Catch Up

We headed home from the weekend of horse stuff on Monday. Brenda headed right out from the campground to get home and do some laundry while I took the bus on up to Freightliner to get it serviced. That only took an hour or so and then I was headed home. No sooner did I get rolling than the Pressure Pro started beeping, indicating that my back drivers inside dual was low. I pulled over and checked things out, it appeared that the valve stem had worked itself out somehow and the pressure had dropped from usual 100 pounds down to about 55. There was a Fountain Tire not to far back so I just spun, yah right at 40 some odd feet you don’t just spin, around and loaded up with some of their free air. Fountain Tire is a Western Canadian company that was started in Wainwright, Alberta just down the road from my uncles Buffalo Creek Ranch. Most of my cousins have gravitated to this organisation and have managed a number of stores for them. Family connections aside these stores are each ran by professional tire guys and their service is second to none. So if you are wandering around Western Canada and need some attention paid to the rubber keeping you on the road stop by Fountain Tire and tell ‘em the Macnab boys sent ya. If that doesn’t get you run out of town, you’ll probably get pretty good service.

The weekend of horse seminars was sure interesting and there was everything there from Dressage to Ranch Roping and everything in between. There are many disciplines in the horse game but one thing is pretty common, a well trained horse in one discipline is likely to be a well trained horse in all the others as well. The foundation work is the same across the board. I might have mentioned before that there were a lot of vendors in attendance as well. The outfit that sold us Brenda’s saddle a couple of months ago was there as well, and they had a couple of saddles that kept drawing me back time and time again. Now although K&K Livestock has a lot of saddles it was once again the Vic Bennett’s that drew me in. Although they had a saddle identical to Brenda’s and that one caught my eye, but the one I decided on was a more traditional Association style of saddle with an unpadded seat and a little higher cantle. The rigging is a little more traditional and that part of me that will be in contact with it the most just thought it fit a little better. Now it took me three days of returning and setting on the two of them to make up my mind. Thanks to all the folks that I drug along to look at it and give me advice as the weekend progressed. Brenda was thinking we should set up our rig right by Karen’s booth so I wouldn’t wear out so much boot leather walking back and forth and I had another couple of pretty good horse and leather folks in Mike and Lynn there to help me with the assessment. Big decision as the saddle I ride in now is a fine piece of craftsmanship also, made sometime in the 60’s by a fellow named Felmer Eamor. That saddle was bought by my father back in the early 70’s and has served me well ever since. I didn't bring my new saddle home as there was one last thing that had to be done to it to make it perfect. As some of you know I am a little bigger than average and they needed to take it back and fashion some new stirrup leathers so that my long legs don't outreach those stirrups. Oh by the way, thanks Dad for the loan, if you need your saddle back it will be in my trailer…..lol.

Yesterday I ran to town for lunch with Dad and then he and I headed over to get our various blood tests all caught up. I have an appointment next week to renew some prescriptions and I know the Doc likes to have things all up to date once I get there. Then it was time to drop off the Silverado for a little servicing and to get them to check out a few things that are not right. It came with some pretty fancy wheels that were a little over the top for me but that it is what it had and the chrome on them appears to be peeling off so hopefully they will get that resolved. As well this new Chevy is leaving a drop or two of oil on my garage floor every time I park it in there and all the Ford’s around the place are complaining that the newcomer is a little messy by their standards.

We woke up this morning to the sound of a gentle rain on the roof of the bus, and although I would rather it just rained at night it is much needed as the ground is pretty dry around these parts. As I write this the rain has turned to a heavy snow and the weather guys are calling for a 10-20 centimetre (4-8 inch) accumulation in the next 24 hours. But like Ian Tyson, an Alberta cowboy and balladeer says in his song, it is “Moisture” and this is Alberta, we’ll take it any way we can get it.