And he's off...

(and so has been my phone lines!!! They had better plan to reimburse me for 3 days of NOTHING!)

This was Saturday...

And he's off.... to the North Cascades Country!

...not quite as early as he planned...

THAT just never happens! Cowboy decided to give all 3 horses baths before heading out, and then there's all that last minute stuff...like checking oil, tires, double checking the horses left behind for me (he put them all in bigger pastures & loaded up their feed to save me some work for a day or so), better sit on the porch with W.O.W. & drink another cup of coffee...

Then there is packing the cooler and loading everything up. Checking the "lists" twice. The girls, Tess & Millie have NOT gotten out of the truck once, this a.m.! Guess they decided there was NO WAY they were going to be left behind like last year!

They are older now (will be 2 yrs in Nov)...wiser...more "useful"...have a better sense of "the Job", listening to commands & obeying the 'git arounds' - the 'away to me's ' etc...

Ok...we had to have another cup of coffee together..go over last minute phone numbers, cell phones for those who have them (which is everyone but my Cowboy!)

Enough dilly dallying! It's 10 a.m. and daylights a burnin'!

Time to Load 'em up!

Here's Bro...a 2 year old stud, belonging to a lady in Hawaii .

Hubby has 90 days on this fellow, a well behaved Gentleman!

Here's a Not Named Yet...2 year old filly belonging to a gentleman on Vashon Island.

This one, Cowboy has 60 days on.

Here's Miss Kitty! ...a 3 yr old filly that belongs to people in Tacoma .

Cowboy put 60 days on her last year, 90 days this year.

The Girls are ready...come on Boss, let's git goin'!

G'Bye :( ...there goes my Cowboy!

Away they all go to the wild country!

They all have their work cut out for them! Hubby talked with Steve last night and guess the cattle are skattered for miles...due to a raging fire a few days ago, that has burned up around 2,000 acres of their summer range. Hopefully it's going to be pretty close to containment.

He did tell me he'd stop and get a disposable camera...but I know that won't happen! He is just too excited to be up there! I'm sure by now, it's already flitted out the other side of his brain, my request that is.

Besides, even if he did, he'd never remember to take a pix! I'm not sure in all our years together that he's ever taken a picture...except when he was shoeing in AZ!!

Then it was only documenting the progress on hoof problems that he worked on.

************************************

~~~SULKY SUNDAY~~~

I still haven't heard from my Cowboy...duh...probably because we still don't have working phones! I can only hope that the friends who are expecting him would have called the Sheriff had he not made it up there....!!!

Talk about feeling totally isolated now! All has been calm around here, luckily...

Hmmmm....

Our Daughter and her family are vacationing in Cabo San Lucas!!

Our Son is vacationing at Whistler in B.C.!!

and Hubby is "vacationing" in the mountains!!

(atop a ridge of summer grazing ground -1997)

Where would I go if I could??

I do love the Ocean!

Maybe I should abandon all that is here and go out there!! Oooo...walking the ocean beaches with the waves lapping around my ankles is just one of the best things I know of, to provide a peacefulness in my soul.

I miss being able to do that!!

************************************

~~~MOPEY MONDAY~~~

I've been mopey all day...I'm just lost without my partner in life! And dagnabit anyhow! Sure wish my phone would start working! No one around 'close' has it.

Sometimes these small town utilities can be a royal pain!

I can't seem to get myself motivated! I did get all the necessary chores done and that's all I can seem to account for the day!

Thank goodness for the those 'kids' we know that live about 40 miles away. They were born & raised up there where my Cowboy went. (Actually, there are only 4 family ranches that live in that same area...these 'kids' were two of those family names!)

Today, about 4pm, Rae drove out here to tell me that Hubby had called them & asked them to let me know all is well.

Whewww, I should be able to sleep better tonight!

It was so nice to have some company for awhile. Her hubby is the one who got hurt a month ago when a horse fell on him & broke his pelvis in 3 places, so he was at home & we just had 'girl' time to chat about their upcoming little cowpoke due Dec. 1.

After Rae left, I decided to cook myself some supper! I went all out tonight! PB & J!

My meals are simple when left to feed only myself...3 things I eat...when alone....

1) TRIX cereal

2) P B & J's

3) TACOS

Saturday, I made my large batch of taco meat, grated cheese, chopped lettuce, onions, olives & tomatoes ~ enough to last me all week! That is just what I do! I fill in with the other 2 items! I'm easy to please ~for myself!

You know~ the KISS system:

Keep It Simple Stupid !

If my phone ever gets to working again....I've got alot of catching up to do! Blog visiting!

* * * * * * * * * *

Yea!!....just woke to let the Yorkies out ...thought I'd check and sure enough...for the moment, the phones are working, so I'll pub this puppy! Now m'be Hubby will call me in a few hours before they head out for the day!! He'd better!!

Yee...Haw...!!!

...Cowboy gets to go Cowboying~away from home!

It almost feels like Christmas to him! He is sooooo durned excited!

He needs this break, I agree. We just never get to leave home!

(Except MY trip to the Daughter's & Sister's..but that wasn't WE!

This time won't be WE either! It'll be HE!).

I'm so frugal and with gas prices the way they are, as far as he has to go, I was draggin' my feet. Then, ol' tight-wad me, stepped back & counted back to how long it had been since he left this place~over night~that was last August, for one night to attend my Uncles funeral. Now had sad is that!!! Feeling guilty, I went and opened up my private 'emergency purse strings'....

....Here ya go, Cowboy. Go and have a blast!

This time, every year, some good friends gather their calves for weaning, about 800 head, which they range in the North Cascades by the Canadian border. The terrain is rough & rugged. I used to help when we lived there, but my nerves, maybe it's my age :( would stop me now.

It gets really~really WESTERN!

If you have a GOOD horse & he can "read' cows, all you need to do is hang on! The Ol' Paint I used to ride was that way...scared the livin' begeezes out me many times! He had NO problem jumping the brush...like 3-4ft high stuff on a steep hillside nonetheless, if he figured that'd be quicker than the way I'd choose! And he was always right! Cajun would not let me look for trails going down rock slides or pine covered drops....Oh no!..He knew what we were supposed to be doing, what the job was & where these cattle were to go~he was NOT caring about any second thoughts I might be having in any given situation! He needed not, and he waited not for directions from me! Oh, yes, I was dumped a time or two (?) and it didn't hurt too much at the time but I'm sure it was pride and anger that'd get me through the rest of those days!

* * * * *

Hubby loves going up there..they have a cabin in the mountains, corrals, everything a Cowboy needs ...and they don't need plumbing, or indoor cooking facilities, or even running water....just bare minimum stuff. There is a cistern on the slope to provide gravity fed water to the corrals for the horses & stock, water for the makings of coffee, for a cool drink for the cowboys out of the troughs...and maybe even a good dunk if women folk aren't around! And always...provides for a welcomed cooling off for the stock dogs as there is little time for them to plop in a creek during the day. It is non stop for them!

It's a good thing Cowboys don't need much to survive! Because it ain't there!

Just lots of clean fresh air, tall tall trees and rock bluffs (even some mountain sheep if one has time to notice), timber rattlers (that'd be snakes in case ya don't know!!),

deep coulees, steep climbs, (or drops depending on which you are headed),

and spectacular views!

Oh how I wish I could go along...I could take some great pictures for you! (yea, yea...I know, my camera & I are not the best for that...don't remind me!) I do love the mountains, the fresh smell of the pines, the wildlife that traverses the countryside, except for the cougars & bears. I don't care to see them up close & personal! (These ranchers DO have problems with them).

We've been talking about going up there and staying several weeks. It would do us both some good, we say...get away together! That's all we ever seem to do is talk, and not act upon.

One of these days....we will...

Fall is a great time to be there! Cool, cool nights, warm days and the vibrant colors of the changing seasons are awesome!

Oh well, there is lots to accomplish before tomorrow arrives. He will be taking 3 horses, so they need to be shod which he's doing as I type:

(I just snuck out there to take this...he hasn't a clue I was there!)

...find, clean, pack the bedroll, saddlebags, even a winter coat, gloves & longjohns!! High in the Cascades...it's not too unusual to start a day with warm sunny skies & then have the temperatures plummet with a squal overhead! (It even dropped to 34* here last night! Yikes!) Clean the cooler, started making bunches of ice, dust off dutch ovens & re-season them. Raid the pantry & freezers, for a Cowboy DOES need to eat! And this particular one LOVES to eat!

(on the way back from getting the pix of him, I stopped & gathered these..guess what I'm making?? Yep...Zucchini bread, in small loaves so they fit in saddlebags for "on the run" lunch!)

Hmmm...aside from shoeing the horses...think the rest is my job!

How's that always happen? I don't recall him packing and readying my bags when I left.... ;)

T'is... Ok... though, because I get to witness the child-like glee in him!
It has been a year since he's gone anywhere for more than one night (which like I said, was last August)....He did get to help them gather last year, same place, same time, doing the same thing ...imagine that!

He deserves this trip, the time with friends & doing what he loves best!

Am I excited??? For him Yes...for me? No!

Let's go back a bit.....

* * * * * *

............to be Continued

(need to go get the Zucchini breads going...)