St. Bartholomew

Pray for us!

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Catch Pen

With fall riding coming around the corner, grabbing the horses and going will be a thing. In this big pasture at the VO, we definitely need a catch pen for an easy grab and go. We've had something that worked, but as I stoped by today, a new idea came to mind. 

My horses live most of their days wild and free. They need to be confined before they remember they are a horse and have work to do. Catch pens are a necessary ingredient to making that transition happen. 

It dawned on me today, if I add one more panel, and swing this gate the other way, I got a ready made tap to catch a horse. 

Just grab some oats from the barn if I didn't bring my own.

Close the gate behind you. 

Open the gate to the pasture and holler for the horses.

They'll come running if they smell oats but no work. Then just close the gate behind them. If you do this enough when you don't need them, then the day you do need them, they'll know no difference. 

Jeremy's sorrel is looking good. 

Chief always stands lean and mean. I notice his tail is getting shorter. Believe it or not, he is a full blood appaloosa. Maybe he is starting to show his true colors. 

No lean and mean here, but Mollie is definitely ready for work.

After I fed them and looked them all over, I just open the gate and let them back out. Thinking they are getting away, it's a dead sprint.

Mollie is one horse I wouldn't stand in the way of. 

Chief darts at any opening he can find.

Gone with the wind. 

Good stuff. You've got to know your horses. Catching mine out in the open is risky business. Best set yourself up for success by setting up a catch pen. This guy should do. All I have to do is stop and throw them a little grain on my way home from celebrating Mass in Clearmont. Then the day I do need them, I'll just put a halter on instead of letting them loose. Ranchin'.

Pope

Participates in the Fatherhood of God.

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Train Bell Repair II

The kids around town are having fun seeing if they can stick our train bell in the upside down position. Kind of cute the first time. But now it's become personal!

Turns out, if you get the ole bell rocking enough, it will try and flip over and get stuck wrong side up.

We got up there once to see what we could do to put a stop on it. In between these two arms is where it wedges itself against the upright going down. I have been chewing on an idea for the past week of how to put something in here to stop it from getting in a bind, with no avail. On a bright side, our bolt repair is holding strong. 

Today I drove by and it was upside down again. No more! With it in this position, I devised a plan. 

Drilled a hole through the bottom of the clapper.

And wired it to the frame work with a little slack to still dong. Maybe someday I'll exchange it with some para cord or something. But for now, this should do the job.

Back in business. 

I'm a little sympathetic to punk kids horsing around. I was once one. But we always had some old man trying to run us off. That's me today. Roles have changed, but the same old cat and mouse games continue. I will make it my mission to ensure that this train bell is in working condition for the good hearted person that wants to hear it ring. If tomorrow something else goes haywire, then tomorrow I come up with another way to fix it. Game on!

Re-stacking Hay

There's not a level piece of ground on our ranch. Consequently, the stack of round bales that Dad put-up three high this spring, started to tip. Catching it before it fell into the fence, he pulled the stack apart. Then, wanting to escape the heat, he headed for the mountains and left the hay for me to deal with. 

No problemo. These 21 grass round bales came off our irrigated pasture back in June. We'll feed them up this winter.

For stacking round bales, the tractor of choice is always the 4010. When it's a light job, we just chain the bale-spear onto the front of the bucket so we don't have to change the head. 

The first row of bales were sitting on end. This is a good way to make a stack, but only if the ground is level, turns out. First step was to get all the bales back on the round so we could stab them with the spear. 

I was just getting the hang of it when I lost my steering. It can be easy to ram and jam when stacking hay, but I was taking it easy. Especially in this sandy ground, a man has to becareful turning with a bale on the font of the loader. Regardless, the bolts on the hydraulic turning motor must have been coming loose for a while. I was just the unfortunate cowboy for them to fall out on. 

So I walked back up the hill and found some new bolts. A little long, but with a lock washer, we should be just fine. 

White Horse to the rescue. 

No hurry here. Get all your ducks in a row and tackle the problem. 

Thankfully, one bolt was still in place, allowing the others to start back in without much trouble. 

Tightening them up worked pretty well too. 

Alls well that ends well. 

4010s are good stackers. Their gear selectors are a bit confusing. But if you get the hang of it, it is pretty handy. I like to keep it in the second range and go from 2nd reverse to 5th forward when situations are easy. If I'm in a tight predicament, I have 2nd forward right there. 

I like to ponder the steering wheel of this tractor. Dad's dad bought this John Deere new in the early 60s. It was a staple on the farm until the late 90s when the transmission got bound up. In the early 2000s, Dad brought it out to our place and fixed the grinding gears. It has been our main tractor ever since. There have been a lot of Lungren hands grabbing this steering wheel over the years. So much so, that it is worn down to the metal. When I grip this wheel, I'm hanging on to history.  

Just as I start to sing her praises, though, she keeps showing her age. We've had trouble with the battery staying charged, so we often have to jump it when she dies. I was putzing at an idle with the sand and killed the engine before I could get the clutch pushed in. Lo and behold, the battery wouldn't fire it back up. White Horse to the rescue once again. 

With all the quarks worked out, we were back to work. The simple triangle stack was our new method of choice. I like to put all three fronts flush with each other. Why? Just cause. 

You can never put a stack of hay too far away from a fence that has cows behind it. If they can get a whiff, and think they can touch it with their tongue, they'll push through a fence and graze on the greener other-side. Unfortunately, I've been on the backside of that disaster a couple times. Not going back. 

Should work. Two on the bottom and one on top is always a safe stack. The one on top actually makes the two on bottom roll into each other, making for a tight-knit scenario. Should hold on this hillside. 

Another well job done. 

Fun stuff. I always enjoy a good crisis or two. They test a man's perseverance and help him grow in confidence. No man ranches alone. God is always present, helping us work through the good, bad, and ugly in life. With His grace, and a good John Deere tractor, nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37). On to the next one!

One

Truth and pope unite.

https://youtu.be/noRubnW5dMI

Freeze Out

For our annual priestly fraternity hangout, we decided to mix it up a bit. Usually we hike to a lake some where. This time, we road-tripped it to the Freeze Out overlook. 

Freeze Out is in the Bighorn National Forest, above Hyattville. 

Camping out at the cabin, we jumped in Mom and Dad's Can-Am. Don't tempt us with a good time!

Great unit for this adventure. Fit all five of us just right. Fr. Andrew, to my right, Fr. Seth, behind him, Frs. Clark and Brian at his left. 

Mom wrote us down step-by-step directions. 

5 miles up Battle Park road, where we ride snowmobiles, turn left.

Stay on Hyattville Logging Road for 23 miles. Cool Canyons. 

Fun to bail off this face of the mountain. 

Eventually we landed in Hyattville. 

Then jumped on the Cold Springs Road. 

Turns into good gravel.

Gets rougher as you take side roads.

Which lead you right up to Freeze Out.

Awesome! My guess is it's a 1000 ft. drop off. Trout Creek runs downs the valley. 

Close enough. 

Much to ponder up here. 

Fr. Brian pointed out the different peaks in the Wilderness. 

Cloud Peak, in the center, comes by its name honestly. 

Mission accomplished. 

Fun stuff. Hanging with the boys is great. Doing some mountain sight-seeing, makes it all the funner. Special thanks to Mom and Dad for their cabin, ranch-rig, and good directions. Made for smooth sailing. Hanging out like this just stokes our priestly fire. Now we are back in the saddle and ready for action. Let's ranch!