Sorting

Team sorting
 I'm sure the sport has been around a long time, but I had not heard of it until about a month ago when they had  one in Cross Plains. We all enjoyed it enough that Jessica and Hillary found a weekly practice and jack pot about an hour north of us. I rode with them Saturday, and had a lot of fun.

Jessica and Peanut. She has been "borrowing" my horses for 25 years

Tom, eagerly awaiting his net run

A big run

All are 52100 steel, a little less than 1/8 of an inch thick, and the longest are 7 1/2 inches in length.

I traded a knife for these. A friend napped these out of  some glass he found in an old building.

My new friend. He resides on a place, by himself, next to one of our gates. when I pull up, he comes running and I scratch on him a while over the fence. He's lonesome I think.

This view hasn't been seen since the Indians saw it. We cleared the cedar off the top of a hill and had no idea we were up this high.

The sale

The sale items are posted on the IGBSM site! http://www.igbsm.org/2013-Show-and-Sale.html .

Whether you buy or not, these are some great looking bits and spurs. I am proud to be associated with such a talented group of people.

http://www.igbsm.org/

My contribution;

For those of you on face book, The pictures are probably a little better there. There is a button on the IGBSM web site that will take you to it even if you aren't a member.

A good probem to have

I'm booked solid for Christmas orders. Sorry. If time allows I will have some stuff made up for my usual last minute panic crowd. Thanks to Tom, Josh, Chase,etc for ordering early.


We received a load of heifers this morning out of Faith, South Dakota. These calves were in remarkably good shape for what the went through. They look a lot better than the sheep below who perished just up the road.

I called my friend Jack in South Dakota and heard some horror stories. I got some from the truck driver too. Mother nature can be cruel.
 

Horn knots

These are used to tie your rope on to your saddle horn.

We call it tying off hard and fast. Depending on a dally(wrapping the rope around the saddle horn after you rope something quickly) is iffy sometimes.

This is  also my first fine silver inlay on any thing other than a dot or a straight line, 1018/203e/nickel damascus.

Wild cow hunt

I'll learn one of these days not to go off with these young guys.

A neighbor had a big steer that couldn't be trapped, penned, or otherwise captured the usual easy ways, so we all met up Monday morning and went and got him.
This was one of those outlaws that had quit the herd as soon as he was turned out, lived in the brush, and fences didn't mean much to him. We knew the general area he was in, and had to spread out and beat the bushes till we flushed him out. We followed sound and tracks mostly through some of the worst brush the world has ever seen, until he finally got tired and made a mistake by going out into an open field. I wish I was horseman enough to take pictures, fight brush, and be ready to rope or chase all at once, but I'm not. These are kind of before and after.

Watching the holes, it didn't do any good, he jumped the fence and went off in a canyon

Tied down

A well deserved rest

He made a good stool

Running the ropes through the trailer bars

Untie him

One last try for freedom

Into the trailer

Shut the gates

The zip line

This was really about the only touristy thing we did in Costa Rica. It was well worth doing. We had to ride 8 different lines to get off the mountain, the longest around 1000 feet, the highest around 600 feet. They run your horses off, back to the barn, as soon as you get to the top so you can't change your mind about riding the line.

The trip up was beautiful

Me

Me being stupid

Kyle being stupider

Seth and I in front of a Bar-B-Que joint

These guys were headed to work in the sugar cane fields

Something finished!

As usual when I get behind, I attempt to work on way to many projects at once and don't get as much done as I would if I just worked on 1 at a time. Bits, spurs, and knives galore are in various stages at the shop. These I finished this afternoon.

These knives are made from 1084/15n20 damascus steel. 3" cutting edge, 7.5" overall length. They sell for 175.00$ without a sheath.