONE of his guitars have a crack and the guitar is now worthless and then he says "and I want to replace it with something else" (which is what's _really_ going on here, I think).

So, I say "Well, insurance doesn't cover it so I will have to pay for this out of my own pocket".  Having consulted with 2 former customers and 2 other luthiers in the meantime (3 of whom ask "how do you know it wasn't cracked _before_ he shipped it?", there being no damage to the case or the box), I offer some options and he continues on with "full replacement value" and then says "please don't make this into a legal dispute."  At that point, I say "Enough of this" and write him a check for $4600 which _drains_ my account but I'm confident that I can fix the crack, sell the guitar, and recoup my $$$.

I fix the crack (no missing wood, it just snaps back together), spending 2 months on the finish repair to make it look as good as possible.  I play the guitar and think "this thing's pretty nice!!!" and determine not to sell it for anything less than my personal cost in the guitar.  I take it to Winfield and it's the hit of our Camp (in which there are 5 prewar Martins, and a stack of top-drawer small luthier guitars).  Dick loves it, Tommy plays it A/B with his '53 D-18 and says "THIS is a NICE guitar!!!" and then plays it for another hour or so.  And so on- in the end, 3 people came up to me and said "If Dick doesn't want it, let me know".  I come really, really close to saying "The D-28's going home with me!" but Dick comes thru and a _promised_ check later, I've got my money back (well.. check's in the mail!).

Stage 5- Everything comes together:

So, I get back from Winfield and guess what?  There's an e-mail from Rick and he wants to sell the Elkhorn in order to buy ..... drum roll, please..... a late 1960's Martin D-28.   Dick was kind of debating whether to keep the D-28 from me or keep his tried/true '62 D-21, so I suggested that Rick talk to Dick about my D-28 (they know each other).  The D-28 ended up going to Rick, the Elkhorn to me, and everyone was happy. In fact, because Rick was asking less $$$ for the Elkhorn than i was for the D-28, I actually got some $$$ back.

I'd have had trouble coming up with the money for the mandolin, but having _had_ to come up with it for the D-28, swapping was less painful than an outright purchase.  And so here I am with a friend's mandolin that was played by a friend at my son's (another friend!) funeral swapped for with another friend, with yet another friend involved.  In the meantime, the '67 made it to Kaufman Kamp 2014 where it was played by several people.  I asked them how it was and was told "Excellent",  "Sounds GREAT, plays like butter".  I knew it was a good guitar.

Life is very interesting sometimes.

The 1967 D-28 the first time it was at my house:

Here it is again after it was mine:

The Elkhorn mandolin:

A second look at it:

How it compares to other mandolins:

Birds, Bows, and Bouteloua

I'm just terrible at keeping up with this blog and you can blame Facebook for that.  It's so much easier to just spit out little comments over there whereas over here I feel like I have to actually write something and I don't know if you've noticed, but writing is hard work.  It's work digging for the right words to describe situations and events and to think of interesting things to say in the first place.  But, well, here we are again.

Birds
I took another wild prairie falcon.  My other prairie- the one that was going into her 3rd year, the year when she'd really turn on and become A Real Hunting Falcon- got injured at the beginning of the 2013/14 season and lost use of her wing.   I placed her with an educational group in the Dallas area and decided to get a tiercel (male) prairie falcon, something I've never had.  For the first time since 2004, falcons nested on some cliffs in the NE corner of our ranch so Derek and I started watching them. We went out to check them one day and were surprised to find 2 large white chicks on the nest- I was expecting much smaller chicks at that date.  There was a big storm with "damaging hail" on the way and the nest was pretty exposed on the cliff face.  I would've hated to come back after the storm and find dead chicks.  Fortunately, this didn't happen, but I can't see into the future and I made the snap decision to go ahead and take a chick.

Having snapped a decision, we went back to the house, gathered up the gear, and headed back to the cliff.  I anchored to a Grizzly 660 ATV and went down the rope.  I was a little disappointed to find 2 females when I really wanted a male, but, hey, there I was and "a bird in the hand...", and all that.  Into the bag went the female with the largest feet and done.

Here's footage of me taking the falcon chick:

And for fun, here's the view from my helmet cam:

And here's the falcon chick eating about 2 weeks later:

For better or worse, ready or not, it looks like I'm back in the falconry game.

Bows
The other big activity I've been up to is archery.   Derek is the defending State Champ and I'm trying to add my own plaque to the wall.  So far, I've shot 5 State shoots and won 4 with a 2nd place in the other.  That sounds good, but in my class there's not a lot of competition and I'm not shooting as well as I'd like.  So,  I've spent some serious time and effort (and a little $$$) working on my form.  I started videoing myself again and as a result of that, I sold some bows, bought some bows, and made some changes to my draw length.  All this paid off.  Here's some MORE video!

After doing this work, I shot an indoor round and shot my best score ever by a significant margin.  Here's my target from the 2013 State Indoor round for reference:

296/300 w 37 x's

And here's the target I shot after working on my draw length:

300/300 w/ 54 x's

The State Grand Field is coming up in mid-July and I'm looking forward to shooting it.

Bouteloua
Bouteloua gracilis is my friend.  That's the blue grama grass that grows here and provides the bulk of our cattle forage.  In order for it to grow, there must be rain and... you guessed it!!!... it's been raining.  The difference between this year and last year is astounding.  Last year I recorded huge dust devils.  This year, it's green and lush.

Bouteloua gracilis in its prime (from late 2013)

Rain clouds

Rain!

We're keeping stocking rates down to help the grass recover from the past 3 years drought, and right now, it's looking good.  I don't think we're out of the drought for good, but we're sure happy to have some relief.

And now for the cancer report.  Georgia's finishing her radiation therapy this week.  It's been a much better process that we feared and she's done very well.  The "burn" and associated pain has only just now shown up and it's expected that she'll continue to- just like a microwaved burrito- cook a little longer after the radiation stops.  We'll be glad to have her home and we're very, very, very thankful to have friends in Amarillo where she's stayed during these six weeks.

Upcoming- the 52nd Sierra Grande Rancher's Camp Meeting.  I've been Chairman/President/Organizational Czar of this for 6 years, I think.  We're on Facebook.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who died while serving in the armed forces.  Memorial Day has an additional weight for us- it's the day our 11 year old son, David, died.  The actual date was May 28, 2012 but Memorial Day will always remind me of our little warrior.

The Warrior

It's been two years now, and, thankfully, this past year has gone better than the 1st year.  There was a big gap in my blog last year from March to June and I'm not sure if I wrote this somewhere or just thought it, but the 1st anniversary of David's death was a turning point.  Up to that time, I'd look back and think "a year ago, David and I were doing...."  After the 1st year, I couldn't say that anymore.  We were into new, uncharted territory, if you will.  On the 1st anniversary, Derek and I took a bunch of flat stones from the ranch and used them to delineate David's gravesite.  After we did... I felt better.  It was somehow kind of a conclusive moment and when we've gone back to the site this past year, I see the stones, they look good, and I feel like I've done everything I could possibly do for him.

I posted the photos on Facebook but I didn't post them here, so here we go (ignore the dates in the photos):

Before

Folsom 4H was here.  Thanks, guys!

Derek made this and left it.

After

I can't speak for everyone in the family- we're coping in our own ways- but for me, it can be really hard to get up and motivated these days.   I used to have a lot more drive and energy, now I can sometimes barely get out of my chair.  I often have this dark fog behind my eyes that's hard to shake and it seems like I'm always tired.  There are things that can shake it- we've been fishing, we're shooting bows, and I'm looking to take a new prairie falcon- but I've noticed that after an adrenaline filled day, it'll take me 2 days to recover.

It also seems like everything eventually betrays us.  My ears are getting worse and it's no longer as much fun to play guitar, although I force myself to play once in awhile and I've gotten a little creative drive back and come up some with new arrangement for tunes.  But, to quote BB King, the thrill is gone.  I shoot my bow and then my back and shoulders hurt.   I ride my bike and my knees hurt.  My mind used to be a steel trap, now, I forget things a lot more- really obvious things, too.  And so on.

Maybe this is all just part of getting old.  I've never been this old so who knows?  For the first time in my life, I actually do feel old.   Oh well, gloom and doom... I sound like Eeyore.  There are lots of bright moments and I just try to focus on those and keep moving forward.  Again, this year was better than the first, so hopefully we'll keep that trend going.

Well, this is Memorial Day and I'm writing in memory of David, so let's get back to that.  I could write about the horror and utter hopelessness I felt on Memorial Day 2012, and someday I might, but no.... today, let's focus on the good stuff.  What I remember about David was that he was a little go-getter.  He knew he was limited in strength but he didn't let that stop him from trying.  When we were looking for peregrine falcons, Mom and Derek wanted to walk to the bottom of the Rio Grande Gorge and, by golly, David was going to go, too.  And he did.  I thought for sure his little heart would explode, but he made the trek.  When we went rock-climbing, David went, too.  I was sure he'd lose his footing and tumble to certain injury, but he never did.  Sand-duning?  David did that.  Maybe Georgia heard him complain about getting blood transfusions, but I never did.  He took it like a trooper, chatting up the nurses and eventually getting to run his own blood tests in the lab!  David had the spiritual heart of a lion, even if he didn't have the physical heart.  Whenever I start feeling sorry for myself, I think about David's gumption and I get out of my chair and move.

Hiking the Rio Grande Gorge

Rock climbing in the north corner of the ranch

Sand dune sliding near Portales

Jumping on the trampoline

We're supposed to miss those we've lost and I certainly miss David a lot.  David wasn't just my son- he was my friend.  He was always coming out to the shop to check up on me, visit, ask me questions, and just hang out.  He was so much like me in so many ways and it was delightful to see him explore and develop and to experience his spirit.  And that's the worst part for me- I miss my little friend.  I'm happy to say, though, as my youngest, Derek, now 10 grows older, he's developing his own talents and is sharing them.  I definitely owe Derek one for getting me back into falconry and he's proving himself to be a talented and dedicated animal person, something that David was not.  David was the scientist, Derek is the naturalist.  Derek definitely has his gifts, too and so does Brianna, although she's left the coop and is well along in her own life and trajectory now.

Having said all this, I probably will not write about David much more after this.  He's gone the way of all flesh and nothing I can do will bring him back (nor would I want to).  I will remember him always and particularly on Memorial Day, but I also have to focus ahead and keep moving along down the path of life until such time as we're reunited, once and for all.  And in that, I have hope.

1Th 4:13-14  But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.  (14)  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

-----------------
Update on Georgia's battle with cancer:

Georgia is currently in her second week of radiation treatment.  She's doing fine so far, although the burn is surfacing now.  We've had incredible financial help from our friends, family, and church and are extremely thankful for that.  She comes home on weekends, stays with church friends in Amarillo, and, really, it's going as well as cancer treatment can possibly go.

The rain... let's not forget the rain.   Thank God for the rain.  Seriously.

The kind of storm clouds I like

An inch of rain!

More than an inch!

Until next time....

Counting the Cost

We're back from an trip to Amarillo where we got some good news- Georgia does not need chemo, "just" radiation.  That was a huge relief, of course.   While G continued on with her doctor's appointments, I made a run down to Lubbock to hand over my permanently injured prairie falcon to a raptor rescue group where she’ll be used in education programs.

I know that Georgia is feeling better because she woke up angry.  Not at me, fortunately, but at the medical process.  She _cannot_ get a straight answer on "How much will this cost?"  Even when a procedure is "approved" by our insurance- BC/BS- we still get bills for the portion that BCBS "didn't cover".   I mean, we have a letter in hand stating that BCBS has approved this or that procedure and we still get bills for it.  

NO ONE- the nurses, the hospital financial staff, BCBS (who you can't even get on the phone- G was on hold for 90 minutes a few weeks ago)- can answer or is willing to answer the question of "How much will this cost?", This happens even when G is told about a procedure: "It's a recipe...we do this, we do this, and we do it for all patients".  If it's a recipe, you should know how much, or at least have an estimate of how much, it'll cost, no?  Georgia's been on the phone non-stop for the past 3 hours, asking questions and looking for answers.    Here's hoping something gets accomplished.

We went thru this already with David, but in that case, I didn't care about the money and we had no other known option.  When we got aggressive about trying to fix him, all I cared about were results.  As it turned out, we ended up with LOTS of bills and poor results.  True, we were battling an inherited genetic disease, but David actually died not from that, not from the seizure, but when a nurse rolled him over and his tracheotomy  tube came out and could not be reinserted.  I’m not going to blame that person, as accidents happen (and God’s will is done), but David died as a direct result of medical.... let’s not say “incompetence” but let’s say, maybe, “limitations”.  Why wasn’t a longer tube used?  Was there no backup plan to the admittedly too short trach tube?  Why was he rolled over?    In any case, the results were poor and the bills still flooded in.   Are we in that spot again?

I don’t think any one person is to blame for this boondoggle.  I think it’s more of a problem with compartmentalization and specialization.  There are few overseeing advocates- at least few to to whom the job is more than just a paycheck.  The office people do their job and don’t (“can’t”, as in “not allowed”, perhaps?) look past their responsibilities.  The nurses do their job, but in our experience, they are clearly discouraged from looking past their position.  They say it all the time- “I can’t say anything about that... you'll have to ask so-and-so.”  The doctors do their job and I’d certainly not lay blame at their feet as most of the actual doctors (and nurses) we’ve dealt with have seemed to truly care about the person in front of them.  The blame goes past them- hospital administration, perhaps?   

Something has been lost between the actual hospital, where people are trying to help people and save lives, and the insurance companies, where money is made and shuffled.  And I’m sure that drug companies- where billions of $$$ are made- have a strong influence.  It’s a parasitic mess and I’m sure there are hundreds of books on this topic all of them with proposed solutions, most of which are probably different from each other.   On the whole, you know what I think?

1Ti 6:10 NKJV  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

 Psa 135:15 NKJV  The idols of the nations are silver and gold, The work of men's hands.

I think that when lots of dollars get involved, that the higher purpose gets lost.  What to do about it, though?  
As of now, we’re not in an emergency situation so we're calling around to other places to see if we can find answers we like.  If necessary, we’ll abandon our current facility and go elsewhere- Santa Fe?  Another place in Amarillo?  Who knows?   What an incredibly frustrating thing this is, though, especially on top of one's actual medical needs.

Well, it's time to get to work and make money to pay bills.

Weak in the Knees

Isa 35:3 NKJV  Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees.

Here we are again... first, an update on Georgia.  She has more or less recovered from her two surgeries and we are just awaiting results to find out if she needs chemo or radiation or both.  It’s kind of frustrating- as these things can be- because 2 weeks ago we drove to Amarillo to discuss this only to find out that the doctors couldn't say anything and simply needed her to sign a permission form so they could then get the needed test.  So, 7.5 hours of driving and 4 hours of sitting around just to sign a form.   Oh well, we made the most of the trip and did some needed shopping.  And BTW, just in case you missed it: Georgia's Cancer Treatment Fund. [link removed as this is now an old post]  We've gotten some very generous and very much appreciated help from friends thru this.  

It's been a very windy spring.  The wind is the worst thing about NE New Mexico... it can be just incessant sometimes.   And destructive?  Stuff never rots here- it blows away long before that.  I've heard it said that if the wind doesn't blow, the summer rains don't come.  At this rate, we oughta have a genuine wet year.

A touch o' a breeze

In New Mexico you have to draw for just about every hunting opportunity and this year I was fortunate enough to draw a rifle bull elk and archery deer tag.  I’ll go to the spot where I killed the cow elk a few years ago and with that in mind, Derek and I took our turkey tags out for a little turkey hunting and elk scouting.  We didn’t see a single turkey or any sign, but we did see quite a few elk and picked up a decent shed antler. 

Shed elk antler

We walked- according to Google Earth- about 3.5 miles up and down canyons and my knees just flat-out gave up.  That’s the first time that’s ever happened.  I've gotten muscular tired before, but this time, my knees just quit and going downhill was painful.  I was carrying my new pack- a Horn Hunter Full Curl- with about 20 lbs of stuff in it, but still...  On the upside, now that I know I can’t rely on my inherent conditioning anymore, I have all summer to get my knees strong enough to pack out the big bull elk I’m going to take this fall. [< update!] The next day, I felt pretty good with no lingering stabs of pain, so I guess it’s good that I can still recover.

In the archery world, Derek and I traveled to ABQ in early April to shoot the State Animal Round.  Derek shot very well and, as usual, won.  I shot good at first and then fell apart a little bit- the uphill and downhill shots got me.  I ended up 2nd place, missing 1st by 1 point.  But, we got our scores in from the Vegas Indoor Round back in Feb and got a surprise.  This was a "sectional" shoot, covering CA, AZ, NM, CO, UT, and NV.   Derek took 1st place is now the Sectional Champ!  My score was good enough for 2nd and I'm not complaining about that.  Scores aside, we're having fun shooting.

David’s 13th birthday has come and gone.  In observance, we went to the grave site and placed some solar-powered crosses on the site.  We went back a few days later at night and they were all lit up and looked nice- as nice as a grave site is going to look, I suppose.  That was Weds night.  Thurs, Derek and I went elk-scouting and turkey-hunting.  Saturday, my gout returned and Sunday, it hammered me.  I really need to get a number on this thing.  It’s probably not any particular food I’m eating, but may be a result of general kidney decline.  For now, I’m drinking lemon water and lots of it, and here on Sunday evening, it’s feeling better.

We have cattle on the ground, it’s rained a little, the grass is greenish, and here we go into another cattle season- my 19th.  Hopefully, I’ll be showing pictures of green grass soon.

Early morning visitors

Rolling and Tumbling

Here we are again after a long hiatus from the blog. I guess that last post (Departure) took a lot out of me. It's been a busy, busy time since then. I went to Winfield KS in September for the Walnut Valley Festival and spent nearly a week there camping, picking and catching up with friends. It was a great time and I'm hoping to do it again this year, Lord willing.

Aerial view of Walnut Valley Festival- and we're not even in it!

The view from my abode.

Talking Friends

Jamming Friends

Eating Friends

Cattle shipping went well and there wasn't a lot to report there.  I wrapped things up and hit the guitar repair business full-time and full-tilt.  I suppose I did a lot of work, but at times it seemed like I was trying to run in mud; doing a lot of effort but not getting much done.   Derek and I went to the North American Falconer's Association meet in Alamosa CO during Thanksgiving week and it was COLD there.  Cold and snowy.  So much so, that we bailed out early and came home.    Except for that week and few others, our winter has been pretty mild with just a few snowstorms and days of frigid weather.  Unlike last year when the water heater and furnace both went out within a month of each other, everything held together pretty well.

Stressed out and missing homeschooling Derek, Georgia quit her teaching job in December.  She had to drive 60 mi/day to get to work and by the time we paid gas and etc, her hourly pay was about $7/hr.  It just wasn't worth having her gone from the house for 8-10 hours/day so we made the decision for her to bail.  At the same time, I investigated Subaru's trade-in sales pitch and ended up trading in our 2012 Subaru Outback with 32,000 miles (that teaching job put the miles on!) for a 2014 Outback with 0.0 miles.  It actually worked out to be a good deal and basically cost me about $3,000 to erase those 32,000 miles.  Here's hoping we put a lot less miles on this one!

Subaru Outback #3

I've been working hard at my archery.  I posted on this in an early post "I Bow Down", and taking pictures for that post helped point out some flaws in my technique.  I'm shooting 3 bows now, only 1 of which was in that old post!  I now have a 2011 Hoyt Contender (which I bought last year at this time and immediately used in State competition), a 2010 Hoyt Maxxis 35 (which was in the old post), and a 2010 Hoyt Alphamax 32 (that I got a great price and couldn't pass up).   I made all these moves in order to get adjustable cams which my old Hoyt Vectrix didn't have and I did that so that I could play with my draw length.  I found a sweet spot and my shooting has picked up.  Last year, I finished 3rd in the State and this year, having been moved to a new class ("Senior"!!!), I should win.  Derek, if you didn't know already, is defending State Champion in his class.

Falconry-wise, we had a disaster.  My prairie falcon got tangled up in her telemetry harness and ended up damaging her wing and losing 6 primary feathers and follicles.  She will never fly again.   It was really disappointing as I had high hopes for her, going into her 3rd season.  But, that's the way it goes sometimes.  It looks like I'm going to pass her on to a raptor education group and they'll use for public education.  On the upside, the kestrel we took as a chick in June has been a lot of fun.  Derek took a liking to him and after an episode in which the kestrel was lost for a day, I made the decision to not try to hunt with him.I just felt that after losing his brother, that Derek needed to not lose something, but to have some success.  Instead, we just fly him around the house and work on training techniques.  We move from room to room and the kestrel will "hunt" us down at which time we toss a tidbit for him.   We're planning to release him back into the wild in late summer and get another one, which we will try to hunt sparrows and starlings with.   I'm also hoping to take a tiercel (male) prairie falcon- a bird I've never flown.  Derek's excited about that, too. 

Now for the biggest news.  In January, Georgia was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Fortunately- we hope- it was caught early.  As I type this, she's had 2 surgeries to remove the mass and will be starting radiation or chemo therapy in a few weeks.  That will require daily treatments for about 6 weeks in Amarillo, TX.  We have several sets of friends there and she should be able to stay with them and come home on weekends.  That's been a huge challenge for us, coming not even 2 years after David's passing, but it's certainly not as bad as it could be and we've had tremendous support from friends, family, and people we haven't even met.  One friend setup a donation site and the help we've received from it has been a real and appreciated blessing.   The link:  Georgia's Cancer Fund.   To do my part, I've been paring down as much excess stuff as possible; I've sold 3 guitars and a vintage Fender amp and applied the $$$ to our expenses.  It's kind of nice trimming away the excess, actually.

Georgia's book

Out on the ranch, I've rebuilt the 2002 Yamaha Grizzly again.  I did this back at the beginning of this blog and here we are again.  Last time, 2 valve tappets came loose and I miraculously recovered them from the engine, but I think they damaged a valve seat and smoking on start-up, oil consumption, and hard starting ensued.  Since I wasn't using the bikes during the winter, I decided to go ahead and rebuild the head.  It took pretty much all winter to get 'er done, but there was no rush, and the bike started up immediately and purred like a kitten (okay, a BIG kitten), so maybe it'll be good for another couple of years.

VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED:
Engine guts

The tumbleweeds have been unbelievable this spring.  They have filled up the creeks, gullies, and fence corners.  This is going to be tremendous MESS if/when we get a gully-washer rain and all these weeds become flotsam.  Right now, when the wind blows, the weeds pile up and knock down fences.  I'm in constant fence repair mode.  And I don't think there's anything I can do about it.

Tumbleweeds along a fence (dark line running over horizon)

Weeds in a creek- the fence is buried

Weeds, weeds, weeds

Weeds on every corner

I think that more or less catches us up.  I've been spending too much time making short Facebook updates and instead of doing that, I think I'll re-focus on my blog and just link FB to it.  That way I can control my photos a little better, write longer posts, and non-FB friends can still read what's going on.

For now.... off to work on guitars and fix fences.