Send in the Clowns

Our granddaughter's day care is run by a super woman. She is a real teacher as well as caring for the kids. She does incredible things with the kids on all the holidays and she's starting a program of doing monthly themes.

She is doing a circus theme this month and our son sent us this picture of Juliet.



All together now... one... two... three... awwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Cool Mornings

I love this time of year when the days are still warm, but the nights, and especially the mornings, are pleasantly cool.

I usually go out about 6:00 AM or so to feed the horses. Earlier this summer I would go out at 5:30 AM because it was so much warmer. Now the dawn is later and the mornings are staying cooler so I don't have to go out as early.

On my way out I click on the coffee maker so it will be ready when I come back in.

When I go out the sun is just beginning to make its presence known behind the Sandia Mountains by a warm, but still gray glow.

I greet Sugar and Morgunn as they amble toward their respective stalls. Sugar goes into the stall closest to the tack room and Morgunn goes into the farther stall. Sugar will knicker when she firsts see me and again when I enter the tack room. Both horses will have their heads over their stall doors waiting for their hay.

After flipping on the lights in the tack room and their stalls I give Morgunn and Sugar their hay. I love to hear their munching and shorting as they dig into their hay.

Then I grab the manure rake and go out to clean up their night's deposits. By this time the sun is beginning to shine off the cloud remnants with a warm reddish-orange color and the dark night sky is taking on a deep blue color.

The air is crisp and cool and often there is a gentle canyon breeze. Some mornings I'm still comfortable in my t-shirt, but there are some mornings where I need my long-sleeve denim shirt.

After manure clean up I clean out the hay particles from the water tank and add water as needed.

I put everything away, turn off the tack room and stall lights, and go get the morning paper at the end of the drive. Usually I spook a couple of bunny rabbits and at least one jack rabbit as I walk down the drive way. Every once in a while, I'll see a coyote in the street or across the street in my neighbor's driveway.

When I walk inside from the cool, the warmth of the house feels good and the smell of freshly-brewed coffee is very inviting.

Then I wake Betty up.

Another Tuesday

Betty and I are settled back in after our time away. We exercised this morning. I went to Galloping Grace Youth Ranch and had a good time as always. Betty had a chiropractic appointment. And, I ran some errands after GGYR.

That's it.

Dan

Monday Video - Classical Gas

This video brings back memories to me. I first saw Mason Williams play "Classical Gas" on The Smothers Brothers show a long, long time ago.

I loved it then and I love it still.

I hope you enjoy it for a few minutes in your day.

Sunday Reflections - Good and Faithful Companion

But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God. (Psalm 55:13-14)

The dictionary definition for 'companion' is 'one who accompanies another.' The roots of the word companion come from the Latin -- 'com' meaning 'with' and 'panis' meaning 'food' or 'bread.' A companion is not only someone who accompanies us, but also provides us with something essential -- something we need.

For the last 10 years, Betty and I have had such a companion -- Chloe, our Shetland Sheep Dog.

We got Chloe from a Sheltie Rescue when she was 5 years old. She had been with a family since she was a puppy. She came before they had children. After they had two babies, within a couple years of each other, they discovered two things about Chloe.

One is the only time she ever howled is when she heard a baby crying. You can imagine the noise in that house with two babies crying and Chloe howling the whole time. Second is they discovered Chloe is not that good around small children. She gets nervous and nippy.

They decided they couldn't keep her for these reasons and were actually considering having her put down when they connected with the Sheltie Rescue and decided to give Chloe to them.

Two weeks later we saw her. She was advertised as a good dog for a home with no children. As our boys were grown and gone and we didn't have any grandchildren on the horizon, we decided to give Chloe a home with us. When she joined us she was about 5 pounds overweight, but drop-dead gorgeous with her long, flowing, tri-color coat.

We got her weight down and she became our dog -- our companion. After moving to New Mexico she started having various medical problems. She had low thyroid and we're fairly certain she had Cushings Disease that caused her to lose the hair on her body and affected her liver.

When we left for our Canada trip we decided to put her in a local kennel. She had stayed there before and seemed to like it as they gave her a lot of attention.

This past Friday morning I drove to the kennel to pick her up. The kennel owner, also named Dan, told me that the second week there they noticed blood in Chloe's stool. The kennel is close to our vet and they have a close relationship so they took her to Dr. Gutierrez. He thought it was a colitis infection and gave her some antibiotics and she went back to the kennel.

A couple of days later Chloe stopped eating and drinking, she was throwing up, and she became very lethargic. Dan took her back to the vet last Monday. They ran some blood tests and the results showed that her kidneys were shutting down. They put her on a 24/7 IV to infuse her with fluids. If a dog is going to recover they normally start eating again a day or two after starting the IV. Chloe didn't. She did become a little more responsive, but still wasn't eating or drinking when we saw her on Friday.

The vet told us that at her age, 15, the outlook was not good. We could take her home to see what happened, but once off the IV she most likely would start to regress. He said that if that happened she would start throwing up again and would most likely experience seizures as her kidneys shut down completely. He was not optimistic at all.

Chloe has been a good companion for us over these past 10 years and had been through a lot of medical problems. We didn't want her last days to be traumatic for her or for us.

We made the decision to put her down Friday morning. It was hard, but we felt it was time for Chloe to rest. We took her home and she's resting out in the corner of our back lot. It's a place where Morgunn and Sugar often lay in the morning sun so she will have some companions in her resting place.

Well done, good and faithful companion.

We're Back! (Warning: Long Post)

3,938 miles later we're home and we had a great trip.

My earlier posts brought you up to speed with our first visit with our son, Wade Daniel, daughter-in-law, Marie, and our wonderful granddaughter, Juliet.

Then we shared pictures from our drive to and time in Cody, Wyoming and the Buffalo Bill Cody Historical Center. We shared pictures from our beautiful drive through Yellowstone National Park into Montana and our stay at Not So Great Falls, Montana. Finally, we shared a post about our time in Lethbridge, Alberta.

We made it to our friend's ranch, the Lazy M in Caroline, Alberta on Sunday. This was our 7th visit since 2001. We enjoyed reconnecting with Lane and Margie, owners of the ranch, Saskia and Bernadette, friends from Holland, and Geoff, a friend from England. We all enjoy each other and have become good friends over the years.

On Monday we hopped into a couple of cars and drove down to Drumheller, Alberta for three nights. We stayed at a delightful bed and breakfast called The Inn at Heartwood. The hosts, Zeke and Patrice Wolf were great fun and Zeke is an outstanding chef and we had some wonderful breakfasts while there.

Drumheller is known for two things. First, it is one of the most prolific sites for dinosaur bones in the world. The Royal Tyrell Museum is a world-renowned center for paleontology research. Second, until the early 1970's, Drumheller was a center for coal production with up to 139 mines operating in the area. This mining died out with the advent of natural gas, but one of the last operating mines, the Atlas Mine, has been reopened as a tourist facility.

Here are some pictures from our visit in Drumheller.

Enjoying a happy hour with our Heartwood Manor host Zeke. Betty has her back to you. To her left if Saskia, then Lane and Margie, then Zeke our host, then Geoff behind Bernadette.

Headquarters of the Atlas Coal Mine.

Looking toward the "Tipple" that was used to bring the coal down from the top of the hill to waiting rail cars.

Our group in their mining gear.

Inside the Tipple alongside the conveyor belt that rushed the coal down the hill.

Taking a ride in a coal car train.

A visit to the Last Chance Saloon in Warren, Alberta. It's the real thing as it's out in the middle of no where.

We visited Horse Thief Canyon where horses would often wander in and then come out with a different brand. It's also one of the locations where many fossils have been found.

Margie and Betty at Horse Thief Canyon.

Saskia enjoying the view.

Lane, like me, likes to look for things.

And, he did discover something.

After several minutes of digging, he was able to get it out of the dirt and rock.

It turned out to be a vertebra of some kind of mammal.

Margie doing her own looking, but to no avail.

Bernadette and Saskia having fun pretending to climb the summit.

The group at Horse Thief Canyon. Betty and me in front. Lane, Margie, Saskia, Geoff, and Bernadette in the rear.

Drumheller also has the world's largest dinosaur replica - 18 stories tall.

Saskia, Geoff and Bernadette climbed to the top to see the view from the T-Rex's mouth.

After Drumheller we returned to the Lazy M Ranch. Lane and Margie are in the process of selling the business part of their ranch while keeping about 90 acres of prime Alberta land and forest for their retirement. They're in the process of building a new house. Betty and Saskia got to ride twice on Lane and Margie's Canadian horses and I helped Lane with a couple of projects.

The Lodge on the left and the Firsherman's Cabin on the right.

A bridge over the Staufer River that runs through their property. It's one of the premier Brown Trout rivers in Alberta.

The raspberries were ripe and we enjoyed them at every meal.

Betty in the kitchen. The first night we were at the ranch she fixed a mango-chicken enchilada for everyone to give them a taste of New Mexico. It was delicious.

Sunset from the Lodge porch.

When Lane and Margie were operating their guest ranch business they had upwards of 60 head of horses. Now they have about 10.

One of the Canadian Horses. The Canadian Horse was almost extinct in the late 1800's. The breed has made a revival in the last 25 years thanks to people like Lane and Margie. The Canadian Horse is a foundation breed for other breeds such as the Morgan Horse.

Another Canadian Horse.

Lane's Paint Horse, Shaiman.

Saskia in the blue and Betty in the red coming back from one of their rides. They're both riding Canadian Horses.

After a great week, we reluctantly left the Lazy M and headed South.

We stopped at Not So Great Falls, Montana and Billings, Montana. At Billings, we got to visit a Cabelas store which is a great place for anyone interested in outdoor activities.

We also wanted to visit the Little Big Horn National Monument where General Custer and about 250 calvary men supported by Crow Indian scouts made their 'last stand' against over 2,000 Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux.

Places like Little Big Horn and others we have visited such as Gettysburg, Shiloh, and the Arizona Memorial are all very special because of the number of lives that were lost. There is a sacredness to such places.

Looking up to the hill where the last stand was made.

The memorial to the US Soldiers. The bodies of the enlisted men were re-interred under this monument. The bodies of the officers were moved to various cemeteries around the nation.

There is also a monument to the Indian warriors who died here.

When the soldiers' bodies were moved a stone was placed where each body was found. Most of the enlisted men were never individually identified.

Here is the spot where General Custer's body was found. His body was eventually buried at the Military Academy at West Point.

Memorial stones were also placed at places where Indian warriors died.

After this meaningful stop, we headed South to Fort Collins where we spent two nights with our kids and granddaughter. During the day we were there Betty and I took Juliet to one of Fort Collins great parks.

Juliet and her Nana heading for the park.


Finally, we headed South one last time for our New Mexico home. It was a great, great trip with family, friends, and great scenery. We saw beautiful sights everywhere -- New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Alberta, Canada. God does good work.

We had a surprise after we got home, but I'll talk about that tomorrow in my Sunday Reflection.

We're Almost Home

We just arrived in Fort Collins, Colorado to spend two nights with our son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Then we head home for Corrales, NM.

I won't have another post until Saturday as it will take me that long for us to get settled in and to work all the pictures we took. That post will be a recap of our trip so it will be a long one.

See you then.