Where were we?

So there I was...........just kidding.

If you haven't read the previous post "digging up bones" you might want to start there so your not starting in the middle of the story.

So after our first branding we turned the cattle out on the pasture in Tehachapi. Like I said there was no water on the property so we got an account with Teh-Cummings water district and filled a tank that we hauled behind our truck. The fill station was only about a mile down the road so it wasn't too bad but we still had to drive from home which at the time was about 25 miles. Seems like nothing now. Usually Jeremy would water them on the way home from work since it needed to be done just about every other day. Sometimes I would get off work early and he was working late so I would do it. I can't remember where he was but I should tell you about the day I filled it up all proud of myself that I had gotten the freaking thing hooked up by my self and driven it down the road, got it backed in and filled. Feeling all triumpant I pull out of the place and onto a pretty busy road to look in the rear view mirror and watch the hitch of the water trailer go up in the air and shrink in the mirror as I drove away. Apparently I hadn't gotten it hooked up as well as I thought and the damn thing was now in the middle of the road full of water with the hitch saluting the sky. I swear I just wanted to keep driving and pretend some other idiot had done it but no, I went back and was paniced trying to figure out what on earth to do. When I hear an approaching tractor.........thank God!!! Out of the ranch next to the water place is two chicks on a John Deere coming to my rescue! I did happen to get a picture of it that I will have to find someday. Those gals got to work and had it righted and pushed off to the side of the road in no time.

As time went on Jeremy was getting more and more restless with his job with the windmills and along comes Blah Ranch (name changed so I don't get sued) offering him a job riding horses through their sale as well as keeping them going between sales. We had talked about it and made a deal with them about how much money it would take to get him to quit his "real job" and they agreed! We couldn't believe someone was going to pay him what they did to ride. Of course he would have a 90 probationary time and that is where they got us. After 90 days, which in the end we were both glad for, they laid him off. It was a bunch of horsetraders and Jeremy wouldn't lie to sell a horse so I am sure that is the demise of that. I hated the whole thing. I thought they were crooks. I will never forget that day. It was Halloween come to think of it. Sage was just a baby, not even a year old yet. Looking back we know it was just a vehicle to get him to jump off the diving board and ride outside horses for himself. Not someone's jockey boy but his own boss. We came together and put the word out. My friend Angie, who still helps me today, helped me get the website together. I ran all over town putting up flyers. And away we went. I have never hung another flyer since then. Jeremy set out building his arena and a better roundpen. He had to transform our little place to accomadate all the horses that would come. We planted trees at that little house that we didn't own. It was quite a cozy deal. That went on for almost exactly a year when Jeremy took in a horse called Min. Alot of you probably know the horse as we still have her. She is how we came to be here. I was home with the flu that day. Jeremy comes home and insists we need to go and see this place. So the next morning, without even a how are you feeling sweetie, away we go. We drove to the end of the pavement and kept going several miles up into the foothills. The whole way I am thinking he has got to be out of his mind. All there was was desert!!! Through several locked gates we come to the ranch entrance. I was still not impressed. Another mile of bumpy dirt road and we come up to the house. Well, not quite all the way up to it as the driveway was covered in downed trees. The house was cute, built in 1885 but badly in need of a roof. A window was broken and the house was full of mouse and rat poop. There was a couple of beds and couches still in the place. A dining room table. Enough to have some shine through the dust.............I was starting to fall for it. Outside was a wreck as well with all the fallen trees from years of neglect. The house had sat vacant for several years before we arrived and fell for it. Did I mention there is no conventional power here or phone lines?

After some thinking on it and trying to figure out if we could make a go of it here ( Ithink it was always a done deal) we set out cleaning and repairing it. With all the time we were spending driving back and forth things were getting neglected at out other place. So we made it sort of liveable and jumped right in.

Dead of Winter.

January 5th, 2005.

Thank God it snowed that night of we would have burnt the place down. I will tell that story when I rest my hands, I am not used to all this typing................

The letter from the first year here to come in the morning.