there was an eagle

The Lone Ram staffers are straggling out of the deep oblivion of slumber at noon today, after a very full week of day camp. I, among the rest, was frequently up from 5:30 am to 11 pm, with only an hour to myself. That hour was usually spent trying to remove at least one layer of dirt.

I admit that yes, it was a hectic week. The day campers came at 8am, and left at 5:30. We finished feeding the horses at 6, our dinner at the BigHorn lodge was at 7, at 7:30 we were out tacking up again for the BigHorn groups coming at 8pm, and by 10, the horses were usually done working for the day and we were heading back to get ready to hit the sack.

But among the blur, there were highlights:

*When you are up at 5:30, the mountains are gorgeous. One morning there was a haze of mist in every indentation of the mountains. Soooooo lovely.

*A bald eagle flew over the pasture so low that I could hear the wind in it's wings. It was the first time I'd ever seen an eagle in flight and it left a deeper impression than I thought something like that could.

*There are monarch butterflies everywhere.

*On Wednesday a family came over to the ranch so that their special needs daughter could ride a horse. I was a sidewalker. She could only communicate via sign language and held my hand tightly the entire time. It was very cool to see the huge smile on her face as she grew comfortable and so excited about it. Horses are amazing creatures.

first week of overnight camp

It came and it went, and it was good.

There were four campers.

From left to right: Jaci, Noby, JJ (aka Dori), Hannah, and Amy.

The Lone Ram Ranch as seen from the cross.

Noby Ledger

Bethany (aka Sitka) demonstrating the concept of getting the log out of your own eye and not judging others by appearance.

There were a good number of bull's eyes.

Getting ready for the end of week show. We performed a drill that we'd been practicing all week. We had way too much fun. =D

Me (Shadow) with Dori.

With Noby

We were covered with dirt, drenched in sweat and enjoyed ourselves tremendously. It was sweet to watch the girls' horsemanship improve throughout the week.

19 no more

Usually I'm at the beach when my birthday rolls around. But since this year I'm in Montana, I celebrated at the top of a mountain.

JJ Jorgensen, fellow staff member and all-around awesome friend, decided that we were going to eat lunch at the top of Patrick's Knob, a mountain overlooking the entire valley.

We ate peanut butter and applebutter sandwiches and saw about 23,000 ladybugs. I may have sat on a few.

The view was amazing.

One of my summer goals is to learn how to play the guitar.

Having way to much fun taking random pictures.

The birthday cake Mylinda made for me. Before dinner, all the BigHorn staff sang Happy Birthday. It was a pretty spectacular day.

Happiness!

manly hands

The past couple days have been a well received respite from nearly two weeks of solid rain. Instead of being holed up in the trailer, I'm sprawling out on the grass, enjoying the sun and attempting to type with the middle and ring fingers of my right hand taped up.

Why does my right hand display such taping? Simply put, a Belgian decided he would rather be socializing with his friends than trotting in a circle around yours truly. I forgot I was was no match for a 1300 lb horse and ended up on the ground. Very - er - humilifying. But hey, the tape looks impressive, even if the story behind it isn't so much.

I've broken out a new set of muscles over the past couple days putting up canvas tents, pitching hay, working the horses.... I've been sleeping well at night.

elk sausage

In the process of moving from location A to location B, I emptied the freezer. Upon pulling out the meats, I expected to be handling your standard beef and pork. Instead I found packages that, out of the following list, had the contents of the particular pound marked:

*Buffalo
*Moose
*Venison
*Antelope
*Elk

I had elk sausage for breakfast this morning. I don't think I'm in Kansas any more.

in a land far away

....there is Greek homework that should be done. But I'm taking advantage of the unexpected wireless signal that I was more than a little shocked to find in a world of no cell phone service. Somehow I managed to go for 18 years without a cell phone and now that I don't have one, I feel strangely paralyzed.

Back on track. I'm in Montana, living in a small and cozy camping trailer for the next 7 1/2 weeks, listening to the train on the other side of the river, feeling my shoulders ache from the sudden impact of learning the ropes course today. I learned the art of tying sturdy knots, of arranging multiple straps of nylon that I was told were the safety harnesses, juggling miles of rope and leaping off of tall trees. My hair got smashed under the helmet, my hands formed several new calluses from belaying people 60 odd feet up in the air and my heart leaped into my throat several times as I took my turn as the belay guinea pig. I admit it. I am not fond of heights - sturdy rope and belayer on the ground aside, jumping off of trees of abnormal height is, to put it mildly, an adrenalin rush.

Yesterday was horse moving day, shifting from their winter lodgings to the new camp ground. Three trips, twelve horses, and five hours later, darkness had fallen and the herd was exploring its new stomping grounds. My saddle emerged from the darkness of its shipping bag and took its rightful place among the rest of the camp tack. We hit the sack around midnight, exhausted from the day's work. Weed whacking, mowing, moving horses, moving gear, watching three extremely active children ages 2 to 7, admiring the not so lovely leg of horse the dog had drug home (complete with knee, fetlock, hoof, enough tendon to hold it all together and some hair....).

Tomorrow the plan is to set up the arena. And the plan tonight is to at least do some Greek.

Further bulletins as events warrant. Or as time warrants.

every day grow older...

...and learn something new ~ Solon

Since I'll be in Montana over my actual birthday, we celebrated yesterday. And since Mom was a professional cake decorator, I decided that it was high time I learned how to decorate a cake, and decorate it well.

Did you know that frosting is made of nothing but sugar, grease and a touch of flavoring (almond, in this case)? Neither did I - but now I know why the stuff makes me queasy.

This was the fun part - Mom had me practice on the tabletop, then on the cake. It turned out fairly well, I thought.

The finished product. The actual cake was fairly small, with the result that we almost ran out of room for the candles. The 20th one is in the corner by the : ).

Happy birthday to me.

It was a pretty memorable day, if I do say so myself.