Yippee!
Another ranch trip! I love ranch trips... I finished work on Thurday at
8am (that's a half day for me), and after waiting for a really long
time for the rest of my family, we left. Drove up to the ranch, through
lots of construction zones, got there, and flopped down on a cot for a
nap. Hadn't slept for more than about 20 minutes, when the kids came
running in, woke me up, and informed me of...
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THIS.
A prairie rattle snake needed a place to sun itself, and what better
place to sun yourself than this part of my quonset. After all, it is
covered in tar, which makes it black, which makes it all nice and warm.
Super, I can't let this thing hang around, there are kids and dogs
about. It needs to be relocated.
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Stupid thing was really sleeping hard too. Took me a while to wake it up. I was using an 8' 2x4 to poke and prod it.
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OK, now I have it moving (finally), rattling all the way.
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Oh c'mon -- get moving already!
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Now
I've got it by the front door, which is even worse. Nettie was napping
inside, and I was wondering if she would wake up and open the door
right about now.
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At least now it is outside of the fence (really nice fence, too).
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This is going to take a long time...
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Um. Where did this come from?
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I decided that poking and proding the snake was not getting the snake where I wanted it to go, so I picked it up.
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C'mon little snake-ee-poo!
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Not sure where the butts came from...
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This is the snake's new home. Well away from the quonset.
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I am told that these pictures document the kid's effort to re-create hobbiton in our sand. OK. I can deal with this.
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Nettie bought a new mirror for our bathroom. Here it is. The mirror.
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We
took a little ride over to Upper Carrizo Well. At this old well site,
there is an old bunkhouse, and old stable and tack shed, an old tank,
an intact windmill, and a few other things. Authentic old west stuff.
This is the old cattle ramp.
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The windmill.
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I try to tell my family not to take sideways pictures. I don't have the time to correct them...
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Another sideways shot. This is a watering trough.
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Gears. Neat.
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I was hoping this picture would turn out well, but alas, it was taken sideways.
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This would be me, at the top of the windmill.
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Button!
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This is the old bunkhouse. Its in pretty rough shape.
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This is the inside of a large water tank.
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Inside the bunkhouse.
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Back at the windmill
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Roo in the bunkhouse.
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Now this is a really good picture. Button through a crack. Not sure who took this, but it has style!
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One of the messes inside the bunkhouse.
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Another mess in the bunkhouse.
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Button in the bunkhouse.
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Me & my wife in our new home (we plan to buy the bunkhouse and move in).
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This is the outside of the bunkhouse.
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This is the stable. Tack shed is on the end.
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Why does Bippy look worried?
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This old fridge is sitting there. Why I cannot guess.
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The girls wanted to get inside of the big tank. Why I know not.
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Cool - now how will they get out?
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Huh?
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Uh-huh. How will they get out?
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You guessed it -- I have to rescue them.
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These
next few pictures are really cool. I moved an old pallet, and we found
these desert centipedes under it. They are venomous, but not too bad.
If they got their teeth into you, it likely wouldn't be any worse than
a fairly bad bee sting.
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Roo died trying to get out.
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HI!
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Kids in a stable.
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These are real horseshoes, hanging around in the stable.
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Herding kids like they used to herd cattle.
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I had to fix our shooting range target stand this weekend. The stand was all shot to crap.
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The stand under construction.
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If you are getting bored of these repair pictures, my apologies, but my wife must blog!
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Finally, the thing is fixed and ready to be shot to crap again.
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What would a ranch trip be without pictures of clouds?
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Nettie shootin'.
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Roo with a gun. Good picture.
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Here's Ne--ie shootin' my Sig.
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You
know, I used to have a problem with my trigger finger. Every time I
pulled trigger, I pulled the barrel down slightly. It took me over two
months and hundreds of rounds to figure out what the problem was and to
fix it (to say nothing of all of that time I spent practicing shooting
my TV with a snap-cap). Finally, I have the problem fixed, and I am
consistently hitting what I am shooting at (instead of always being
low). Then, after all this, I hand my Sig to my 14 year old daughter,
and what does she do? Plink, plink, plink -- dead on every shot. Thanks
Roo! Always helping me out this way!
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Mooms and I went on a hike. It was a fun and pretty hike.
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Every time I hike in this particular vally, I see antelope. Now I know why. They like this.
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Meanwhile, Ne--ie took clound pictures while I was hiking (using the other camera, obviously).
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Mooms found this. Makes a good mask.
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Looks like more cloud pictures got taken while we where on the hike.
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Remember
those Anelope I mentioned? You can barely see them in this picture, but
sure enough, here they are. Right in the valley where I always find
them. Problem is, they always run away before I can snap a good picture.
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You can see our little quonset through the trees!
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I
decided to take the kids rock climbing. This mountain is at the
northern edge of Carrizo Ranch, on the other side of the blacktop. It
made for a great climb.
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This was at the bottom of the mountain.
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Roo found a cave.
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Meanwhile,
Ne--ie had stayed behind in the minivan so that she could stew and
worry about us in peace. She took this while we were climbing. Not sure
I can even see us.
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On this one, you can see at least a few of us.
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Part way up.
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Scenery.
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More scenery.
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Mooms. trying to get to the top.
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Sideways pictures. You can see Meg attempting to get to the top.
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At the top!!!!!
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This was taken from the top. Bippty got stuck right before the top, and didn't quite make it.
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Lookin' down.
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Meg sliging down on her butt.
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Resting half-way down.
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After the rock climb, we went over to the Namkungs for lunch. This is "Biggy".
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And Kaitlin, who is really getting big now.
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Later in the day, we'll be dealing with these.
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OK.
Its later in the day now. We need to get these pigs into the trailer,
take them into town to check in at the fair grounds. The fair is in a
few weeks, and we need to see how much they weigh. This is us taking
apart the pigpen, so we can get the pigs out.
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This is called a pig-board. it is used to guide the pigs where you want them to go.
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Melissa, with the bribe to get the pigs into the trailer.
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OINK!
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Me, preventing a pig from escaping.
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Stopping another attempted escape.
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Wrestlin' a pig into the trailer.
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Success! They are in the trailer!
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At the fairgrounds...
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Weighin' an oink.
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This pig was not cooperative. This is us chasing the thing into the scale.
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Oh-oh. They had horses there too, and the girls are the ones with the cameras. I sense lots of horse pictures coming.
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The side of a pig. Great photo.
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Back at home, trying to unload the pigs.
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After the pig ordeal, we stayed for Andrew's birthday party. Tasty cake and ice cream.
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