I Smashed A Tomato!!

Time always seem to fly by when you least expect it.  It's always in short supply when I need more of it.  Here it is almost time to take off and I feel like I'm WAY behind.

It's going to be a challenge with Miss Jessie in the rig.  It scares her when we first take off, so leaving the cone on is a bad idea.  She jumps up and down on everything, running from one end to the other.  Once on the road, she calms down a bit.

Since I almost ran out of horse tape, I picked up some REAL dressings for her two legs.  Not that she's happy about me changing anything, or that changing really needs to happen.  The bandages just seem to fall off.  I'm sure that's operator error, as I'm afraid to get them too tight.

We're down to two small ones now, making her mobility much better.   Although she growls like a banshee, she has been very tolerant of this whole deal.    She's only bit me once.

The tire pressure check went well, nothing blew up in my face.  I have a very large portable compressor I drag out to the rig for tire filling.  It's LOUD and scary.  I read something on the internet once about making sure the water is out of the tank.  What water??  My plan is to meet a nice gentlemen who will take care of all that for me so I can worry about something else.  So far that's not working out so well!!

I do have one valve stem, inside tire, that doesn't want to register on my tire pressure thingy gizzy.  I swear I let more air OUT than I put in.  After several tries, I think it's okay pressure wise.  I have a tire monitoring system, but those inside tires do not register correctly since the valve stem needs to be adjusted.  I'm afraid to do it ... I might make it so air leaks OUT instead of staying in.  

With nothing else going on, here's a couple of pictures from many moons ago.  I won't tell you exactly HOW many years ago this was taken.  That's my Mom and me on good old bald-faced Pico.  I've no idea who took these at the ranch with a polaroid camera.  We didn't have a camera.  

Notice the rope under my leg?  Everyone carried a rope on their saddle.  You never knew when you might need one.  Years later as I was crossing a river, my horse went down in quicksand.  One of the cutest cowboys ever, grabbed his rope and snatched me and my horse from the water.  

At any rate, when we were forced to move from Lake Isabella (before it became a lake) we had a choice of two ranches.  One in Carson City Nevada and one here in California.  Carson City had the nicest house.  California had the nicest set of cattle scales and corrals.  You can guess which one won out.  Th saddle Mom rode was handmade in Bakersfield ... I still have it.

Here's a weird piece of trivia.  Cattle LOVE tomatoes.  Anytime we could get free feed for the cattle, my dad was all over it.  We moved maybe 50 head down to a field where tomatoes had been grown, and it was time to bring them back.  I was riding Pico and happened to have my brand new straw hat on.  

One calf turned back.  My dad said GET HIM!!  So Pico and I raced down the canal bank at breakneck speed.  Our horses were "cattle" horses ... old time cutting horses, who could stop on a dime and turn back a calf.  The calf stopped, Pico stopped and I went sailing off over his head into the biggest tomato in the field.  

Pico stopped and came back to me, but I was crying so hard it scared him.  I had no idea if I was hurt, but I had just crushed my hat!!!  My dad came running up saying "are you hurt" as he threw me back on the horse.  Well I thought I was, but apparently I was okay, because off he went after the cattle.

I think I'm about seven in this picture.  The summers were hot here, getting up to 113 in the shade, which is why I have shorts on.  Check out my saddle!!  It's just my size and even has tapaderos on the stirrups.  That's a wide piece of leather wrapped around the front so your foot doesn't go through the stirrup when your horse runs off.  This is Polly ... my brothers horse.  She was fast ... a bit of a runaway, depositing all our cousins who came to ride, on the side of the road as she raced back to the barn.  It was great fun!!

As I think back over the years, I'm pretty thankful I lived to tell the stories.  There are LOTS of them. I'll relate a few more as time goes on.  As for now, I'm having another birthday lunch and then it's off to the Magic Kingdom of Bingo.  WOOHOO!!!