Due to the virus the town's rodeo (May 2nd) is canceled this year, but fortunately we had a little cowboy activity of our own, happening right here 'on the ranch'!

Sam's cows were brought back from White Bird by Marian and Wade, and after the calves were branded they spend a night in the corals to calm down and acclimate.

The next evening they were herded a short distance into the canyon, and than up the hill to the meadows up above ..

It's fascinating to see the dogs at work, and even the horses need little guidance, they know exactly what to do when a straggler needs some encouragement ..

The old Wild West is still going strong in these mountains!

This hill is a little too steep and the trail too narrow to ride all the way up ..

I have no pictures of the branding. First of all because I don't think I can stand the screaming and panic of the poor little things, and second because we decided to go golfing that afternoon.
James had worked all day on Saturday in anticipation of the cows coming back (connecting the water to the through in the meadow), and even had to finish some stuff on Sunday morning (grading a ramp at the bottom of the hill they would go up), so he was ready for some R&R!
So, up the White Bird grade we went, on our way to Grangeville ..
Mm, yeah, so we thought ... well, let's just say, the truck had other ideas! @#!^%$&!

See the smoke? I was too late for a pic, this is nothing!

Just a few miles up we started smoking from under the hood and James noticed coolant spraying along his side of the truck.
Fortunately, we could almost immediately pull into the parking lot of the White Bird Battlefield monument/overlook and turn of the motor. By than the (white) smoke was so thick I couldn't see anything ahead of me.
It quickly became clear that we weren't going anywhere. James tried to refill the radiator, where the fluid seemed to be leaking from, and it immediately came flushing out again!

We do have Good Sam roadside assistance so we gave them a call. 
When we finally got through, there were problems with our membership conformation (?) and when we finally got past that there were problems with where to tow the truck.
Apparently it's their policy that somebody has to be there to receive the truck, and it so happens to be that our repair-shop in Grangeville is closed on Sunday, so that was a no-go! Now what?
There are no other shops or gas stations anywhere close to us that'll take a 4500, so the only option was to tow it back 'home'.

Alright, so be it, they'd call us when they would find a tow truck. We waited for almost an hour, but no text or call, and we finally had enough of it.
I suggested we call Don, who has several big trucks, and James knew he had a large flatbed too. Now Don is a very nice guy, and sure enough he had no problems coming over and move the truck to Grangeville.
We also called Austin to pick me up and bring me back to Lucile, since Don's truck's cab wouldn't accommodate all three of us.
Also being a nice guy, he came over right away, and took back some tools from the truck as well that were needed for the job on Monday.
So far for a nice afternoon of golf! Oh well ..

While waiting at the overlook, (that we wanted to stop at already a few times but never did so far) we spent some time reading the information boards about The Battle of White Bird Canyon.  
Fought on June 17, 1877 it was the opening battle of the Nez Perce War between the Nez Perce Indians and the United States. The battle was a significant defeat of the U.S. Army.

                         

I also had plenty of time to watch this little Flycatcher, who was busy catching .. eh, flies, I guess .. the whole time we were there.

The roof of the house is pretty much done now, except for the two dormers. 
The guys had to race against the clock this Wednesday, to get it on and watertight before it rained that night!

The windows are in and will be delivered on Tuesday and on Thursday or Friday Sam and Pat will be up from Louisiana!
Pat feels that she needs to see the house in person, before she can decide what goes where in the kitchens and bathrooms. 
And although I do understand that, I still wish they wouldn't drive (!) up from a heavily infected state, and through 4 other states where they could pick up the virus anywhere!

I for sure will not be going anywhere close to them and James plans to keep his distance too! We'll see how that goes ..

 

Fortunately, we do have a lot of space here, about 300 acres of it (!) so it's not that we have to be close to each other.

On my walks into the canyon, I found fields of merrily flowering Buttercups. So 'summery' already!

 

And these gorgeous apple blossoms are sure to lift any bad mood, if you so happen to suffer from one .. 

 

I'm (jig-saw) puzzling a lot. Like my walks, it calms my mind so I can actually try and read something afterwards, which seems to be a hard thing to do lately, with my thoughts going all over the place ...

 

I baked one of my favorites this week, nut-bars (and added some chocolate-chips for good measure) ..

They're mostly for James to go with his morning coffee. He works up quite an appetite these days and is always hungry! 
Which is a good thing, since I'm not doing much, and really should stop munching on things all day .. (I already gained 4 pounds since the Corona outbreak!)

By the way, the Idaho governor has extended the stay-at-home order for 2 more weeks, and we still have only 3 cases in the county. So far so good .. hanging in there!

Coronavirus as of Fri 04/23 Idaho County

Confirmed cases 3

Deceased: N/A (as in 'none')

Vieuw on Wundermap

Coronavirus Preparedness

Source: Idaho Department of Health