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Cita's Blog – July 2009 Archive (7)

My Favorite Lunch (not for folks with a sensitive ick factor)

We've been up since 3am, as the bats came circling back into the barn, and now we are up to our elbows in long-eared calves in the pens, circling, sad and lonely for their mamas, as we swing our ropes amidst the cacaphony of bawling and the propane branding pot.

He heels each calf with well-placed twine and I rebuild and rebuild and rebuild until I get a loop over the head and we stretch the calf between his big white horse and my grulla mare so he can bail off to brand and vaccinate… Continue

Added by Cita on July 31, 2009 at 11:51pm — 2 Comments

and You're not Here

I shrug off my camelback the way the mare wished she could have shrugged off the heavy hot saddle, and I wish I could roll in the dirt the way she did after I set her free.

Two house finches, one ordinary female and one vibrant male, light on the edge of the water trough and turn upside down to drink as I stow away my gear, change my spurred boots for slip-on loafers, hang my chinks over my saddle, struggle to hang my bridle on the too-high hooks a tall person built.

I… Continue

Added by Cita on July 4, 2009 at 4:02pm — 4 Comments

Reality Check

A rufous came to breakfast, flashing his rusty coat and running everyone else away from the feeders.

A bull snake slid across the yard and took his tail with him down the hole under the tree surrounded by rocks.

The basil plant bloomed purple while two storms moved slowly towards us.

A caterpillar built a chrysalis under the overhang on the porch, and now I can't sleep late because I must check in the early dawn for a butterfly's birth.

A nuthatch… Continue

Added by Cita on July 3, 2009 at 7:40pm — 2 Comments

Horseshoeing

Every other man in my life has told me that my hands are too small, not strong enough, and that I don't want to learn to shoe a horse.

He shows me all of the angles, lets me use the new rasp, switches my grasp on the shoe when I am at the anvil, tells me to get my hands out on the ends of the handles of the nippers, and uses verbal cues to help me see what I am missing.

He asks before he takes a tool out of my hand, gives me the green light to start shaping a shoe because… Continue

Added by Cita on July 3, 2009 at 7:30pm — No Comments

Tracks in the dirt

Charlie had quit shaking by the time she had Buddy loaded with as much gear and food as she could think of, but she began to shake again as she helped Julia into the saddle on Nora, shake with anger, shake with fear, shake with the approaching dusk.

She got on behind Julia with her arms on either side of her to hold her on if she got faint, reached around and adjusted the bandage over Julia's eye, wiped some blood that trickled from the corner of her mouth, and leaned down to untie… Continue

Added by Cita on July 3, 2009 at 5:35pm — 5 Comments

dance partner

Everyone on both ranches knew him as Uncle Bill, though to their knowledge he wasn't anyone's real uncle.

He always had Juicy Fruit gum, butterscotch candies, and Brach's Toffee Royals for the kids, and he never seem to run out, though he always patted his shirt pockets in mock horror when they first came running up to him.

Harold relied on him without seeming to, with a big show of simply being deferential to the old man who had been on this ranch for fifty years, asking… Continue

Added by Cita on July 2, 2009 at 6:19pm — 7 Comments

Its morning

Its morning, still so early that even the stars and birds have not realized it.

Only the people who cannot sleep stand looking at their own reflections in dark windows while the scent of coffee truly says morning.

Cottonwood Camp is nestled in Cottonwood Creek on the Cottonwood side of the ranch, and the old man who moved here when he was yet a middle-aged man pours his first cup into a hand-thrown pottery mug.

Its an old fashioned set-up, the plug-in… Continue

Added by Cita on July 2, 2009 at 4:12pm — 7 Comments