We've Crossed the Threshold

Lots of miles covered in the past week and a half since we drove beneath the shadow of Devil's Tower. I should have been more responsible and gotten the pictures posted sooner, but really its been a choice lately between sleeping or doing other things, and sleep has been priority over most other things. Not complaining....and still enjoy hauling cattle....just sharing the facts of how things are going.

We see lots of stuff on the road, and hauling cows is neat because we go to a lot of ranches and out of the way places. This picture was taken in Wyoming, kind of southwest of Rawlins, between Baggs and Crecent Junction. We were out in the middle of no where. Actually I think I posted that day because I remember mentioning that the only sign of human existance was the fence and the road. Once we got up to where we were loading there were a set of run down corals next to these buildings.

If you look around the CB antenna which I couldn't get around (becuase i didn't want to get out of the truck and make a spectacle of taking pictures while everyone else was working hard)... These buildings are whats left of an origanal stage stop station from the old stage coach days of Wyoming. They have put a high fence around them to keep out animals, but from the looks of the fence I'd speculate that the main "animals" they are keeping out are the human variety that like to vandalize, etc. It was neat to sit there and visually explore the setting and wonder if it wasn't a relief to reach this spot, in the middle of a sage desert, where you could finally get out of the bumping bouncing coach, stretch your legs, and have a cool drink before moving along towards your destination. Structures don't dilapidate out west like they do down south where I'm from. I guess its the dryer climate that helps. All I know is there are houses and barns and what not standing around all over the place, and though they are not in livable condition, they havn't given in to the weight of their years and melted into the earth like the older buildings of the southern and eastern United States. I love all the echoes of the past out here. Its so easy to slip into history and live a little brief imagined life there.

We loaded today in Kirby, MT which is south of Billings just near the Norther Cheyenne Reservation. Its pretty down there, hilly and more trees than other parts of eastern Montana. I snapped this picture on the way back east as we pulled through Lame Deer. Proof that we have crossed the threshold of Autumn here in Montana. Though the temperatures have gone back up, into the 70's and 80's, its still visably autumn now. We are wishing the cooler temps would return. They spoiled us for a few weeks, and now it feels hot.

Lame Deer.....what a name. I have found that there are a number of towns in Montana and surrounding states that have these "literal" names. I like them. Here is a brief list off the top of my head.

Lame Deer, Lodge Grass, Red Lodge, Plentywood, Chugwater (must be thirsty when you get there), Grassy Butte, Lodge Pole, Wolf Point....most of them are in Montana and many sound as though they have native american roots.

Well, fair thee well for now. I have stolen a few minutes between stopping for a sandwich and the fuel stop to write you. We're in Rapid City, SD heading east towards Iowa with a load of steers. Its 5:00pm and my turn to drive as soon as he fuels. There are large thunderheads on the horizen. We havn't been in any weather in several weeks. I'm sure the rain will be welcome, as it has dryed up out here quite a bit after our lush summer. However, I'll be hoping it holds off till I've passed by. I have a terrible time seeing at night in the rain. Not much fun. And just so you know, its not ALL driving and sleeping. I've been sneaking in a few moments of reading here and there too. So there is still some relaxation going on too.

Oops

Well, it finally happened. I was driving north last night on a highway in northern Montana. I was just 30 miles from my destination and bed. I guess I was getting eager to get there and sped up a little without realizing it. Plus I was listening to storm coverage of Hurricane Ike, and so I guess I was distracted. Anyway...I got my first speeding ticket. Oops!

Autumn is Here and Winter's Comin'

Ok, I still don't have the Devil's Tower shots downloaded. But I do have these taken while I was home. There's a little bit of a theme here...and that is that it's beginning to look like fall.

In fact it was mostly in the 60's the entire time we were home last week. On Wednesday, when we went too Rex and Sheryl's to move cows, I got up bright and early to drive to Rachelle's. Climbing into the jeep, I looked up to discover my windshield was completly frosted over. That was September 3rd.

You know the saying, "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb" (or vice versa). Well I wonder if it stands true for September too, or for cold weather season in general. Somone said its supposed to be a hard winter, but then again...I think someone says that every year. All I know is we went to Belle Fourche Saturday, which was August 30 and it was 103 degrees on the car temp. reader. And Tuesday morning, September 2, my porch thermometer read 42 degrees.

We'd had a little rain the night before. We went to Billings that day to pick up Malcolm who had delivered a load of stuff north of there and to run errands. When we go there that morning, you could see the mountains in the western horizen, snow capped with winters first dousing. They'll be white till June next summer.

I know its hard for all my southern friends and relatives to beleive, but out here the cold weather is upon us and winter is just around the corner.

A Few From the Road

Heading to Baker tonight to load in the morning. We just ran a short load from Three Forks, Mt to Billings. It was too heavy for us to take, cause we have a two axle trailer, and it needed a three axle. So we dropped the cows off at the sale barn in Billings and another truck with a larger trailer loaded them to continue on to Iowa I beleive.


Anyway, I have a few pictures to share, but I havn't downloaded yet.
In the mean time I have these few that I took before we went home. I didn't get to share them with you because of my little spy ware issue.
We drove from Clarkston, WA through northern Idaho along Hwy12, which turned out to be along the Nez Perce Trail into Montana. It was SO beautiful. It has the Columbia River Gorge beat all to pieces!!! It followed through these little mountain passes following the Clear Water River. The river was gorgeous, perfectly clear even at 4-5 feet of depth. I can't even begin to tell you how pretty. It was breath taking.

These two pictures were taken that morning in Clarkston, WA. I decided the geese were enjoying the sunlight playing in the clouds as much as I was.

These two are of a little stream that was pouring into the river at a spot where I stopped to take the girls out, and the river flowing through the mountain pass.

The pictures I'm going to get for you off my camera turned out nicely. Sunday we loaded north of Baker and we were over loaded. Being as such, we had to take the little roads south of Ekalaka and down into Wyoming instead of going into South Dakota. (had to avoid the scale you know?) SO...I enjoyed the ride, though Malcolm and Bill, the guy traveling with us probably didn't like the beating their trucks were getting. And as it turned out, our little roads took us right around the base of Devils Tower in northern Wyoming, something I've been wanting to see.
I'll get my pictures downloaded for you soon.

Goon night!

Pooped

Thats a crude title, but I'm not refering to the bodily function, only to my state of mind and level of energy. We havn't worked this hard since....well since the "fall run" last year. "Fall run" is the phrase used to refer to the time of year when there is a mass movement of cattle from ranches to feedlots and from feedlots to the kill plants.
Let me put it this way...we've run 5088 miles in exactly 4 days. We started Friday night, and ran through till Sunday morning when we stopped at Malcolm's parents house for a shower and quick meal. We actually took a nap in Baker, while we waited to meet another driver. That was about a 30 minute nap. Thats the last time I slept with the truck sitting still. We're averaging over 1000 miles a day, eating about one and a half meals a day, snatching sleep when we can...its WILD! And fun...I make it sound miserable, but hauling cows is lots of fun.
For starers we're running in "convoys." You load along with several other trucks, and usually you travel to your destination together. So we just finished loading and are pulling out for Fort Morgan, CO, where we were last night at midnight. We returned up here to MT, and now we're going back down with another load of steers. This time we loaded with some of the guys we worked with last fall, so we'll have a good time catching up.
Speaking of catching up....I"m going to go do that now...on some Zzzzz's.

New Babies and New Changes

My dear friends in Florence, KY have a new baby in their house. Little Rachel Grace arrived early in the morning on August 28. She is such a doll! Angela is doing fine, and she and Greg are both very happy. Who wouldn't be! Too see more pictures of Rachel, you can visit their blog at http://gregandangela.blogspot.com/
I think their blog is neat because Greg and Angela do it together. They both post things on it, which you don't see that often. They are such a sweet family!


Now on to other new arrivals!


While we were home, I of course did not miss the opportunity to go visit the horses. My main intent was to meet and greet our new little filly, born just a week before we came home. Here she is, at about two weeks old. I believe she is probably going to be a nice roan, and hopefully will look a lot like her big brother, Joe. This is Carrie's 2008 foal, Della.She wasn't sure what to think of me and Malcolm. She sure is a high headed little thing! Every time I drive by and see her, she's got her neck straight up and her head way up in the air. She'll not miss out on anything! She's going to see it ALL!




Those are the two new babies in my world. Two sweet little girls! August was a month for girls I guess.


And since I'm on the topic of my horses, which I never tire of, I'll have to go ahead and brag on the others too.
Della, being born a month of more after the other colts, looks so tiny compared to the bigger kids. Its amazing how fast they grow!
Remember this little guy?

What a difference a few weeks makes. Here he is about 6 weeks later. He has shed out his baby fuzz and now you can see he really is going to be a nice blue roan like his brother Reb.

Speaking of Reb, he and Joe are enjoying the whole pasture to themselves. Actually they would prefer to be in with the other horses, but no such luck. Neither of them have been gelded yet, and the studs in with the mares, so I don't want to get them in trouble. They are both getting fat on all that grass.

Other Changes:

After much frustrating and confusing disussion, mulling over, praying, and floundering over what to do, Malcolm and I have made the decision to move closer to Billings, MT. We've toyed with the idea for almost a year now. We love being at the ranch and near his family, and that was the big debate. This has been a really difficult decision to make. However, when it comes down to it, the facts are everything we need for trucking is in Billings, which means anytime we need something we have to drive 4 hours from home to get it, or to have the truck worked on, etc. In addition, both of us are tired of being gone so much, and unfortunatly, the ranch is so remote, its really difficult to get back there frequently, and yet still be at our maximum profit level. Which leads to the other change in our life...

...we've decided to leave the grain hauling off for now, maybe permanently, and return to Steve Nelson Trucking, which is the company we were driving for up until March when we bought our hopper trailer. Driving for Nelson, we were in Billings twice a week or more, often for several hours, and frequently over night. If we move there, we can go home during that time instead of sitting in the parking lot. SO...as sad as it is to leave the ranch, it just makes more sense to do it this way right now. We both hope that we will return to the ranch one day. Time will tell.

A benefit to working for Nelson again, is not just getting home more, but we get to haul cows again, which we both really enjoyed. In fact we're sitting in Wyoming right now waiting to load and I cant' believe I have a signal but actually its working really fast! Seriously, I can see NO human evidence, other than the road and a fence next to us. We're talking complete isolation. So don't ask me why the internet is working so well.

We had looked at properties near Billings last winter, but never found anything we liked. Our criteria is that it must have a shop that the truck fits into, or it must have acreage and be affordable so that we can build a shop for the truck. Also, we wanted room for me to have a horse there as well. This time, looking at properties we found two that worked. The first one we made an offer on refused to negotiate, and he was asking too much for what it was. But thats ok, because I liked the other place better, and we got it at a steal because the owners are in a hurry to move! Yea!

We're supposed to close on the 30th of this month. Its a log house on 9.95 acres on the north side of Shepherd, which is about 25 miles from Billings. Its already fenced for horses, so Reb and Della can come with me, when she's old enough, and it has a really huge shop thats concreted. The present owner is a truck driver also, and so he had the shop built to fit his needs as a driver. How convenient for us! Its in a "community" of properties that are all 10-20 acres, with log houses (mostly) and the way they are deeded, they can't be broken down any smaller than 20 acres. In other words, no one can put a trailer park in next to us or sub-divide it either, which is pretty common in Shepherd. So that's a big attraction. Its definatly not the ranch, but if we have to live in town, it will do. I'll get some pictures posted eventually when I get them.

The house has a great floor plan. Upstairs is the master bedroom and bath, as well as a "sitting room" that is open to the main level below. Its going to be my library. The main level of the house has two guests rooms and a bath, and then the kitchen, dining area, and a sitting room area are all open to one another. And there is a wood burning stove in the living room. Then there is a basement that was finished last year that has a huge laundry room, a half bath, and a really large living room. You'll have to come take the tour.

The other good part of it is, I'm now only 30 minutes from the air port. Makes it easier for all of you to visit. Also, we're two hours from Yellowstone, 1 hour from Little Big Horn, and Billings has quite a bit to offer. Shepherd is situated in a way that if you go a few miles east, your in Montana's grasslands, and if you go a few miles west, your in Montana's mountains. So there's lots to do and see, and I'm still looking forward to showing you all around.

Thats the news with us. A lot happened in the last two weeks as you can see. I decided rather than stretch it out over several posts, I'd just dump it all into one. Hope I havn't kept you away from more important things for too long.

Happenings

Well....I didn't disappear on purpose. Here's the short version of why you havn't heard from me in a while. If you'll remember, we were going home for a short break. But then our broker forgot we had asked to go home, and he sent us to Washington instead. I think I had shared that much with you.
Well, it was unplanned on our part, but we accepted it because it was only going to delay our going home a few days, and it was that much more money for that trip out. So off we went to Washington to load peas. It turned out to be a round trip wrought with disaster.
While loading the peas Thursday morning, Malcolm slipped and fell off the trailer. He did something to his ankle, and couldn't hardly walk, or even drive. We had to take the load to South Carolina, and thankfully had lots of time to get there, since it was a weekend trip. One day into it, we finally decided we'd better stop of X-rays, and did so at a little clinic in Wall, SD. Thankfully it wasn't broken, as we'd begun to fear, but it was badly sprained or bruised. They patched him up with an ace bandage and loaned us a set of crutches, and off we went.
We got to the other side of South Dakota that evening, where our computer got invaded by Spy Ware. We had to cancel the credit card we use to fuel on, and were advised by the Geek Squad to not log on to the internet until we could get the computer in for work. (which was goign to take 3-4 days and several hundred dollars) That is why I have not been online. Its SO frustrating and we felt very violated that someone had done that to us.
So on we went...and a good thing happened. We got to stop south of Ashville, NC and spent Sunday with Malcolm's grandparents and uncle and aunt. We hadn't seen them since before we moved, almost two years ago. That was a special treat for all of us.
We delivered the load on Monday morning, and were supposed to reload in Valdosta heading to California, and home from there. But when I called for directions, I was informed that the plant was down and wouldn't be producing our product that WEEK! Our broker began to search for a new plan for us.
A short wait later, we had a load to pick up in northeast Georgia going to Iowa. We drive the 200 miles there, then had to wait till midnight to get loaded.
Another good thing happened. We were able to stop and visit my Dad for a couple of hours before we had to move on. It was frustrating to not have time to see everyone, but we had to keep moving. My applogies to everyone that we missed. It was a bitter sweet special time, because we so enjoyed visiting with Dad, but Mom was at work, and there just wasn't enough time to see her and everyone we wanted to see. We'll have to wait till next time.
We arrived in Iowa early the next morning and grabbed a few hours sleep before unloading. Our next load was in the same town. "What luck", we thought, "no empty miles to drive." So we bopped on over to the plant, pulled into the drive, and were met with a view of what seemed like endless trucks waiting to load. It seems the plant had a fire the previous night and they were only able to load 1 truck at a time, taking 45 min. to an hour for each one. (sigh of frustration...will we EVER get home?) So we took our place in line. Come to find out we were #6 which was a BLESSING! We were not loaded until about 11:00 that night. Yes...we were there for 13 hours, waiting to load. There were, when we left, THIRTY trucks waiting still. And they were so over crowded that they had taken the first half, including us, up on a dirt hill where they stored things, for parking. They had put us in line according to order, which was a great plan, except that we were stuck there for 13 hours, unable to leave, and no food, bathrooms, etc.
Fortunatly, Malcolm had the brillaint idea of getting the number for a pizza delivery. So, we had a really yummy cheese pizza delivered right to our door by Domino's. They got a lot more business too we noticed. We wern't alone in that train of thought.
After finally loading, we headed home and spent a lovely, if somewhat hectic, week there getting things done on the truck, at home, and making life changing decisions. (more to come on that)
So that's where I've been, why I've been silent, and why your just now hearing about things that happened two weeks ago or longer.
Sorry for the delay.

PS: The Spy Ware is called AntivirusXP2008, and we were the 4th customer to call in with that problem that day!!! If it pops up on your screen, you've got it already. DON'T log on to the internet. Just go get help!