Stacking hay

Rancho Mucho Dinero has a hayfield full of freshly cut bales.  The bales sit in the hot July sun ready to be stacked and put away for winter.     Good thing Pop has lots of grand kids to help load and stack hay.  

Each summer we come out to Pop's hayfields and help.  This year the kids are able to do more of the heavy lifting. 

Gabe is especially a lot of help.   He is big enough to do a lot of the loading and throwing of the bales.  It’s the perfect workout for a early July morning.   

The little girls also came out to help.    They mostly sat on the top of the bales and directed traffic.  

Riding back to the barn with all the hay might have been the best part.

These two boys were our rollers.    One on each side.  

It was a fun couple of days getting to help Pop on the ranch and learning some new skills.    Getting to help is always a privilege and I know the boys learned a lot.    I’m sure if you  asked them they would tell you their favorite part was the donuts and hay rides.  

Pop’s horses

Spending time with Pop.    When you spend time with Pop, you are spending time with his horses.   My dad has one place that he wants to be.   Looking through the ears of a horse.    His world is right when he is seated in his saddle and he can see everything between those ears.   Everything makes sense and the only frustration happens to be a stubborn or a wild horse.   He can fix that.   He can ride them down until they aren’t stubborn anymore.   He can teach them which way to go and how to get there.     He takes race track thoroughbreds that run away with you and turns them into polo ponies.   He takes the same horse and teaches them to pack elk.   

His horses are his best friends and they often make him mad but they also understand him.    My dad needs to be moving all the time.    At a fast pace.   He needs the pounding of those hooves and the wind sailing beneath his cowboy hat/polo helmet.   He needs the wild freedom that his horses provide.   Maybe that is why he decided to move to Wyoming?   Wild Wyoming.   A place he could ride his horses for miles and miles, up an down hills, across rivers and through the mountains.   Where he can run wild and free chasing a polo ball with that Don King buckle always in the back of his mind.   I honestly can’t see my dad living anywhere else.   Where else could he be a Cowboy on the Powder River?   Where else could he play 20 chukkers of polo a week?   Where else would his heart be right?

                                     

This is the place he has become the person he always wanted to be.    A Wyoming Cowboy.    A place where his horses and him have competed in hundreds of polo games.   A place where he has raised his horses and his family and kept us all coming back for more. 

                                  

While Pop rides his horses, my boys play football on the polo field.    Just like me, none of them have a passion for Pop’s horses.   I wish we did.   I wish I felt the same way about these creatures as my dad does.  I wish I had his passion for it but God didn’t put that in my heart.   It was something different.    I think at times Pop wishes we would be up there playing with him also but we aren’t.

                                    

                                    

                                      

We still love him and to spend time with him is to be with his horses.  So, we come to the polo field to see him.   We help him clean his stalls.   We even ride with him when we can.    

We love you Pop and your horses.  

                                       

A cabin in the Big Horn Mountains

The cabin in a place cut off from the world and more specifically electronics.   It’s a place to be together and not have to contend with so many other things.   In fact, the boys get so BORED they all go out and chop wood.

They gather around a pile of wood.   Axes cracking and a heated competition going on.     Who can split the most logs, who hits it the hardest.     Isn’t everything a competition when it comes to boys?    I watch Gabe as he shows the younger boys a better technique.   I watch my boys become men.

I think one of our favorite things is watching all the wildlife.   We see elk, moose, and deer.   This past weekend there was about 30 head of elk that were in the meadow up from the cabin.    The boys sat on the front porch with a spotting scope and watched them all.   The babies were really little.   Newborns, I think.   So tiny with spots.

We also saw quite a few moose.    Big, brown moose.

Boys got up early on Saturday morning and hiked up to Trigger lake.   A high mountain lake where the you can see the fish in the glassy water.   A remote place with no people.    It was a beautiful morning for fishing.

And they thankfully brought home breakfast.

Tie Hack

Tie Hack is a beautiful mountain lake near our cabin.  A beautiful mountain lake perfect for exploring.   We have been to this lake many times before but having it so close is surely something special.

Well, we all have to admit Amaya’s least favorite place is the mountains.    She gets up in those mountains and tends to start sneezing and feeling miserable.      It makes me so sad because it happens to be my favorite place.    But....she endures it all for our sake.    She came to visit us this weekend and stayed just long enough to get a good hike and some family time before she was ready to head down the mountain.    I was so happy to have her even if it was just for a few hours.

We hiked down to the river where we could get our toes wet (some of us anyway).

There is something magical about being in this place where time doesn’t matter and you are surrounded by the beauty of God’s creation. Where you can be play and be creative without any judgement.     A place where the distractions of the world are put aside even for just a little while and getting to do that with my favorite people makes it all even better.  

This all girls hike was extra special for me.    I needed some time away from all things boy and just spend time with the girls.   We did things like play with each other’s hair and talk about clothes and food.  We did some Yoga stretches and admired the flowers.   We laughed about a family we saw hiking with a baby.    The dad was carrying so much stuff in his hands he couldn’t have been having fun and the mom....she was carrying the baby and looking very, very tired.   Only moms understand that look.    Megan and I looked at each other and just laughed.   We had been that mom once.      

Megan....there isn’t anyone I would rather be with on the mountain.    I love you!!