Hi guys and gals!

Of course there is never a dull moment at the ranch. Out here

life moves at a different pace. Since we are like one big family,

we joke A LOT and you don’t dish out what you can’t take.

Things aren’t always politically correct, but we prefer it that way.

We take pride in a job well done and are as tickled by the work

we do here as I’ve seen in most places. From throwing a perfect

loop, to a moment of softness with a horse, a perfect turn on a

cow or even just trotting around and over trees in the woods on

a loose rein…these are a few of our favorite things.

These are the kinds of things (among many others) that we enjoy

sharing with our guests so much. Randy took over much of the

horsemanship teaching this week with half of our guests, and

Austin and Stephanie worked on horsemanship in the meadows

and on trails with the other half of our guests. Dori had a few

graze goers, but for the most part she was on her own for much of the time!

On Tuesday she and her horse Billy went out alone and singlehandedly rode

the outside of the east Bear Springs and Fisher river pastures. There Dori

gathered cattle and put them into Nutter’s Pasture. After that, she

Irish

gathered 50 pairs in Tom Ray’s pasture and put them in the Stump Pasture. She then went to Elbow

Creek and found cows and calves inside the hot fence around creek. She managed to get them out and

then repaired the fence after they came through.

What a day!

Another day at graze, Dori went out with Chris,

Stephen and Bruce and doctored one cow and

two calves. Dori, always with an eye for a good

shot, inched her camera out while holding hind

feet on the cow and snapped a photo!

The week ended with a long day at graze for

Chris and Bruce. Chris, who was riding Chief and

Bruce who was riding Lucy (both draft crosses

with BIG motors) spent most of the day finding

and then moving two very unruly bulls over to

the shipping pasture. Chris said they must have

gone 30 miles with all of the back and forth they had to do!

Here at home we had a lot of sorting, weighing and

worming to do with the cattle. We had a few die-hards

that stuck with us throughout the week. One of them

was sweet little Celia, who came with her dad Greg for

the second time since last summer. Celia is only 11 but

she stuck with us the whole time, no matter how hard

the job or how long the day.

One day we were moving steers from the Belgarde

pasture over to the scales to be weighed. The steers

were moving especially slow and Celia knew they

needed to move with

a little more life. She

remembered that when Randy would drive the steers he would call out

“Yup, yup!” She glanced around to make sure nobody was paying

attention and said “yup, yup!” The steers started moving immediately

and Celia gasped and said “It really works!” I had a big laugh about

that.

She and Scott were the only two folks who came to sort with us on

Thursday afternoon and they were able to get a lot of work in! We had

a rodeer set up in the middle of the pasture and each of them took

turns going in alone to sort off a steer and drive it out of the herd.

Celia’s last steer was her best one. That steer took off running around

Frank and Dandy are making their way down

the trail

Sandrine and Clayton

Celia with Hollywood

the rodeer and she held her line and stuck with

him till she got him out of the herd and loped off

after him to drive him out!

On Friday afternoon, most of our folks wanted to

go on a trail ride but we still had to move 51

steers from the lodge and the West Pasture up

into the State Section. There was only Shayne,

Randy and Brenda and I to do it. No big deal,

except we were taking them up the side way,

through a little green gate, up a very steep slope.

Of course the steers were not interested in

climbing the mountain and kept trying to go any

direction in the thick timber rather than up.

We managed to get them through the gate but then had to move them

about another 1000 feet up an even steeper slope (like 30°) to get them

to the road. They were pretty adamant about staying on the side of the

hills. Shayne was on foot leading his horse, throwing rocks and sticks at

the steers to move them. Randy found a big stick and was jousting them

up horseback. Me and my horse found ourselves just above a beehive

and had the swarm of bees surround us, stinging us while we took off

sideways. Just at that moment Brenda’s saddle started slipping sideways

and she had to jump off and re-adjust in the midst of it all. What a ride!

We managed to get every last one of them up where they needed to be

and had a story to tell and a lot of laughs to go with it. Brenda said it

was the

best day of

riding of

her life!

Brenda will be leaving soon to teach high

school in Kalispell. She’s planning on

coming and helping us out on the

weekends so she won’t be far. All the

same, I’m going to miss her smile and her

friendly good morning every day when I

come in.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

Des

Brenda on Shadow. She was such a great help

to us with the steers!

Bruce and Greg both spent some time on the

water fly-fishing. The weather couldn’t have been

more perfect.

Marti, Jo, Liz, Sharon and Louise all came out to

celebrate Marti’s 50th birthday.

They all had a great time riding, relaxing and hot

tubbing!

Thierry and Helene

Nathan giving Scott a hand. Scott is going to stay

a second week with us and his colt