We found out that Bert Smith was wanting us to come and meet him at his ranch in Ruby Valley.  He was needing someone to come and take over his cattle operation.  The only problem was, it came at a really hard time.  Don't get me wrong...it is always next to impossible for me to go anywhere.  With eight people going a million different directions, the timing is never good.  Anyhow, Jamie's steer was really sick, I had peaches to bottle, and the kids started school on Monday.  Luckily kindergarten does not start until next week, but, still I figured I would need to stay home for sure.  Ryan, however, arranged for his mom to come up and spend the two days with the kids.  I was very grateful that she was able to do this.  I know that she always has a million things going too.  They had a great time with Grandma.  She was very good to them, and she finished my laundry which is a huge miracle.
     Anyhow, we got up Monday morning with a six hour drive ahead of us.  I was not looking forward to the drive with Mo.  He is absolutely awful in the car.  Luckily he slept for a good portion of it.  We stopped by the Gardner ranch and had a good visit with Cliff and his wife Bertha.  They have a beautiful ranch with trees and green grass.  I loved sitting on their porch, listening to the wind rush through the trees.  You could see their horses grazing and the cows in the distance.  I immediately realized that I would love a life right there.  Mo had a ball running through the grass and gawking over the horses.  Wow, it is nice.
     We arrived at the Smith ranch, and they put Ryan right to work.  They were sorting and cutting cows in preparation to ship them in the morning.  My experience with cows comes from helping on the Bundy ranch in Riverside.  I actually was floored at how easy going their cows were.  They just kinda ran where they were told.  The cattle I am used to want to fight and maim you for messing with them.  These ones were very mild mannered, but I noticed that they had way more sick ones to deal with.  I guess that each ranch has its own set of problems.  It was funny because Bert's brother had a granddaughter that was there that was Chlo's age.  She had a do-it-yourself haircut just like Chlo's and she messed with Mo the whole time.  Mo probably felt right at home because of this.  He also went chasing chickens at one point, and he must have caught one because when I caught up with him, he was covered in chicken poop.  Yuck Mo!
     When Bert and Kathy arrived he wanted to take Ryan and I on a ride around the ranch.  I kind of cringed because I had dealt with Mo in the car for 6 hours already.  He wallered around on my lap for the next 2 hours as Bert showed us his hay fields and his property lines.  I had full confidence that Ryan could run the ranch up there, but it was way higher altitude, and would require him to do a lot of learning.  There was an old burned out store, and dancing hall that I wanted to explore right by his property line.  I loved listening to all of the old stories that Bert had to tell.  The area up there is gorgeous.  I really liked Kathy a lot.  She is a wonderful person, and fun to be with.  She took good care of us.
     We had pretty much decided that first day that we couldn't move up there.  There were plenty of family members that still wanted to be running the ranch, and we knew that we had no long term future there.  Ryan is old enough that we need to acquire a ranch of our own to pass down to our kids.  Plus, Ryan is way to used to being his own boss.  It was still a great experience, and I loved the family up there immediately.  Ryan helped them ship their cows, and we headed for home.  I got so sick of  Moroni on the way home, that he and I were both ready to scratch our eyeballs out.  He had been cooped up for far too long.  We finally got kind of off in the wrong direction and we came upon a really pretty area.  We got out and let Mo play for awhile.  This did us all a lot of good.
     It was good to get home.  Jamie's steer died of pneumonia on Tuesday which was way sad.  We had a vet come and give him some shots, but it was too late.  Jams sat there with him for a few hours and at least kept the flies off of his face while he was struggling for breath.  We were all quite upset about losing Fergus because he was our best steer by far.  He was fat, and good natured.  The vet just said that they catch colds sometimes, and there isn't much that can be done about it.  Diablo, and Leo seem to be fine, but they are as crazy as ever.  Hopefully we can get them ready for the show.
     The kids have gotten back in to the school routine pretty easy.  Oak has his first day of kindergarten on Monday and he is super excited.  I have been pretty sick this week, running fevers and body aches etc.  Luckily my parents had pity on me last night and brought the kids some pizza.  In spite of my illness, I was able to bottle all of the peaches, and keep up with the housework.  I hate getting sick because the house gets out of control when I am not constantly working on it.  I got up for a minute yesterday, and the peaches were thrown all over the kitchen, Mo and removed Ziploc bags out of the box one by one, and he had also thrown paper plates all over the kitchen.  I am glad I am feeling up to getting things back in order today
       Mo has been happy to be home.  He is learning to speak and he calls Jazzerz the a-word, which is great.  They have turned the living room into a dance floor this morning.  Rooshkie has been the singer, and she has been singing songs in sultry, husky type voice.  Chlo and Jazz dance all over in blankets that they have wrapped around their bodies in various ways.  I came in once and tried to clean up once, but Jazz wouldn't have it.  The dancing game may last awhile. 
     The first three pictures are of Cliff Gardner's place.  I honestly do not believe I have ever seen a spread on a buck that is as big as that one.  The second picture is of Charlie's .22 collection.  The next three pictures are of the Smith family ranch.  The little Chlo girl is with Mo in the one picture.  I wish I could remember her name. The next three are of the nice area we stopped to let Mo get out of the car.  I loved it there, and want to take the kids there to play someday soon.