horseshoer's Blog

Been some time since i wrote a post.  Just been a busy summer out here on the ranch and about.   Hay season drug on longer than usually with the rain and the addition of extra acreage.  Number of horseshoeing clients has increase and with it the number of horses to work on.   Most days even weeks not seeing a client or bascially driving around in circles in the hay field making hay, gives a person a lot of time to think...especially  if your up and going at 5 in the morning and not getting in maybe for supper til 10 that evening.  On several such days i get to thinking about the life of city folks and their daily routines and rush to go here and there.  And in my opinion their lives seems too easy to me.  No hay to bale, equipment breakdowns,  wood to cut and haul in for next winter, etc , etc.  Now don't get me wrong...i'm not complaining about my type of life, i wouldn't trade it for living in the city or even a small town for that matter.   Just there is such a difference in the way rural folks and city folks live, do things , and even think .  I'm the happiest when i have the biggest work load and seem to get more done in a shorter period of time.  There's no 4 o'clock quitting time here.  Always a horse to shoe, colt to ride and the list goes on.  Even at times i think the work i do is really taken for granted and folks either don't realize what goes into producing the food that we eat or even thankful to those who produce it or the services we provide.   They seem to complain more about the cost of food and services more and more.   Being self employed can be a real roller coaster ride all in it self.  So could you city folk bloggers do it?   Maybe we could get a new reality show going here...just my thoughts folks..thats all.

Once again its that time of year of unwanted puppies and kittens .  A problem that is both in towns and in rural areas everywhere.   Last friday coming in from the gravel road from the highway , quarter mile before my son and daughter in laws house i noticed the little eyes poking thru the weeds and grass , another darted across the road, after passing another darted across behind the truck.  YES, unwanted puppies, abondened puppies....left without food or water by someone or something hoping i guess they'd go to my son's house and they'd give them a new home.  Not wanting to find them a home themselves or take them to a shelter.  Well, being extra busy this time of year,  the thought of more dogs on the place and or disposing of someone elses problem, was placed in the back of my mine and i had forgetten them,, (and not wanting any more dogs either) already blessed with too many here.

Well my daughter in law spotted them yesterday, and rounded them up...OMG there were 8 of them....some already thin , some in good shape, almost looking like they were from two different litters.  Kinda beagle-aussie crosses.....and joking we said we had some blue eyed beagles.  Only words out of my mouth were "we're not keeping any of them"!   But the goodness of her heart the pups will either find homes or placed in a no kill shelter.

Now....folks.....not all dumped pets are so lucky.  People think just because farmers and ranchers have lots of acres they can take in everyone's unwanted pets or even their old horses when they can't or won't find a home for them.  No we can't, people need to quit pushing their problem on to someone else and stand up to the plate and take some responsible for their own pets.  Most of the unwanted puppies and kittens dumped in the country never survive.....some are killed and eaten by coyotes or other wild animals, some starve to death, some become wild and kill a lot of wildlife, and some are disposed of the the farmers or ranchers whose property they were dumped off at.  These pups so far have been given a second chance because of my daugther in law's good heart.....but the answer here is still NO , we're not keeping any.  So anybody want a blue eyed beagle , let me know...they need homes and NOW.

And encourage friends and neighbors not to take their unwanted pets to the country to dump them off in rural areas.

Howdy everyone...yep this old horseshoer is till alive and shoeing.  Just been busy lately.  Thought i'd write a short blog tonite and let everyone know what's going on out here in the country.   Pondered on several titles for the blog but with the new avitar i thought the title "Cowboys Can Fish" would be the most appropriate one.     Most folks that know me , know that i have never been much of a person to either hunt or fish.  Well that all changed a while back, call it a change of life or whatever....but most to do with a good friend.     So last friday morning  ( a misty rainy morning at that) my cell phone rings about 6:30 and this cheery voice on the other end goes" Hey what ya doing today?  We're going fishing!"  And that we did.   This is also our guest season here at the ranch so we told the guest at breakfast that we'd have the fresh catch of the day and have a fish fry that evening!   Some folks just don't have faith in us cowboys....LOL.  As i heard them talking to each other discussing what type of left overs there was and they could eat that evening after their ride.      Well , we had a good catch that day as you can see in the pic.....even with the yucky weather we had a great time and a few beers too.   And to much of a surprise to the guest we had a great fish fry that evening around the camp fire....our guest from German was greatly impressed how the american cowboys could fish and cook!!! 

Which brings me to another point....how come americans have gotten so busy that there is no room for any simple fun in life any more?   It doesn't take a lot of money....just an open heart and kindness.   What happen to neighbors getting together for a fish fry or maybe to just fish and enjoy life?  Have we become so selfness in ourselves to let others into our lives?   Life is so good and great.  We have so much in this country to see and do yet very few seem to enjoy it and are happy any more.  Maybe i don't take life so serious any more, but i have learned to enjoy things i have worked so hard to have.  Like a wet damp day of fishing with a friend.  Seeing the sun rise in the morning or going camping.    Yes life is busy....one don't have to tell me that....i've been trying to keep shoeing current all week to take some time off next week to visit a friend in colorado and help with spring branding.  Yep a working vacation.....the best kind with some of the greatest people to work with.   I'm hoping either my youngest son can go again or a good friend of mine that helps me shoe at times.   A great chance to share a terrific experience with either one of these young men.   So folks.......i hope everyone just takes some time to enjoy what we have here and ever better to enjoy it with someone thats either a family member or a good friend.   Smile....Be Happy...."It'll be alright  to show another side for a while...a good side of life.   And remember....."Cowboys Can Fish" 

And the rains came...heavy rains that lasted all night. Even tho we're in the country and away from some of the major rivers and streams....we not immune from the effects of such downpours. I think we had in excess of 4 or more inches of rain....the pastures being short this time of year, the run off was fast, forcing the flash flooding of even the smallest of creeks. I still have a large group of horses to bring home this afternoon across Three Mile Creek., since the water gaps are washed out. Water levels now being low enough they'll cross this afternoon, but i have seen them cross in 3 to 4 feet of swift moving water already. Yesterday you could have shot the rapids on Three Mile.

Along with the heavy rains, there is also the mud and soft ground. Adding a little extra time and efford to feeding. With the tractor still in the shop and too muddy for the feed truck....its was down to option number 3 and feeding with a draft team yesterday. Since the older team was across Three Mile and not being able to cross and come home. I had the young them up and fed with them all the while it was raining. But even with my hat starting to smell mossy and soggy coat from the rain (more like soaked to the bone)...there is just something unique about feeding with those big horses. Yes more time, but in a way more time to enjoy, see , and smell even the smallest of things while unrolling hay. Even in the pouring rain....the newborn calves don't seem depressed as people get....running and bouncing about. Each morning there's new arrivals, and its about like easter egg hunting...just not knowing what color the old mama cows will come out of the woods with each year. And there's sometime about that wet damp sweaty horse smell too, with their winter coats...just about to shed. And the feeling of that inner pride and satisfaction on how well my teams are working....and the fact that by using them...i'm not rutting the pastures up with a big tractor or using almost $4 per gallon disel fuel. Yes it was a good feeling on second thought it was an awesome feeling....one that money can't buy. I only wish more people could experience that type of feeling in their lifes from their work.

I'll try to have some pics soon of feeding with the team and especially of some of the newborn calves. And i'd like to wish everyone a Happy Easter and don't eat too many black jelly beans!

I usually don't over paid attention to fuel prices but i hadn't been to town for a few days and sort of had sticker shock when i had seen that disel fuel had shot up in price.  Use to be it was always cheaper than gas ...well once upon a time anyway!   Seems the only time i notice is when that little light starts to flicker on the dash that i'm getting low on fuel.   Now there's not just a whole lot an old cowboy-horseshoer can do to regulate a big oil company.  Wish i shoed some horses for some tho..LOL.  So after my first few cuss words...the other side of my hard headed brain started to kick in.  We do use disel tractors here on the ranch...so i got to thinking maybe its not as bad as i first had thought.   Mainly cause my big disel fuel tank at home was 3/4's full , filled last fall for $ 2.68 per gallon.  And the disel truck we don't use any more than we have too anyway.  And i do have a couple of teams of draft horses, of which i'd like to use more anyway in day to day chores and activities.   The tractor goes in the shop this week and be a good test run to feed with one of the teams.  Yes, maybe a bit more time involed...but one does get well trained teams of horses that way.  2008 will just be the year to bring back the word CONSERVE again.  All the pastures had been brushhogged last year...so might be able to just skip a year.  Just little ways that would add up in saving on cost of fuel.  I do have a horse drawn mower....might just mow with it and a team what i need to.  As far as gas prices go...i already offer clients a discount on shoeing when i shoe at my barn...has started to work out really well.  Saving both road time and fuel cost for myself. But one major down side of the higher fuel cost is it also effects the cost of commerical fertilizer, which is at an all time high now.  This will effect all horse owners too, due to the increase in cost to produce hay.  I haven't figured that one out yet, luckily i had fertilized several pastures last fall.  Wish there was a turkey house nearby and spread the litter on the pastures.   So folks , sorrry i dont have any over all answers to the higher cost of fuel, but to conserve as much as possible.  Or maybe we all need to go back to horsepower.   Wouldn't that be a hoot!!!!  Drive safe everyone and wave!!!!

I'm sure some of you are wondering why an old cowboy-horseshoer would be writing a blog on chainsaws and bowling balls.  But, when i first started to blog i promise several bloggers i would write about this.  Everyone's life is a story to some extent, mine at times is not exception.  Maybe more than others, mainly about things that just happen in the day to day routine of horseshoeing or running this ranch.

First....the bowling ball.  Brush can become a major problem on our place...so every year or so , we have to brushhog our pastures to help control blackberries, multiflora rose, and numberous types of unwanted trees or as we refer to those as brush.  As with about every area in missouri , the urban population is pushing out into the country and bordering our pastures.  Some of these neighbors were here when i purchased this ranch and some moved in since.  Most if not all still in my opinion dont and nerver will understand me.   Nor do i ever want them too...LOL.  But last fall while brushhogging the North pasture,  just doing my thing , mulching, grinning up, and destorying all this unwanted brush, blairs, etc.   I hear this horrible rumbleing , rumbling, and knocking around going on under the brushhog.  I hear this above the disel tractor that has a cab on it, radio going and AC on.  At which time i started to cuss myself for not picking up that huge rock i had spotted the previous round .  But looking to the left....there was the rock where i had placed it.   Just then i noticed something that shot out from the back of the brushhog , shooting about 20 going hard and fast, dust flying everywhere!    Oh well, everything was still running, so i'll just check that out on the next round;  First i thought maybe i got one of the neighbors dog and be nothing i could do anyway.  Coming around the next round i spotted the black object , still not sure what it was til i got up to it.  DANG....a bowling ball......guess the neighbors kids had rolled it under the fence and never got it back.  Well, i knocked the shine right off that sucker and a few other chunks too....wont be bowling with that sucker anymore.....getting home that evening i emailed a friend ...."had a run in with a bowling bowl."  They knew there was a story.

Which brings me to chainsaws.  Everyone in my area knows how much i like to cut firewood.  I think this winter i've been cutting for 6 families.  Been cleaning up downed trees and ones that died this past summer.  But my wife also has a riding business and several trees had blew down on her trails.  Not one to want to walk in about a 1/2 mile or more packing a chainsaw....i got to thinking i'll just pack it in on my horse.  Now i've done some fairly strange stuff with horses, only most were a bit older than the colt i was riding.  Noticed i said colt!  Ike was just a 3 year old.....a sale barn horse to boot.  I had been keeping him up most of the summer since his shoulder was cut really bad.  After that healed i just keep him up by the barn and he became my main horse for the summer.  So after being badgered by my wife for some time about not having these trees cut off her trails.....one nite i had my colt (Ike) out i finally said..."lets go cut your trees out of the way.  Hand me my chainsaw, i'll pack it in."  Wouldn't you know she'd protest a bit and question me about it.  So's i finally talk her into handing me the chain saw and the dang safety grab on the blade makes this rattling rasping sound and BOOM!  I've got a colt buckin 3 feet into the air....reins in one hand and the chainsaw in the other.  And she's reading my mind.....he's not going to drop his presious chainsaw.  Now i was studing this situation real hard....i had a delima....i didn't want to drop my chainsaw and break it, but i didn't want to get bucked off on the rocks either...those suckers hurt really bad and i had the luck to land on my head anyway.  So she's a yelling drop the chainsaw, drop the chainsaw.....welll after four good bucks , i fianlly dropped the chainsaw, but only because i blew a stirrup.  But old Ike wasn't giving up...he still gave me about 3 good bucks.  Lucky tho...didn't hurt my chainsaw.   Didn't fall off either.  Of course she tells all my friends and i'm still trying to live this event down.  But Ike don't know it yet....i'll have him trained to that chainsaw before summer.  i'll be able to stand on his back have it running.  Just a matter of time.

Which brings me to chainsaw story number two.  I've been cleaning up a lot this winter on the cold nasty days.  Usually a good wind break and not too bad a job.  Normally i tie the chairsaw on the flatbed truck when driving to and from the woods.  Running a bit late for lunch and really wasn't too far from home...so heck no need to tie it down...right?  Wrong!   Just drove to the end of the road to turn around and come back...went in to eat a quit lunch and head back out.  When i went back to the truck i noticed the chainsaw was gone.....ah no problem i lost it on the last hill on my drive way.  Nope....so i met the wife coming in...hey find my chainsaw....NOPE!  I had lost it turning around at the end of the road by the county road, slide right off the back of the truck.  And it was gone!!!!!!     Now living in the country i know the routine of my neighbors fairly well....i got to thinking there's only about 3 that go out about noon everyday.  If one of those didn't find it then it would be gone, someone had picked it up and would keep it.   So i went back to the house and called the Post Office....yep, the post office....that was also about the time the mail man came by, everyday just like clock work.  As luck would have it...and my wife says i run on pure luck....the mailcarrier had just come minutes right after i had turned around and seen it laying right in the middle of the road.  Even said the UPS man drove around it and didn't stop.  But living in a rural area, he figured it must be either mine or one of the neighbors.  So i got my chainsaw back that night...and everytime someone razzes me about losing it...i just inform them that i was testing the honestity of the neighborhood.  So one has to learn to laugh at one's self , i sure have.  But then at times my life is a story, just never knowing when the next one will happen or what the ending might be. 

Needless to say the weather has had some twist and turns the past week into today.  Freezing rain, sleet, snow, etc.  Sunday morning waking up to a couple inches of snow on top of the ice and sleet.  My first thought , where was this at Christmas.  Always like a blanket of snow, pure and white, giving the world outside that look of true PEACE , if only for a few hours.  Those bloggers that have read  my blogs, know that this would not be a down day for me.  Yep!  You guess it...out came the sleigh.  The black team of draft mares had been coming up every morning at 7,  so after feeding, they were harnessed and off we went.  I had to have at least one last sleigh ride with them , maybe the last for the year.

The cold weather doesn't stop all work here at the ranch....monday we started to clean stalls.  And we use the draft horses to haul the manure.  You make it...you haul it!  Luckily for them a part broke on the manure spreader , giving them only a half day of work.   Today....light snow again and mud.  As some of you hate snow...i hate the mud that follows.  Everywhere you go its mud, mud, and more mud.  Can't feed with the truck and the tractor just makes big ruts.  But unforunate for the draft mares , next week they'll be doing all the feeding as well, since the tractor has a hydralic leak and needs to go in the shop.  Be cool some mornings feeding with the team....a few spots i feed theres just not much of a wind break...but spring is just around the corner and these cold weather blast don't last too many days in a row.

And yes there has been a sign of spring already.  Last week shoeing i noticed a few horses starting to shed already.  That time of year the shoers all look like hairy apes , when working on horses.  And here and there you can find a few sprigs of green grass showing up.  Maybe even a few newborn calves next week...several cows really been springing fast.  Once again the new cycle of life will begin!

A little boy blows up a balloon and starts flicking it all around the house with his finger.  His mother tells him to stop it as he's liable to break something, but the boy continues.

"Johnny!" Mom screams. "Knock it off." Your going to break something.  He stops and eventually Mom leaves for a short trip to the grocery store.

Johnny starts up with the balloon again after his mom has left for the store.  He gives it one last flick and it lands in the toilet wher he leaves it.

Mom comes in and while putting away the grocery gets the urge. A diarrhea run.  She can hardly make it to the toilet in time and SPLASH, out it comes.

When she's finished, she looks down and can't believe what she's seeing. She's not sure what this brown thing is in the toilet! She calls her doctor.  The doctor is  baffled as she describes the situation, but he assures her he'll be over shortly to examine everything.

When he arrives, she leads him to the bathroom and he gets down on his hands and knees

and takes a long, hard look at the thing.  Finally, he takes out his pen and sort of touches it to see what it might be and POP!  The ballon explodes and poop is everywhere. On him, the walls, etc.

"Doctor! Doctor!  Are you all right?" She asks.

He says. "I've been in this business for over 30 years, and this is the first time I've ever seen a fart!"

Had some freezing rain this morning and sleet.   The string horses were even up this morning from the winter pasture , looking for some hay....ice and sleet covered their backs.  Making the black percheron draft mares look like appaloosas for the day.  Sleeted hard the whole time i was out unrolling hay for the mama cows....calving season only a couple weeks away.  The radio station at Rolla, was full of cancalations.   Knew for several days old man winter was about to hit us with something.  Sorry Dave...i don't always listen to your forecast, but can tell by the way livestock acts sometimes.  Just their change in behavior is a sign that bad weather is close.  While feeding a friend of mine calls  (he drives a snowplow) , warning me to be careful driving that it was really slick out.  Seems as luck had it...the worst of the freezing rain had miss us here.  I didn't even have the four wheel drive engaged in the truck.  But like i always say.."it could've been worst", we  still got power, got food and  could be calving already.  Made sure everyone the last few days had  a good supply of firewood and groceries.  So no need to go to town today..just hole up...get the feeding done and started that nasty job of working on taxes.  But looks like another round might really hit us tonite. If it gets too icy i can always feed with the team.  Got drill-tec shoes on the mares so  they won't slip on the ice.  Little cold feeding with them if the winds blowing, but always an option if the disel tractor don't start or too muddy to use the feed truck. Won't be long tho...spring will be here....then we can put our long handles and red union suits away til next winter.