Archives for July 2014

Spent the day going back down the mountain and doing a whole lot of running around. Upgraded my Verizon USB (which doesn’t seem to be working well after little Billy dragged it across the floor yesterday) for a new Jetpack, ordering an adapter to work with my old antenna, though even with that, I’m not going to pick up a signal at the campground, it’s just too deep behind the mountain. I did notice a signal in several places coming down, though, so next time I shouldn’t have to come all the way down into town to get a signal. Bought a sump pump so that we could pump water to solve our water problem more permanently (something we’ve been meaning to do for a while anyway), went grocery shopping and ran some more errands. Stopped at a Wendy’s for a small meal and to get some computer work done, before finally heading back up the mountain. A late start to our evening, but relaxing nevertheless.

Cows were a little quieter a little later in the morning today, so we got to sleep in a little bit longer, but we had a lot to do, so for not too long. Spent the day getting ready to go, packing up as much as we could. To bed early, because tomorrow is a particularly long drive.

Spent the day relaxing and keeping an eye on Apollo’s foot. He seems to be dragging it less heavily, but the toe still drags a bit when he walks. Uneventful, but restful day, which we all appreciated. Bruises still hurt, and will for a few more days, but progress is made!

We had wanted to find a nice quiet place for July 4th, and we certainly found it here. The dude ranch folks were gone by the time we got up around 8:30, another beautiful morning. One thing about being at altitude (8820′) are the cool nights, with temps dropping into the upper 40’s, perfect sleeping weather. Apollo’s swelling was way down, but he was still dragging his foot a bit when he walked. I put another ice pack on it after breakfast, and we took the day off, especially considering it was a holiday! Clouds built up in the afternoon, and we put out the water buckets and barrels around the gutters in the RV to catch whatever rain we had, just in case we needed it as a backup. By mid-afternoon, it started to rain, though with no wind, thank goodness, and we even had some hail that accumulated on the ground for a bit. We started the evening early, getting two movies, popcorn and a bottle of wine we had bought at a vineyard near Luchenbach, TX a few weeks ago. A nice evening, secure in the knowledge that Apollo was on the mend, though we doubted we would be riding here again.

It was a more peaceful night, and we did get a better night sleep, though at dawn we heard the bawling of the cattle doing a rooster’s job. We were both so tired from our busy week, we decided to let ourselves and the horses rest another day. Worked on the computer, where I have just enough of an occasional signal to check my e-mail every once in a while. A nice, relaxing day.

Well, it wasn’t long into the night when the cattle found the hay and alfalfa in the back of the pickup truck, and we could feel the RV being pushed around. I had to get up several times during the night to shoo the cows away, but it didn’t take long for them to come back again. During one of my waking spells, I figured out we would have to put up our portable corral. Up to now, we’ve only used it to keep critters in, this will be the first time we’ve used it to keep critters out! So it was only just after daybreak when I got up and started to put the fence up, weaving it around the baby aspen trees that are all around us. Couldn’t seem to get it electrified, but I’m hoping it will at least act as a deterrent. Tried to get back to sleep, but couldn’t, so I got on my computer to see what kind of signal I had, and discovered just enough to download my e-mail and get online briefly. Wrote some e-mails and did some computer work, had to shoo a few more cows away, that had breached the fence. Finally Hubby got up and we managed to electrify the fence, but a few more cows got through, so I’m not sure how effective it will be. Later in the day, a cowboy on horseback came by and was herding them away, so maybe they just escaped after all, and we’ll have some quiet later on. After breakfast, Hubby drove back down to Durango to get a new tire, propane, groceries and to go to the post office, which too him all afternoon. I got a lot of odd jobs done, including getting my desk completely cleared (a rare experience!), fixing the floor of the closet so the trapdoor didn’t keep falling in like it did on this last bumpy road, gluing some jewelry together, fixing the fan in the bathroom, a whole bunch of odds and ends that have been bugging me. On the way back to camp, Hubby stopped off at the main campground with one of the portable rain barrels and filled it up, only to have it fall over a spill all out when he reached camp. We had just enough still left in the horse trailer tank for the night, but it’s something we’ll need to do again tomorrow. We then settled in with a movie and popcorn for the night, both exhausted once again. Fortunately, the cows hadn’t been around all afternoon, so I’m hoping for a more peaceful night tonight!