The All Purpose JEEP

 Things seem to ebb and flow in not-so-sunny California.  It was good that the temperatures have stayed low since the local fair was in full swing.  They switched it from July to June to keep the animals from dying of the heat.  No problem this year, they had to put heaters in with all the rabbits ... and here I was hoping to use up all those extra solar dollars on air conditioning.  

Here's my kid ... not so bright and cheery and still looking for his toys every morning.  It sure makes me feel bad, because all of this is MY fault.  It's hard not to be sad.

Cooper's other favorite pastime is smelling the smells outside, so off we went for a little walk.  My running plans have been thrown out the window until further notice.  After we very carefully put his harness on so as not to touch his mouth, off we went.

One thing California does have is beautiful poppies amid the weeds.  They grow wild around here, and once started, will return every year.  In no time I could tell by the look on his face we had gone far enough.  Time to head back for the hide-the-pill game.  

My tactics are lame.  Crush it up and COVER it up with something he likes.  I'm running out of options since he is beginning to figure it out.  The pills must taste bad.  Since he never eats on schedule, it's been tough to get those pain pills down every 12 hours to keep him from hurting.  Day 4 and you can tell by the look on his face below that he's not very comfortable.

Back to the ranch .... here is the all purpose Jeep.  I had to look for some time to find this picture of one which has been beautifully restored.  I don't know how we came about having a Jeep from WWII since I was too young.  Our's didn't have windshield wipers nor orange running lights.  It did not have a spare tire and the windshield was broken in three places.  

You could barely tell it was painted red at one time, but mostly showed off its rust.  There were many BIG bullet holes in it from front to back.  Hard to drive?  Yessirree!!!

I think I was six when I first took the wheel.  Us kids couldn't reach the pedals, so they wired on 2 x 4 blocks.  Shifting required arms of steel and double clutching.  At seven I made my first mistake of looking at the gear shift instead of the road and ran into a tree in the yard.  You could hardly tell since I was only going maybe 8 mph.  I don't think anyone ever got it over 25 mph.

Our fields were numbered in the order of how the irrigation water ran.  When the canal slides were opened, water would run into our ditches.  From there, we opened wooden box slides to allow it to run over the contours to the first levee.  The levees wove around the field serpentine-like depending on those contours.  When it got to the next levee, we had to open those boxes to allow it to move to the next one.  

Over and over we would move the water levee to levee until the pasture was wet enough.  Then on to the next field.  Amazingly, the Jeep never got stuck.  As you can imagine, this took some time to get over 600 acres.  We never were able to water the entire ranch because water was allotted by the irrigation district.  You only got so much.  The back fields never grew much feed unless it rained.

That's where I learned to drive.  It was much faster to take the Jeep to irrigate than to ride your horse ... and much easier to get ON.  There were no fun summer vacations because we always had to water, so we made our fun in the ditches and canals.  I'm surprised we survived the concrete gates and pipes since we didn't know how to swim.  

We got in so much trouble for trying to cool off with the carp (big ugly fish) that Dad built a big concrete horse trough up by the house.  It was all of 3 feet deep in the shallow end and 4 feet in the deep end.  Perfect for diving off the sides.  Somehow we survived.

Back to the Jeep ... besides teaching us how to drive a hard stick shift with two transfer cases, we used it to haul medicine to the center corrals, haul supplies for barbed wire fence repairs and to pull calves.  It never went to town because it didn't have a license plate.  As you can imagine, this led to cattle truck driving.

The seat cover was completely gone, but we had some nice woven barley sacks piled up so you didn't get poked by the springs.  The back seat was stored in the quonset hut because we needed room to haul feed and salt to the cattle in the center corrals about a mile from the barn.  

One of the saddest days ... my Dad sold the Jeep for four one hundred dollar bills some time in the late 1960's because we didn't need it any more.  I still have TWO of those bills.

Onward and upward ... I cooked an entire package of bacon in my air fryer.  If I'm busy, it keeps Cooper from thinking I will play if he finds his ball.  I swear, there's not much better than air fried PIG.

I spent most of the day on the couch.  If I don't keep a close watch, Cooper tries to scratch his mouth with his hind foot.  I guess it's healing since it must feel a little itchy.  Who knows ... but my butt is screaming from sitting so much!!  It's okay ... I'll do anything to make him more comfortable.  As long as I'm sitting close, he stays still and sleeps.

And that was our day!!  He finally ate his antibiotic pill this morning, so we're on to the pain pill.

I'll be on the couch yet again ... maybe trying to sneak in a nap myself.  After all, it's BINGO TUESDAY!!