Amy & Lars

I can't believe I haven't blogged about Amy & Lars before. That's just absurd.

I think that Wednesdays might possibly be my favorite day in a dude week. We do the long ride, then we come home, have an enjoyable dinner, and around the campfire, Lars & Amy perform the songs of old, dead cowboys - like Gene Autry, Sons of the Pioneers, Willy Nelson...wait a second... Well, close enough, right?

I love to sing. Regardless of what ex-boyfriends have to say about it, I'm just going to keep on uh-singin'! And this summer was such a musical one! We had Roo, Wrangler Sarah, and Cookie who are all very musically talented, so it made for a pretty fun night.

Amy is just about the coolest ever!

First of all, would you just look at that smile? It's so infectious! You can't help but laugh when she's around!

She is SO incredibly talented when it comes to the arts. She is an amazing fiddle player, but she has some really neat artwork, too! We've got some of it on display here at the ranch. You should definitely come take a look.

She also likes to play Ms. Matchmaker, so watch out! She. Is. Relentless. But well-intentioned. When it comes to that stuff, Lars is just along for the ride. It's too funny to watch him roll his eyes and sigh in exasperation as she goes about her matchmaking.

She gets the guys to do some pretty ridiculous things, too. That is definitely not where those coconuts were prior to this picture!

Then there's Lars. He pretty much rocks, too.

I guess you'd have to to be married to someone like Amy. Or maybe that's vice versa. Either way about it, they're a bunch of fun. I always like to sit with them at dinner to hear what crazy stories they have to tell that week. Lars always has some funny story to tell!

And let me just tell you this about Lars - that white hair and white mustache have not stopped any of the girls from having crushes on him!

Roo was the first to admit it and after that, all hell broke loose. Every female was admitting to their Lars crushes!

Just look at her...

I'm tellin' ya! They're just such a crushable couple! Dow admitted that he'd like a "gal" like Amy only 20 years younger.

Can't blame him.

Anyhow, so as I was saying. Lars and Amy come over on Wednesday nights, play the guitar and fiddle and sing.

And they love it when guests join them.

This was the very talented Blythe, who sang with her dad, Shaun, while they were here.

I talked my dad into coming up and he brought along two of my uncles. My aunt couldn't make it because she was at a Fierce Bad Rabbit concert.

We usually do it around the campfire, unless it's bad weather. It just so happened to be about 48 degrees when my dad came, but then he got to play his electric bass, so that made him happy.

My parents enjoyed Amy and Lars so much they came back again, so Dad could play along.

But here's the best part about Lars & Amy. They make us sing a staff song all together.

And goodness knows this group will do anything to be all cuddled up with each other!

So that does it. You've finally met Lars & Amy and I've determined that Wednesdays are definitely my favorite day of a dude week.

the long ride

I've been meaning to tell you about the long ride for quite some time, but no day has been better than today. I've been compiling pictures for a while now, so the landscape and people will change, but the trail is still the same.

Also, like I mentioned before, my group of women last week were pretty good riders, so I felt comfortable to take pictures in some places that I normally have to pay close attention to them.

Did you just read that? "I felt comfortable to take pictures..." I think I've been hanging out with the Belarusian too long!

Anyhow, I had another wrangler with me who was in the lead, while I was their navigator. It was all good.

Ok, so. The Long Ride.

On Wednesdays, we give our riders (age 12 and up) the option to take the long ride. This entails at least 5 hours of riding, hence age 12 and up - younger kids tend to crumble with that intensity. It's 2.5 hours out and about 2.5 hours back, although the horses tend to walk a bit faster on the way home. The riders can choose to go farther, but we'll cover that another day.

The trail is also a tad more advanced. When I say advanced, I mean to tell you that it took a lot of my courage to trust my horse on the way down. As I mentioned before, I'm a little bit chicken. But now, this trail is old hat and doesn't bother me at all.

Let me show you what it looks like from atop the horse.

It's pretty steep at this part.

Some might even consider it, um, scary. It has caused more than one tear to fall!

But once you make it to the bottom, it's smooth sailing from there.

Unless, of course, you get slightly lost. Ahem. I mean, unless you go exploring.

And find sweet meadows like this one.

And you get to see my favorite tree on the trail.

Then you end at the Mount Margaret Trailhead where Cookie greets you with a smile and lunch.

People relax until it's time to make the decision. To go forward or to make the trek back.

Like I said before, for this post, we're going to head straight back.

And what you go down, you must go back up!

I have to tell you, this trail is almost enough to make even the best riders crumble.

But when you know that you've conquered this mountain and you see views like this, you know it was worth it!

I mentioned at the beginning that today was the perfect day to talk about the long ride....I'll tell you about that tomorrow (hopefully).

rock climbing

On Tuesday afternoons, our guests go rock climbing up Stoney Point.  

This particular Tuesday, (yes, the looooooooooooongest day of my dude ranching career), I got to go with them.  

They've got 4 different rock faces you can climb, from easiest to hardest.  

This is the easiest.

This is the Level 3.

And this....

This is the Level 4.

I chose the easiest, since I needed to save my strength to feed by hand.  Remember?  The Irishman stalled my tractor and no one had fixed it yet.  

The sad thing about this picture is that I wondered, "Who's that guy climbing?"

Oh yeah, that guy is, um...well...me.  

Not to mention that the guy belaying for me has WAY longer hair than I do.  

But I think he's pretty handsome, don't you?

Hopefully he's more than just a pretty face...

...considering I trusted him with my life!

And he's obviously a sweetheart.

Just look at him unrolling his buddy's pant legs, since he wasn't able to do it for himself.  I mean, he was after all, holding someone's life in his hands...literally! 

But enough about him!

At that point, everyone, including Morgan and me, were all doing what we could to stay warm!

With love, 

The Morgan Wrangler

shoot!

First of all, let me just say, these pictures are not from today.  In case you were just wondering about the weather here today....

When I fed this morning at 6:30, it was beautiful and sunshiney!

When we saddled at 8:30, it was raining.

While we rode from 10 to 11:30, it was foggy, but not rainy.

At noon when we returned from our ride, it rained and hailed as I was giving grain to the special feeders.

We left at 2 for our afternoon ride under the beautiful sunshine.

At 3:30, I made my group get off of their horses for lightning.

At 4:30, it's partly cloudy. 

Seriously....only in Colorado.

Ok, but this isn't a weather update.........

One of the things you can do while you're here visiting the ranch is go to our shooting range.  

We have two .22s, a .22 handgun, a 20-gauge shotgun, a 12-gauge shotgun, and Big Bertha.

The .22s are little and something, even I will shoot.  

You can see one of our youngin's here demonstrating how it's done.

We always have wranglers supervising, as you can see Slim's back.  

And the girls look on as the boys hog the guns....go figure!

So you might have been asking earlier...who or what is Big Bertha?

This is Big Bertha.  No, not DAN!  The gun!!!

She is a Civil War type gun, where you load the powder, ball, and then use the rammer stick thing.  You know how good I am with technical terms.  

Dan taught Dizzy and me how to load it, so we can let guests use it.  

But let me tell you, with the kickback she produces, I refuse to shoot it!  

I like my shoulder the way it is juuuuuuust fine.