I'm such a bad blogger! So here are some photos to tide you over...

Lessons learned in cowboy country:

• When heading to the ranch, even if just for a quick errand, wear your boots.  Inevitably, you'll be there longer than expected and have an encounter with at least two types of poop.
• If your dog is part hound, it's ok to let her "roll" in the interesting scents that she encounters.  She is familiarizing herself with new odors - and mine, anyway, seems to only do this for new odors, not every scent that she encounters.
• When fishing, you have to commit to the removal of the fish.  Letting one wriggle off the line leaves a hooked and injured fish in the ecosystem.

So, what have YOU been up to lately?  Thanks to Tiffany for the nudge to update the blog!!

The weather here in Hyattville has just been beautiful.  It's still atypically warm for Oct / November, and believe it or not, they're still in the process of bailing hay at the ranch.  This is good for the cows there, because hay is in short supply this season.  The ranch hand who was scheduled to start over a week ago has been delayed, but as luck would have it,  a local from Shell, WY has stepped up to help out, and he's doing a bang-up job.  His name is Bret, and he's a gunsmith by trade, with lots of mechanical and ranching experience to boot.                  

Mr. G's brother, Mr. D, leases the ranch next door so between the two, there is quite a bit of pasture land for cows.  This works well for the 97 other cows that were trailered down "from the mountain" near Ten Sleep.  Bret and I helped Mr. D herd the cows down to the additional pastures at the lease place.  Later this week, those cows will be pregnancy tested and vaccinated.  In the meantime, with the good weather holding out, I've been doing some exploring, a little hiking, some fishing, and communing with horses. 

Hyattville is nestled right up next to BLM (Bureau of Land Management) lands, or public spaces, and the Bighorn National Forest, surrounding the Big Horn mountain range.  A good rule of thumb is to think of BLM lands as dry, wide-open spaces.  The most interesting aspect is the rapid change in ecology and geology, where the dry high-desert abuts to National Forest, which is more treed and green.    The Red Gulch Byway is a graded gravel road that spans about 35 miles just north of town, and it traverses some fascinating geological features along the way.  Once upon a time I drove this stretch in a rental car during a rainstorm - a big no-no.  Much of the subsoil is bentonite, also known as kitty litter. When wet, it becomes clay-like and slippery, which is how I introduced the rental car's passenger side to a big boulder.  At any rate, the road has been recently graded, so gone are the ruts that were filled with a foot of dust.  While slow, the driving is much easier on that road now.  The byway also includes a dinosaur tracksite, where (with some patience, in my opinion) you can see small dino footprints in long-ago calcified mud.  For your viewing enjoyment, here are a few phone snapshots of the Red Gulch Byway:

This is Turk (the paint) and Fancy (the sorrel) down at the ranch.  Note in the background the tops of some of the snow-covered peaks of Bighorn National Forest. 

Finally, this is one of my fishing spots (also the dog bathing spot).  It is right behind the house here in town!