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.