Karbon Kounty Moos

To SB
and to Sam’s Darling Wife
for raising my feline awareness
with this site.

While researching some of Montana’s history I happened upon this site.

I thought that it was worth sharing. Enjoy!

Ghost Towns

Be sure to visit

Dogster

Well, I was mowing the lawn. But I turned it off to put some more gas in and now it doesn’t want to start. Give it a break I guess… I’ve already picked up all of Ty’s rocks - I imagine that he’ll put them back for me. Strange dog, but he fits in just fine here.

Yesterday, when I headed to Red Lodge for plumbing parts - I thought that I’d take Lucky along. She’s my riding buddy - very quiet & attentive. Ty is a lunatic, never shuts up - so he doesn’t get to go. I had the pickup door open (yes, our dogs ride inside) and was about to put on her collar when I noticed that she looked wet on her side. So I wiped it with my hand and discovered fresh horse manure. Thanks, Luck… So she got washed and she didn’t go for the ride.

I did pickup a rider just before Bearcreek. Yes, I know all about hitchhikers. How do you think I got here? Yes, I know… that was over 20 years ago - and it wasn’t any smarter then. Anyhow, he was very pleasant and headed to the Bluegrass Festival in Red Lodge. He was from Cody & originally from Orange County (New York, not California or Florida).

In the hardware store (which will remain unnamed to protect the innocent & the clueless) I explained the plumbing situation. Clerk One called Clerk Two. Didn’t matter, I came up with my usual solution. Which was to buy all kinds of parts, hope for the best and bring the rest back later. When you have to travel as far as we do for parts - what am I saying - for everything - you try to be well stocked.

Just before I turned on our lane, I noticed brake lights on the vehicles ahead of me. The cause of this was a little red car with Utah plates that made a sudden turn. It stopped, and I could see the two little ladies with the big atlas. I pulled ahead of her and parked.
“Are you lost?”
“Yes, we just came into Billings and we were headed to Lovell, and somehow we ended up on Highway 212, and Red Lodge and it was very pretty, but how do you find the road to Lovell?” Now there’s a run on sentence that I can appreciate! So I asked how much gas they had - full tank - okay - and sent them on their way.

Speaking of gas, I’ll go see if the mower will start…

And it’s a strange one at that.

Well, we rode yesterday - wasn’t too bad. It was sunny and warm. The cows still have grass and weren’t thrilled about having to move. The horses were relatively well behaved and there wasn’t too much yelling. I broke my walking stick on the butt of a bull that didn’t want to go, so I did yell at him. I liked that stick… I did most of the trailer jockeying and even managed to find time for some rock hunting. The worst things about rock hunting in high altitude desert:

Cactus; ants that crawl all over you if you don’t move often enough; no see-ums; no bathrooms; scorpions under rocks that you’ve just turned over; losing your balance on a rock ledge; black widows; interesting rock shaped critter turds; not enough pockets; bugs that buzz like rattlesnakes; and my all time favorite - rattlesnakes.

Anyhow, we got it done. Got home at a reasonable hour. After supper my husband started working on the bathroom sink. Uh - oh… Plumbing is not his strong suit. We got that done as well as could be expected. In other words, I needed to go to the hardware store this morning. Well, we just finished on it again. I don’t think that it’s leaking (much).

The Pass

Have a couple of minutes to blog. I should be sleeping, but - oh well…

I did go to Billings & get the pump motor the other day (and a few other parts). I had the misfortune of being behind a row of traffic from Edgar to Laurel. The leaders of this pack were a pickup with travel trailer & a pickup with a Bobcat on a trailer. There were several vehicles between me & them, so I resigned myself to going 45. At least the construction at Rockvale has been completed… By the time I got to the interstate I was maniacal. I was in the left lane heading east at my usual lead footed pace when a car cut me off without signaling. Good enough cutoff to make me hit the brake. I put my lights on. Hmm - maybe she didn’t see me. Then she proceeded to travel at 50 mph. The right lane was as close to bumper to bumper as it gets in Montana, but I really didn’t want to start some of my BQE maneuvers. So I continued behind her. She had several opportunities to get in the right lane, but chose not to. At this point I tooted the horn at her. So she slowed down some more. When she decided to get into the right lane she “threw me the rod”. So I tooted the horn again, smiled & waved at her.

Since I was close to homicidal, I just went to pickup my motor, figure out how to get around the construction and get into Fasteners, stop at Costco and head home.

Yesterday was so busy I can hardly remember what the heck I did. Which is how it goes here more often than not. I did some amateur dog grooming - as long as the dogs could stand it. Got lots of laundry done. I did get lost in the weeds of my garden for a while. The weeds are still winning the war. The sweet corn is late this year, we just started getting some. I knew that as soon as the racoons hit it - it would be ready. The guys finished the grain, Hooray! Just in time too. We don’t raise malt (beer) barley, but feed barley. So instead of loading trucks and sending them on their way - we load the trucks and then unload them into grain bins… Well, the barley looks good - and we have lots of it. Which would be even better if we had someone who wanted to buy some of it! But the reason it was good timing was because it started to rain here as soon as we finished the last load into the last bin. And it rained pretty good for a while.

Today was spent in the hills moving cattle. The morning started out cool, then it got hot, then it got cool again, and later it poured. I had packed a lunch. It’s funny how food seems so much better when you’ve worked hard and eat outside. We had ham and tomato sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, chunks of cheddar, and grapes. Simple & good, sitting on the back of the pickup… My father-in-law and I took turns with driving the pickup/trailer and riding my horse. Most of where we go cannot be reached with a vehicle. We three spent some time on foot, too. We spotted some strays on the way back home. So we dropped the trailer near the road, and headed up as far as we could with the pickup. We started walking up to get to the draw that we had seen the cattle in. It started sprinkling. My father-in-law was going to drive back down. He said, “By the time you get to the top it’ll really start raining.” Gee, thanks… that’s exactly what it did. My sea level lungs were straining. My boots had ten pounds of alkali mud on them. My clothes were soaked. My hair was too, and streaming across my face. And I was enjoying every minute of it. After a while we got to the top. Found the girls and their calves and got them started down. Much easier on the lungs, not so good on the knees…

When we did get home, we unloaded the horses. They got a good brushing and a little extra oats. We fed the cattle at home. It was still pouring. It was close to seven by the time I’d put things away. Thank goodness for leftovers, since I was starving. Put on a fresh pot of rigatoni, heated up the sauce and meatballs. Then I get to clean it all up again.

Well, it looks like we’ll be riding again tomorrow - so I probably should say “Goodnight”.

We’re still haying and combining grain. Just a little busy. I just thought that I’d post some quick pictures of what it looks like here. I hope to be running to Billings later today to pick up my pump motor.

Back to the stove,
moos