Team Sorting Clinic

Our local Thunderbird Arena Community Council put on a Team Sorting Clinic today up at the Arena on Ralston Road. We are hoping to raise some cash so that we can do some improvements there. It needs some bleachers, just in case someone wants to watch the goings on, and a little paint on the fences would be good also. But back to the Clinic. I decided to give Willow the day off so it was Blue’s chance to shine. He was a foal around our place at Dogpound North when we still had cows. I am sure he just thought they were some kind of strange looking short legged horses and had no idea that his ancestors were bred to handle their foibles.

Our clinician was Dale Darnold and although not many of us had much experience with Team Sorting he managed to get us straightened out and we actually sorted some cattle.

For those who have no idea what I am talking about I’ll try to explain this game. You start off with a dozen or so cattle numbered from 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0 and a couple of unnumbered animals just to add a little challenge. The point of the exercise is to move the cattle in order from one pen and into another. You are given the number you are to start with as you cross the start line. For example if the announcer calls 6 you need to move the animal wearing the number 6 across to the second pen all the while making sure none of the other animals follows along. Once 6 is across you need to both hold it there and move 7 across and so on and on till you have all ten marked animals across, always remembering that the trash or unnumbered animals can’t be across that line between the pens. Sounds simple but remember cattle are herd animals and don’t want to leave their buddies behind or be left behind themselves so they are constantly trying to either cross the line, out of order, or get back across to rejoin the herd. The team part is there are two riders in the pen at a time and while one attempts to move the cattle in order out of one pen to the other, the second is both keeping everyone on the proper side of the line as well as assisting rider number 1 with cutting the proper animal out of the herd.

Team Sorting VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

You’ll notice in the shots above Blue has his ears pinned back, well to be a good cow horse doesn’t mean you have to like cows, in fact all the good ones I have seen seem to have a little bit of mean when it comes to working cattle. That said you are not allowed to rough up the cattle so it is OK to look mean but not be mean, although I am sure some horses would like to bite those cattle.

Now his ears are back in this photo also so maybe he is not enamoured of having his picture taken either.

After the clinic we set up for some practice runs and here is our management group, the announcer Kit on the truck, Jim, in the blue shirt and Dale on the far right overseeing it all. And below is Blue thinking “OK enough with the pictures, get this saddle off my back and let me in the trailer so we can get home and see what Willow is up too.”

Goldfields

Today we were up and at ‘em before the dawn. We were heading over to Apache Junction to meet some friends, Joe, Dan, and Kristi, for a ride around the desert over that way. This beautiful desert with Superstition Mountain looming over it was one of the reasons we knew that sooner or later we were going to have to bring our horses down off the northern range to see this place the best way we know how. It was a beautiful day with just the odd cloud floating by. Nice weather for riding but not so great for taking photos. The above picture was taken today and the one below a few years back, same mountain, different light.

We headed north from the old Ghost Town and just wandered our way across the landscape.

We didn’t linger long in any spot as Joe had us talked into visiting his favourite Italian restaurant in Apache Junction but Brenda, as usual, did have to feed folks, so here is a shot of her doling out some of her fresh baked cookies from her stash.

Everyone except the photographer got a ration, but I guess seeing as how I have eaten a couple of hundred of these oatmeal raisin and peanut cookies over the last few weeks and I have direct access to the mother lode I don’t mind sharing. A FEW!

It was a beautiful ride and to soon we were headed back to the trailers, and passing by the old Goldfield Ghost Town that is in the foreground of the first picture.

Here is the web album with the complete photo story.

Just Another Day

Today was just another day down here at Dogpound South. We were not doing anything exciting and we managed to get all the unpacking from our weekend excursion done yesterday so it is just a matter of marking time till the next ride on Wednesday.

Brenda needed to run into town for some supplies so it was off to Costco for us. That place seems to have a minimum $200.00 charge to get back out and today was even worse as our membership had expired so we needed to renew that first.

And just for our friend Heather we stopped after we were done our shopping and enjoyed a great lunch at an even better price. While she was running off to London, England for a grilled cheese sandwich we had our usual here at our favourite old folks eatery.

And for those of us on a fixed income once you include the tax it is still only $3.27 for the two of us to dine.

And then it was back off to Dogpound South for another enjoyable day in the sunshine, and some playing with the Security detail. They need to keep in top notch shape just in case they are called to duty.

 

Bronco Trailhead

This week we took a spin north of Cave Creek to meet up with a bunch of folks and their horses. The ride organizers were a group called the Lone Rangers and they are actually a singles riding group but they seemed to be hospitable to us married folks. We can ride with them whenever we like but I don’t think they want us as actual members in their club. There were some interesting folks in this bunch, some of whom were on our ride last week in the Dragoons as well.

New Friends VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Starting from the left in the brown ball cap is Dan, and going clockwise at the top in the brown cowboy hat to Joe, then Theresa and Eric with Theresa’s husband K, who is also a friend of mine on the Flickr website, and in is the centre is our long lost cousin, Ray Brown. Ray just retired on January 1st this year and is only 85 years young. He kept us in stitches most of the weekend and we can hardly wait to meet his wife, Georgia Brown.

We pulled into the campsite about mid day on Friday and got set up before many other folks were there. That meant that our horses were in the luxury suites and had a corral and were not tied to the trailer all weekend. That’s them down there with our truck on the lower right side of the trailhead and our LQ out in the centre with no truck.

You won’t see any pictures of the ride here as it appears that my little Olympus point and shoot has given up the ghost. Lot’s of pictures but NONE in focus. Oh well it is embossed on my memory. Sorry about your luck though!

Once we got back to camp it was time for that time honoured tradition, POTLUCK, and as usual there were twenty odd folks there and each and every one brought enough food to feed 20 odd folks. Brenda contributed linguine and meat sauce along with a salad and a chocolate cherry cake. Needless to say there were glucose monitors all over the camp setting off their alarms all night.

It rained pretty steadily through the night and all morning as we packed up to head home. If this keeps up the desert should once again be a beautiful green this winter. We got back to Dogpound South in the early afternoon and got everything unloaded and set back up for the next trip.

Not often I get a guy sitting beside me that makes me look good, but that is Larry, ‘er I mean Joe, our friend from Wyoming inhabiting those coveralls.

A couple of pics I stole from our friends K’s collection to quench Caron’s thirst for shots of Willow.

 

Council Rocks

Friday morning we finished packing up the LQ and made sure all the right tanks were empty and the other ones full, then loaded our two hounds and both of our horses as we were heading down Tombstone way to meet up with some folks from a group called the Arizona Back Country Riders to do a little riding in the Dragoon Mountains. It is about a three hour haul from here at Dogpound South to the camp just a dozen or so miles outside of Tombstone. We found our way with no problem (good directions Bill) and pulled into the site about 2:30PM and got ourselves set up.

Some of the folks were keen to get riding and were saddled up and ready to go, we however opted to run into Tombstone with K and Theresa, and David and Linda, and Joe Carl and Adina(?) and wander the streets and then grab a bite to eat at Cafe Margarita and of course do a little shopping for the ladies. The others headed into Big Nose Kate's to do a little dancing after dinner but as Brenda and I are not the dancing type, or so she says about me, we headed back to camp to let the dogs out, yep it was us.

Well early to bed makes early to rise and we got up to a small change in the weather.

You betcha we are still in Arizona and that really is snow. As you can tell from the shot below there was a little wind through the night also. that is Joe Carls shower stall there standing on its head beside his tent.

But a little snow never gets a cowboy down so we gave it a couple of hours while folks drank an extra cup of coffee or two and I slurped down my hot chocolate and then it was time to hit the trail. For those who missed the trip the weather was actually perfect for our ride, cool enough for the horses and just enough moisture to keep the dust down and not enough to make things slippery.

Ride to Council Rocks VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

That fellow off by himself in the bottom right photo is K, Brenda and I had met him and his wife Theresa early in 2008 when we first came to this country looking for a place to ride. Took us a while but we made it back and are hoping to stay for many winters. K and I met through another website where we both post photographs from time to time. You can follow these links to K’s and my own Flickr sites if you are interested. It was his photo’s that drew us to this country to ride in the first place so we are hoping to trace his trails through the back country of Arizona.

Council Rocks VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Our ride on Saturday took us through and along the Dragoon Mountains to a place called Council Rocks, it was really just a jumble of boulders but at the base of them there was a natural amphitheatre where we left the horses and scrambled up to the top to set a spell and eat our lunch. There were some old old pictographs on the protected undersides of the boulders so you knew folks had been coming to this spot for thousands of years.

Now these new friends have a custom that is very similar to that we used to enjoy with our RV’ing friends and will continue to enjoy with whomever we are sharing our camps with. We gathered around the campfire back in camp and had a great potluck supper.  Those of you who I caught with your mouths full I apologize in advance but it just had to be as there was not much talking going on while the food was hot.

 

I am hear to tell you that there are just as many good cooks amongst these cowgirls as there are amongst those RV’ing folks we hung out with the last few years. As Nick Russell says "I am never going to be a thin man”.

The picture above is our host and the leader of this expedition Bill, Brenda and I can’t thank him enough for sharing his country with us and our horses.

It is beautiful country and the pictures above were taken this morning and you’ll notice the snow is gone and the weather is back to normal.

I will leave you with a link to our Cochise’s Stronghold Web Album that has more photos from this adventure.

Getting out of Dodge

It is getting a little slow around here, just the way we like it. We took the horses for a ride yesterday first thing in the morning and then hung out watching for the Century Link guy to come and hook up our internet. Once he had visited we had to watch for the UPS guy who was bringing our modem. Once we got all the pieces it only took us about 10 minutes to hook it all up and get online. And boy after 10 years of dial-up, satellite and finally air cards we are moving at light speed now.

I was wandering around the place late yesterday afternoon and noticed what looked like some wet spots on the ground over where Brenda parks her Jeep. Now remember we are in Arizona and springs don’t just appear in the desert without some kind of divine intervention and we haven’t left the place so might have notice that type of thing happening. Further investigation led me to a more likely cause, Brenda’s Jeep was dripping oil on the ground. Now remember it had just been into the shop for an oil change a couple of days ago so I guessed they had let the oil collect on the crossmember below the oil plug, it has happened before. A quick check dismissed that simple solution, dipstick was dry. Well Brenda was on the phone to Henry Brown Chrysler, “number one in customer satisfaction in Arizona”, and told them to get a tow truck up and pick up the Jeep and get it back down to their shop and figure out what they had screwed up. The tow truck arrived at 6AM this morning so as to have it on their doorstep when they opened at 7AM. It took them 5 hours to get back to us but they have figured out that a cracked oil cap is the problem and that part is on order.

Tow Job VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Time will tell how this story ends but Brenda is all set to go to war if need be with the folks at Henry Brown’s Chrysler, soon to risk their #1 spot in customer satisfaction.

But back to the title, the rest of the day here we spent working towards making sure we are ready to head off tomorrow for the Dragoon Mountains in SE Arizona. We are joining some soon to be friends for a ride into the Dragoons. Ought to be a blast and I will try to get some photos of the adventure.

Once we got that high speed internet working the other day we put out a call to our kids to see if we could hook up with our grandchildren on Skype and today Becky and Kashton made our afternoon with their visit.

C’mon over and Set a Spell

Yesterday we ran Brenda’s Jeep into Casa Grande and got an oil change and picked up some cables for our Shaw Direct Satellite dish. Well the cables were perfect but the dish is still not working. I had a long conversation with my friends at Shaw today and as near as we can tell the receiver was working fine so the only thing left is the LNB. But tomorrow we get high speed internet and what with the Terabyte of movies we appropriated from Matt we may get through to Christmas without this TV anyway. And while we are home maybe I can figure out what the issue is.

Today was a big day for Brenda, we hit Fry’s Marketplace, cousin Mick’s recommendation, and bought them out of patio furniture. Hence the title of todays blog we have a bunch of chairs and now just need some butts to fill them all. It will take us a week to sit in each and every one, but the deck is coming together kinda like Brenda wants it too.

Patio Stuff VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

Other than the furniture buying and then the some assembly required part we had a pretty quiet day here at Dogpound South. Tonight we ate our shrimp taco’s on the patio while watching the sun slowing sink into the west.