Pope

Participates in the Fatherhood of God.

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Train Bell Repair II

The kids around town are having fun seeing if they can stick our train bell in the upside down position. Kind of cute the first time. But now it's become personal!

Turns out, if you get the ole bell rocking enough, it will try and flip over and get stuck wrong side up.

We got up there once to see what we could do to put a stop on it. In between these two arms is where it wedges itself against the upright going down. I have been chewing on an idea for the past week of how to put something in here to stop it from getting in a bind, with no avail. On a bright side, our bolt repair is holding strong. 

Today I drove by and it was upside down again. No more! With it in this position, I devised a plan. 

Drilled a hole through the bottom of the clapper.

And wired it to the frame work with a little slack to still dong. Maybe someday I'll exchange it with some para cord or something. But for now, this should do the job.

Back in business. 

I'm a little sympathetic to punk kids horsing around. I was once one. But we always had some old man trying to run us off. That's me today. Roles have changed, but the same old cat and mouse games continue. I will make it my mission to ensure that this train bell is in working condition for the good hearted person that wants to hear it ring. If tomorrow something else goes haywire, then tomorrow I come up with another way to fix it. Game on!

Re-stacking Hay

There's not a level piece of ground on our ranch. Consequently, the stack of round bales that Dad put-up three high this spring, started to tip. Catching it before it fell into the fence, he pulled the stack apart. Then, wanting to escape the heat, he headed for the mountains and left the hay for me to deal with. 

No problemo. These 21 grass round bales came off our irrigated pasture back in June. We'll feed them up this winter.

For stacking round bales, the tractor of choice is always the 4010. When it's a light job, we just chain the bale-spear onto the front of the bucket so we don't have to change the head. 

The first row of bales were sitting on end. This is a good way to make a stack, but only if the ground is level, turns out. First step was to get all the bales back on the round so we could stab them with the spear. 

I was just getting the hang of it when I lost my steering. It can be easy to ram and jam when stacking hay, but I was taking it easy. Especially in this sandy ground, a man has to becareful turning with a bale on the font of the loader. Regardless, the bolts on the hydraulic turning motor must have been coming loose for a while. I was just the unfortunate cowboy for them to fall out on. 

So I walked back up the hill and found some new bolts. A little long, but with a lock washer, we should be just fine. 

White Horse to the rescue. 

No hurry here. Get all your ducks in a row and tackle the problem. 

Thankfully, one bolt was still in place, allowing the others to start back in without much trouble. 

Tightening them up worked pretty well too. 

Alls well that ends well. 

4010s are good stackers. Their gear selectors are a bit confusing. But if you get the hang of it, it is pretty handy. I like to keep it in the second range and go from 2nd reverse to 5th forward when situations are easy. If I'm in a tight predicament, I have 2nd forward right there. 

I like to ponder the steering wheel of this tractor. Dad's dad bought this John Deere new in the early 60s. It was a staple on the farm until the late 90s when the transmission got bound up. In the early 2000s, Dad brought it out to our place and fixed the grinding gears. It has been our main tractor ever since. There have been a lot of Lungren hands grabbing this steering wheel over the years. So much so, that it is worn down to the metal. When I grip this wheel, I'm hanging on to history.  

Just as I start to sing her praises, though, she keeps showing her age. We've had trouble with the battery staying charged, so we often have to jump it when she dies. I was putzing at an idle with the sand and killed the engine before I could get the clutch pushed in. Lo and behold, the battery wouldn't fire it back up. White Horse to the rescue once again. 

With all the quarks worked out, we were back to work. The simple triangle stack was our new method of choice. I like to put all three fronts flush with each other. Why? Just cause. 

You can never put a stack of hay too far away from a fence that has cows behind it. If they can get a whiff, and think they can touch it with their tongue, they'll push through a fence and graze on the greener other-side. Unfortunately, I've been on the backside of that disaster a couple times. Not going back. 

Should work. Two on the bottom and one on top is always a safe stack. The one on top actually makes the two on bottom roll into each other, making for a tight-knit scenario. Should hold on this hillside. 

Another well job done. 

Fun stuff. I always enjoy a good crisis or two. They test a man's perseverance and help him grow in confidence. No man ranches alone. God is always present, helping us work through the good, bad, and ugly in life. With His grace, and a good John Deere tractor, nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37). On to the next one!

One

Truth and pope unite.

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Freeze Out

For our annual priestly fraternity hangout, we decided to mix it up a bit. Usually we hike to a lake some where. This time, we road-tripped it to the Freeze Out overlook. 

Freeze Out is in the Bighorn National Forest, above Hyattville. 

Camping out at the cabin, we jumped in Mom and Dad's Can-Am. Don't tempt us with a good time!

Great unit for this adventure. Fit all five of us just right. Fr. Andrew, to my right, Fr. Seth, behind him, Frs. Clark and Brian at his left. 

Mom wrote us down step-by-step directions. 

5 miles up Battle Park road, where we ride snowmobiles, turn left.

Stay on Hyattville Logging Road for 23 miles. Cool Canyons. 

Fun to bail off this face of the mountain. 

Eventually we landed in Hyattville. 

Then jumped on the Cold Springs Road. 

Turns into good gravel.

Gets rougher as you take side roads.

Which lead you right up to Freeze Out.

Awesome! My guess is it's a 1000 ft. drop off. Trout Creek runs downs the valley. 

Close enough. 

Much to ponder up here. 

Fr. Brian pointed out the different peaks in the Wilderness. 

Cloud Peak, in the center, comes by its name honestly. 

Mission accomplished. 

Fun stuff. Hanging with the boys is great. Doing some mountain sight-seeing, makes it all the funner. Special thanks to Mom and Dad for their cabin, ranch-rig, and good directions. Made for smooth sailing. Hanging out like this just stokes our priestly fire. Now we are back in the saddle and ready for action. Let's ranch!

Fr. Joe Paddock

Good guy.

watch

Gratitude

I like going through life with open hands.

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Nations

Proclaim the Gospel to all peoples! 

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Ranchin' Around

It had been awhile since Dcn. Joe and I have hung out. Having a gig over in Newcastle on Thursday, we decided to do a little riding while I was over there. A fun time was had by all. 

Dcn. Joe Sandrini lives in Newcastle, is the Director of Deacons in the Diocese of Cheyenne, and is a retired biologist for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Good guy to go riding with as he knows the flora and fauna well. 

After a little book discussion on The Catholic Cowboy Way of Prayer at Dcn. Joe's parent's home, we saddled the ponies and headed east of Newcastle. 

Jack Marton's recently purchased ranch on Beaver Creek was our riding spot of choice.

Nice place. Lot's of potential.

Knowing this country well, Joe was our tour guide.

On an old place like this, you have to watch for down wire.

It lurks for your horses hooves like a snake in the grass. 

Nice open hay field that we came across.

Old wheel-line irrigation system once watered this place.

Wanting to get a looksee of the other side of the creek we hunted for a crossing.

On our way we found a field of sorghum looking grass. Crazy tall.

Good deer country here. 

Beaver Creek runs right through the middle of this land.

Incredible amount of water for a dry year like this. 

Getting to the west side of the creek, we got a good view of the ranch. 

Another old hay field over here.

Judging by the dried cow manure and grey grass, I'd say it's been five+ years since anything has grazed this ground. 

Cool rocks on this side.

Big cliff walls make for some fun ground to explore.

This country is loaded with shelf-rock. Some of it is covered with topsoil some of it not.

Mountain mahogany is a common shrub brush around here. Great vegetation for mule deer. 

Making our way out of the hills, we headed back to the ranch.

Finding some decent working corrals along the way. 

Then we ventured across the country road to some state land.

It had just rained. Our horses haven't seen mud in months. 

This is where it got a little western. 

The road that takes you to the top of the east side is gnarly. Steep, slick, situations like this, it's best to give your horse his head and trust his judgment.  

Thanks be to God, it flattened out a bit on top.

Cool ponderosa pines up here. 

Good juniper trees, also, with lots of berries for the birds.  

The state has cleared some of this ground of trees, making room for the mountain mahogany to flourish. 

Eventually we got to the east fence line, which is South Dakota on the other side.

Thanks to On X, Joe knew right where we were and who's land we were on. 

Back down we go.

Not gonna lie, I was a bit nervous. Not Chief and Joe, though. 

Once back at the ranch, we dethroned and let the horses cool down.

Back at Joe's place, we got ready for dinner. Tri tip is a California cut for the California cowboy. It was about the last steak from the old herd we had in Campbell County. 

Dcn. Joe doctored it up.

And threw it on there grill.

Looks good to me. 

Add a few sides, and we had a feast!

So good! I think both Dcn. Joe and myself needed a little ride on the range like this. Good for the soul and fun to check out some new land. Jack's ranch has a bunch of potential but needs a lot of work. If I was closer, I'd take it on. Better stick close to home, though. Someone will bring her back to life. Ground like this just needs to be grazed. Grass needs to be chewed for it to thrive. Clean the fences up, throw some cows on there, and in a year this place will let her real ranch value show. As for Dcn Joe and myself, we just enjoyed a day of trotting around this little place and catching up life. God is good.