Letter to Kaye

G'day, long time no blog! This is actually a letter to my sister Kaye who wants to know what's going on at the ranch.She writes to me diligently and I'm always too busy or tired to return the favour.But here it is early in the morning and i have a little time.

See here the new addition to the house and Mernie in the midst of it all. It will be great to be able to get inside out of the harsh weather and shed at least three layers of clothing and five layers of hay and manure before actually entering our living space.This has been on the list for quite a while and is finally taking form.(See in front our margaritta mixer now being use for concrete!)

The ranch is almost full to the brim with equines and we are on the hop from dawn to dusk. There are 59 horses and one mule to date and we are expecting a couple more horses for the morton barn in October.A lot of work and a hell of a lot of poop!Just as well we love it. We worked out that if we hired someone we wouldn't be making any money so Mernie has quit his job as of Sept 25th and is coming to work for me! This should be interesting! Actually I jest. Its really hard to get good help and there's no better than Mern.

Mern's Mum has been with us for the passed two weeks. She lives in California so the altitude and weather is a little hard on her. She is 81 and her memory is sliding but she is a real dear and gets around incredible well for her age. She suffers from the usual aches and pains but doesn't always remember that she does so there's some advantage to memory loss.Its been nice having all our clothes folded up nicely and the kitchen tidied up all the time.She loves to wander around the ranch looking at the horses and talking to all the boarders out here.She loves to chat to everyone just like my Dad. Pity those two can't get together.

My horse Flambeau is going great. Our next ride will be a 25 or 50mile in Denver on the 8th of Oct.I'm not sure whether I will get the time off to go but i hope so coz it will be the last one before the snow blows.I'm also riding a couple of horses for other people so i don't know how much training i will get in.Right now I'm riding him about three times per week which is much less than i was.Of course he does at least ten miles a lot of the time so he's still pretty fit.

Well that's about all I have time to write. I need to go get Mern off to work then feed horses and clean stalls.Cheers for now. Ronda.