02 November 2010, 2137, Tuesday, Home Patch

Way too much has happened for a blow by blow, so here is a summary.

The party last Saturday for my birthday was a big success.  We shot some guns, drove around the place, ate a lot and I offered horse rides to kids, also taking one myself as we toured the place.  I got a pony ride for my birthday!  Later that weekend and this weekend as well, we continued on the press to sell cows.  We have probably sold 20 or 25 and will do another 30 or so.  We will be palpating in a couple of weeks when I get back from my first Civil War Reenactment in years.  After that, we will be able to see what is really worth selling or not.  It is hard for Dad and me to do this, but it makes sense.

The list of things to do just keeps getting bigger.  Our dogs have a lot of good instinct, but are really no help.  They really got the cows stirred up when we were trying to pen them on Sunday.  I need to figure out how to train cow dogs.  We got some good rides in, though.  Rebel is really quite the woods horse.  I know that the modern ranch has little use for a cowboy, but Rebel is a cow pony from the Big Thicket.  I can look at a space between two trees, give a slight flick of the wrist and he’ll head for it, sparing my knees in the process.  He’s a joy to ride in those circumstances.  He’s not quite as rambunctious as he used to be either.  I intend to saddle him in military style on Thursday and run him through some jumps and saber work.