Bear Hunting, Draft Horses and Gathering Cows

Well, lots of pics to post since it has been forever since I've put anything up... We've been to busy and I've just been to tired!

Last Month we helped Jarrett's cousin gather his cows off South Fork Mountain. Honery cows plus some nasty country made for some good riding!


Actually cooperating and heading down the trail pretty well for a few minutes.

Driving them down through some big openings.

A small idea of how steep the country is. And this was a really nice easy hill with no brush on it.

Then we had a Draft Horse Club meeting in Corning, went for a drive around the neighborhood at the end.

Snow finally hit last weekend, we got about an inch at the house. This is looking out over Ruth Lake on the way to go bear hunting.

Bear tracks headed down the road. Snow makes finding them a bit easier!


About 200lbs.
A bear we had bayed up. The dogs got to get in and work on it pretty good, and we got in to take some good pictures after a while. We also got to see it cross the road in front of us up on top of the ridge a bit earlier.

Bruisie leaving in a hurry, he already had his tail chewed on once a few minutes before!

Stella didn't get away quick enough and got a hole in her nose. Next time she will hopefully play with the other end of the bear!

Alright, here are more pics!!

Wow, I don't post for two months and everyone gets hostile!! Here are some pics from a pack trip last month during bow season

Rodeo Pics!!

Wow, since I have now been given a deadline to get these up, I guess I better do it! You guys are addicted!!! Anyhow, here goes...
Taking a break...
CJ riding his sheep... He was all excited and couldn't stop talking about it until he crawled over the top rail, then he lost his nreve. But he still did it and is already talking about doing it again next year!!
Being goofy!
Hyram & Jarrett in leadline barrells. I was going to do it for Jarrett but sprained my ankle really bad the night before. Darn the luck!!
From our 10 mile drive the next weekend...

That's it for now, am in a hurry, but heading to the basin this weekend so should have more pics soon!!

Pictures coming soon

I have some pics from Rodeo, Jaxon and Hannah did awsome! It was crowded with lots of things going on and they took it all in stride and never balked at anything. I'll get the pics up in the next few days, I have just been horribly busy and haven't had time. Last weekend we took them on a drive with the red wagon, about 12 miles. They again were great and are apparently fine with low-bed semis, hauling big equipment, running their jakes (a strike team was headed in for some fires with 2 low-beds, a transport rig and a whole bunch of other traffic), they didn't even look twice at the whole mess. We got lots of pics from that trip too, so check back in a few days!

More of Hannah & Jaxon from the wedding

Here are the pics from the Wedding, I didn't take the video camera so only stills... (Click on any of the pictures for full size versions).

Letting the horses graze before going to work, made for a pretty picture!

Driving around a little before the wedding to get some of the fire out of them. They were a little ready to go when we got them in harness.

The wedding was on horseback so Jarrett pulled in the Groom's mother on the forecart to her seat. The horses behaved so well!!

Driving out of the ceremony after dropping her off.

Here is a picture of Jarrett giving the new bride and groom a ride on the forecart.

Our "little horse" Jaxon grazing Sunday morning next to a toyota tacoma. Brings a whole new thought to one horse power.

There won't be any picture from this weekend, we are in Sacramento for family stuff... But next weekend is the Ruth Rodeo. We are bringing Jaxon and Hannah out and both boys will be participating in the Jr. Rodeo, so we should have lots of pictures...

We have a team!! Yay!

We have been very busy since bringing Jaxon home, but we finally have him and Hannah pulling the Forecart!!
This starts about 3 steps into their very first time being hitched to wheels together (Hannah's 2nd time ever on wheels).

And our view...

They did so well that this past weekend we took them to a wedding and they gave rides and were a big hit. I will post some pics from that later.

And we have been doing a bit of fishing, this is a video of a blue gill we caught over at the lake last week. We had the fly rods, but they were only biting about 3 feet off shore, so we would just dip the flies in and wait for one to take it. This is the biggest fish of the day, most were about 1.5-2". It was actually lot of fun!

And from above water.

And as usual there are more videos on photobucket...

Ok Ok, Here he is!!

Wow, everyone wants these pictures!! Here goes...
Presenting Our Team!!
Jaxon & Hannah

It's funny seeing Jaxon next to Hannah, he dwarfs her! 

A two headed horse...

We ground drove them on Saturday and they did beautifully. I really couldn't have asked for a better first trip. We are sprucing up the forecart, Jarrett is doing a leather seat for it and we should be hitching to it by this weekend!

Here are some videos of Saturday...

Then we went floating & fishing on the Mad...

I just threw a fish back in but Jarrett was too slow on the camera.

And a fishing video...
(Ok, I'm doing this on dial up so I can't watch to see if this was the good one. If not there are more on photobucket... http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e184/murrini/

Monday we took a float trip down the Trinity with at least 20 people, my waterproof Camera went on the fritz for the day, so no pics but it was a blast.
Tonight we went fly fishing over at the lake and caught some blue gill and shiners. We got some video of them coming in underwater, I'll put those up next week with the rest of the pics from this weekend.

Jaxon!

Jaxon is coming home today! Check back after this weekend for pics, hopefully he and Hannah will get along and we will have a team up and running!

Patricks Ranch

We went to the Patrick's Ranch Threshing Bee with the Draft horse club last weekend. It was a ton of fun & we learned a lot. We got to do quite a bit of driving, mostly with Cressie & Gibb and Jarrett got to skid logs with them (I haven't uploaded those pics yet). Then on Sunday we both learned how to operate a sulky plow while test driving a prospective new member to our herd... This is Jaxon (Chestnut Belgian) and Able (Brabant), this was the first day they had ever met each other, much less worked together. They did really well. I'm learning on the plow...

And a few videos...

And a video of Jarrett on the plow...

And yes, we will be picking up Jaxon later this week so we should have a team up and running soon!

Ok, one more quick video of Jaxon:

Jarrett and Jason got to cut down a few trees too...

First tree going down...

First tree on the ground, it measured 4'3" at the widest point.

Staging up the next tree, this one leaned over backwards (It needed to fall right below where I was standing to take the picture) so they had to do a lot of work on it, the rest of the video & pics are on another camera that I haven't uploaded yet, but I will get those up soon.

Click on the videos to get to the photobucket account for lots more pics and videos.

Busy Summer so Far!

So we have been really really really busy tha last month and a half since I have posted, so here are some pics of the fun! (Out of order though)

These are from our weekend trip up to the Lava Beds, we had taken the boys to a little local cave and to the Natural Bridge and they loved it, and kept asking to go to more caves, so we spent a day in the Lava beds...

Climbing out of Merrill Cave

They were having a blast! Again coming out of Merrill Cave...

Hyram heading off to explore...

The boys in a sub room of Golden Dome, the gold color is from a bacteria that grows on the ceiling and then beads of water gather ontop of them and it truly looks like the room is filled with gold when the light hits it.

All the boys posing in Thunderbolt...


We actually got to go riding once in all this time... It was a gorgeous day and a great ride.

Jarrett got to use the new reins he braided out of kangaroo leather for the first time. He did an awsome job and they worked really well.

Jarrett showing Renee the Barrel pattern.

I got Jarrett to ride an Arab that he actually liked! He said she may be his saddle horse for the summer... I may have lost my girl :(

The boys at Natural Bridge next to where their (I don't rememeber how many Greats) Grandfather carved his name into a rock. This was a site of a big Indian Massacre by the Calvary in the 1800's. Jarrett and the boys had relitives on both sides of the battle. A little more of the story can be found here http://www.trinitycounty.com/stnf-nb.htm however it is very innacurrate as to the history passed down through the family by those who were actually there.

Jarrett and the boys are also related to Captian Jack who was the leader a small band of indians who held off over 1000 calvary until the calvary tricked them out with a truce and killed them all up at the lava beds, another reason we took the boys there. Here is a story of the event however also innacurate according to the stories passed through the actual families. http://www.trinitycounty.com/stnf-nb.htm. I will have to get Jarrett to write out the actual stories one of these days.

Anyhow, lots more pics are at http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e184/murrini/

and we are headed out to a Draft Horse event this weekens so should have more pics up soon!!