Saturday, August 30, 2008

To the Ranch

Welcome to Rusty Springs Ranch. My sister and her husband have built fences, corrals, a barn and a huge woodpile, all in less than a year. Their property starts with a cattle guard.
Jake is a happy dog. He came with us on our rides and herded cats, calves and smaller dogs.
The chickens were delivered in June and have already settled in. Emily captured grasshoppers and threw them over the chicken wire. They danced and cackled and we kept doing it till all the grasshoppers went to another area.
There was a big wind storm (no rain like home) and a few trees landed on the barbed wire fencing over the ridge. A neighbor's heifer was in their field. So they pushed her back and there was some bringing up to standards of the fences. My sister and her husband have very high standards.The fences go on a long way. Emily and I pitched in, and we got to go on a lovely ride to "the lookout". I rode Faith again. She had a new chin strap and was a bit more calm this time. I probably was, too.
Everywhere we looked was beautiful sky, grass valleys and river gulleys. Julie rode her stallion, Chex. He is a real cow pony and has lovely babies. I hope Faith is carrying one of his, but with an 11 month gestation, it's still hard to tell.
We had a good time, but came home on our earlier time choice. I haven't had a break in so long and the boys are in Calgary/Canmore for the weekend- the last highland games of the season.
There will be lots of changes before we get back to the ranch. These kitties will be grown. They're the babies of one of the babies we met at Christmas.
I drove and Emily controlled the music from her ipod. We had a nice road trip though the weather was a bit heavy through the Coquihalla pass from the tollbooth to Popkum.
We watched movies last night and knit. I'm almost done the only begun August block for the aran afghan. Then I'm almost done the alphabet baby blanket.
I've started shawl in silk blend to carry around. But I read a whole book, walked the dog and visited with my neglected friends. This is the last hurrah of the summer.

3 comments:

Angie said...

Lovely photos! I really do need to take a look at a map since I have no reference points to follow from your posts. Enjoy your weekend.

Life's a Stitch said...

Beautiful! It's been a long time since I read a book in that short a time. I only seem to get a dozen pages in on the treadmill or at lunch. Have to try the audio books except I have a difficult time with headphones. I get motion sick with the two different inputs. Weird, huh?

LNS said...

What a lovely ranch! Brings back some fond childhood memories for sure :-) Enjoy the last bit of summer.