Whipped at Winfield

The "Big Fast Train" has done come and gone. Just as I said in that post, there was a point at Winfield where I had to actually sit down onstage and start playing the tunes I'd been practicing for months. Georgia documented it (below). There was a lot that needed to happen before then, though, and no, I didn't really get "whipped" at Winfield. It's just a fun alliteration. I'd use "Winning at Winfield!" (with more exclamation marks) but I didn't win.

The trip to Dallas to pick up our new Casita went well. We stopped in Clarendon and had lunch with Brianna and Quenten which turned out to be a good thing as they ended up moving (to Claremore...what's next?  "Clareless"? "Clarefree"? "Clare-by-the-sea"?) the week I was at Winfield. We picked up the camper- another undramatic event, except that I had a blown fuse which was promptly fixed at the factory- and headed north to my half-sister's place near Pilot Point, TX. I'd asked for all kinds of advice for traveling through Dallas and we ended up taking 45 to 75 to 380. That was a good route but I have to say, north Dallas was the worst part of the whole trip!  Lots of traffic, lots of construction, fast drivers. However, it still all went without event and we even managed to stop at the Cabela's in Allen, TX.

The Motherlode of Egg Campers

Checking out floor models while waiting

Getting together for the first time.

Out in the lot, ready to roll!

We'd stopped at Cabela's in Fort Worth on the way in and were disappointed. The place was full of screaming kids, merchandise was on the floor, and we just didn't find anything we wanted. Plus, we only had an hour before they closed and when they close at 7 pm, that means they empty the floor at 6:30 pm. The Cabela's in Allen TX was a lot better to us. The former is 250,000 sq ft and the latter "only" 100,000 sq ft, but the Allen store was cleaner, neater, and.... better. Maybe it helped that it was Monday morning and not Sunday afternoon. We scored all kinds of stuff on our list including a Benjamin Titan NP air rifle with a slightly cracked stock for less than 1/2 price. Derek's been wanting one of these for ages but I didn't want to spend $160 on one. This one was marked to $80 and we put it in the basket along with a pair of camo overalls for $20. We found a lot of things and the stop here was well worth our time. We also managed a stop at In 'n Out Burger but, honestly... it was just okay. I like Five Guys' fries better.

Cabela's in Allen TX

After that, it was to my sister's place, whom I haven't seen in 12 years or so, although we talk on Facebook. Her and her husband train, raise, and sell horses and we had a fun, although way too short visit. Derek and I slept in the Casita for the first time and started figuring things out.

Derek, Bryan, and Ky after a successful meal

We took off at first light for Winfield and stopped at Bass Pro in OKC on the way. Prior to this trip, I'd bought a Garmin GPS and, while I'm good with maps, this proved to be a useful purchase for navigating big cities. The main thing is that it warns you of upcoming exits and you get a little picture of what the exit looks like. Armed and empowered with this technology, we navigated into Bass Pro where we spent more money!

Bass Pro in OKC

And then, on to Winfield! Our GPS was pretty helpful here. I'd never come to Winfield from the south and didn't realize that I-35 turns in a toll road. So, we bailed an exit early and the GPS helpfully suggested a road that ran straight to the road I wanted. Finally, around 2 pm, we parked the Casita and breathed a big sigh.

One of my antelope hunters had given Derek a really nice fly-tying kit and I knew there plenty of experienced fly-ty'ers in our camp.

Coy and Derek tying flies

Proulxs and Donohues

The Casita. Camping.

The Famous John Beaver

Dugas and Moe

"Are you SURE you want to learn to play banjo?"

The evening flight of turkey vultures coming to roost

Winfield was fun. I didn't place in either contest and there was no question about that. I did better in the mandolin contest than I did guitar and got a lot of nice comments. One of the most appreciated was when Steve Kaufman- the original and for a long time only 3-time winner of the guitar contest- came over, pointed his breakfast banana at me and said "You played great in the mandolin contest! Smooth, clean, interesting... that was good!" 

Advice from Steve before the contest

Wanna hear my contest tune? Video!

I drew next to last in the guitar contest and that gave me about 2.5 hours to listen to the other guys, get tense, and think about what I should've done. I played pretty good, but my arrangements and execution, honestly, are not up to Winfield standards. But I paid attention and brought some lessons home. This year was tough.  Of the 5 finalists, 4 were previous winners. And at least 3 previous winners did not make the cut, as well as a few professional musicians there to try their hand at the contest. So, it was no dishonor to not make it. I think I could've played better and done more, though. Next year, maybe I will.

Here comes that train!

Picking away!

Warming up for the guitar contest

I didn't play well, but here I am.

My view

Derek slept well.

That was Winfield. It was a fun but tiring week and we drove 1400 miles round trip. On the way home, I decided that 2015 would be my last year. Next year, I'm going elk bowhunting or fishing or whatever. It's getting really hard to hear in noisy environments and I had a hard time participating in anything other than very small group conversations. So, I'm done. Of course, when I got home, I started learning new tunes and practicing. Maybe I'll go but just not say anything.

This is long enough.  Next time, I'll talk about cattle shipping and the End of The Year. Maybe I'll even have a photo of me opening a box of the Revised and Updated 2nd Edition of "Falconry Equipment".  We'll see.

July 2015

I don't have a funny creative title for this post so I'll just call it like it is.  Last time I checked in, I'd just broken my foot. It took a full 6 weeks for that heal, but it finally did. I wore my walking cast for 5 of those 6 weeks; every time I tried to do without it, my foot would hurt w/in a few steps.  So I wore the boot.

It's been raining.  A lot.  May was the rainiest month on record since the early 1900's. The grass grew unbelievably well, ponds/creeks filled up and it was just about perfect really.  For the first time in 5 years, we were able to stock decent numbers of cattle.

Here's a little video of us taking some of the first cattle to water.  This is before the rains really kicked in, so it's still pretty brown.

Incoming!

Flooded yard from the 1st big rain

Clouds

More clouds!

Down at the creek

June 9

In between rains- it felt good to say that!- we got some hay to get ready for winter.  We have fewer over-wintering horses, far more grass in the pasture, and should be able to get by with less hay.

A mere 40 bales

All this sounds happy and cheerful.  Me, though, I've been really struggling to get moving sometimes. I think the release of the stress of the past 4 years has just wiped me out and some days I can't do anything but sit at the computer and surf around. I had to cut way back on guitar work this spring and summer as I just had to have a break. The thought of getting up and doing something just flattens me. Eventually, I get over it and get up and going, but it's hard some days. Fortunately, I have jobs where if I need to sit and drink coffee until noon, I can. That's a tremendous blessing. I play my guitar a lot, but it's hard to find much joy in it and it gets frustrating. My hearing sucks and it's not going to get better... it's just a real struggle playing these days. Nevertheless, I just keep at it and plow on and eventually the black cloud goes away. It helps a lot to look outside at the green grass, big fluffy clouds, and rain on the horizon. It also helps a lot to think about the temporality of this life and focus ahead on the things to come. 

I've been doing a lot of reading on physics, vibrations, energy, music, and God and those are stimulating things that get my brain going. Lots of food for thought there. This perks me up considerably.

Music books

Energy books

I suppose I'll end this with another little video.  I went to check the mail and found 17 steers lounging in front of the pens where the cows were being temporarily held. Turns out that a gate 1.5 miles away had come loose and the steers went walk-about outback. Derek and I easily herded them back with the help of Spots and Risky.

Thank God for the rain!

Bad News, Good News.

Good news.  It rained!!!  We got between 0.25 and 0.5" on the ranch, which is great.  Bad news is that it soaked up like a sponge and we need more of the same to get the grass growing.  But for a few hours there, it was great.

Rain, Oh Rain, Oh, Let It Rain!!

Bad news:  My peregrine pursuit has hit a snag.  One of my nest sites was the victim of a forest fire.  It was crazy really, as the fire started at the base of the nest cliff!  I mean, of all the places in New Mexico to have a fire, why at my falcon site??  The road was closed for several days and I couldn't get in to check on it, but things finally cleared up and I took a trip to the 2 sites I've been watching.  At one, I watched the female on what is probably very young chicks.  It'll be another 2 weeks before I can take one, so I left there and drove to the other place. 

[Previous photo removed]

It's hard to see, but that's my nest cliff and that's smoke on the ridge line.  The fire burned up this slope, then crossed the road and burned north.  It mostly burned understory and some of the pine needles and doesn't really look all that bad.  I watched the site for about 20 minutes and didn't see anything but I couldn't hike the opposite slope because it was still smoldering and the forest is closed.  I'll check back on this in a few weeks just to see what I see.

The good news, though, is that my captive peregrine deal also fell thru.  Why is that good news, you might wonder?  It's good because it means that my 2nd falcon can now be a wild taken prairie falcon and that means that I get to rappel into another aerie!  And prairie falcons are local to me, so I won't have to make 8 hour trips just to get to them.  On Sunday, in fact, we saw a falcon enter a cavity on a nearby rock and Georgia heard a screaming falcon.  We'll check that site ever week and when they're ready, I'm ready.

Back on the ranch, we're getting into the Feed 'n Count groove.  It's still extremely dry here- the driest since 1900, actually- and so we're supplemental feeding.  That costs money, but it also results in very tame cattle and it's much easier to find and count them that way, as they come running to the feeder.  I use an ATV to play "rover" to the feed truck, going out into the pasture corners, down the creeks, and etc, counting cattle the whole way.  It's important to count to verify that the cattle are there and haven't strayed or been rustled.

34.2 mi and I'm not done

 This puts quite a few miles on the ATV.  We started around 4 pm and by 6 pm, I'd already put 34.2 mil on the bike.  I hit 44 before I was done at 7 pm.  Horses are great for a lot of things, but ATV's rule when it comes to covering a lot of country quickly.   ATV's are mostly a good thing except when they break and I have to work on them.  Then they are Bad ATVs.

The bad thing about being on the ATV is the nasty wind.  It was blowing 30 mph today and when you're going 30 mph into it, that's a 60 mph wind.  It's hard on the eyes and hard on the ears.  Today, though, I did something different.  I wrapped my head in a bandana.  I probably look like Mother Hubbard, but who cares?  The bandana kept the wind out of my ears and kept my ear buds in so that I was able to listen to 3 hrs of music while riding around counting cattle.  My count came out good- just 2 short in each pasture.  260 head in one, 175-ish in the other.  I'll keep track of my counts and see if I can't a perfect count next time.

Self Portrait of the Artist as an Upper Middle-Aged Man

After getting my count, I stopped on the edge of the canyon to glass with binos to see if I could pick up any more cattle.  I didn't but I did find 5 mule deer bucks grazing about 200 yards away.  Enlarge the picture and see if you can spot the little reddish streaks- one is just above my boot.  The wind was blowing from them to me and ATV bothered them not one bit, not even when I started it and backed out.  I'm going rifle hunting for deer this year, Lord willing.

Teeny Tiny Little Deer

That's the ranch.  On The Davidic Front, we got a call from the doc's office today with news that some tests had returned from the Mayo Clinic and the doc wants to see us next week.  We did a CBC today and found that David's hemoglobin is only 8.0 in spite of a transfusion 10 days ago.    Even at that low level, he's twice what he normally is.  But on the "kind of alarming" side, his platelets have dropped and are approaching dangerous levels.  Dangerous in that he could actually start spontaneous internal bleeding.  We'll probably do another CBC on Thur and if things are worse, it'll be off to the doc on Friday for a platelet transfusion (which typically only lasts a few days so it's a real stop-gap thing).

I suspect this is kind of like my skid steer.  I had some oil leaks fixed finally.  When I did, the skid steer ran great for about 5 hrs and then started leaking worse than before.  The problem was another blown O-ring and it's likely that the improved pressure from the other repairs caused this one to fail.  As David is infused with good blood, it's possible that his bone marrow- which has been working hard for 10 years- will take a vacation, resulting in low platelets.  Or his spleen might get alarmed at all the fresh blood, work over-time in its misdirected attempt to blow his blood cells up, and get enlarged even further.  It's all just a mess, but hopefully the doc will have some news for us.

Other good news is that I got my hearing aids fixed.  I wear BTE aids and I'm almost totally dependent upon them.  When they don't work well, I can't hear.  I had them adjusted last June by a new doc who finally got them working really, really well.  All was peachy until about Jan/Feb.  When we went on the train trip, I could hear well going to DC, but while there and on the way back, I just wasn't hearing well at all.   I thought that maybe my ears had taken another dip.  At the urging of my dear wife, we finally made the trip to CO Springs.  After some discussion, the doc said "let's reset them to the last good setting and see what happens".  The instant he clicked the Program button, my hearing world came back and I immediately heard people talking in the next room, fans in the room, and the doc's voice.  I had my guitar with me and tested the aids against it.  Wow....it was all there again.  That was Thurs.  Since then, I've been asking my dear wife and beloved children to please quit shouting at me.  I turn the TV down.  I turn all the fans in the house off.  I play my guitars and listen to the harmonics.  It's great.  And now we know that the aids' programing will drift and needs to be reset every 4 months or so.

Well, that's enough for now!